How diversity and inclusivity influence leadership

Literature Review

Introduction

Leadership is a vital element in society that promotes stability in an organization. However, workplaces function based on the introduction of different individuals with both varying skills and backgrounds, which is described as diversity and inclusivity in companies. The two concepts, diversity and inclusivity, have become a point of interest across organizations with the growing rates of interactions among cultures because of the rise of globalization as people and organizations grow their interests in trade. Diversity and inclusivity have introduced strengths and challenges to organizations. Significant scrutiny beis ing directed to the role of diversity and inclusivity in developing leworkplace leadership The following study will focus on assessing the relationship between leadership and inclusivity and diversity, which will be a highly comprehensive assessment of how leaders develop their skills and performance based on the two concepts of interest. The topic of how diversity and inclusivity influence leadership is relevant to organizations. The research will focus on providing companies with an applicable strategy for balancing diversity and inclusivity to ensure that leaders have effective skills to manage workplaces. The research topic is highly relevant because it will provide a roadmap as to how companies can improve their performance by embracing inclusivity and diversity.

The value of the research stems from the growing changes in society that have forced organizations to rethink their approaches to business. Globalization has encouraged the transfer of skills and cultures from one region to another, introducing significant structural changes. Contractor (2022) outlines that the growth of globalization has resulted in economic changes such as the increase in multinational companies, enhanced global supply chains, and enhanced production, which is attributed to the increase in diversity and inclusivity across organizations. The research will focus on expounding on the different reasons that diversity and inclusivity are important to organizations. This will be characterized by a thorough assessment of how the two concepts, diversity and inclusivity, influence leadership through an assessment of how leaders gain skills, knowledge, and management strategies through embracing diverse and inclusive workplaces. The study will focus on employing comprehensive theories, frameworks, and research methods to ensure that the data collected is applicable to generating a clear image of whether there is a positive or negative relationship between leadership and diversity and inclusivity.

The analysis will begin with a description of the problem promoting the study, followed by a description of the study’s purpose, research questions, and nature of the study. The purpose statement, which differs from the problem statement in that it will elaborate on the study’s purpose, is the following component in the first section. This will contain an overview of the advantages anticipated from the study. A component of the study will also include the research questions. The study’s goal and the required level of thorough research will determine the research questions. The nature of the study section will come after the research questions section and will include a detailed description of the scope and content of the investigation. The study section’s structure will give readers a sense of what to anticipate from the case study. The definition of terms section will come after the study framework section, which defines all the key terms and phrases. The assumptions, constraints, and delimitations sections are also vital to the analysis, which will be followed by the significance of the study, review of literature, appendices, and references, which will show the evidence and reinforce the research questions and knowledge gaps that are discussed and exploited by the study.

• Leadership Practices
  • Diversity in the workplace can either be inherent or acquired, which should be guided by standards of inclusivity that demand fairness to every employee (Chaudhry et al., 2020).
  • Diversity should also be defined by characteristics such as offering employees a sense of belongingness and embracing their uniqueness, which can be achieved by gathering multiple skills to enhance the work environment (Chaudhry et al., 2020).
• Diverse work teams have an 87%  increased rate of making better and more effective decisions (InStride, 2021). This makes it vital for companies to incorporate diversity into every level of the workplace because diverse teams have stable and more efficient leadership structures.
• Strong leadership is a vital factor in companies that are encouraged by the development of diverse workforces (McCallaghan et al., 2019).
  • Transformational leadership theory identifies that transformational leaders focus on engaging their team members by enhancing positivity and increasing the development of diversity in a workplace because of their capacity to understand teammates and apply morals and ethics to manage teams (McCallaghan et al., 2019).
  • Inclusive leadership is a crucial element in promoting diversity and inclusivity. Leaders establish a perception vital for the management of equity in the workplace, because of their capacity to integrate behaviors and activities that encourage positive perceptions of diversity among employees (Ashikali et al., 2020).
• Diversity is dependent on cultural respect and not cultural competence (Lokko et al., 2016). This shows that introducing people from different cultures to achieve diversity is not enough because additional practices of integrating the cultures with each other and with the general organizational goal are vital
• Diversity is dependent on investing in employees’ cognition to ensure they feel motivated to incorporate their skills, cultures, and knowledge together for better performance (Lokko et al., 2016).
  • Cognitive diversity is an approach that companies can apply to advance the mentality of their employees toward certain cultures, especially the stereotyped subcultures (Meissner, & Wulf, 2017).
  • Cognitive diversity theory dictates that investing in cognitive diversity in terms of performance, cultures, and skills results in an innovative workplace because it encourages teams to consider the non-obvious choices, including the stereotyped or biased minorities (Jankelová, Joniaková, & Mišún, 2021).
• Research indicates that the willingness to introduce diversity to a workplace should be supported with additional practices that will establish an effective culture that supports the goal (Lee et al., 2021).
• The responsibility of diversity should also not be solely placed on leaders in a work environment because they are also prone to blind spots that limit them from identifying certain barriers to diversity (Lee et al, 2021).
• Successful integration of diversity by leaders increases creativity and innovation in the workplace, making employees more willing to work because of increased job satisfaction (Wang et al., 2013).
• Diversity advances employees’ creativity, dedication, and compliance levels by ensuring that they feel a sense of belonging and that their input to the company is favored and valued regardless of their cultures and unique social practices (Chaudhry et al., 2020).

