Running head: Module 7 Paper 1

Module 7 Paper: Leadership in a Diverse Organization

Da’Shira Craig

Arizona State University

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Leadership in a Diverse Organization

I currently work for a municipality, and my goal is to become an Employee Relations

Analyst. This position will allow me to combine all of the things I love: workplace

investigations, training, and employee development. This is an important position because the

day-to-day responsibilities ensure that government employees are learning and growing over the

course of their career; and it works towards creating an environment where employees can

perform their duties at an optimal level while serving the public.

Working in the public sector means that we answer to the citizens. Taxpayers fund city

operations and pay our salaries, which also means that employees must conduct themselves with

the highest standards of integrity and transparency. I believe governments represent the people

and their employees should be as diverse as the communities they serve. The employees in my

organization are diverse, and there is a good amount of representation in visible roles. This

increases my chances of obtaining a leadership role, “as leaders and work teams become more

diverse and the workplace itself becomes less homogenous, the range of potential leaders who

could embody group norms may actually increase” (Chrobot-Mason, Ruderman, & Nishii, 2013.

Pg. 8).

When I am able to promote to the Employee Relations Analyst role, I believe that my

identity will be an asset to my organization. At the beginning of this course I strongly identified

as a Black woman, and I still do. Initially I thought of my otherness as a negative, but now I see

it as a strength. My identity and experiences make me unique and also allow me to easily connect

with people who are different than me. “Individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups, in

particular, generally have multicultural experience because they have learned to negotiate both

minority and majority cultures” (Eagly & Chin, 2010. Pg. 5). This has been my experience, for
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example, watching Seinfeld and Friends on TV in order to participate in water cooler talk with

my coworkers.

As I’ve gotten older I’ve come to realize how emotionally taxing this is. Sometimes I feel

as though I have to take my personality off in order to put my work personality on. I am

optimistic that one day I’ll be able to bring my full self to the office and be accepted. I can start

by modeling this behavior and being accepting of others as they celebrate their full selves. My

organization has recently announced some significant diversity and inclusion plans, and I am

eager to participate and provide feedback on measures that we can take to ensure every employee

can be their authentic selves at work.

Leadership Style

My leadership style is authentic, and I believe my authenticity resonates with the people I

interact with. For my role as an Employee Relations Analyst, my leadership style will encourage

“openness in sharing information needed to make decisions while accepting followers’ inputs”

(Gotsis & Grimani, 2016. Pg. 14). Because this position requires employees to trust me to train

them, develop them, and investigate sensitive workplace claims, it is imperative that I gain their

trust so they can be open with me. I consider myself open-minded, transparent, sincere and

empathetic which will serve me well in my next role. My leadership style also fosters

inclusiveness, which is important when working with teams or departments that working to build

cohesiveness.

I expect challenges in my new role, because not everyone is comfortable with a Black

woman in a leadership position. I expect there will be situations when employees will try to

provoke me in order to deflect from their issue. I have learned not to take the bait and to steer the

conversation through the conflict. In this class I have also learned to look at cultural dimensions
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and values for cues and use them to form my strategy. Cues such as physical distance, eye

contact, and learning whether to address a problem directly or have a nuanced discussion are all

tools I have added to my toolbox.

CQ Cultural Intelligence Score

At the beginning of the course I scored 115 on the CQ Cultural Intelligence pre-test. I

thought my score was accurate and reflected my exposure to many different cultures. I am happy

to report that my post-test score is 125. I feel more confident about dealing with the stresses of

adjusting to a new culture. I learned through the Haji Kamal simulation game that I can’t center

myself when interacting with new cultures. I have to learn to work within the local customs in

order to complete my objectives. I also learned about adjusting my verbal and non-verbal

behavior in cross-cultural situations. I’m more mindful of the way I communicate and I’m more

aware of the adjustments I’ll need to make in cross-cultural interactions. Learning about the

cultural dimensions greatly enhanced my confidence in these situations.

Over the past seven weeks I have learned so much. I came to the course confident in my

experiences as Black woman, growing up in a diverse community, and I thought I well versed in

diversity. I have learned that the world is big, and there is so much I haven’t been exposed to,

and there are many things I have never considered such as class in organizations. The topics

discussed in the course were timely and important for the leaders that we are developing into.
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References

Chrobot-Mason, D., Ruderman, M. N., & Nishii, L. H. (2013). Leadership in a Diverse

Workplace. The Oxford Handbook of Diversity and Work, Chapter 18.

Eagly, A. H., & Chin, J. L. (2010). Diveristy and Leadership in a Changing World. American

Psychologist.

Gotsis, G., & Grimani, K. (2016). Diversity as an aspect of effective leadership: integrating and

moving forward. Leadership & Organizational Development Journal, 37(2), 241-264.

Retrieved from https://asu.instructure.com/courses/56792/files/17491998/download?

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