Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment: Developing Awareness, Knowledge, and Skills

"This is a well-written book. Quite simple and precise . . . The authors should be commended. This book deals with leadership from a very contemporary perspective that reflects the importance of multiculturalism."
–Guo-Ming Chen, University of Rhode Island  

No matter how culturally different the person or group, there will be common-ground similarities and no matter how similar the person or group, there will be significant differences. Culture influences our thoughts, words, and actions in ways that are often unrecognized, leading to misunderstandings. Each misunderstanding can become very expensive, both in terms of missed opportunities and less effective business outcomes.  Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment provides leaders with the tools necessary to effectively interact with all individuals.  

Although much of the research related to multiculturalism has focused on expatriates and international assignments, Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment also focuses on leaders in domestic organizations, as they can benefit from developing their own multicultural awareness, knowledge, and skills. Effective leaders can shape the culture of their organization to be accepting of individuals from all races, ethnicities, religions, and genders with a minimum of misunderstandings.  

Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment is well grounded in solid research, but written in an easy-to-comprehend style that:   

• Provides a "culture centered" leadership perspective allowing organizational leaders the opportunity to attend to the influence of culture
• Helps the reader find examples of how multicultural awareness can make their leadership task easier
• Promotes an organizational culture that is more satisfying to both individuals and their leaders by embracing and celebrating differences.  

Leadership in a Diverse and Multicultural Environment is an ideal supplemental text for undergraduate- or graduate-level international management, leadership, or diversity-related courses taught in the business curriculum.  It could also be used in leadership courses taught in education and communication departments. 

Mary Connerley is Associate Professor, Department of Management, Pamplin College of Business,Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Before coming to Virginia Tech, Dr. Connerley worked for five years with the Executive Development Program at the University of Iowa where her responsibilities included evaluating the entire program for thoroughness and continuity and serving as liaison between executives and faculty. Dr. Connerley has taught courses at the undergraduate, MBA, and doctoral levels, including Principles of Management, Human Resource Management, Staffing, Training and Development, and Managing Diversity in the Workplace. She has also been involved as a Management and Professional Development Program Facilitator. Her most recent programs have dealt with acquiring and keeping good employees and managing a multi-generational workforce.

Dr. Connerley has been an active researcher and has published articles in journals such as Personnel Psychology, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Human Relations, as well as others. Her current research interests include various aspects of the staffing process, performance evaluation, and diversity. Honors for Dr. Connerley include being selected as a Multicultural Fellow at Virginia Tech, receiving a Pamplin College of Business Teaching Excellence Award, and receiving two Citations of Excellence for her research.

Paul B. Pedersen is a visiting professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Hawaii and professor emeritus at Syracuse University. He has taught at the University of Minnesota, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and for six years at universities in Taiwan, Malaysia, and Indonesia. Pedersen was also on the summer school faculty at Harvard University, 1984-988 and the University of Pittsburgh “semester at sea” voyage around the world, spring 1992. International experience includes numerous consulting experiences in Asia, Australia, Africa, South America and Europe, and a Senior Fulbright award teaching at National Taiwan University 1999-2000. He has authored, co-authored or edited 40 books, 99 articles, and 72 chapters on aspects of multicultural counseling and international communication. Pedersen is a fellow in Divisions 9, 17, 45 and 52 of the American Psychological Association.