The Problem

• Companies have failed to achieve diversity and inclusivity in their work environments, with most organizations introducing the name and failing to follow through with the promise of achieving diversity (Ely & Thomas, 2020). Most companies have gotten lost in their false perception of diversity when they are not putting in adequate effort to ensure that their workplaces achieve social, political, religious, sexual, and racial diversity, among other elements of inclusivity (Ely & Thomas, 2020).
• Balancing diversity and inclusivity by focusing on equality has not been achieved in most companies (Williams et al., 2014). Acknowledging diversity is the starting point for introducing diversity, which will allow companies to overcome their business fear towards achieving equity.
• A problem with diversity and inclusivity in the workplace has been the imbalance between male and female leaders in companies, with a slow progression into this aspect of diversity being experienced in major countries such as Belgium where 16% of managers were women as of 2018 compared to the previous figure that stagnated between 9% and 10% in previous years (Babic & Hansez, 2021).
• The problem of low diversity in companies has also been linked to a lack of awareness, especially the lack of apprehension towards the different facets of sexuality being attributed to the lack of sexual diversity in companies (Kormanik, 2009).
• A lack of diversity and inclusivity in companies is a problem linked to larger social issues of discrimination in the workplace, which are not well defined even with existing laws in the United States (Dover et al., 2019).

Background of the Problem

Diversity and inclusivity are stoutly rooted in globalization, which has led to significant organizational structures and functioning shifts. Globalization is a process that introduces significant changes to social, economic, and political structures as different traditions, practices, and beliefs are spread across the globe (Reddy & Kota, 2019). The resulting changes have been highly felt in the business sector as more people become exposed to skills held by individuals with differing backgrounds, forcing companies to rethink how they handle their employees. Globalization is a highly favored process that allows companies to expand their task forces and business operations, which makes it a change that is gradually becoming permanent. Khan (2018) outlines that globalization has forced companies to transition over time, with organizational leaders tasked with maintaining a workforce balance. This is evidenced by the number of individuals moving from lower-income countries to developed nations hoping to find better workspaces. According to Figure 1, the U.S. has become a hub for immigrants seeking better job opportunities, with statistics indicating that the country received 43.7 million in 2016. This is a significant indicator of the influx of new cultures and traditions introduced into the American task force. According to McCartthy (2017), the 43.7 million immigrants in 2016 represented an increase of over half a million migrants since 2015, a drastic increase expected to hit 72 million in 2030. The rise in immigrants in the U.S. represents a change in the task force in terms of skills, behavioral beliefs, and presentations. The most interesting attribute of globalization is that it not only causes the transit of employees to other regions but also causes the movement of leaders to different societies, forcing leaders to shift their approaches to workforce management.

Figure 1: Immigration in the U.S.

Source: McCarthy, 2017

Financial responsibilities are also a crucial part of the background that supports the research into diversity and inclusivity. Leaders are constantly under pressure to ensure maximum profit guided by the needs presented by stakeholders, which has resulted in the restructuring of approaches applied by leaders. Harsch and Festing (2019) explain that financial demands have increased demand for organizational agility, which has prompted leaders to use their recruitment powers to restructure workforces through outsourcing and seeking new skillsets among employees. This has introduced different cultures to organizations, which has shed light on the concepts of diversity and inclusivity. O’Brien et al. (2015) describe that a diverse and inclusive workforce is not merely introducing people from different races into an organization, but it is the actual incorporation and appreciation of the differences and similarities carried by each individual from a foreign background into the performance of the organization. This has been a challenge to organizations because of interests among stakeholders and shareholders, especially with the ultimate goal of a company being financial performance and growth. This shows that diversity and inclusivity in workplaces is a challenge that affects the decision-making and functioning of organizations, making the concepts highly valid for assessment and research.

