Strategic Leadership for Managing Diversity
Document Type Article
Abstract
The changing workforce in organizations worldwide, including those in Africa, makes managing diversity a critical issue that must be a part of any organizational business strategy. This qualitative case study explored the success and failure of leadership strategies in managing diversity in organizations in the West African region and the adverse effects globalization, and ethnocentrism might have in managing diversity in the workplace. This study took place in Africa, and 15 participants from this West African organization participated in interviews and surveys. The data collection yielded themes the participants in the study thought could improve leaders' capabilities in managing a diverse workforce. A thematic analysis of the interviews, survey respondents' data, and organizational documents identified challenges and opportunities to achieve diverse workforce organizational goals. Among these challenges is implementing policies to advance an organization's diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts to address the possible failure to create a leadership strategy for managing diversity within the Western African technology industry, resulting in decreased workers’ job satisfaction, retention, organizational success, and representation of women and minorities in senior leadership positions. This research paradigm used a constructive and transformative framework to study the named organization in which diversity in the workplace has become a reality because of the global business environment. The data coding and analysis used NVivo, and the survey questionnaires were analyzed using SPSS descriptive statistical analysis capabilities.
