Global Diversity Ranks Last
As we embark on a new decade, a number of factors have reshaped the business landscape. Globalization, technology, diverse cultures, and the most recent recession are all forcing leaders to review previous organizational practices and adjust their attitudes and abilities to be competitive in today’s marketplace. But it seems leaders are still not getting the message that diversity is essential to that success. The leadership practices needed to keep pace with new demands and challenges was the focus of a two-year, global, multilevel report called Developing the 21st Century Leader, conducted by AchieveGlobal, a consulting organization that assists domestic and international companies with training in leadership, sales, and customer service. After reviewing approximately 40 practices that range from behavioral to cognitive, AchieveGlobal researchers condensed those disciplines into six “zones†or categories of best practices and reveal how leaders rate them in terms of importance. Of the six zones, diversity ranked last. The report’s methodology consists of a literature review, focus groups, and an online survey completed by 971 business and government leaders and employees in the United States, Mexico, India, China, Singapore, Germany, and the United Kingdom.
