Leadership & Diversity: A Resource Guide for Students and Practitioners

About This Guide

Leadership & Diversity: A Resource Guide for Students and Practitioners is a resource for leadership studies students and working professionals interested in studying leadership. The Guide is developed and managed by students in the MA Organizational Leadership Program at Rider University. It provides resources related to emerging research and best practices on the impact of diversity on leadership practices. This includes, but is not limited to:

The influence of gender identity, race, sex, culture, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and spirituality on leadership practices
Best practices on leadership development
How gender identity, race, sex, culture, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, and spirituality on leadership practices influence followers' perception of leadership
Global perspectives of leadership

Emerging Research

The following are scholarly articles on diversity and leadership.

LeCroy, V. R., & Rodefer, J. S. (2019). The influence of job candidate LGBT association on hiring decisions. North American Journal of Psychology, 21(2), 373-385. This study explores how disclosing involvement in LGBT ally activities (not specifically identifying as LGBT) on a resume affects the potential of being hired. The findings showed significantly lower ratings than those who did not disclose involvement in LGBT ally activities with African American study participants giving the lowest ratings. This study shows the negative impact for job applicants who disclose this information.
Siemiatycki, M. (2019). The Diversity Gap In The Public–Private Partnership Industry: An Examination Of Women And Visible Minorities In Senior Leadership Positions. Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 90(2), 393-414.
This study explores the diversity gap in public-private infrastructure projects. Specifically, it looks at the absence of racial minorities and women in senior leader positions. The authors discuss how this lack of diversity is impacting project outcomes.
Wright, T., Colgan, F., et. al. (2006). "Lesbian, gay and bisexual workers: equality, diversity and inclusion in the workplace" (Vol. 25, Issue 6.) (pp.465, 469-470). Equal Opportunities International. Journal. Source link: https://doi.org/10.1108/02610150610713782. This study explores the Employment Equality (Sexual Orientation) Regulation of 2003 in the United Kingdom, a qualitative research project that was launched to examine the experiences of LGB – an abbreviation of “lesbian, gay, bi-sexual” – workers. This study delves into pertinent topics, such as same-sex benefits, equal opportunity diversity policies, and existing LGB groups, as they relate to accomplishing workplace inclusion.
Turner-Moffatt, C. (2019). THE POWER OF MENTORSHIP: Strengthening Women in Leadership Roles. Professional Safety, 64(8), 17–19. This article takes a look at gender diversity in the workplace as it discusses the low representation of women in leadership roles. Leadership, in the form of mentorship, serves importance to women because it gives them the fundamental support they may need while in these male-dominated leadership roles.
Cleveland, J., Shore, L., & Sanchez, D. (2018). Inclusive workplaces: A review and model. "Human Resource Management Review", 176-189. This article is a concise resource for leaders who wish to understand the importance and benefit of an inclusive workplace, providing a review of inclusion literature as well as a proposed model of inclusion that integrates existing literature to offer greater clarity.
Reddy, C. N., Adhikari, J., Chitranshi, J. (2017). Understanding and Managing Gender Diversity Challenges at Leadership Positions: A Review. Journal of Strategic Human Resource Management; New Delhi Vol. 6, Iss. 2, 40-44.
Inclusion of women in the top ranks of company leadership has a direct and positive impact on a company’s bottom line and need to be recognized like their male counterparts. Through good corporate governance and well-defined diversity management women at board positions should become the norm rather than the exception.
Robbins, Steve L. (2008) What if? :short stories to spark diversity dialogue. Boston: Davies-Black. Within 25 inspiring stories-some deeply personal-Steve Robbins offers fresh insight into the real and meaningful differences among people and how the power of everyday experiences can be the catalyst for seeing the world through a different lens.
Profili, S., Sammarra, A., & Innocenti, L. (2017). Age Diversity in the Workplace : An Organizational Perspective (Vol. First edition). United Kingdom: Emerald Publishing Limited. This book provides a body of research with a strong theoretical basis for understanding the reality of the aging workforce. This body of work also delves into the different practices to best help this growing mature workforce.
Randsley de Moura, G., Leicht, C., Leite, A. C., Crisp, R. J., & Gocłowska, M. A. (2018). Leadership Diversity: Effects of Counterstereotypical Thinking on the Support for Women Leaders under Uncertainty. Journal of Social Issues, 74(1), 165–183. This article navigates through two studies about support given to women leaders with leadership styles and its alignment with gender stereotypes as well as the role of counterstereotypical thinking in strengthening the support for women leaders.
Shelby Rosette, A., & W.Livingston, R. (2012, May 11). Failure is not an option for Black women: Effects of organizational performance on leaders with single versus dual-subordinate identities. This article focuses on a three-way interaction between a leader’s gender, race and organizational performance. Through this article, we see how black women suffer because of the double jeopardy of being black and a woman in a leadership role. This article reminds black women that there are people out there in the world who believes that because someone is black and a woman, they will be perceived negatively to others if their organization is unsuccessful. Black women in leadership roles are often recognized as leaders who are ineffective based off of their identity (black and a woman).
McGee, E. (2018). "Black Genius, Asian Fail": The Detriment of Stereotype Lift and Stereotype Threat in High-Achieving Asian and Black STEM Students. AREA Open, 4, 1–16. Retrieved from ht

