The chapter explores how public sector leadership could adopt the responsible leadership orientation for employee engagement through a responsible leader's cultural competence and proper diversity management practices. The chapter reviewed secondary data and established that responsible leadership is more likely to be culturally competent and, as such, put in place diversity management practices that enhance diversity management and, to a large extent, increase employee engagement, resulting in organizational success. Responsible leaders achieve this by readily learning to be culturally competent and relate well with diverse subordinates, leading to a feeling of belongingness and engagement. The chapter, therefore, advocates for adopting responsible leaders who are culturally competent and thus embrace diversity, manage diversity, and contribute to employee engagement in the public sector, which is essential in achieving national growth.
TopIntroduction
Public sector activities have recently interested researchers and practitioners (Ly, 2023; Obuobisa-Darko et al., 2023; Ohemeng et al., 2020; Qing et al., 2020). Lane (2012) refers to the public sector as all public corporations and other types of agencies or organizations through which the central government exerts its direct and indirect influence on the country. The public sector can thus be said to play a significant role in national development as it continues to provide essential services to the entire citizenry. To be successful in the execution of its functions, the sector employs a diverse workforce characterized by diverse needs and expectations, skills and abilities, attitudes, interests, and values. In addition to these, there exist differences in age, ethnicity, education, gender, physical stature, religious beliefs, political beliefs and ideologies, and cultural backgrounds (Duffour, 2018; Karim, 2017), making the public sector highly diverse and diversity management becomes significant for all stakeholders.
Diversity management refers to organizations' systematic and planned commitment to recruit, retain, reward, and promote a heterogeneous mix of employees (Ivancevich & Gilbert, 2000, p. 75). This planned commitment aims to enhance the attitudes and behavior of individuals with differences in gender, ethnicity, nationality, and cultural and educational backgrounds (Yadav & Lenka, 2020), among others. Adopting and implementing these strategies and sustaining commitment refers to “the ability to think, feel and act in ways that acknowledge, respect and build on ethnic, socio-cultural and linguistic diversity (Lynch & Hanson, 2014, p. 43). Culturally competent leaders, thus, understand their own culture and have the utmost desire to learn, appreciate, and respect the culture of others. Studies report that individuals whose cultures are not valued and respected within a social context feel marginalized (Betancourt, 2004; Constantine & Sue, 2006), which has repercussions on their behavior. With proper diversity management strategies in place, employees, however, feel valued and supported and perceive an equal opportunity to succeed, and these improve their general behaviors, attitudes, and performance (Bizri, 2018; Mousa et al., 2020; Alshaaba et al., 2021). Since the public sector plays a significant role in national development (Ohemen et al., 2020; Lee Rhodes et al., 2012) and leadership is at the heart of the management of the organization, including the public sector, the question then is ‘what is the most appropriate leadership style to ensure effective diversity management within the public service’?