Managing Conflict in a diverse team: Distortion of communication, biased language, and power differences between age  

Authors: Kyle Pinca, Davina Jenck, Kris Danwilaikij, Iakov Shmelev 

Diverse teams are becoming a common trend in the business world where diversity allows for a deeper understanding of members with different backgrounds. With diversity, teams to tend outperform non diverse teams due to an increased effort to understand one another and work together but there will be conflict in a diverse team even with an increased effort. The same aspects which make a team diverse can be the focal point that can divide a team, but teams can grow with how conflict has been handled. This blog will address how conflicts can arise through distortion of communication, biased language, and power differences in age along with the solutions to manage conflict in a diverse team.  

In a diverse group, the most important skill is communication. Through communication, it is significant for the receiver to gain maximum information from the speaker in order to interpret a message. A conflict in a diverse team can reveal itself when members choose to modify or conceal a message due to misunderstanding or an individual’s personal feelings of obligation to mediate bad news rendering the original message incomprehensible or limiting the effectiveness preventing members from getting the complete picture of a situation. “Filtering is the distortion or withholding of information to manage a person’s reactions” (Communication Barriers, 2017). Filtering exists when messages pass through an intermediary in the communication channel. Emotional state, level of attention, and involvement play a role when members have a conversation. The sender in the communication channel has the ability to recognize fears or expertise of a certain subject, confidence or one’s comfort zone, and personal concerns to decide whether to proceed with full information or filtering it. The receiver in the communication channel could consider from experience with the sender if similar messages passed on were accurate which leads the receiver to have a level of trust with the sender that their future messages are reliable. According to Hanh (2005), to avoid the issue of filtering, the receiver can begin to establish more than one communication channel and decrease distortion by condensing the information to the essentials. Pratap’s (2020) article explains that when the receiver uses multiple channels for the same message, they should not rely on one channel to verify the credibility of the information received which is a confirmation of their initial message. When a member reaches out to multiple channels, they have the opportunity for a fuller understanding by receiving information from different people who have different implicit preferences due to a variety of factors makes them diverse in a team. When the intermediary in a communication channel is eliminated, there is no concern of what said intermediary could do to alter the message. As opposed to critical information being passed with the concern of distortion, if the information that is passed is the essential there would be no concern of specific details altered as it is the essential information only. Filtering creates conflict by team members having different experiences when communicating with different people so this particular issue in a diverse team can cause a misunderstanding due to assumptions that can lead to inefficient progress in work. By avoiding these distortions of communication, filtering, there would be a reduced amount of conflict to manage in a diverse team. 

When communicating in a diverse group, people come from different attitudes, values, and beliefs from within a person or the people known to the person, and societal norms and cultural values which can cause conflict in a diverse team since people gravitate towards people like themselves that leads to perceived differences and an ‘us versus them’ mentality. Everyone’s background leads to explicit and implicit bias. The act of speaking a biased language uses “words and phrases that are considered prejudiced, offensive, and hurtful. Biased language includes expressions that demean or exclude people because of age, sex, race, ethnicity, social class, or physical or mental traits” (Barbour, 2020). Several types of bias language including race or ethnicity, age, disability or illness, LGBTQ+, and gender bias, can occur during conversation if one is not considerate. When people use stereotypes towards others, this is also biased language; people or certain groups validly feel underrepresentation or exclusion. According to Richard Nordquist (2019), you can resolve the issue of biased language can be established in a diverse team by not mentioning “differences among people unless the differences are relevant to the discussion”. Taking a moment to consider choosing proper terms before saying them aloud reduces the usage of explicit biased language and conflict within the team members. With the intention of steering clear of implicit biased language, individuals should carefully consider making any comparisons and be specific when talking about people. It is significant for speakers to know and understand preferred personal pronouns or using “they” when unsure. When speaking of specific groups, applying language such as using people of color, gender-neutral titles, or refraining from generalizations are examples of preferred verbiage. People who find modifying biased language as language censoring or as an unnecessary action that can lead to resentment or more conflict may find that respecting their coworkers and being sensitive to the beliefs and feelings of others is more digestible than being reprimanded due to prejudice or perpetuating stereotypes. By acknowledging one’s own biased language and making an active effort there would be a reduced amount of conflict to manage in a diverse team. Having a respectful conversation between members creates a positive environment. 

