The Concept of Conjoined Management

Abstract

In contemporary businesses substantial efforts are made to promote workforce diversity. Some leading organizations publically announce the introduction of I&D (inclusion and diversity) strategies and train their management staff in diversity management. Those initiatives most often build implicitly on the assumption that workforce diversity is positively correlated with organizational performance which, as research results show, is somewhat debatable. Consequently, the gap between the key assumptions of diversity management and business practice calls for further research. This article is an attempt to address it by presenting the concept of conjoined management drawing on observations of management routines in the best European football clubs, i.e. highly dynamic organizations which deal quite well with diverse workforce. In essence, conjoined management consists of five dimensions: talent focused recruitment, sense of unity for a common goal, collective group identity, transparency of operations and inside-out leadership. To demonstrate application of the concept in practice a case study has been presented on an application integration department within a multinational FMCG company.