Search results

This chapter proposes a sustainable trajectory for leadership and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) organizational change in higher education. Leadership practices and strategies necessary to construct and implement change and cultivate diverse, equitable, and inclusive educational environments are deliberated, with particular emphasis on transformational leadership theories and practices. These types of organization development practices produce concrete transformation in institutions that have long-established, inert, and deeply entrenched cultures in which discriminatory or even racist practices have been deeply embedded and accepted over time. The complex dynamics of transformation in higher education, brought on, in part, by the rigidity of its organizational structure coupled with its history and foundation in racism and racist practices, makes achieving sustainable change difficult in higher education. Transformational change requires the creation of new mental models through meaning making and perspective sharing that allow individuals in higher education to think differently about how higher education institutions should operate given the rapid shifts in our society. Organizational change leaders must engage in deep, purposeful, and critical reflection and examination of the organization's culture to lay the groundwork for significant change. The chapter explores topics such as leading change through transformational leadership and the styles, practices, and capabilities associated with it, leadership development, strategic diversity leadership, and the Chief Diversity Officer (CDO) as change leader in higher education. The internal and external environmental trends demanding substantive change in higher education continue to intensify over time. The demand for pervasive transformation in higher education is resounding, and institutional leaders must be open to and even drive new and innovative approaches to shifting its very core – its DNA, its culture – to meet those demands.

This study aims to examine how woman leadership (i.e., woman board chairperson, woman chief executive officer (CEO) and board gender diversity) affects audit fee and also ascertained the interactive effect of woman leadership and gender diversity on audit committee on audit fee.

The study applied ordinary least square and fixed-effect estimators on the data of 21 universal banks in Ghana for the period 2010–2021 to estimate the empirical results.

It is revealed that under the leadership of women (woman CEO and board gender diversity), higher external audit quality is ensured as higher audit fee is paid. Interestingly, it was found that with the presence of women on the audit committee, the integrity of internal controls and internal audit procedures are enhanced, which leads to quality financial reporting, calls for lower audit effort, hence lower audit fee.

The result indicates that firms can rely on the leadership of women in ensuring quality external audit and quality financial reporting, which ultimately helps to minimize the information risk to all stakeholders.

The paper contributes to extant literature by establishing that, under the leadership of women in banking entities from a developing country context, external audit quality and financial reporting are achieved.

Drawing upon a dynamic managerial capabilities perspective, this study aims to unpack how and when chief experience officer (CEO) transformational leadership influences firm innovation. Specifically, a moderated mediation model linking CEO transformational leadership to firm innovation, which includes strategic flexibility as a mediator and top management team (TMT) knowledge diversity as a moderator, is theorized and empirically tested.

The authors conducted a survey of 354 TMT members and 62 CEOs from 62 firms in China’s construction industry to explore these relationships. Path analysis using Mplus 7.4 was undertaken to test our proposed moderated mediation model.

The results revealed that strategic flexibility mediates the positive relationship between CEO transformational leadership and firm innovation. Additionally, TMT knowledge diversity positively moderates the relationship between CEO transformational leadership and strategic flexibility.

Taken together, these findings help advance and deepen our understanding of the mechanisms through which CEO transformational leadership influences firm innovation and boundary conditions under which CEO transformational leadership influences strategic flexibility. At the same time, this study also contributes to the literature on strategic flexibility and the CEO-TMT interface by revealing the interactive effect of CEO transformational leadership and TMT knowledge diversity on strategic flexibility.

Although the positive influence of CEO transformational leadership on firm innovation has been widely recognized, the specific mechanisms underlying this effect have yet to be fully theorized. This study proposes and tests a nuanced theoretical framework linking CEO transformational leadership to firm innovation via a firm’s strategic flexibility. It also argues that TMT knowledge diversity enhances the indirect effect of CEO transformational leadership on firm innovation through strategic flexibility; that is, this indirect effect is significant when TMT diversity is high, but not when TMT diversity is low.

Organizational initiatives to address diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) have multiplied with many different courses and training programs in the last three decades. Despite these efforts, some recent studies have pointed out that disadvantages among minoritized social groups continue to persist, and thus far, organizations have failed to address them. University graduate leadership programs are, at least theoretically, able to respond in a way that better prepares future formal and informal organizational leaders with the knowledge, skills, and dispositions needed to be inclusive individuals in the 21st century committed to social change and social justice. This study aimed to understand how some graduate programs were currently teaching DEIB issues; more specifically, to understand if universities implementing DEIB programs were using a critical lens in their program design and to assess if these programs were indeed intended to be transformative. The review of 40 graduate programs in the United States indicated that the majority of them view diversity training and the work of DEIB leadership as “managing diversity” to keep the status quo and for economic profit contributing to the commoditization and tokenism of people; there was no mention of power in terms of asymmetries but rather a legitimizing of the accumulation of power with the leader at the top; and, finally, except for five programs, there was little attention given to DEIB as a transformative project committed to social justice.

