Diversity Leadership:
Strategies for Embracing Difference and
Avoiding A. C.R.A.S.H.
Presented by: Ivan B. Turnipseed, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Hospitality & Tourism Management Studies
(HTMS), School of Business
The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey
Day of Leadership  Saturday, November 19, 2011
Who am I?
 Born / Reared: Midwest / Deep South
 Education: B.A. – M.S. – C.A.S. – Ph.D.
 College Teaching Experience: Monroe College,
University of Nevada-Las Vegas, Bloomsburg University
of Pennsylvania, Central Connecticut State University,
Stockton!
 Industry/Other Experience: Travel Planners,
Quikbook, NBGSA, NSMH, CAARP
 Research Interests: Black issues in hospitality and tourism,
community-based sustainable tourism, hospitality and tourism
marketing, internal marketing, job and compensation discrimination,
social stratification in organizations, strategic human resource
management, workplace and socio-political diversity
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
2
Overview of Presentation

Opening Activity
 What is leadership?
 What is diversity?
 What is inclusion?
 What is A. C.R.A.S.H.?
 What is America’s demographic profile?
 Why should leaders care?
 How can YOU exercise diversity leadership?
 Closing Activity
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
3
Opening Activity
 Safe
Space
Arrange yourselves alphabetically by
first name.
Difference Meet & Greet
Three people who are primarily different.
2. Tell them why you approached.
3. Discuss differences and commonalities.
1.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
4
What is leadership?

What do you think?
 Leadership is about:
authority, behavior, charisma, coordination,
example, followership, goals, influence,
intelligence, interaction, management,
position, responsibility, values, vision
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
5
What is diversity?

What do you think?
 Diversity is primarily about the existence and
representation of difference.
 Primary, secondary, and tertiary dimensions
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
6
What is inclusion?

What do you think?
 The degree to which the diverse members of
a group are genuinely and consistently
engaged with each other.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
7
What is A CRASH?
The acronym
Ableism
Classism
Racism
Ageism
Sexism
Heterosexism
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
8
What is A CRASH?
The analogy
A
vehicle crash is injurious (physically and
emotionally), inconvenient, costly, often
avoidable (when attention is paid and certain
rules/laws are followed), and may lead to legal
proceedings and redress.
 Just
as each of us wishes to avoid a vehicular
accident, we should avoid A. C.R.A.S.H.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
9
Ableism Defined

Ableism – The cultural, institutional, and
individual set of discriminatory and
prejudicial practices and beliefs that assigns
inferior value (worth) to people who have
developmental, emotional, physical or
psychiatric disabilities (Ableism, 2002).

In the U.S., roughly 65% of disabled persons
are unemployed.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
10
Classism Defined

Class – A ‘relative social ranking based on income,
wealth, status, and / or power (Adams, Bell, &
Griffin, 1997, p. 233).

Classism – The institutional, cultural, and
individual set of practices and beliefs that assign
differential value to people according to their
socio-economic class; and an economic system
which creates excessive inequality and causes
basic human need to go unmet (Adams, Bell, &
Griffin, 1997, p. 238).

Family income, for example, has been directly
linked to SAT score attainment.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
11
Racism Defined



Racism – A ‘system of advantage based on race.’ It
is not only a personal ideology based on racial
prejudice, but a system involving cultural messages
and institutional policies and practices as well as the
beliefs and actions of individuals.
Racism – Prejudice plus social power—access to
social, cultural, and economic resources and
decision-making (Tatum, 2004).
There are real and persistent differences in the
economic attainment of various racial/ethnic groups,
even after accounting for education and years of
work experience.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
12
Ageism Defined
Ageism – ‘Any attitude, action, or institutional
structure which subordinates a person or group
because of age or any assignment of roles in
society purely on the basis of age’ (Woolf, n.d.).
Two Ways Ageism Differs From Other Isms
1. Age classification is not static; it changes as an
individual progresses through the life cycle.
2. (Barring an early death) no one is exempt from
eventually becoming old and experiencing ageism.

Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
13
Sexism Defined
 Sexism – A system by which women are kept
subordinate to men (Pharr, 2004).
 Sexism – The cultural, institutional, and individual set of
beliefs and practices that privilege men, subordinate
women, and denigrate values and practices associated
with women (Adams, Bell, & Griffin, 1997).
 Sexism is a symptom of a patriarchal society. A
patriarchy is a male-dominated, male-identified, and
male-centered society that involves the oppression of
women as one of its key aspects. The positions of
authority—political, economic, legal, religious,
educational, military, domestic—are generally reserved
for men (Johnson, 2004).
 Wage gap – Women earn approx. 80 cents for every
dollar that men earn.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
14
Heterosexism Defined



Heterosexism – The systemic display of
homophobia in the institutions of society. [It creates
the climate for homophobia with its assumption that
the world is and must be heterosexual and its
display of power and privilege as the norm] (Pharr,
2004).
Heterosexism – The individual, institutional, and
societal / cultural beliefs and practices based on the
belief that heterosexuality is the only normal and
acceptable sexual orientation (Adams, Bell, &
Griffin, 1997).
As of 2011, it remains legal in 29 states to fire
people based on sexual orientation.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
15
What is America’s demographic profile?
 Women now constitute more than 47% of the nation’s








workforce. (~51% of population)
The 65 and older population in 2030 will comprise 88.5
million people vs. 38.7 million in 2008.
Minorities constituted 1/3 of the population in 2008 and
are projected to be 54% of the total in 2050.
Hispanic population will double from 15 to 30%.
Blacks will grow from 14 to 15%.
Asians will increase from 5.1 to 9.2%.
American Indians & Alaska Natives will grow 1.6 to 2%.
Non-Hispanic Whites will fall from 66% to 46%.
Which ethnic/racial group will be the largest in 2050?
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
16
Why should leaders care?

What do you think?
 To avoid A CRASH.
 Genuine celebration and positive
engagement of difference empowers people,
enriches interpersonal exchange, and
generates productive outcomes.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
17
How can YOU exercise diversity leadership?

What do you think?
 Deliberately avoid A CRASH in everyday
interactions.
Avoid “blindness”.
2. Continually consider ways to promote diversity
and inclusion.
3. Perpetual proportionate affirmative action
4. Progressive syntax (p. 20)
1.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
18
Closing Activity
 Alphabetical
order by first name.
 State your name, and share one takeaway.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
19
Thank You!
.
Diversity Leadership
Dr. Turnipseed
20