THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP
IN THE MANAGEMENT OF DIVERSITY
BY
MUOGBO
MICHAEL IZUCHUKWU
SS/PP/2368
TERM
PAPER:
THE
ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN THE MANAGEMENT OF DIVERSITY
Being a Term Paper submitted to the
Department of Philosophy, Seminary of
Saints Peter and Paul, Bodija, Ibadan, in Affiliation with the
University of Ibadan, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Award
of the Bachelor of Arts Degree in Philosophy (B.A. HONS.).
COURSE
GOVERNMENT, SOCIETY AND ECONOMY
COURSE CODE
SS/SOC/104
LECTURER
DR. R. AYEDE
DATE: JUNE, 2013.
INTRODUCTION
Government is a political organization
comprising the individuals and institutions authorized to formulate public
policies and conduct affairs of state. Governments are empowered to establish
and regulate the interrelationships of the people within their territorial
confines, the relations of the people with the community as a whole, and the
dealings of the community with other political, environmental and social
entities. The role of
government is a work of the adaptation of means to an end.
Leadership is the ability to guide,
direct or influence people. Groups of people living in bands
have no formal leadership, and all people have input in making group decisions.
Most decision-making in a government occurs within the governance, the leaders.
Occasionally, leaders make important decision regarding how diversity should be
managed for the welfare of the society at large. Commonly under the circle of
government, most leaders have the same status.
Diversity is an ethnic variety, as
well as socio economic and gender variety in a group, society, institution or
government. Diversity can be in any form, cultural, economic, social, religious,
ethnic, population, linguistic etc. Good management of diversity would lead to
actualization of a better civilization status and stand in a society. Good
management of diversity by a leader shows that he has the potentials and
qualities of a good leader and has left behind assets and legacies and a full
exercise of his political power.
One of the obstacles that prevent
unity in a society is the failure to accept the differences in others. Unity
only comes in a society when pluralism or diversity is well taken care of in
the society; the failure to accept the differences in others keeps the society
stagnant.
This term paper is concerned with
pointing out the role of leadership in the management of diversity, but before
I proceed to the task of this paper, I would like to make a conceptual clarification
of terms as they relate to this work.
CONCEPTUAL
CLARIFICATION
WHAT
IS LEADERSHIP?
Leadership in theory signifies the
ability of a person or group of persons to persuade others to act by inspiring
(Robertson 1985:180) in them confidence in the rightness of one’s purpose,
courage in their collective execution and obedience in the threat of resistance
(scruton 1982: 260). Leadership essentially emanated from personality
characters and qualities of an individual but also should be considered under
the social context.
Emphasis is placed on various
dimensions of leadership by the definitions, and the emphasis varies with the
leadership type. Leadership needs to be positive for it to lead to a better
society; leadership drives the society to desirable or undesirable direction,
depending on the qualities of such leadership and the influence of the
leader(s), whether the leader(s) have a positive or negative influence on the
society.
WHO
IS A LEADER?
A leader is a person who knows the
way, shows the way and has the ability, quality and potential of persuading the
people to follow the way. A leader is an agent of social change and directs a
group towards definite and defined goals.
Leaders can be categorized as being heroic,
reconciliational, transformational and transactional. Each of the leaders from these
categories is characterized by their qualities and the dynamics of their
leadership, their leadership strategy. A heroic leader, sets a goal for
achievement and draws people to his company in pursuing the goal, a
reconciliational leader advocates unity in addressing issues that threatens the
unity and integrity of his community or society, transformational and
transactional leaders are agents of social changes, they directs and lead the
pursuit of a definite achievement. Leadership style also helps in the
management of diversity.
QUALITIES
OF A GOOD LEADER
Qualities attributed to objects,
actions, and ideas and what is good is thought to be beneficial. Also concerned
about leadership is a leadership tendency and quality that will enhance/
facilitate, bring about progress and result to good atmosphere in a leadership
tenor by a leader. Such qualities include: courage, confidence, creativity,
competence, humility, strong will, integrity, ethics, modesty,
management/administration, focus etc.
THE
IDEA OF DIVERSITY
One of the obstacles that prevent
unity in a society is the failure to accept the differences in others. Unity
only comes in a society when pluralism or diversity is well taken care of in
the society; the failure to accept the differences in others keeps the society
stagnant.
Diversity is all about improvement and
efficiency. It capitalizes all the effort and strength of every society.
Diversity is most simply defined as understanding, manifesting and valuing the
differences in every society as well as the individuals that constitute the
society. Diversity is in this context can be defined as a range of many
strictly different things especially with regards to politics, government and
governance, that is, different varieties of idea, resources, will, laws, regulation,
opinions, policies etc.
In the context of politics, leadership
and government, diversity is the plurality or difference that exist between
peoples of a state in terms of economy, resources, language, religion, gender,
ethnicity, age, occupation, status, culture, tradition etc. diversity when not
properly manage, turns to be a challenge to leadership.
