Benchmark - Inclusive Leadership

Introduction

The wave of globalization and integration of organizations on the international level has made organizations and communities more heterogeneous. A significant phenomenon witnessed in the context of modern organizations is the transformation of organizational culture to embrace a diverse group of employees. An increase in cross-cultural teams, foreign investments, and change in social attitude in the workforce as well as change in social attitudes has influenced organizations to embrace diversity and inclusion as a key function and strategy to achieve better results. Organizations are realizing that a diverse workforce could have an optimal contribution to business process efficiency at different levels. The role of inclusive leadership in influencing the organizational culture among a diverse global group of employees is addressed.

Leadership Characteristics That Create Organizational Cultures

Jin et al. (2017) assert that leaders play a significant role in promoting inclusion and diversity in organizations as they support policies and inclusive leadership for all. Therefore, the leader's characteristics wield the greatest influence in the creation of organizational culture. In the evaluation of the leadership traits that create organizational culture. Kuknor and Bhattacharya (2020) assert that effective leadership is one of the fundamental aspects of building great organizational cultures. Leaders have influence and authority to set the tone for organizational culture, thus they can reinforce values to followers while simultaneously holding the people accountable. Leaders influence organizational culture by setting the agenda, prioritizing work, managing, leading, and delegating. To this effect, the traits that leaders should demonstrate to affirm organizational culture include being innovative, showing attention to detail, emphasizing om results, emphasizing human capital, promoting teamwork, being competitive, and demonstrating stability (Jin et al., 2017).

An innovative leader encourages employees to take risks, pursue a creative solution, and influence organizational change. On the other hand, being attentive to details ensures the leader is aware of the change in the organizational setting and influences the adoption of the required metrics to inform change. The leader also places emphasis on results and influences employees to pursue the attainment of the set goals. An effective leader also puts into place measures to promote employee growth to ensure their career progression as they also strive to attain organizational goals.

A leader who also emphasizes teamwork, making team members aware of the requirements of their job and collectively working to build a cohesive team (Jin et al., 2017). A competitive leader is also most likely to embrace and accommodate change as part of the organizational strategy. A stable leader also works towards integrating continuous change as part of organizational culture and also influences followers to embrace change initiatives.

Recognize Leadership Skills Required to Create an Inclusive Organizational Culture

Inclusive leadership is an emerging unique and critical capability in helping organizations adapt to diverse customers, markets, ideas, and talent. Inclusion is about making others feel that they are treated fairly, respectfully, valued, and have a sense of belonging. Mor Barak (2015) asserts that the key to inclusion comes down to leaders who ought to possess some key traits to create an inclusive organizational culture. These traits include visible commitment, humility, awareness bias, curiosity about others' cultural intelligence, and effective collaboration. Visible commitment entails the ability of the leader to articulate an authentic commitment to diversity by challenging the impending status, holding others accountable, as well as making diversity and inclusion a personal priority as part of their leadership. Leaders who promote inclusion and diversity demonstrate humility in terms of being modest about capabilities, admitting mistakes, and creating space for others to contribute (Randel, et al., 2018). Besides, a leader should also be aware of bias by showing awareness of personal blind spots and the flaws in the systems, so that they work collectively to promote diversity and inclusion for all.

A leader’s demonstration of curiosity about others is evident among leaders who strive to promote an inclusive culture in organizations. The leader needs to demonstrate an open mindset and deep curiosity about followers, listening to others without judgment, and applying empathy to understand their followers. When a leader demonstrates cultural intelligence, they demonstrate attention to others’ cultures and adapt to the impending situation as required. Furthermore, effective collaboration enables leaders to empower others, pay attention to a diversity approach, and focus on team cohesion (Mor Barak (2015 87yyhujikl7). These traits and behaviors are critical for a leader’s personal development and serve others to feel more included and accepted.

How Inclusive Leadership Influences Decision Making in Organizations

Inclusive leadership revolves around collaborating with others, thus the leader involves the members in decision making. Taking into account inclusion as an underlying concept, inclusive leadership is evident in the leader's ability to exhibit openness, accessibility, and availability as they engage with employees. Inclusive leadership is distinct from other approaches to leadership in that it engages followers to take up an active role in ensuring collaboration and good work relationships. Inclusive leadership promotes inclusion as it promotes fairness of input and output for all (Gallegos, 2013). Therefore, leader inclusiveness is focused on engaging the input of emptiness and other stakeholders in organizational decisionmaking. Inclusive leadership is about enabling and appreciating the input of employees to develop a sense of trust, empowerment, and fairness by engaging them in organizational decision-making. Besides, the leader perceives the organization as a social entity thus appreciates and embraces all stakeholders for their contribution.’

