Fourth Written Assignment (totaling 20% of the final grade)

 

The purpose of this assignment is to give you an opportunity to describe an individual you deem to be an excellent example of leadership in one or more diverse cultures.   You may choose to describe an example of how the individual enhances or facilitates diversity, OR how well he/she represents a diverse culture or cultures in the exercise of leadership.  You may select a person from the past as the subject of the paper.  The essay should include a brief biographical sketch of the individual you select, and information from the readings, mini-lectures, videos, or other sources you choose, to support your opinion. The essay should be a minimum of 4 typed, double-spaced pages.

Due on March 15^th.

 

Incorporate this question in the answer to this question

What are the elements of these societal units that leaders should consider, when planning efforts to initiate, foster or value diversity?

 

Mini Lecture : Week 8 Mini-Lecture:  Diversity Leadership in Community  and Societal Contexts

This lecture focuses on what leaders in communities and societies, including nations, must know in leading diversity in those contexts.  Some of us continue to be surprised at how “leaders” continue to forget, ignore, hope to avoid, several important influences on the process of leading diversity in these contexts.  Just in the last two years we have seen U. S. state executives try to defend behaviors  in their personal histories that negatively affected their credibility in the conduct of their offices.  And this observation  comes from significant and sustained media attention.  What about those leaders in cities, areas of cities and communities about whom we do not hear, but who fail to see how personal histories may affect their work, as well as histories of communities, about which they may, or may not, be familiar.   In the  U. S. House of Representatives elections, candidates often try to ascertain the issues of interest to their congressional districts.  Of course, depending on where that district is, it may include multiple counties of a large number of people (west Texas) or those concentrated within a few miles  of each other (large urban settings).  There are different kinds of communities, such as individuals who share the same religion but worship in different locations in the same city; individuals over 65 in a retirement village; people who are in a food co-op; and members of the same ethnicity in a neighborhood, as is the case in New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, where immigrants from the same country settled together.  The communities on which I’m focusing are those which people are in by choice.  Among such groups, what are the components that affect diversity leadership?

1. History: There are some ethnic communities that have welcomed “new” members of other ethnicities, and there are others that preferred to be closed societies.  In some neighborhoods within cities, both real estate agents and homeowners tried to keep out people because of race or ethnicity.   In some U.S.  urban communities in the 1800s,   immigrants were discriminated against in terms of rental or purchase of housing.  Some cities, in the 1960s,  passed fair housing ordinances to prevent discrimination against possible home owners in residential communities. Individuals who wished to live in desegregated areas used these laws as backdrops to create welcome baskets, parties, parades and other events welcoming new groups of people into the areas. History is a strong influence on people;   individuals feel defined by familial, community, and national history.  Such histories are powerful influences on the leadership of diversity.
2. Complexity: Diversity, as well as size, creates complexity in organizations and communities.  When there are multiple types of individuals, of different ages, genders, races and ethnicities, financial backgrounds and education levels, position descriptions and salaries, then any change effort, including leading diversity, becomes complex.  Comparatively speaking, it’s much easier to facilitate employee diversity in a small, mom and pop, store.  For some people, complexity is anxiety-producing.  For others, it’s a welcome challenge.  For leaders, it should be one factor among several for which one plans a program of change.  Indeed,  some of the best leaders of societies, communities and organizations have the ability to be adaptable to the forces of complexity.  They tolerate ambiguity and uncertainty with the ability to be versatile in working with a variety of countervailing influences.  They do not fear dealing with creative tensions, walking tightropes between rocks and hard places.  Add the challenge of championing diversity, and leaders also must deal with possible attitudes of anger, fear, and negativism.  The larger and more hierarchical an organization, the larger and more diverse a community and a society are, the more complex it is.  And the greater the effect when it fosters diversity.
3. Economic health: The more money, people, and space a leader has at her disposal, the more resources there are available to put toward a change effort, the more successful that effort is apt to be.  Fostering diversity is a change effort.  A community that has sufficient funds, (if one exists!), will not have to worry about choosing diversification over other community needs. No other initiative will be put on the back burner for lack of funding.  No other program will be ended or paused because of a lack of funds.  Most leaders, however,  almost always face insufficient funds with which to work.  If a leader decides to put scarce resources into attempts to bring new and different individuals into a community, e.g. a retirement community, a neighborhood, a small but growing town, then  using those resources to create diversity, of whatever type, may require a leader’s  advocacy for the decision.
4. Core values and beliefs: We don’t always think about a community’s core values and beliefs—the specifics of what it stands for, appreciates, and holds as overarching guideposts.  That’s because leaders in communities don’t necessarily think about a community’s values…just its needs.  Elected political leaders have a sense of what their constituents think is important, from a needs point of view.  And, the values of the community members, e.g. importance of the environment, importance of health care,  the need to reduce taxes, and the need to bring better jobs to the area to enhance economic growth for the next generation, sometimes are assessed via political polls or independent surveys. Otherwise, leaders go by what they are told by individuals anecdotally, or in town hall meetings, or letters to the editor of the local newspaper.  If you are an individual, part of a team, or one of many individuals working to enhance diversity in your community, then enhancing/valuing/fostering diversity, of any type, should be a core value of the community.  If it is not a core belief, as you begin your work, then the community’s leadership are responsible, through words and actions, of embedding “diversity” as a core value. It is preferable to be in a community of people who already value differences among others, or the uniqueness of individuals, because changing beliefs and values can take many years and multiple efforts.
5. Form of governance: The reason it is important to consider form of governance when planning the leadership of diversity is because governance can have influence and/or control over diversity leadership strategies. If you are a homeowners association trying to increase racial and ethnic diversity in your neighborhood, you want to use that association as part of a strategy.  If you are a community governed by a city council, that council needs to be part of a strategy to enhance/increase/promote diversity in the community.  If you are in a community that puts responsibility for change efforts, including diversification, in a hired manager, e.g. an assisted living development, that individual will need to be a major part of the effort, although not the only component.  Forms of governance have credibility among those in their communities.   They have influence, and if the form of governance is not aligned with community members’ expectations, values and beliefs, and priorities for actions, the leadership of diversity is disadvantaged from the beginning.  Change efforts of any kind require buy-in from community members, but the governance structure or system must be supportive of the change effort.  Many organizational change efforts have been defeated before they began because leaders overseeing the effort, in charge of the effort, only paid lip service to the effort.  They were half-hearted in support of the change, and that lack of attention, focus or commitment cost the organization a successful change, whether it was the launch of a new product, the merger with another organization, expansion into a new geographical area, or the adoption of a new technology.
6. Goals: Knowing the goals of a community is critical to the leadership of diversity. Why? Because leaders, as individuals, as a team, or as a loosely-organized group of members, need to understand the priorities that guide the very work of the community.  Leading diversity must be one of the stated goals of the community if it is to be successful.  Yet, any community has multiple goals, and what they are may affect the resources available for diversity leadership.  In for-profit and non-profit organizations, attempts at enhancing/increasing diversity among employees historically has been affected by resource availability.  Working toward better productivity, financial controls, salaries, marketing, are just some of the goals many organizations have prioritized over diversity efforts.  If  “extra” money was available, it might be assigned to these efforts. In communities,  lower taxes, lower utilities costs, improved road safety and law enforcement are sometimes selected as priorities over fostering diversity, of any type, into the area.  Not only is diversity leadership needed as a goal if it is a leadership priority, it is needed as a core value and belief.  Not all types of communities have planned goals…yet any community is enhanced by having shared goals.  Knowing what those are is an important leadership task.
7. Geography: Where you are in the world does matter.  Communities on the coast of Florida facing “the red tide” of dead and dying fish and sea creatures are affected by their location.  Communities  in tornado alley in Texas, Oklahoma and beyond must consider this weather phenomenon every year in their budgets. We have seen how communities in certain parts of California are affected by proximity to forests…which are increasingly on fire.  Communities in urban areas may face overcrowding..but also are close to resources, unlike the Desert Southwest which is looking at dwindling water supplies.  Communities that develop around home purchases pay very large property taxes if they are in cities that are becoming more popular, and populous, due to in-migration.  If diversity leadership is a community’s goal, or priority, where that community is may be an influence on that process. Why? Because location affects types and availability of natural and man-made resources, as well as transportation availability and types, the physical climate of the area, and the socio-emotional climate of the people.  If all of these influences on the community are generally positive, the work toward its goals also will be generally positive. That being the case, the leadership of diversity will be a positive process, situated in a physical context that enhances, rather than detracts from, the pursuit of the community’s goals.