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Question 2: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of diversity on teams diverse team reflects the reality of today's global environment. "Diversity takes on increased significance as workforces expand to include multiple nationalities and goods and services are made accessible around the world with the click of a mouse" (Ricaud, 2006). A diverse team will reflect a more multifaceted and subtle understanding of the organization's diverse environment and consumer base, as the team will reflect the face of the world in its own representations of culture, language, religion, customs, and politics. An African-American member might bring insight as to how an advertisement might be received in his or her community that is not immediately obvious to a Caucasian counterpart; a Japanese-American might use his or her background and parent's attitudes to provide advice in business etiquette when dealing with a joint venture with a company in Japan.

However, it cannot be assumed that diversity will automatically yield an easy sense of cohesiveness for such a team, without a substantial amount of additional work, as sources of conflict are ripe just as are learning and profit-making opportunities for the members of the team. The organization must make a commitment to tolerance and diversity from the top down. "Exploratory analyses reveal that affectively diverse [teams]...experienced the greatest task and emotional conflict and the least cooperation," if organizations did not 'put in the work' to teach teams effective techniques to discuss their differences (Barsade et al. 2002).

Question 3: Briefly discuss the four functions of