Most attention has been given to internationalization and information technology as future challenges facing organizational leaders going into the 21 st century. Although diversity is sometimes mentioned, it is usually not considered a leadership issue. A major reason is that the dominant leadership theories (e. g., situational, transformational, or exchange) do not deal with the operational level of specific diversity initiatives. The purpose of this article is to first review the diversity initiatives facing today's organizations and the failure of popular leadership theories to address this challenge. Then, the remainder of the article suggests how a behavioral approach to leadership may help to successfully address some of the major diversity initiatives.
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