This paper aims to examine the barriers that act as a hindrance and are the reason behind the struggles for the successful practice of diversity and inclusion. It also provides suggestions that organisations across the Asian region can adopt to have a conducive work environment to flourish diversity and inclusion.

Qualitative data were collected from 21 in-depth semi-structured interviews, where the male and female interviewee ratio was 6:4. The interviewees were diversity and inclusion leaders, diversity and inclusion consultants and human resources (HR) experts from Asian countries such as India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, UAE, Singapore, Bangladesh and Nepal. The interviewees belonged to varied industries, including information technology, automobile, manufacturing, engineering, logistics and independent consultants. Every interview recorded was transcribed, and an inductive content analysis technique was used using NVivo. Broad themes and several antecedents were identified which hinder the successful practice of diversity and inclusion.

There exists a patriarchal mindset in society as the main reason; that is why Asian countries are finding it difficult and are struggling to embrace diversity and inclusion successfully. There is a lack of awareness amongst managers about how inclusive gender diversity impacts the company’s financial status. Reports show that companies that have female board members have better profit margins in comparison to those that do not.

This study was conducted within one industry setting, the service sector; therefore, the findings may not apply to other industries because of the different organisational cultures and HR policies.

This study offers managerial implications that can help the organisation foster and embrace diversity and inclusion by overcoming the barriers.

There should be fair and equitable inclusivity of females in the workplace. Female employees should be heard without biases and discrimination and allowed to speak up with equity. Females should not be seen differently during organisational decision-making, participation and empowerment.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the few to explore the challenges faced by Asian region organisations to embrace diversity and inclusion by empirical evidence. The study shows how the Asian region struggles to go beyond gender diversity and move away from patriarchal hegemony, which is the study’s unique contribution.

This paper aims to explore how corporate Australia engages in reconciliation through recognizing and providing pathways for Indigenous Australians' corporate leadership aspirations.

The research design is informed by the prior literature on pathways by minority groups to corporate leadership through the theoretical lens of transformational leadership. The investigation is conducted using textual analysis of reconciliation action plans (RAPs), a contemporary and voluntary practice adopted by Australian listed companies to disclose their commitment to national reconciliation. RAPs are publicly available from the official websites of listed companies.

The analysis of contemporary RAPs highlights organizational initiatives to support Indigenous Australians related to corporate and community leadership. Since the authors’ focus is the former, corporate leadership initiatives are further analyzed. Two initiatives for Indigenous Australians to pursue corporate leadership positions are emerging future leaders' programs and mentoring programs. This is the extent to which the authors observe Australian firms' transformational leadership. While some firms have implemented these initiatives with specific targets, other firms do not have specific initiatives or targets. The paper also conducts longitudinal analysis into the transformational leaders' past RAPs and triangulates to other evidence of reconciliation commitment such as the Uluru Statement from the Heart.

This paper contributes new insights to the research area of board cultural diversity, specifically to the limited literature on Indigenous reconciliation. It provides insights into firms and policymakers to address the ongoing issue of the underrepresentation of Indigenous Australians in corporate leadership. The sample of firms comprises Australian listed firms that have adopted higher-order RAPs, which restricts the generalizability of the findings to other sectors.

This paper explores the under researched phenomenon of Indigenous people's pathways to corporate leadership. The research design is informed by transformational leadership theory through considering institutional actions for reconciliation. This research provides evidence of the extent to which corporate Australia has taken action on the issue of the under-representation of Australian Indigenous people in corporate leadership.

Leadership diversity promotes inclusive decision-making, innovation, and sustainable performance. This chapter examines the relationship between corporate board diversity and social criteria under the environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework, emphasizing gender parity on boards. ESG data are linked to one-fourth of the world’s professionally managed assets, worth $20 trillion (Eccles et al., 2019). Despite progress, less than 20% of corporate boards worldwide include women (Deloitte, 2021). Social psychology’s conformity theory describes how group dynamics affect individual behavior. Minority views are not easily expressed or heard in groups as social constraints favor conformity with the majority’s viewpoint (Asch, 1955; Glass & Cook, 2017; Yarram & Adapa, 2021). When a group encounters persistent minority viewpoints from multiple individuals, it is more likely to consider and learn from the minority voice (Asch, 1955). Decision-making and problem-solving increase when a board has diverse perspectives and critical mass can contribute to normalizing diversity on boards removing communication impediments. In the context of corporate board diversity, this theory can be applied to address diversity challenges, improving decision-making and problem-solving. To promote board diversity and inclusion, we developed BOARDS, a six-step process to assist current boards on increasing their capacity for inclusion. Our four-step process SKIM can be used to prepare potential board members for future opportunities. This chapter underlines the necessity to eliminate diversity gaps on corporate boards to develop a sustainable model of social equality to build inclusive corporate boards. Future research should consider other diversity variables including age, sexual orientation, and cultural and language diversity.