Age differences is a characteristic that can play a massive role in how a team operates. If not correctly managed the power differences between age groups could establish a work environment of mis trust. For example, in years prior, well established companies would have never trusted young employees to do many of the important tasks as they lack experience and well-balanced resume. Employers often find younger candidates unpredictable without knowing their full background and experience in the industry. Older employees tend to carry themselves above the younger, knowing that they’ve been through different situations and because of that they believe to have more knowledge. This is an obvious power difference, as the older the employee is the more power he has in that company. Now, it is the rising tech companies that only rely on young innovative minds to lead projects. In our times we see that the age division intensifies because of this, as more young people are coming into the tech world and are competing with older generations. In either case there is power difference that only count on one age group. This imbalance is further aggravated when studies have found, “members of different groups who were similar in age communicated more frequently with similarly aged others across project groups than those who were more dissimilar in age” (Williams, 2015) This social categorization may cause a reduced reliance on the smaller age group, and give more power to the larger age group, further widening the gap between age differences. To fix the problem of age conflict, managers must first have a well-defined task for the team to accomplish. This will allow all members to focus on the goal instead of their differences. Although similar aged members have an easier time communicating, a study finding the effects on differing demographics, state that when a clear task is given; “demographic differences are associated with better performance and higher levels of innovation when associated with task‐relevant knowledge.” (Guillaume et al., 2017) This method of creating a clear task facilitates trust; “one’s willingness to rely on another’s actions in a situation involving the risk of opportunism or harm” (Williams, 2015). However, there is one other solution a manger can implement that would further establish proper power differences. That is, “eliminating status differences between demographic subgroups that are not based on merit”. (Guillaume et al., 2017) By doing so power is given to those who have worked for it and not to someone who has the proper age.  

Managing and working with a diverse team comes with its own challenges and obstacles but having a proper understanding and knowledge of how to handle these situations will help to maximize the efficiency of the organization. It’s important to master the skills of communication within the organization by creating multiple channels of communication from the original source so the message avoids filtering. Taking the time to think of proper terms before delivering the message will help avoid implicitly biased language. Lastly, by establishing a clear task and eliminating the status difference between age groups will fairly delegate the power that deserves it. All these solutions will help to maximize communication in a diverse team within the organization.  

References 

Small Business – Chron.com. 2021. What Are the Major Barriers to Upward Communication in an Organization?. [online] Available at: <https://smallbusiness.chron.com/major-barriers-upward-communication-organization-714.html> [Accessed 20 February 2021].  

Hahn, M., & Hahn, M. (2005). Overcoming Communication Barriers Between People. EzineArticles. https://ezinearticles.com/?Overcoming-Communication-Barriers-Between-People&id=119628  

Pratap, A. (2020, July 4). Barriers to Effective communication. Notesmatic. https://notesmatic.com/2020/04/barriers-to-effective-communication/#:%7E:text=To%20avoid%20the%20distortion%20that,credibility%20of%20the%20information%20received

What Is Biased Language? (2019). ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-biased-language-1689168#:%7E:text=Prejudiced,%20Offensive,%20and%20Hurtful%20Words%20and%20Phrases&text=The%20term%20%22biased%20language%22%20refers,or%20physical%20or%20mental%20traits.  

Author Removed At Request Of Original Publisher. (2017, January 4). 8.3 Communication Barriers – Organizational Behavior. Pressbooks. https://open.lib.umn.edu/organizationalbehavior/chapter/8-3-communication-barriers/  

Guillaume, Yves R.F, Dawson, Jeremy F, Otaye‐Ebede, Lilian, Woods, Stephen A, & West, Michael A. (2017). Harnessing demographic differences in organizations: What moderates the effects of workplace diversity? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(2), 276-303.  

Williams, Michele. (2016). Being trusted: How team generational age diversity promotes and undermines trust in cross‐boundary relationships. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(3), 346-373.