tps://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1201168R This journal article touches on how racism and stereotyping have a negative affect on individuals, even if the stereotype seems positive. Through stereotype threat and stereotype life both Black and Asian student in STEM higher education are marginalized and suffer from emotional distress.

Kilian, C. M., Hukai, D., & Mccarty, C. E. (2005). Building diversity in the pipeline to corporate leadership. Journal of Management Development, 24(2), 155–168. This article sheds light into the barriers that women and minorities face in corporate environments that hinders their ability to succeed in the workplace. By exploring successful intervention methods to ensure that these barriers to not prevent professional growth, this article shows a plethora of practices for leaders and managers to create equality for their employees.

Chin, J. L. (2011). Women and Leadership: Transforming Visions and Current Contexts. Women and Leadership, 1–17. Link to article: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ944204.pdf. This article focuses on women leaders and the obstacles women face. It discusses the need to change the culture surrounding women in leadership roles and the bias against women leaders.

Paustian-Underdahl, S. C., Slattery-Walker, L. & Woehr, D.J (2014). Gender and Perceptions of Leadership Effectiveness: A Meta-Analysis of Contextual: Journal of Applied Psychology © 2014 American Psychological Association 2014, Vol. 99, No. 6, 1129 –1145

This article explores the difference of opinion, in terms of the more effective leadership styles between men and women. It touches on norms, beliefs and myths, from both directions on the subject, and it dispels a great deal of the argument that men are more effective leaders than women.

Fritz, C. and van Knippenberg, D. (2017), "Gender and Leadership Aspiration: The Impact of Organizational Identification", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 38 No. 8, pp. 1018-1037. This article introduces the concepts of communal orientation of different genders and their leadership aspirations. It discusses the role and importance of both the gender and their psychological linkage to the organization as a whole in determining ones aspirations. The study is included in the article highlights a women's need for organizational identification as necessary for leadership aspiration.

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Pleasant, S. (2017). Crossing the boundaries of employee engagement and workplace diversity and inclusion: Moving HRD forward in a complicated sociopolitical climate. New Horizons in Adult Education and Human Resource Development, 29(3), 38-44. doi:10.1002/nha3.20191 This article discusses the topic of the effect of diversity and inclusion efforts on employee engagement. Addressing issues such as racism, sexism and other forms of prejudice in the work place could improve organizational performance. The article points out the importance of focusing on both the theory and practice of diversity and inclusion to improve employee engagement and satisfaction.

Cooper, T. & Horn, E. (2019). The bias barrier: Allyships, inclusion and everyday behaviors (2019 State of Inclusion Survey). Retrieved from Deloitte United States Website: https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/inclusion-insights.html

St. John, E., Rowley, L., & Hu, S. (2009). Diversity and Leadership: A Study of High-Achieving Students of Color. The Journal of Negro Education, 78(1), 17-28. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25608715. This article uses national studies of high-achieving students of color developed by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC) for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as a basis for examining student engagement and leadership among racially and ethnically diverse college students. It offers the notion of creating engaging environments for students of color is important not only as a standard for achieving enrollment diversity, but also as an aim of higher education and college student development.

Best Practices

The following are articles, white papers, and websites of best practices on leadership development that focuses on diversity and identity.