Chapter 4: Inspiring Inclusion: What Is the Evidence for a Faith-Based Approach to Leadership Development?

How does a nation’s incremental ascent toward intercultural understanding and economic recovery tumble into xenophobia and cascading crises? Leadership.

Under different leaders, the same country lurched from implementing to eviscerating ethnically inclusive policies. Leaders determined whether difference became a resource for societal progress or the justification for human cruelty. The human, economic, and environmental consequences that followed are legendary in Judeo-Christian traditions.

Together, these iconic stories about the Pharaohs of Genesis and Exodus illustrate contemporary issues in the workplace diversity literature. At a macro level, they showcase nationalism vs. immigration, economic scarcity vs. profitability, and how a lack of diversity leads to stagnation vs. diversity as a catalyst for innovation and growth. At the organization level, these stories reveal tensions between exclusion vs. inclusion, conflict vs. cooperation, conformity vs. positive deviance, prejudice vs. positive regard, oppression vs. empowerment, talent attrition vs. attraction, and bias vs. objectivity. More importantly, these stories reveal how a leader’s view of power as selfservice vs. responsibly serving others influences diversity, equity, and inclusion at multiple levels.