The dominant narrative my interviewees conveyed was that quota-induced gender diversity has positively affected boardroom work and firm governance. Generally, respondents emphasized the range of perspectives and experiences that women bring to the board, as well as the value of women’s independence and outsider status.
impact. Although diversity is important across an organisation, it can start with the board. The right leadership can allow the organisation to set a role modelling approach, to engage a wider audience, and take better strategic decisions to have the impact that funders are looking for. It will also set the tone for the rest of the organisation ...
Jan 22, 2018 · Diversity in governance: The what, why and how. This paper outlines what it means to have a truly diverse board of trustees and what it brings to an organisation. It also explores how to manage and maintain a board that is diverse. This briefing paper examines what it means to have true diversity on a board of trustees; what a diverse board can ...
An investor's perspective. The Markkula Center for Applied Ethics’ Business Ethics Program launched Workplace Diversity Dialogues a dialogue series exploring workplace diversity and inclusion issues. During this dialogue, sponsored by the Ethics Center’s Partners in Business Ethics, Michelle Edkins, managing director of investment ...
Thomas Lawson believes that a ‘zero tolerance’ approach to diversity—where people are afraid to ‘get diversity wrong’—can be unhelpful and might discourage people from attempting it. Boards should encourage and support attempts to improve diversity but accept that they may not get it right first time. Kai Adams suggests that being open and honest about tackling diversity—and that you may not be good at it yet but are trying to change—can help reduce this fear and start the conversation.
Leap Confronting Conflict equips young people with the skills to manage conflict in their own lives, to reduce violence in their communities. The charity has 12 trustees: eight are white, four are black, there are seven men, five women, and three young graduates of the Leap programmes. Young trustees with lived-experience have bought the issues faced by users closer to the Board of Leap Confronting Conflict.
Beware of ‘ticking a diversity box’ and then moving on. Having one diverse trustee does not represent a diverse board and can marginalise that one individual. It is also not a sustainable option—when that trustee moves on, the board will have done little to tackle lack of diversity.
We believe that social sector organizations are better able to do this work effectively and with authenticity when they are led by boards that are
inclusive: The most effective boards work to build a culture of trust, candor, and respect — none of which is possible without a culture of inclusion. Boards that cultivate an inclusive culture ensure that all board members are encouraged to bring their perspectives, identity, and life experience to their board service.
We believe that all social sector organizations can better achieve their missions by drawing on the skills, talents, and perspectives of a broader and more diverse range of leaders, and that the diversity of viewpoints that comes from different life experiences and cultural backgrounds strengthens board deliberations and decision-making.
As the decision-making body at the highest level of organizational leadership, boards play a critical role in creating an organization that prioritizes, supports, and invests in diversity, inclusion, and equity.
equity-focused: Boards play a critical role in helping organizations understand the context in which they work and how best to prioritize resources and strategies based on that reality. An awareness of how systemic inequities have affected our society and those an organization serves enables boards to avoid blind spots that can lead to flawed strategies, and creates powerful opportunities to deepen the organization’s impact, relevance, and advancement of the public good.
While it may be tempting to fill a board with high-net-worth individuals, it is not always the best choice for the board or your organization’s mission.
Admissions officers believe diversity in the classroom improves the educational experience of all students. The more diverse perspectives found in the classroom, throughout the dorms, in the dining halls, and mixed into study groups, the richer the discussions will be and the more creative the teams will become.
Your answer to the diversity question should focus on how your experiences have built your empathy for others, your resilience, your character, and your perspective.
A diversity essay is an essay that encourages applicants with minority backgrounds, unusual education, distinctive experience, or unique family histories to write about how these elements will contribute to the diversity of their target school’s class and community.
Here’s a simple, three-part framework that will help you think of diversity more… well diversely: 1 Identity: Who are you? What has contributed to your identity? How do you distinguish yourself? Your identity can include any of the following: gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, religion, non-traditional work experience, non-traditional educational background, multicultural background, and family’s educational level. 2 Deeds: What have you done? What have you accomplished? This could include:#N#a. Achievements inside and outside your field of study#N#b. Leadership opportunities#N#c. Community service#N#d. Military experience#N#e. Internship or professional experience#N#f. Research opportunities#N#g. Hobbies#N#h. Travel#N#Any or all of these could be unique. Also, what life-derailing, throw-you-for-a-loop challenges have you faced and overcome? 3 Ideas: How do you think? How do you approach things? What drives you? What influences you?
All you need in order to write successfully about how you will contribute to your the rich diversity of your target school’s community is to examine your identity, deeds, and ideas with an eye towards your own distinctiveness and individuality.
Your background, your influences, your religious observances, your language, your ideas, your work environment, your community experiences – all of these factors come together to create a unique individual, an individual who can contribute to a diverse class and a diverse world.
You learned skills from a lifestyle that is outside the norm – living in foreign countries as the child of diplomats or contractors; performing professionally in theater, dance, music, or sports; or communicating with a deaf sibling.
Here are five ways leadership can get more involved in supporting diversity and inclusion: 1. The Power of Listening. What makes the best people in any organization are those who meaningfully add to your culture by challenging the status quo.
Communication Is Key. You cannot over-communicate early and often enough the importance of your diversity and inclusion efforts to candidates, employees, customers and stakeholders. Employer branding is crucial and one company who has done a great job to broaden the topic of diversity and inclusion is Pinterest, ...
One danger of having a strong company culture is that it can be far too easy to perpetuate a culture of sameness where culture "fit" is an excuse to hire people who look, think, act, and build products just like you do.
Because cultural diversity is complex, its benefits for growth, innovation and talent optimisation will only be realised if your workforce has the knowledge, skills and abilities required to manage that complexity.
The company actively invests in developing cultural intelligence so that it can draw and integrate insights from its diverse internal and external networks to drive innovation and growth in new markets.
The shortage of intercultural skills in the labour market means that there is a large role for organisations to play in developing the intercultural competency of their existing workforce, particularly in terms of practical skills that can be applied on the job.
In 2015, McKinsey released the results of its global study of leadership diversity and corporate financial returns. The results present a compelling case for cultural diversity at top management and board level—companies in the top quartile for racial and ethnic diversity are 35 percent more likely to have financial returns above their national industry median while companies in the top quartile for gender diversity are 15 percent more likely to have financial returns above their national industry medians.
Cultural knowledge is largely tacit—“know-how”, judgment, insights, beliefs and perspectives as well as memories, attitudes and emotions that reside within a person’s mind and are difficult to document and communicate to others. You acquire tacit cultural knowledge socially as you engage in authentic exchanges with individuals from different cultural backgrounds.
If Australian business is to remain competitive in the Asian century it must strengthen its capability to understand the needs and concerns of different consumer segments and stakeholders across rapidly-changing diverse Asian markets. Consumer attitudes and behaviours are highly influenced by culture.
If they had heightened cultural intelligence, they would be aware that effective trust plays a significant role in business decisions in relationship-based cultures and business decisions are formulated slowly as the parties get to know each other personally.