2016 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report
Diversity Factors in Leadership
| Project/Area Number |
26590223
|
|---|
| Research Institution | Doshisha Women's College of Liberal Arts |
|---|
Principal Investigator |
Rogers Lisa 同志社女子大学, 現代社会学部, 准教授 (40580692)
|
|---|
| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
李 洙任 龍谷大学, 経営学部, 教授 (40288634)
|
|---|
| Project Period (FY) |
2014-04-01 – 2017-03-31
|
| Keywords | Uncertainty avoidance / leadership / diversity / 異文化対応性 |
|---|
| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This research explored relations between uncertainty avoidance and creativity. In doing this, the aims were to examine the following: 1) Japanese attitudes towards diversity, 2) the strength of uncertainty avoidance in Japanese university-age young people, 3) the conceptualization of Japan's (societal) version of “diversity management", particularly comfort with uncertainty and ambiguity, and 4) how young Japanese react in uncertain and ambiguous situations. International and multinational companies are attempting to manage diversity and train leaders to manage diversity to gain competitive advantages in global markets. However, corporations cite an inadequate number of leaders in their organizations who
have the ability to manage global human resources.
To understand how young Japanese people manage uncertain situations, a mixed methods study, incorporating a quantitative survey component and a qualitative element. A survey was conducted of over 100 Japanese university students and interviews regarding their actions and emotions when encountering uncertain situations. In addition, corporate managers were asked questions regarding attitudes towards diversity.
We discovered that while Japan has consistently scored among the highest on uncertainty avoidance in various studies,the results for young Japanese students in this study were not as high as general results for Japanese people have shown. On the other hand, Japanese company managers we talked to spoke of the difficulties they had retaining employees with diverse backgrounds in their organizations.
|