As posited by Gallegos (2013), inclusive leadership by engaging employees in decisionmaking can be perceived as a reciprocal process with leaders taking into consideration each of their followers’ needs. At the same time, employees consider inclusive leaders as available and supportive and in turn take into account their leader’s needs. For example, providing followers with an opportunity to partake in organizational decision-making serves as a motivating factor for employees to develop a sense of organizational identification and accord them as sense of belonging. Engagement of followers in organization decision making also ensures that leaders have a positive relationship with the tie management, thus exhibiting a high level if organizational commitment.

How Inclusive Leadership Influences Organizational Communication

Mehta et al. (2020) assert that inclusive leadership influences organizational communication in the global environment. At its core, cultural diversity has been described as accepting individual differences and understanding that every person is unique. The approach that inclusive leaders use to communicate to diverse recipients in the global environment include using clear language, understanding differences in body language practicing reflective listening and paraphrasing, and being open and inclusive of other cultures. The leader should use clear language when communicating with culturally diverse groups, keep their language clear, concise, and forward. The leader should also consider that different cultures have distinct practices when it comes to non-verbal expression. On the other hand, the leader should exercise reflective listening and paraphrasing to clarify meaning and eliminate any conflicts that could arise because of misunderstandings (Mehta et al., 2020). Being open and accommodative to other cultures implies that the leaders should strive to know employees from culturally diverse backgrounds. The approach is important in building relations, and opening up their world to new experiences, and try to navigate other new world experiences.

Inclusive Leadership, Organizational Effectiveness & Competitiveness in Global Environment

Largely, inclusive leadership influences organizational effectiveness and competitiveness in a global environment. Global organizations understand that a diverse workforce can be the core source of competitive advantage. However, organizations should strive to leverage diversity to pave way for unified and inclusive global culture. The process of driving diversity and inclusion by the leader entails an understanding of culture and cultural differences as it applies to individuals, work teams, and the organization (Randel, et al., 2018). Therefore, practicing diversity and inclusion on the global level fosters more effective talent management through attraction and retention of an effective workforce to drive organizational goals. It also promotes alignment and team performance as well as improved efficiency, and these factors contribute to the establishment of a high-performing organization. Further, inclusive leadership can be applied to meet the challenges and opportunities inherent in a global environment. There are several global trends that impact the workforce, further underscoring the importance of diversity and inclusiveness. Inclusive leadership facilitates the management of an advanced workforce ensuring all cultures and minority groups are included. More recognition and acceptance of special interest groups such as those with disabilities, and women promoted an accommodating workplace. These trends are particularly important for multinationals where differences across countries add to the benefits and challenges of managing diversity.

Effectiveness of Inclusive Leadership in Relation to Other Leadership Models

Ethical leadership is about raising organizational culture and employees' values to the highest level of ethical behavior. Leaders demonstrate ethical leadership by promoting a high level of integrity that fosters a sense of trustworthiness and encourages subordinates to follow the organizational mission (Kuknor & Bhattacharya, 2020). Equally, inclusive leadership ensures that leaders commit to all followers, which also resonates with the principles of ethical leadership. Employees also conform to the set ethical standards and conform to the organizational culture which is set out at the organizational level.

Inclusion is about treating employees equitably, accommodating diverse cultural groups to ensure they feel a sense of belonging and value. Inclusive leadership also entails supporting employees so that they have the resources and support they need to achieve their full potential. Therefore, inclusive leadership can be integrated into ethical leadership to promote effectiveness in organizations as all employees feel appreciated and included whereas ethical leadership is fundamental in ensuring that the principles of morality are adopted as the leaders also work towards promoting inclusion for all.

Conclusion

From the foregoing, it is evident that inclusive leadership plays an important role in promoting an organizational culture where diversity and inclusion for all are promoted. Inclusion and promoting diversity have been established as fundamental in prompting organizational effectiveness and competitiveness of the organization. As globalization and the expansion of multinationals continue to be witnessed, leaders need to demonstrate inclusive traits and work towards developing an inclusive and diverse environment whereby the wellbeing of all employees is taken into consideration.