Leadership in Multigenerational Organizations: Strategies to Successfully Manage an Age Diverse Workforce

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the way leadership influences an organization to become humane through its features and behaviors; as well as the organizational circumstances in which humane leadership can be nurtured. The first empirical case study, in the fields of Human Resource Development (HRD) and hospitality management, to explore the way employees from different national cultures (as measured by their individualistic/collectivistic values), in a US-based hotel, perceive their workplace to be a humane organization (HO), as defined by Chalofsky (2008), was the one made by Dimitrov (2009, 2010). More specifically, the example set by leadership in the studied hospitality organization is the focus of the present descriptive manuscript. The importance of HRD concepts such as the HO for the academic study and practical development of leadership in organizations is significant, through the effects leadership has on employee satisfaction and engagement at the workplace. Design/methodology/approach – The exploratory research mentioned above used a single embedded case study with 17 participants, selected via purposeful convenience sampling, who represented management, supervisory and professional line-level employees from a culturally diverse full-service hotel in a major metropolitan area. The instrument of Singelis et al. (1995) for horizontal and vertical individualism (I) and collectivism (C), as well as the instrument of Triandis and Singelis (1998) for I and C, was applied to every respondent to determine their cultural belonging. One-on-one interviews, written reflections and documentary analysis, as well as observations of the social and physical aspects of the participants’ workplace, were conducted. Findings – Five leadership sub-themes were observed to the general theme “Setting the Example” of the study’s findings: company values for leadership styles and employee treatment; the legacy of one charismatic leader (the previous general manager); leader–follower communication; how the workplace feels intrinsically; and how the work environment becomes negative. The study led to the formation of two new characteristics of the HO (Dimitrov, 2009), of which one could be recommended as the main focus of leadership in an HO: being cognizant and understanding of individuals as human beings, not just as employees. The traits and behaviors of some modern leadership theories such as authentic leadership, transformational leadership and charismatic leadership were combined under the concept – humane leadership. Research limitations/implications – The research of more culturally diverse organizations in different counties, brand cultures and economic sectors, under various research methodologies, and in the context of classical and recent leadership theories, was recommended to establish further weather I and C employees’ expectations of their leadership would make a difference for the sustenance of an HO. Practical implications – Furthermore, organizations and HRD practitioners are encouraged to invest more time, efforts and resources into leadership development programs that create such humane leadership skills and prepare quality leaders who are well-perceived and trusted by their culturally diverse workforce. Originality/value – The importance of HRD concepts such as the HO for the academic study and practical development of leadership in organizations is significant, through the effects leadership has on employee satisfaction and engagement at the workplace. Humane leaders can be nurtured in a humane organizational culture.

This study proposes a framework for analyzing and understanding the relationship between ethical leadership and the management of workforce diversity. Using meta-synthesis as a methodological approach, the study examines the current research stream in workforce and workplace diversity. Second, the concept of ethical leadership is examined, including the conditions for its applicability and possibility in creating leader-follower relationship. It is argued here that our understanding of diversity and all of its ramifications are products of our ethical and cultural conditioning. A review of the ontological nature of ethical leadership indicates how organizational leaders function as role models and how members of the organization identify themselves with the organization ideal as embodied in the leader’s ideal. Further, we explain how the actions of organizational leaders as parental figures and role models are capable of altering followers’ perception of their individualities and their realities. We argue that organizational leaders can and should use their power of influence (as role models) to make their followers recognize the inherent advantages and challenges of a diverse workforce and workplace. We point out that the inability of our leaders to manage the diversity in our society and institutions poses a serious threat to the nation’s security. On this basis, we suggest that ethical leadership seems to be an appropriate form of leadership behavior for managing a diverse workforce capable of achieving the goals of an organization. Finally, five ethical leadership approaches for creating and sustaining effective management of workforce diversity are suggested.
 Keywords: Workforce Diversity, Ethical Leadership, Ethical Climate, Cultural Orientations.

Ageless Talent: Enhancing the Performance and Well-Being of Your Age-Diverse Workforce provides organizational leaders, managers, and supervisors with clear, evidence-based tactics by which to develop and manage an aging and age-diverse talent pool. This volume provides an easy-to-implement set of tools for addressing the difficult problems related to employee performance and well-being amid ongoing technological and social change. Ageless Talent introduces a straightforward framework (PIERA) that translates scientific advances into actionable steps and strategies. Using this framework, this book provides practical illustrations to help readers design their own small-scale interventions to achieve desirable goals under diverse organizational constraints. Furthermore, the book addresses modern management challenges arising across the globe, and offers suggestions for leaders interested in short-term and long-term change. These suggestions, grounded in time-tested and leading-edge research evidence, include specific step-by-step guidelines, customizable to different types of organizations and industries. With economic, cultural, technological, and demographic shifts making the changing nature of work a pressing concern for organizations around the globe, Ageless Talent is an essential text for practitioners – HR professionals, organizational leaders, and managers – as well as management education programs and professional training and leadership programs. It will also appeal to instructors and students in the field of industrial/organizational psychology.

Organizational leaders should know and understand all employees in the workplace. Being able to recognize and describe a quality, inter-personnel diverse workforce is essential as organizations seek to use the talents of all employees to increase productivity. Each individual possesses unique characteristics that contribute to their location, use, maintenance, modification, and time value to themselves and the organization. Not all employees’ unique characteristics are of value to the organization but organizational leaders will not know that if they do not know how to assess and recognize the quality needed to meet organization goals. Many organizations miss out on productivity opportunities because they do not leverage the knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) of all employees. Each employee’s contribution combined creates added success for the organization. This chapter provides some key characteristics of quality, workforce inter-personnel diversity. The chapter also suggests that workforce inter-personnel diversity can be an area or system within which HRD professionals can manage and measure quality of their services to employees.

To develop employees in the workplace, the employee, the organizational leaders, and the HRD professionals must all believe that the employee has potential. To motivate a diverse workforce with different KSAs within the organizational culture, the focus should not only be upon the differences in various protected class categories but also on how to capitalize on these dissimilarities by building bridges upon or over them using workforce inter-personnel diversity strategies. This book asks organizational leaders, and HRM and HRD professionals to look at talent management from the workforce inter-personnel diversity perspective. They can consider developing all employees by position and still accommodate high potential employees. Workforce inter-personnel diversity as a component of a talent management system must be evaluated and sustained to remain a viable tool for leaders and employees in the workplace. Managing workforce inter-personnel diversity requires forward-thinking approaches including establishing unity among employees, valuing employees’ qualifications, training and developing employees, supporting employee self-development, providing career pathways and management systems that support the pathways, and valuing employees’ time. Organizational leaders’ diversity intelligence (DQ), and acknowledgment and understanding of all employees provides them with the workforce inter-personnel diversity knowledge to enhance and improve organizational performance. Five aspects of a talent management system are aligned with workforce inter-personnel diversity initiatives.

The growing diversity of the work force is having and will continue to have a significant impact on organizations. The diversity of cultures, lifestyles, and household compositions compels managers and organizational leaders to make a variety of organizational changes. Additionally, the globalization of business, the integration of the world economy, and the rapid changes in corporate life require a reexamination of how organizations are thought of, and how employees are managed (Copeland, 1988; Betters-Reed & Moore, 1988-89; Goldstein, 1988). Since in the past organizations have been based on white male European traditions, a revolutionary response is needed from organizational leaders and managers. Diversity in the work force is often defined as not only differences in cultural and ethnic backgrounds, but differences in gender, lifestyles, age, and career and developmental perspectives. However, for the purposes of this research, the definition of diversity is defined as the diversity of perspectives which arise from differences in cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Those managers and organizational leaders sensitive to the issues surfacing from a culturally diverse work force will have the competitive edge to succeed in a fast changing environment. Therefore those managers and leaders who are able to accurately identify and implement the strategies most successful in valuing a diverse work force will realize more successful organizational outcomes. The intent of this research was to identify, through the use of a survey instrument and review of the literature, appropriate methods for valuing a culturally diverse work force. One important issue which came from respondents had to do with their discomfort with recognizing cultural differences, preferring instead to refer to individual differences. Overall responses from upper management, middle management, supervisors, and line staff were fairly similar, although, as expected, management as group was better able to list the valuing cultural diversity strategies in the organization than line staff. Additionally, upper management, middle management, supervisors and line staff evaluated the success of the strategies somewhat differently. Finally, when it came to the organization's values on cultural diversity and identification with those values, management as a group expressed greater agreement with the organization's values than line staff.

Challenges and Solutions for Establishing Robust Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts in US Academic Radiation Oncology Departments

Orientation: Although there has been an improvement in workforce diversity in South Africa, gender and ethnicity issues such as discrimination, prejudice and sexual harassment prevail within organisations. This is because organisational leaders view diversity as a matter of legal compliance instead of as a value addition to organisational growth and profitability. Based on this, it is important for organisations to understand the economic side of diversity and not just be content with having such a workforce.Research purpose: This study investigated the effects of gender and ethnic diversity on the performance of employees in a selected higher education institution in South Africa.Motivation of the study: The study was conducted to determine whether gender and ethnic diversity influences the performance of employees in a higher education institution in South Africa. It is believed that by doing so, the study may assist organisational leaders to determine strategies and best practices that will create culture that is inclusive rather than exclusive.Research approach/design and method: A cross-sectional research design was used. A stratified random sample (n = 258) was chosen by dividing employees into homogeneous strata of academic and non-academic employees. A self-administered questionnaire was used to gather data. Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression analysis were performed.Main findings: The results show that gender diversity and ethnic diversity are positively and significantly related to employee performance. The study recommends that higher education institutions implement effective diversity management policies and strategies to improve the effectiveness of gender and ethnic diversity towards the performance of employees.Practical/managerial implications: The study recommends organisations to embrace diversity and not just abide by the affirmative action policies and be satisfied with having such a workforce. To achieve this, effective diversity management programmes such as diversity training and mentoring programmes should be implemented to ensure that all employees are properly trained on diversity issues.Contribution/value add: First of all, the findings of this study will add to existing knowledge that will aid in the understanding of gender and ethnic diversity in general and its relevance to employee performance, which in turn leads to organisational performance. Furthermore, this study will be an eye opener to organisational leaders and employees as it will help them to begin to see that diversity is a blessing rather than a matter of legal compliance. It will help organisations to see the need for having diversity and confirm that employees can work together despite their differences.