Problem Statement

Diversity and inclusivity in the workplace are identified as a problem because most companies have been challenged with the process of acknowledging disparities and similarities shared by employees. This is attributed to the fact that the societal and economic changes in society, mainly stemming from the increase in globalization, have promoted the reassessment of leadership strategies and skills. The main problem to be addressed within the study is identifying the importance of diversity and inclusivity to the leadership in organizations. The study will focus on uncovering the relationship between leadership and diversity and inclusivity in organizations, which is an essential study that will provide companies with additional insight into the importance of having leaders who embrace and effectively manage diverse workforces. Patrick and Kumar (2012) describe that diversity and inclusivity is a problem that needs extensive research to protect companies from poor performance, which is a significant consequence arising from the aimless introduction of diversity and inclusivity because of the changes introduced by cultural differences. This is a crucial area for study that presents the knowledge gap on how leaders are influenced by having proper diversity and inclusivity strategies. The study will advance the understanding of inclusivity and diversity by presenting an evidence-based framework that indicates how leaders can adopt the concepts and the benefits of applying diversity and inclusivity.

Purpose Statement

The major goal of this study is to ascertain whether leaders’ probable incompetence in establishing a diverse and inclusive workforce leads to poor organizational performance. Specific courses of action are required to promote diversity and inclusivity among organizational personnel,. Although a variety of people with suitable skills and experience are available in the labor market, human resource recruiters still have trouble fostering diversity. The inability to fully comprehend the advantages that promoting diversity and inclusivity will bring to the company is a major barrier to developing the necessary solutions. The scope of the problem makes it vital to use a qualitative research design that will deliver factual data on the relationship between diversity, inclusivity, and leadership in organizations. Chaudry, Paquibut, and Tunio (2021) describe that the engagement of different cultures within organizations is a significant strategy for reducing and eradicating vices such as stereotypes and biases that affect employees. This attribute of diversity and inclusivity is best approached using facts and experiences from the population directly. The following research will answer questions on how embracing diversity and inclusivity helps leaders become more effective. The study will avail an answer to the questions on why diversity and inclusivity are important to leadership. Data collection will be conducted using a case study focusing on interviews with leaders. The interviewing will focus on developing factual data on the observable effects of leaders practicing diversity and inclusivity standards. The scope of the study is rooted in generalizability, which will make it essential to use leaders across companies in the U.S. as the target population, ensuring that varying companies are included.

Concepts

• The role of diversity in enhancing leadership through internal cohesion, collaboration, and teamwork.

• Increased diversity and inclusivity in the workplace has been linked to an increase in productivity in companies (Saxena, 2014). Diversity in the workplace increases productivity by making the work environment heterogeneous, which translates to an increase in cohesion and acknowledgment of differences in sexuality, race, disabilities, culture, race, and psychological factors (Saxena, 2014). A diverse and inclusive workforce becomes more productive because of the development of an understanding that no two humans can be the same (Saxena, 2014).
• Diversity and inclusivity in a company will increase the collaboration by introducing an understanding of the different input that every employee’s differences bring to the company (Zubiri-Esnaola et al., 2020).  The increase in collaboration is attributed to the increase in structure and order arising from the understanding facilitated by diversity and inclusivity.

• The role of diversity and inclusivity in enhancing employees’ intrinsic environment through motivation and belongingness.
  • Inclusivity and diversity in the workplace enhance a company’s competitive advantage by introducing inclusive leadership where people can work in a collaborative environment. Research indicates that an increase in diversity results in an increase in inclusivity by 2%, resulting in an understanding between employees and their leaders (Minbaeva, 2017). The development of competitive advantage is dependent on the increase in understanding within a company that results in effective relationships that support enhanced productivity.
  • A sense of belongingness increases with the development of diversity and inclusivity in organizations.  A diverse and inclusive workplace allows employees to embrace their differences and understand themselves with the company showing that they acknowledge and appreciate these variances, which generates a sense of belonging to the company based on the feeling of being understood (Booker & Campbell-Whatley, 2018). A sense of belonging to the company results in a stable leadership structure that is encouraged by developing a willingness to learn among employees.
  • Diversity and inclusivity also increase employee motivation, making it easier for leaders to direct and instruct the organization. Inclusive leadership encourages leaders in an organization to embrace the individual differences held by employees, which results in stable relationships that are guided by free communication and information sharing that motivates employees to offer the best input (Metzger et al., 2020).

