Diversity Intelligence: Integrating Diversity Intelligence Alongside Intellectual, Emotional and Cultural Intelligence for Leadership and Career Development

Citation

Pandey, S. (2018), "Diversity Intelligence: Integrating Diversity Intelligence Alongside Intellectual, Emotional and Cultural Intelligence for Leadership and Career Development", European Journal of Training and Development, Vol. 42 No. 5/6, pp. 362-364. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJTD-07-2018-131

Introduction

Diversity intelligence – why should anyone need it? This question clicked into my mind when I read the title of this book. We live in a diverse world which is very beautiful, full of colors, variety of species and things that are beyond our imagination. We have created communities, cities, states and nations and crafted our own meanings of diversity. I thought that perhaps this book was an attempt to relook into diversity and understand its various interpretations.

This book is divided into eight chapters. Each chapter addresses a specific concept in connection with diversity intelligence. The book claims to highlight diversity intelligence as an emerging concept in management literature and proposes that diversity intelligence means to value existing differences among employees without any personal biases. The author also highlights the importance of integrating diversity intelligence with leadership and career development for the benefit of employees and organizations. This book is a window into how leaders can reflect on their actions and behaviors to effectively implement new strategies and is an essential read for human resources researchers, professionals, consultants and managers of global operating companies. According to the author, organization leaders need this specific ability – diversity intelligence – as much as they need intellectual intelligence, emotional intelligence and cultural intelligence to become a successful leader in today’s global corporations.

Chapter 1 introduces the concept of diversity intelligence in context of America but also highlights why it should not be confined only within the American context. It talks about diversity quotient (DQ), a concept similar to intelligence quotient (IQ), emotional quotient (EQ) and cultural quotient (CQ) and proposes a theoretical framework for it. This chapter argues why HR managers and organization leaders should focus on understanding their DQ, not just CQ.

Chapter 2 explains all three behavioral indicators – IQ, EQ and CQ in connection with DQ in details. This chapter examines these concepts critically and helps the reader understand the differences between all four concepts and how can one use these specific abilities in one’s self-development in an organization.

Chapter 3 focuses on different theories and practices of diversity and how these theories and practices have shaped the need of DQ. The knowledge of DQ is very much needed if we want to become an inclusive organization for all the employees.

Chapter 4 focuses on self-management perspectives and organization management perspectives IQ, EQ, CQ and DQ and how to use these indices for effective diversity management practices in organizations.

Chapter 5 highlights how diversity intelligence can be an effective tool for leaders to develop effective leadership skills. This chapter focuses on leaders’ challenges in managing diversity within the organization, e.g. unfair work environment, personal obstacles, lack of interpersonal skills and change management. This chapter also suggests how leaders can use DQ for treating their employees fairly and effective change management.

Chapter 6 suggests how employees can use DQ as a potential tool to boost their career development process in a positive direction. This chapter also highlights talent development strategies that may be very helpful in management of career development of protected employees in the organization.

Chapter 7 integrates diversity intelligence with leadership and career development processes in American organizations. It also highlights how social stereotypes and organizational mindsets influence perception of protected employees toward diversity practices of their organization. The author argues that it is up to the leaders to have or improve their mindset with regard to actively engaging their protected class employees into mainstream decision-making of the organization. DQ is not passive knowledge; it must be proactively used by leaders to create an inclusive organization.

Chapter 8, the final chapter, focuses on current issues and evolving trends and future challenges of DQ as an important concept in diversity training of leaders working in global corporations.

Evaluation

The book, Diversity Intelligence: Integrating Diversity Intelligence Alongside Intellectual, Emotional and Cultural Intelligence for Leadership and Career Development, was an enjoyable read. As a person, I strongly believe that diversity is a gift of nature, and we should not only appreciate it but protect it at all costs. People deserve the right to live with peace, harmony and love. They also deserve the right to maintain their cultural diversity. This book is specifically focused on workforce diversity and diversity intelligence in the American context. The author has acknowledged that even though it is present in the management literature, diversity or workforce diversity is largely seen from an American lens. We need to look into these concepts from diverse lenses of different cultures. In global organizations, leaders may have to lead a very culturally diverse team of competent, talented employees who may not agree with the leader’s mindset. However, he or she has to lead them by using his/her diversity intelligence and help them in their career development. If we look at diversity just as a tool to minimize discrimination, then this approach may not be helpful in creating a progressive organization. To create progressive organizations, a leader should use diversity intelligence effectively in such a way that protected class employees should not feel “excluded in the organization despite being there.” They should have access to critical decision-making processes of the organization, and leaders should use their diversity intelligence in creating an “inclusive” organizational culture. I like Chapter 4 where the author presents details of high EQ characteristics of individuals and how these characteristics are linked with DQ implications in an organizational context (Table IV.1, pp. 51-56) and two cases on DQ and leadership development in Chapter 5 (pp. 72-74). In Chapter 8, a table on 2015-2016 news headlines related to protected class groups (Table VIII.1, pp. 118-120) is also a very valuable resource of supplementary reading material for the reader. In short, I strongly believe that this book may be a very handy tool for diversity trainers, HR managers and OD practitioners in designing diversity training programs. It may also be used as a training material in diversity training programs. Although the book is focused on the American context, it can be used effectively by diversity trainers in other cultural contexts too. However, I wish that this book could have highlighted diversity and diversity intelligence as concepts understood in other cultural contexts and could have provided some cases and examples related to those cultural contexts. This book can also be used as a textbook in the diversity management courses designed for MBA or other equivalent graduate/post-graduate programs. I would like to end with a quote by philosopher Jean Vanier who describes diversity intelligence in the following terms:

Each human being, however small or weak, has something to bring to humanity. As we start to really get to know others, as we begin to listen to each other’s stories, things begin to change. We begin the movement from exclusion to inclusion, from fear to trust, from closedness to openness, from judgment and prejudice to forgiveness and understanding. It is a movement of the heart.