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344 PART 4: THE LEADER AS A RELATIONSHIP BUILDER
aware of the impact that culture may have and consider cultural values in their
dealings with employees.

Stages of Personal Diversity Awareness

One goal for today’s global organizations is to ensure that all employees and
customers—women, ethnic and racial minorities, gay people, the disabled, the el-
derly, as well as white males—are given equal opportunities and treated with fair-
ness and respect. Strong, culturally sensitive leadership can move organizations
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toward diversity, where all individuals are valued and respected for the unique
abilities they can bring to the workplace.
Leaders vary in their sensitivity and openness to other cultures, attitudes,
values, and ways of doing things. Exhibit 11.5 shows a model of fi ve stages of
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individual diversity awareness and actions. The continuum ranges from a defen-
sive, ethnocentric attitude, in which leaders meet the minimum legal requirements
regarding affi rmative action and sexual harassment, to a complete understanding
and acceptance of people’s differences, in which leaders value diversity as an in-
herent part of the organizational culture.

Exhibit 11.5 Stages of Personal Diversity Awareness

Highest Level of Awareness

Integration
Multicultural attitude—enables one
to integrate differences and adapt
both cognitively and behaviorally

Adaptation
Able to empathize with those of
other cultures
Able to shift from one cultural
perspective to another
Acceptance
Accepts behavioral differences and
underlying differences in values
Recognizes validity of other ways of
thinking and perceiving the world
Minimizing Differences
Hides or trivializes cultural
differences
Focuses on similarities among all
peoples
Defense
Perceives threat against one’s
comfortable worldview
Uses negative stereotyping
Assumes own culture superior

Lowest Level of Awareness

Source: Based on M. Bennett, “A Developmental Approach to Training for Intercultural Sensitivity, “International Journal of Intercultural Relations
10 (1986), pp. 179–196.