Theories 

• Cognitive Diversity Hypothesis: The theory correlates cognition, perspectives, and learning to diversity and inclusivity.
  • The theory outlines that the development of perspectives that result from the interactions with other cultures and individuals make room for additional learning and, thus, diversity (Chow, 2018).
  • A lack of awareness of the various elements of diversity and inclusivity has led to poor diversity standards in companies (Kormanik, 2009).
  • Diversity and inclusivity in the workplace is dependent on the understanding of the internal organizational structure, which allows leaders to identify the differences that can be integrated into each other (Manoharan et al., 2021).
• Symbilic Interactionism Theory: The theory identifies that people tend to develop certain views and attribute importance to their environment based on the interactions they have with such environments, which allow them to feel attached and stay motivated in such envrionments (Wang et al., 2019). Intrinsic motivation is a factor that allows diversity and inclusivity to thrive in an organization that introduces a stable leadership because of the development of internal positivity, belongingness, and dedication to the company (Cardinal et al., 2022).
• Organizational Theory: A dedication to equality in the organization is a stepping stone toward recognizing the importance of diversity and inclusivity in the workplace because it introduces a need to balance the structures in the company ranging from social, emotional, and psychological elements dictated by the organizational theory (Sharma, 2016; Capper, 2019). Companies fear introducing diversity into a workplace because of the expectation that it may result in the negative categorization of employees (Tasheva & Hillman, 2019).
• Behaviorist theory: According to the behaviorist theory, an individual’s personality is also a factor that determines the applicability of diversity and inclusivity to an organization with inclusive leadership being a source of leadership by example that allows employees to embrace each other’s personalities (Chen et al., 2019). Employee personalities can be used to determine their attitudes, perceptions, and reception toward an inclusive and diverse workplace, which allows leadership to be Align these with the appropriate theories.structured toward achieving the desired diversity standards (Anglim et al., 2019).

Constructs and Variables

• The role of leadership style in determining the level of diversity in the workplace.
  • Transformational leadership is the leadership style approved for enhancing the development of teamwork dedication by urging teams to embrace their differences (Brown et al., 2019).
  • Diversity’s influence on leadership is strongly dependent on the initial leadership style applied in an organization. Diversity works well in an environment governed by leadership styles that can effectively manage a diverse teams through communication and conflict management (Prieto et al., 2016).
• Barriers to diversity management in the workplace.
  • Diversity is severely hindered in the workplace through poor change management structures in a company (Van den Brink, 2020).
  •  Biases and stereotypes are also a major barrier to the introduction of inclusivity because they are difficult perspectives to eradicate (Spector et al., 2019).
•  Intrinsic motivation is a factor that encourages diversity and promotes healthy leadership, leading to higher productivity.
  • For stable leadership to be achieved in an organization, intrinsic motivation in a team must balance with the cognitive diversity held by the team members, which results in enhanced productivity (Kim et al., 2020).
  • Intrinsic motivation stems from a company acknowledging and respecting the individual differences within a workplace, which makes the employees feel like they belong, allowing for better performance (Grant & Hill, 2020).
  • According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, intrinsic motivation is best achieved through effectively addressing minimalistic factors that result in trust and a sense of safety, which offers the employee a sense of empowerment that their additional needs, including recognition, will be met (Mansaray, 2019).

Related Studies

• Trust helps strike a balance between diversity and leadership by allowing employees to believe in themselves and each other, which enhances the general performance of teams by facilitating teamwork, reducing conflict in teams (Inegbedion et al., 2020). This study correlates to the research by emphasizing the argument that trust is essential to effective leadership.
• The perceptions that managers hold towards diversity is also a determinant of the extent of diversity that can be achieved in each work environment (Madera et al., 2013). This study aligns with the research by emphasizing how diversity and inclusivity influence leadership by showing how misguided perceptions towards others determines the leader’s behavior towards them.
• Learning occurs based on a willingness to learn, which is generated from an individual’s compartmentalization of existing and new knowledge of cultures and beliefs practiced by others, which may significantly limit the achievement of the benefits of diversity because this results in a chance of increased stereotyping (Otaye-Ebede et al., 2019).  The study supports the research’s argument that stereotypes attributed to the lack of diversity and inclusivity influence leadership because the study links learning to stereotypes.

Anticipated Themes and Discovered Themes

• Research indicates that interacting with people who hold multiple cultures allows people to expand their beliefs, thus drawing them away from their stereotypes and biases to allow the work environment to be based on inclusivity (Chaudhry et al., 2020).
• An increase in job satisfaction is anticipated as a result of inclusivity and diversity practices such as teamwork and free workspaces because of the development of a positive perception of productivity (Hauret et al., 2020).
• Team innovation will also improve from the introduction and emphasis on diversity in the workplace because diverse work environments boost employees’ moods to result in a creative task force (Mitchell et al., 2021).

