Diversity and Its Impact on Leadership

Diversity and Its Impact on Leadership

Over the last several years, the business world has had to spend more time focusing on cultural diversity. De Ferreire Kemp (2007) states, "On any given day, more than 300 million people move from one geographic region to another. This global migration is equal in number to the population of the United States." This leads to a very diverse workforce. Diversity can be viewed many ways and affected by many things. De Ferreire Kemp (2007) states, "It is affected by country affiliation, ethnicity, personal history, life experiences, economic growth conditions, faith or beliefs, political situations, and the social conditions each human faces in the course of life." This poses new challenges for many in the business realm, especially those in leadership positions.

Having greater diversity in the workplace allows for different people with different backgrounds to share different ideas for the betterment of company goals. De Ferreire Kemp (2007) states, "While it is important to share knowledge, it is equally important to encourage open discussion in diverse groups. Leaders need to be skilled in encouraging conversation rather than debate because in many ways, message delivery is more important than the message itself." There are different types of culturally diverse groups and they all communicate and act in different ways. This is due to the many factors that contribute to diversity such as past experiences and the many different things that make a culture unique. Therefore, I believe it is important for leaders to educate themselves in the better understanding of diverse groups.

The journal article I chose talks about four different dimensions of culture in diversity. De Ferreire Kemp (2007) defines them as, "individualism, uncertainty avoidance, power distance, and masculinity. No culture group escapes these dimensions." "Individualism refers to the degree to which people in a group care for themselves and their immediate families at the expense of the needs of society" (De Ferreire Kemp, 2007). Different cultural groups require different needs. I believe this can be a challenge for leaders when attempting to manage their workers successfully. Leaders have to take into consideration how each culture group and their needs can affect job performance and overall productivity. De Ferreire Kemp (2007) states, "Uncertainty avoidance describes the manner in which culture groups react to threatening and ambiguous situations." Different groups act and respond to situations in different manners. I believe this is influenced by certain situations, living conditions, and just the overall cultural experience of a group. "Power distance explains the ways culture groups accept unequal distribution of power in institutions. Leaders working with highly diverse groups must have an understanding of how the organizational