Servant Leadership in a Globally Diverse and Inclusive Organizational Culture

Abstract

Diversity alone has not established an inclusive productive global organizational culture. Under the umbrella of diversity, individual biases such as embedded ethnic bias, gender bias, lack of equity equality, alienation, microaggressions, social inequities, and work alienation between high- and low-status workers abound. Additionally, under the umbrella of diversity, organizational, systemic structural levels such as hierarchy, policies, procedures, practices, and lack of ethical accountability have not changed. For corporate sustainability and profitability, having an acceptable company culture is no longer an option. Company culture is scrutinized by today’s workers as much as salary and benefits, and workers expect excellent inclusive company culture along with other traditional benefits. Recent research establishes that organizational culture impacts employee performance, performance impacts corporate equity, and ultimately both create the organization’s brand, culture and attraction for high-performing dedicated employees. This chapter begins with a review of the evolution of leadership, continues with discussions of globalization, diversity and inclusion, data on the state of global organizational culture, and the paradigm shift to servant leadership. The author concludes with the introduction, theory, and implementation steps of Servant Leadership to an inclusive, diverse global organizational culture.