Stereotype and Gender Differences
Leadership Power and Influence
Stages of Personal Diversity Awareness
One main point of this chapter is that diversity is a fact of life in today’s world,
and leaders can create change in organizations to keep up. The U.S. population,
the workforce, and the customer base are changing. In addition, people of different
national origins, races, and religions are no longer willing to be assimilated
into the mainstream culture. Organizations are also operating in an increasingly
global world, which means dealing with diversity on a broader stage than ever
before.
Today’s leaders face signifi cant challenges leading people who are different
from themselves. The fi rst step for leading diverse people is understanding the
hardships that people who do not fi t the mainstream white, U.S.-born, male culture
often endure. These include unequal expectations, the need to live biculturally,
the glass ceiling, and the opportunity gap. Another important issue is global
diversity. Leaders can be aware of the impact culture may have, understand social
and cultural value differences, and develop cultural intelligence.
Dimensions of diversity are both primary, such as age, gender, and race, and
secondary, such as education, marital status, and religion. There are several reasons
why organizations are recognizing the need to value and support diversity. Diversity
helps organizations build better relationships with diverse customers and helps
develop employee potential. Diversity provides a broader and deeper base of experience
for creativity and problem solving, which is essential to building learning