This study aims to investigate the relationship between female leaders at board and executive levels and e-waste reduction in firms listed on the FTSE All-Share Index.

The study uses a sample of nonfinancial firms listed in the FTSE All-Share Index between 2004 and 2021, comprising 2,523 firm observations. The primary technique used is ordinary least squares, with subsample analysis and the two-stage least squares method used to address endogeneity concerns.

This study suggests that the presence of female directors and executives can bring a more comprehensive and diverse approach to e-waste management, which can contribute to improved e-waste reduction initiatives. However, the study also highlights that the impact of female leadership on e-waste reduction may vary based on factors such as the size of the firm and the industry’s carbon footprint.

The practical implications of this research have noteworthy implications for companies and policymakers alike. By placing importance on gender diversity, companies can reap the benefits of diverse perspectives and approaches when addressing environmental challenges. Policymakers, on the other hand, can contribute to positive environmental outcomes by advocating for gender diversity in corporate leadership.

The novelty of this research stems from its discovery that having female directors and executives in a firm leads to a broader and more varied approach to managing e-waste, ultimately enhancing efforts to reduce it. This underscores the significance of gender diversity in advancing sustainable practices within organizations. The study highlights the distinct viewpoints and experiences that women offer when tackling environmental issues in the corporate sphere.

Despite the significance of a gender-diverse workforce, there is a lack of comprehensive review of gender diversity and women's career advancement literature. Moreover, past literature focuses on women-on-board and other subsets based on outcomes like firm financial and non-financial performance, corporate social performance and board interlocks. The purpose of this study is to examine the research on gender diversity and women's career advancement through an analysis of 143 articles published during past decade. Theoretical frameworks, contexts and constructs-based contribution to scholarship were reviewed. The authors attempt to highlight key theories, constructs and contexts and provide direction for future research.

A comprehensive systematic literature review of 143 articles spanning January 2008–March 2023 about gender diversity and women’s career advancement was conducted.

Majority of the past studies have focused on women on board and top management team, and most of them have been conducted in the context of the USA and China. There is no specific industry which has been covered extensively. Resource dependency, resource-based views and agency theories are the primary theoretical frameworks used in the past studies. Furthermore, these findings suggest the scope to further focus on women’s retention and career growth initiatives, especially at levels other than top levels, for a stronger leadership pipeline.

This study has been conducted with a focused analysis of the context, constructs and theoretical frameworks, enabling future researchers to decide how and where to focus, to now strengthen retention of women.

Groups once marginalized by culture, ethnicity, class, sexuality, age, and physical ability have entered and impacted business, service, and educational institutions. To unify their widening communities, leaders must pursue inclusivity, which demands more than equitable demographics. Inclusivity integrates each individual’s perspective, regardless of group – the tougher goal of equitable belonging. Most diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging programs agree that inclusivity starts with leaders’ acknowledging their own biases and committing to organizational reform. Yet few apply leadership principles to gain crucial team collaboration in the project. This chapter explicitly shows public- and private-sector executives and instructors how to guide staffers and students to understand and welcome unfamiliar cultural, social, and personal variances so they themselves create an inclusive cohort. Experiential activities, games, performance arts, and focused, reflective debriefings help make inclusivity the norm by playfully but persistently uncovering even unconscious exclusionist assumptions and replacing them with informed, diversity-positive interactions. These emotionally engaging exercises reveal that exclusionism emerges most bluntly in casual conversation, which both displays and perpetuates preconceptions. Fortunately, self-corrected speech can become the avatar and instrument of inclusivity. So the gentle unearthing and disproving of biases about cultural, social, and personal differences allow participants to construct a diversity-enhanced unity deeper than uniformity. Albeit temporary and simulated, such visceral learning experiences dramatically immerse players in the hurtful disregard caused by microaggressions of privilege and prejudice about cultures, ethnicities, classes, sexualities, ages, and abilities. These exercises and leaders’ modeling grow collegiality despite – indeed, through – human variety, letting all celebrate their individuality while greeting new views and voices.