Why Organizations Choose to Manage Diversity? Toward a Leadership-Based Theoretical Framework

Abstract

Research suggests that equal employment opportunity (EEO) legislation and affirmative action programs (AAPs) have been only partially successful in promoting women and minorities in the workplace. Firms are voluntarily pursuing diversity management, but only when business objectives coincide with the needs of women and minorities. Thus, the question of what factors are needed to help women and minorities advance in the workplace merits further investigation. Although top executive support is believed to be crucial to managing diversity, few studies have linked CEO commitment to diversity outcomes. This article proposes a theoretical framework for linking CEO commitment to diversity practices. Specifically, CEO commitment is expected to mediate the relationships between the leader's demographic characteristics and personal factors—consisting of values, cognition, and leadership styles—and a firm's strategic orientation toward managing diversity. This article further argues that without CEO commitment, institutional and environmental factors (e.g., legislation) are limited in promoting workplace diversity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

CEO Leadership Styles and the Implementation of Organizational Diversity Practices: Moderating Effects of Social Values and Age

“…Consistent with strategic choice theory (e.g., Child 1972;Hrebiniak and Joyce 1985;Oliver 1991) and the premise that CEO leadership plays a pivotal role in the adoption of organizational diversity practices (e.g., Ng 2008;Mighty 1996), results from this study suggest that both CEO transformational and transactional leadership influence the extent to which organizational diversity practices are implemented in organizations. Specifically, transformational leadership was found to be directly positively associated with the implementation of organizational diversity practices, while the influence of transactional leadership on organizational diversity practices was moderated by the social values and age of the CEO.…”

“…Likewise, Ng (2008) has called for research examining the role of organizational leaders in the adoption and implementation of organizational diversity practices. Ng and others (e.g., Mighty 1996) argue that although institutional and environmental factors may pressure firms into managing diversity, organizational leaders ultimately exercise strategic choice on whether and how to manage diversity.…”

Organizational Change Rationales: Exploring Reasons for Multicultural Development in Human Service Agencies

“…Optimal workforce performance (hence greater profitability) means that members need to work well with each other regardless of cultural group membership (Herring, 2009). Emphasis is on leadership's role in guiding the MD effort, and the change plan is often conceptualized as a top-down one (Harvey & Allard, 2008;Ng, 2008;Yang & Konrad, 2011). Full integration of the MD initiative into broader organizational functions and activities is essential, since this facilitates a cultural shift in the organization (Hyde, 2003(Hyde, , 2004Cameron & Quinn, 2006;Cox, 2001;Gonzales, 2010;Weiss, 2004).…”

Optimizing the Action in Action Learning: Urgent Problems, Diversified Group Membership, and Commitment to Action

“…The intersection of perspectives promotes double-and triple-loop learning through the questioning of assumptions and consideration of the impact that action will bring to the organization. Attitudes and behaviors are evaluated on the basis of the group members' readiness to unlearn and relearn as well as their persistence to inquire and experiment alternative solutions (Ng, 2008). Although diversity creates amplifying effects of exchange of mental models, it can be stabilized through the harnessing of group membership.…”