Leadership in the Multicultural World: 
Exploring New Frontiers of Leadership Theory, Method and Practice

It is estimated that by 2050, there will be 1.2 billion people aged over 60 in Asia; Africa population with 3000 separate ethnic groups will have an increase of 1 billion; 85% of Australia’s population growth will be either from overseas migration or have at least one foreign-born parent; Europe’s workforce needs to be complemented by 56 million immigrant workers;  North America will have an additional net migration of 52 million and countries with higher native American population in South America will experience the dilution of “conquistadores” and the emergence of  “reconquista”.  These demographic changes have wide range of leadership implications for governing nation building, employment, health, education, housing, economics, politics, culture, intergroup relationships and so forth.

It is clear that even the countries that are supposedly homogenous are discovering their environment to be multicultural with demographic differences like gender, age, religion, sexual preferences, disability, and so forth acquiring social identity almost as rich as cultural or ethnic differences.  Women are clearly a cultural group within every culture in the world with their needs being so different from men, and issues facing them in the workplace and society being quite unique.  Similarly, every other group, whether a cultural minority group, a cultural majority group, or one associated with another defining characteristic, is championing some unresolved issue relevant to that group or simply claiming equal rights for their group. 

Managing cultural diversities in the workplace and society politically, economically, socially, legally and culturally demands leadership that is quite different than what is known and practiced. Among others, it calls for leadership that is able to not only interlock people of different cultures or attributes working and living together but also unlock their human, cultural and social capital. Leadership for this new environment has to be able to not only nurture cultural ties that bind people together but also shepherd them away from the blindness of their cultural binds. The new leaders have to regard the importance of cultural differences while simultaneously building on cultural similarities.  And above all, the new leaders have to preserve cultural identities without preventing cultural fusion.  These demands require leadership at every level -- individual, group, organization, community, and nation; within and between cultural boundaries and that can manifest in many different forms.

Sample of Thematic Topics

1. Leadership and Multicultural Relations
2. Leadership and Multicultural Workplace
3. Acculturation, Adaptation, Adjustment
4. Developing Multicultural Competence
5. Managing Multicultural Conflict
6. Effective Multicultural Communication
7. Leadership and Multicultural Understanding
8. Leadership Development in Multicultural Context
9. Indigenous Perspectives of Multicultural Relations

The Conference Theme should not be considered to be limiting to the topics that are listed above. The Program Committee invites all presentations having to do with any area of intercultural research.