Faith Wambura Ngunjiri

After a succinct review of the literature on women’s leadership development, this chapter considers how an intersectional approach to leadership uncovers the complexity of women’s leadership identity, problematizes women’s leadership experiences, and exposes the hierarchical discourse prevalent in women’s leadership studies. The chapter argues that we need to both add women-only leadership development programming to the existing plethora of leadership development offerings and transform social policies and organizational structures that hinder women from accessing positions of authority. That is, focusing on developing leaders without concomitant societal and organizational transformations will result in women who are prepared to lead, but organizations that are unprepared to be led by women. An intersectional framework helps to ensure that women who are minoritized by a variety of identity markers obtain the necessary relational, social, cultural, and organizational resources to level the playing field for accessing leadership development.

Whereas leadership has existed on the continent of Africa as long as African peoples therein, the study of the same is limited in scope, depth and availability. Even as African scholars decry this dearth of available literature, they are at the same time actively involved in remedying the situation. In this chapter, the author attempts to answer a couple of questions: what is African about African Leadership? How can we engage in radical scholarship of African leadership? The author concludes with an invitation to readers of the edited volume to answer those two questions for themselves, as well as allow the chapters to help them rethink their own position and practices, arguing that leadership scholarship is always about both theory building and enhanced practice.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to further restore diversity and equality to its national contexts by presenting new and so far less visible perspectives from under-researched countries. Design/methodology/approach: This special issue consists of five articles representing four countries and one country-cluster: Bangladesh, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Korea and the English-speaking Caribbean. Three of the contributions are focused on gender diversity, while the remaining two are more general descriptions of diversity challenges and policies in the respective countries (namely, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the English-speaking Caribbean). Findings: In addition to providing an overview of this issue’s articles, this paper highlights developments and current themes in country-specific equality and diversity scholarship. In particular, drawing on the special issue’s five papers, and building on the main threads that weave the special issue together, the authors show both the relevance of (some) western theories while also pointing to the need for reformulation of others. Research limitations/implications: The authors conclude with a call to further explore under-researched contexts and especially to develop locally relevant, culture-sensitive theoretical frameworks. Originality/value: How do smaller and less developed countries experience equality and diversity concepts? How are their approaches different from those experienced in already researched countries, or, on the contrary, what commonalities can be found found among them? How do theoretical frameworks originated in the West apply (or not) in these less studied countries? Are new, locally grounded frameworks needed to better capture the developments at play? Such are questions addressed by the contributions to this special issue.

Workplace chaplaincy is an intriguing phenomenon, wherein organizations hire clergy persons to serve the social, spiritual, and psychological needs of their employees. The authors interviewed 56 employees in nine organizations to explore employee perceptions and experiences with chaplaincy. The results indicate that employees perceive chaplaincy as a demonstration of management’s care and concern for then as whole persons by having chaplains meet their work and nonwork needs. Employees report that workplace chaplains care for them in five ways: attending to their work-related issues; addressing their practical and social needs; meeting their psychotherapeutic needs; facilitating urgent care as first responders in a crisis; and providing religious or pastoral services. The study suggests that employees’ experience of such care from chaplains can be interpreted as perceived organizational support, which enhances their sense of well-being and their organizational commitment. The article concludes with recommendations for future research.

The Problem: Authentic leadership literature is often seen as acontextual and unproblematic—leaders merely need to “know thyself” and “to thine own self be true.” Even when scholars like Eagly argue authenticity is a relational concept, it remains uncontextualized for those whose social identities set them apart from the majority within organizations and society.The Solution: Through this collaborative autoethnography, we aim to illustrate the complexity of enacting authentic leadership as immigrant women of color who are leaders within predominantly White institutional contexts.The Stakeholders: One audience for this article is other women of color with whom our experiences may resonate. A broader audience includes those in power within organizations who might use this article as fodder for crafting more inclusive spaces that support both the development of authentic leaders and the practice of relational authenticity.

Workplace chaplaincy represents one way that workplace spirituality manifests itself today in corporate America. Rigorous scholarly research into workplace (or corporate) chaplaincy remains scant. This article seeks to remedy that by focusing on human resource professionals’ perceptions and experiences with workplace chaplaincy in five organizations in the United States. Using data gathered from qualitative interviews with HR executives and staff, five themes emerged regarding their views of chaplaincy in their organizations: chaplains support and enhance a positive organizational culture; they complement or serve as an alternative to employee assistance programs; they provide psychosocial and pastoral care support to employees; they help to bridge cultural divides; and they enhance HR’s efforts in religious diversity and accommodation. Overall, HR felt that chaplains contribute to a positive organizational culture through employee care and contributions to diversity and inclusion. Article ends with implications for theory and practice.