Chapter 6: Leadership for Inclusivity

As societies and organisations are increasingly faced with diversity in many aspects of their day-to-day interactions, managing diversity and making others feel included have become increasingly important skills for leaders and managers – as reflected on by a research respondent: “… my diversity concerns. The best thing is to speak to the boss or supervisor about these things. It is the best option available” (P81). Effectively leading and managing employee diversity and inclusion not only improves the operational aspects of the organisation, but also improves the emotional experiences of employees’ work lives (Fisher, 2010), which is reflected in constructs, such as job satisfaction, affective commitment to the organisation and increased engagement at work (Leiter & Maslach, 2017), including vigour (Shirom, 2006), dedication and absorption (Csikszentmihalyi, 2014), and reduced levels of stress, anxiety, bias, and tensions in organisational life (Chrobot-Mason & Leslie, 2012; Schultz et al., 2015). People have thought of diversity, equity, inclusion, and transformation as separate from actual business, but it is really integral to business and organisational life. It is something that needs to be co-created by leaders, managers, as well as employees – and needs to be reviewed and adapted consistently (it cannot be relegated to something done annually or bi-annually). Leaders and managers, in particular, help translate and amplify diversity, equity, inclusion and transformation priorities in the ways in which they interact with their stakeholders and direct the work – ‘intentions’ and ‘policies’ are not the same as action, execution, and process infrastructure. Ellsworth and Goldstein (2022) shared the lengths to which Ares Management goes, in embedding diversity, equity and inclusion processes into their businesses, as shared by their Managing Director and Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) Officer, Indhira Arrington: