The Impact of Diversity on Global Leadership Performance

The Impact of Diversity on Global Leadership Performance consists of four parts and nine chapters. The two main questions examined in the book are: “is there evidence of a leadership necessity for diversity?” and “does an integrated change management process support a cohesive approach to global leadership and diversity?” In Part One, Leadership and Diversity in a Globalized World, Storey begins by stating that diversity is a business necessity primarily because of changing demographics and the increasing number of organizations entering the global marketplace. It is critical that leaders recognize that diverse employees bring value to decision making. Storey defines leadership necessity for diversity as the “interplay between leadership intentions, practices, attributes and deliverables” which is “key to achieving buy-in to the value of diversity” (p. 7). She then discusses the current state of leadership by briefly reviewing different traditional leadership theories, and concluding that they must be updated to fit the challenges and complexities of globalization.

Storey states that diversity initiatives are frequently focussed on demographic compliance, rather than integrated with business objectives. She posits that this needs to change – instead of viewing diversity as something that is “static” and described using words such as gender and age, that diversity is “the value added from different ways of doing, thinking and being” (p. 26). The LEAD3 (Leadership and Diversity to the power of three) model is a change process for fully integrating diversity into an organization’s structure. There are three dimensions of the LEAD3 model – structural, cognitive and behavioral diversity. Structural diversity consists of “inborn characteristics” (p. 27) such as ethnicity and gender, secondary characteristics such as religion and socio-economic status, organizational dimensions such as seniority and union affiliation, and systems and processes. Storey argues that organizations focus their diversity efforts on inborn characteristics, which can result in employees acting according to the expectations of the group to whom they identify. Cognitive diversity simply means that since people think differently, they should be positively valued by an organization as a way to foster innovation and creativity, and to reduce the likelihood of groupthink. Behavioral diversity is the difference in how people behave; values and beliefs, national heritage and social experiences affect and individual’s interpersonal skills. Acceptance that individuals have different ways of working results leads to reduced communication breakdowns. The section closes with a brief discussion on the critiques and benefits of diversity.

Part Two, The Research Process and Findings, addresses the outcomes of her dissertation, which she conducted from 2007-2012. The questions centered on the three constructs of leadership, diversity and organizational factors. The sample consisted of 79 senior leaders from seven multinational companies located in 22 countries. The methodology consisted of multiple-case studies based on the responses of senior leaders responding to in-depth interview questions. Storey collected, coded and sorted data to determine what data to collect next, and examined the themes that emerged from the data and categorized them.

A series of categories were found in three constructs: leadership, diversity, and organizational factors. Six categories were identified under leadership: competencies (business and cross-cultural); connecting (appropriate interpersonal skills, vision, build teams); rigor (fiscal performance); stakeholder satisfaction (maximizing the globalization-diversity relationship); value-based characteristics (strong social and behavioral skills, willingness to develop talent); and influences (willingness to adapt organizational strategies to the local market, awareness of how their cultural/social background influences impact leadership style). Storey states that these findings have important implications for global leaders to be able to influence others. She quotes participants’ comments about what they value in a leader, for example, the ability to bring the human element into achieving business results, and that “mixing with others who are different helps us to think and understand our own behaviours” (p. 65). What would be even more compelling would be given an example of a specific global leader who practices the behaviors described in the different categories.

The second construct is diversity; the five categories identified are: inclusivity (accepting of a variety of ways of “thinking, doing and being” (p. 100); performance measures, role modeling (practicing behaviors consistent with diversity principles, diversity of the senior management team); positioning diversity (prioritization and resource allocation) and innovation. Even though earlier in the book Storey states that today’s employer understands the importance of leveraging diversity to develop high-performing organizations (p. 4), in this section she reports the that diversity was referenced primarily for marketing purposes, that actions and words were not consistent with good diversity practice, and there were limited diversity performance measures. The implication here is that diversity programs were not fully integrated into the organization’s strategy and systems.

The third construct is organizational factors – organizational way of being (consistent and uniform implementation of diversity practices), facilitating diversity, behavioral practices, ways of working, issues of concern and driving diversity. Again, the findings suggested that diversity practices were not consistently or fully integrated in the organization’s strategy and systems. In fact, if there is inadequate communication about diversity practices, the unintended consequence can be negativity and fear among employees.

Part Three, The Tool – LEAD3 is an explanation of the integrated model that was developed as a result of Storey’s research. LEAD3 provides a change management framework into how leaders of large organizations can effectively integrate diversity into their company strategies and operational practices. Storey proposes LEAD3 as a multi-level and multidimensional approach that includes performance drivers, stakeholder groupings, performance outcomes and organizational activities. She provides tables consisting of various organizational activities and appropriate interventions, which clearly outlines how to use the LEAD3 tool, which appears to be a software program, since Storey states to click on buttons to learn about appropriate and associated interventions. For example, organizational activities are given the structural, cognitive and behavioral diversity dimension, and at the individual, team and organizational levels. So, if a leader wanted to implement a cognitive change at the team level, an appropriate intervention would be global literacy training. The list of activities and interventions is extensive; a reader would be hard-pressed to identify a significant omission.

This section is informative and helps the reader to understand how diversity impacts the entire organization. Storey gives scenarios of how the LEAD3 tool can be used to understand the relatedness of various interventions. For example, a leader would click on structural diversity and individual stakeholder buttons to see what interventions can be implemented in order to fully understand how women and ethnic minorities are promoted. The use of the tool appears easy to understand; it would be helpful if a demonstration of the examples were available on a webpage.

Lastly, a competency framework is introduced – Global Leader Index for Diversity (GLIDE) –that recognizes the diverse aspects of a global leader’s role and identifies associated skills and behaviors that global leaders of the future need to develop. This section is consists of a short description of the framework, with a brief overview of the supporting research. Storey states that GLIDE is a valuable framework and that it can be integrated with LEAD3, but does not provide an example of how it has been implemented in an organizational setting or a more comprehensive explanation of how it can be used.

Finally, Part Four, The Big Picture, is a summary of the major points that Storey has emphasized throughout the book. This section is a fervent appeal to leaders to clarify, commit and communicate their intentions, as well as collaborate with and care about others. Storey strongly suggests that leaders should be guided by the principles of Ubuntu, or humanity toward others (p. 188).

Overall, Storey succeeds in demonstrating her commitment to embracing and valuing diversity. Her belief that organizations must restructure their leadership and diversity efforts is earnest. This book is very readable, although repetitive in parts, and has sections that would appeal to different audiences; readers who are interested in research methodology may be more interested in Part Two – The Research Process and Findings – which comprises about half of the book. Readers who are investigating ways to integrate diversity into their organizations may find Chapters 6-9 particularly interesting because of the discussion of LEAD3. For readers who are familiar with the literature in this area, the book offers few new insights but contributes to the accumulating evidence that valuing diversity is beneficial to organizations. However, for the reader who is looking for a compelling argument for valuing diversity and/or a structured approach to integrating diversity practices into their organization, this book is persuasive, informative and useful.