Summary

• Having a diverse work environment facilitates better leadership by introducing a teamwork mentality among employees (Ashikali et al., 2020).
• Diversity teaches employees to respect each other and, thus learn from each other, which enhances the productivity in an organization (Hofhuis et al., 2016).
• It is important to address barriers such as stereotypes and poor change management that may hinder the success of diversity in a work environment (Hofhuis et al., 2016).
• Diversity influences the leadership and productivity in an organization by increasing trust and openness, which allows free communication and interactions (Hofhuis et al., 2016).
• Creativity is also a dominant benefit of embracing diversity in the workplace because diverse teams have more efficient cognitive and social performance, which opens the employees to a free environment where their inner thoughts and ideas are respected without emphasis on characteristics such as holding a minority status (Zhou & Hoever, 2014).

Summary of Section 1

The chosen topic may appear significantly general but the existing literature and research indicate that it is a deep topic in need of thorough analysis. The focus on leaders in organizations will help narrow the topic to facilitate a thorough analysis of how each leader is affected by the presence or lack of diversity and inclusivity in their leadership structure. The study understands that measuring the leadership of individual leaders, demands the use of additional factors to assess the influence of diversity and inclusivity on leadership. The study assesses factors such as job satisfaction, employee intrinsic motivation, teamwork, and collaboration. These are factors that the study can effectively analyze to determine how the use of diversity and inclusivity among leaders influences the type of leadership portrayed to employees. The expectation is that the study will uncover a positive correlation between the inclusion of diversity and inclusivity in one’s leadership style and the performance of the leader’s employees. Section 1 is vital to the study because it provides a thorough depiction of the study’s relevance by developing a clear picture of what the study is expected to deliver and how the study will serve existing leaders and organizations. The Section also supports the relevance of the study to existing literature through a thorough description of the problem and relevance of the study.

Section 1 is an effective analysis of the study’s structure and elements that have been strategically selected to help assess the topic of the influence of diversity and inclusivity on leadership. Section 1 offers the background of the study and the research questions. The study will focus on understanding the influence of diversity and inclusivity through a comprehensive research framework that allows the identification of vital data on the topic. Section 1 has elements such as the research paradigm and a detailed and well-organized diagram indicating all the concepts, theories, and constructs used to develop the design of the study. These factors take into account the distinct factors of the topic with a distinct focus on the existing data and the emergent data gathered from the study. The section also offered the opportunity to understand the repeated terms in the study using a definition of terms segment that effectively summarized the meaning of each major phrase in the research. The terms were further supported by a section that detailed the significance of the study, which was backed by various research articles from professionals who showed an equal curiosity towards the topic of diversity and inclusivity. The study specifically applied peer-reviewed articles for the review of the literature. The section also includes the assumptions, limitations, and delimitations within the study, which are elements that will offer insight into the researcher’s guidelines during the study. The assumptions will include the data believed to be automatically correct, the limitations will include barriers to the study’s efficiency, success, and generalizability, while the delimitations will indicate the approaches used by the research to eliminate the limitations. Additional elements within the appendices and references, which are meant to offer readers an effective line-up of the relevant research applied in the study to make advanced research to be conducted by the reader on personal initiative easy.

Transition to Section 2

The Second section within the study will be a continuation of the processes included in Section 1. Section 2 will provide additional support to elements such as the importance of the study indicated in the first section. Section 2 will include segments such as role of the researcher and methodology, which will work to indicate the detailed steps that the researcher will take to develop the elements included in Section 1. The role of the researcher will be a part of Section 2, which will detail the different responsibilities that the researcher will have towards the topic, the participants, and the study methods selected for the research. Section 2 also includes a research methodology that details the different approaches that the researcher has selected for data collection, analysis, and presentation. The section is vital to the portrayal of the significance of the study because it will support the aforementioned sections such as research questions and problems statement. The methodology sections will be where the answers to the research questions will be gathered and analyzed for a summative assessment of the influence of diversity and inclusivity on leadership. The methodology section will identify the approach used to organize the data collected, which will indicate the integrity of the study based on the presented relevance and importance of the research. The approach used with the participants within the study will also be outlined in the methodology section, which will be essential in supporting the relevance of the study. This attention to the participants within the study will assert the direction of the study by providing a clear image of whether the researcher is on the right track towards answering the research questions identified in Section 1. Also, Section 2 will include the research proposal for the project, which will be a vital piece in the study that will indicate the support and affiliations attributed to the case study. This will be a part of the study that offers a summary of the complexity of the study by summarizing the relevance of the research and the desired outcomes of the research. Seeing that the topic demands an extensive approach, the research proposal section will thoroughly defend the requirements of the study to provide a clear image of the reliability of the study to the topic being investigated.