Diversity does not only imply the
above mentioned areas but also the diversity of different individual qualities
MANAGEMENT
Management with regards to diversity
is a proper coordination, development and administration of diversity with a positive
aims of booming the existence order, peace, security and stability. This
involves picking the uniqueness of every group and personal individuals.
Management with regard to leadership is a royal commission of maximum proper
control and care taking of the different human and material resources of a particular
community or society.
In terms of politics and government,
it is the proper management of both human and material resources; production
and distribution of resources with measures of equality in others to make the
society conducive for the citizens, to establish peace, equity and justice, and
equally for the sustainability of life and consistent production and equal
distribution.
THE
AIM AND IMPORTANCE OF DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT
The problem of diversity should be
given a primordial attention in every government because it is a double
necessity that diversity should be well managed and utilized positively for the
well being of different groups of people and the enhancement of the society at
large. Diversity can be developed and shaped in a way that will suit the
society.
Essentially, diversity should be well
and positively managed for the following reasons: (a) to compensate and correct
past and continuing racism/ ethnicity or sexism, (b) to reduce group-based
inequalities for realizing a democratic society, (c) to promote social
inclusion, (d) to provide the disadvantage and minority group the portion of
their national right, (e) to reduce inequality and foster democratic
leadership, (f) to broaden the perspective of the society at large.
THE
ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN THE MANAGEMENT OF DIVERSITY
Building up a society or an
organization, requires a diverse resources both material and human resources.
To make a good society in the presence of diversity, the leader should avoid
choosing people that are like him, he need to pick people with different
backgrounds, experiences and cultures so that problems and challenges can be
looked at from a broad perspective and opinions will come from broad angles. The
proper management of diversity in a given society will eradicate all forms of
bias.
The role of leadership in the
management of diversity is to put people, places, environment and situations in
order and united; establishing integrated relationships and tolerance by
reducing or totally removing (if necessity demands) social, economic,
religious, ethnic, cultural etc. inequalities that exist among the different
groups that constitute the state through the most effective and possible means,
in order to curb diversity.
Diversity if not carefully managed may
bring about failures in leadership and may end up tearing the society apart.
The management of diversity therefore requires the acceptance, understanding
and utilization of the different values and essence of different things; this
implies dedication, devotion and fairness in the management of a leadership
plan.
The role of leadership in the
management of diversity should not be taken for granted and should be clearly
stated in order to achieve the virtues of being successful, peaceful, united
stable. Affirmative actions which involve social inclusion and equality should
be formulated and implemented in order to keep the vision and mission of a
leadership strategy clear and accomplished respectively.
Diversity is manageable by different
groups, associations and organizations of a leadership plan if and only if they
can they possess the values, qualities, capability and will to enhance
stability, justice and tranquility through objective means. The role of
leadership in the management of diversity should be objective, equally
effective and legitimate.
There are four modes or strategies in
which it may be possible to exercise management over diversity by a leadership
tenor in order to protect the society, its positive interests and equally to
bring peace, order, stability etc. The strategies correspond with the forms of
government involved and they include: democratic, the autocratical,
aristocratical and monarchical strategies.
Here I will discuss the role of
leadership in managing the different possible problems of diversity facing a
government or the governance of a particular place.
·
THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN MANAGING
ECONOMIC DIVERSITY
Economic diversity
is the plurality of different means or objectives of enhancing and maximizing
the productive power and agencies of a society. This involves a proper
management of the different means by which a society’s economic status can be maximized.
This also involves the synthesis of the different resources; just as in a
pluralistic society, whether the diversity is based on culture, religion or
otherwise, the leadership should try and put together the differences that
exist between such values, concepts or sectors. Those in stable industries such as autos and electrical
appliances should seek to apply their financial and managerial expertise to
small- and medium-sized companies in the society.
MEANS BY WHICH LEADERSHIP CAN MANAGE ECONOMIC DIVERSITY
AFFIRMATIVE ACTION
Affirmative actions
are specially formulated policies designed by a government to actively address
institutionalized or informal cultural norms and systems that perpetuate group-
based disadvantage, and the inequalities historically resulting from them, and
to promote an inclusive community, as ideal of democracy.
The economy of a
society can be maximized and stabilized if diversity is positively managed,
that is under the development and influence of a positively managed diversity.
Diversity can be managed through different democratic strategies or simply put
different governmental policies like:
·
Quota
: this is a policy that states equal number representation of different groups;
ethnic, religious etc. in the affairs of government
·
Federal
character: this is the form of affirmative action where the basic constituents
of the federal government are fairly managed, in terms of production and
distribution of resources.
·
Federal
contract program: this form states that federal contract program should not be
limited to particular areas like the urban centers, but should extend to the
other parts of the state for the attainment of maximum development.
·
Equal
opportunity: this is the form of affirmative action that considers equal
recruitment of citizens from different groups (ethnic, religious, gender etc)
into government works. Example of country where it is practiced is Canada.