Age diversity is a key component of diversity management‚ since the current workforce offers a unique generational mix. Organizational leaders face numerous challenges in today’s dynamic workplace that require experiential, technical, and analytical skills that are only achieved with an age-diverse workforce. A combination of life span development theories and perceptions of generational differences presents the challenges faced by HR personnel and organizational leaders in order to manage varying age groups at work. This chapter explores the perceptual, as well as evidenced-based information regarding workplace age diversity and the practical applications for managing an age-diverse workforce.

Moving toward health equity: A journey

Leadership in Organizations, Psychology of

The composition of the work force in this country is changing from one in which the White male was dominant to one in which by the year 2000 women and ethnic minorities will be dominant. Work force diversity will impact organizations at all levels, including top management, which has been closed to women and minorities, and in particular, minority women. The diverse work force's expectation for advancement into top levels of management will present challenges to organizations. Some organizations have recognized that to remain competitive they need to manage a more diverse work force. The purpose of this study is to provide critically needed information to monocultural organizations to help them understand the organizational experiences of professional Hispanic women and the barriers that these women perceive impede their advancing into higher echelons of organizations. Fourteen professional Hispanic women from the San Diego area participated in the study. The women were highly educated: three had doctoral degrees; three had master's degrees; six had bachelor's degrees; and two had some college experience. The participants had at least three years of recent organizational experience in management positions. The study used both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. A qualitative methodology was used to examine the participants' experiences within the context of their organizations. These experiences were uncovered through participant interviews. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed using a phenomenological process to discern experiential essences, which were used to answer the research questions. The findings of the study indicated that these participants experienced barriers in organizations, based on their ethnic and gender diversity, which impeded their career development. Highly statistically significant results were obtained from a test for concordance among the participants' rankings of twelve recommendations for making organizations more multicultural. Organizational leaders need to ensure there is support for diversity, because holding back talented diverse employees is detrimental not only to these employees but to an organization's performance as a whole.

The leadership style that is most appropriate for the given circumstance will determine whether or not a leader is successful. It means what great leaders should do while working with a diverse workforce. They should be emotionally intelligent in order to understand their team members and modify their leadership style in order to achieve the best out of them. Employee engagement in the workplace is crucial for firms, but different factors can keep employees motivated. Work engagement activities, particularly those supported by the human resource department, have typically been observed as the primary factors that motivate employees. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has brought about a number of adjustments. The primary goal of this study is to examine how virtual human resource practices and paternal leadership affected employee retention in COVID-19, with the function of work engagement activities as a mediator. The data were gathered from 250 Portuguese Professors who were instructing undergraduate students using a survey instrument. Smart-PLS partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to assess the study’s hypotheses. It has been discovered that paternalistic leadership, also known as a resource provider with a benevolent attitude, has a direct impact on job performance and employee intention to leave the job, but during a pandemic, where the role of the government in supporting their nationals was not as significant in Portugal as it could be, people also faced their leaders of organizations as opportunists. Not all, but most paternal organizations took financial decisions to safeguard their business and were not people-oriented. Now the dignity of the paternal leader on the canvas of leadership is fading. This neo-normal approach will contribute to the literature on paternal leadership.

Recognized contemporary leadership practices such as Servant Leadership (Greenleaf, 2007), Transcendent Leadership (Crossan., Vera., & Nanjad, 2008) and Strategic Leadership (Beatty & Quinn, 2010),) are known for offering an understanding of the ways that leadership skills can be utilized in a variety of organizational settings. These well-known leadership practices are also known for underscoring the kinds of traits and behaviors that leaders should possess to lead and manage their employees and achieve organizational goals. However, one area that is absent from contemporary leadership practices is a focus on the kinds of multicultural and workforce diversity leadership knowledge, skills, and abilities that organizational leaders should possess to lead and manage a range of human diversities effectively in various organizational settings. The aim of this article is to: 1) share examples of existing multicultural and workforce diversity frameworks and practices that offer insights for advancing contemporary leadership practices: and 2) highlight the benefits of integrating multicultural and workforce diversity leadership frameworks and practices in present-day organizational settings.

Organizational leadership in the 21st century is experiencing profound transformations due to digitalization, globalization, and the need to manage diverse workforces. This chapter explores modern leadership paradigms, theoretical foundations, key competencies, and practical applications vital for today's complex organizational landscapes. It covers the evolution of leadership theories, the impact of digital transformation, and the significance of emotional intelligence, technological proficiency, agility, and ethical responsibility. The chapter also discusses virtual leadership, data-driven decision-making, and cybersecurity awareness, presenting case studies of successful and failed leadership. Future trends, including AI integration and sustainability, are examined, providing valuable insights for scholars, educators, and practitioners in contemporary organizational leadership.