·
THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN MANAGING
RELIGIOUS DIVERSITY
Leadership has a
great role to play in the management of religious diversity. Religious
diversity is the plurality of different religions and denominations in a
particular place, especially when they cause troubles or rather when there is a
kind of cold war or unhealthy competitions between them.
The
government is there to direct the affairs of the state and not to entertain
religious denominations. Religion is under the state, in other word the state
and its government supersedes religion and this gives the leaders a kind of
authority in some extents, to decide for religious groups. A leadership tenor
is expected to be neutral to all religions. Religious diversities can lead to
destabilization of a state but it is still controllable or rather manageable by
leadership depending on the strategies of its approach towards that particular
problem facing.
Leadership
can handle religious diversity through formulation of policies and strict
adherence to it, to guide and control religious activities in the state as well
as to mark boundaries for them with regards to the interest of people of the
other religion.
The leadership needs to entertain all
the religions in the case of religious diversity, that is freedom of religion
and there should be frequent inter-religious dialogues. The leadership needs to
make sure that there is no course of religious superiority so that there will
be understand and acceptance among people of different religions. When a
leadership exhibits these things, invariably it is not giving chance or room
for religious diversity.
·
THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN MANAGING
ETHNIC/ CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Leadership needs to
realize that all the cultures constituting its society are the potentials of
their political success. Ethnic diversity is said to be in a place when the
place has many different varieties of people under their many different
respective ethnic groups and ethnic diversity implies cultural diversity.
Leadership can manage ethical diversity by not giving primary attention to any
of them, by not making any a subject to the other, by not giving priority to
any of them, by not taking any to be superior to others. Leadership should as
well make provision for an act that will clearly stipulate the fundamental human rights so that the
rights of the disadvantaged and minority groups would not be taken from them.
A leadership tenor
should make sure that the different ethnic groups are treated as being equal
with others. A leadership manages ethnical diversity by ensuring an equitable
distribution of resources among the various ethnic groups. A leadership can
also create associations for the
actualization of unity among the ethnic groups and should make sure that no
ethnic group is left behind when sorting opinions or making decisions about the
nation’s welfare so that no ethnic group will fell ignored or cheated, e.g. in
Nigeria, for a good management of cultural diversity by the leaders, there
should be no domination of the nation’s executive, judiciary and legislative
arms of government by people of the same ethnic group; for instance when the
vice president, senate president, chief justice and a good number of ministers
are from the same ethnic group, then diversity is not well managed. No ethnic
group or culture should be taken as not being relevant, or less useful to the society.
The various cultures
and ethnic groups should be well represented and this can be well done and
effective in a leadership through affirmative actions. A leader should avoid
ethnocentrism and cultural bias, initiate and implement cultural relativism,
should give essence and meaning to the values and cultural contents of the
different ethnic group and should be objective to all of them and subjective to
none of them. *
·
THE ROLE OF LEADERSHIP IN MANAGING
LANGUAGE DIVERSITY
Language diversity
occurs in a situation where by there are many different languages and dialects
in a society. A dialect is a
version of a language that differs in pronunciation, grammar, and/or vocabulary.
Determining whether the speech of a group of people is a dialect of a language,
or has changed enough to be considered a distinct
language, is a matter of convention as much as linguistic.
The greatest linguistic diversity is found in regions that
sustain large populations, but where geographic features help keep groups of
people apart. In the area of greatest linguistic variation, the leadership is
able to manage the diversity of language when it is able to introduce an official language, a lingua franca for
the state. Example: in Nigeria, we have English as the official language.
CONCLUSION
The role of
leadership in the management of diversity is clearly stated with reference to
the different problems of diversity in which it is addressing. Leadership has a
great role to play in pluralized societies, which are areas with many problems
of diversity. In the exception of will and ability, a strategy is required for
a leadership plan to manage a specific problem of diversity be it religious,
cultural or otherwise.
Just as in a
pluralistic society, whether the diversity is based on culture, religion or
otherwise, the leadership should try and put together the differences that
exist between such values or qualities so that the economy and resources of the
society would be well managed and utilized. It is important that leadership
should assemble the differences in all the different groups and individuals of
the society and utilize them for the betterment of the society at large.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. D.D. Raphael. Problems of Political
Philosophy; second edition. Macmillan Press Ltd, London. 1990.
2. Boom B.S. (1956). Taxonomy of
Educational Objectives, Handbook 1: the Cognitive Domain. New York: Addison
Wesley Publishing Company.
3. Nadler, Leonard (1984). The Handbook
of Human Resources Development. New York: John Wiley and Sons.
4. Anthony D’Souza. Leadership. Better
Yourself Books, Bandra, Mumbai. 2001.
5. Rev. Fr. Innocent Jooji. Mending the
Cracked Pot. Daily Graphics Nigeria Limited, Ibadan. 2003.
6. Joseph Omoregbe. Social-Political
Philosophy and International Relations. Joja Press Limited, Mary land, Lagos.
2007.
7. Dr. R. Ayede. Handout on government
and governance. Level 100; 2012/2013 academic session.
No comments:
Post a Comment