Pre-Class Question #5:
What role do senior leaders (e.g., CEOs) play in building disability inclusive workplaces?
Response:
Currently, leaders of organizations, such as CEO’s, do not have disability inclusion on their agendas. For instance, 56% of global senior executives rarely or never discuss disability on their leadership agendas (Valuable 500). This is problematic as in their article, Valuable 500 suggests that this perpetuates the idea that disability is taboo and unimportant. This is further problematic as organizational leaders are key decision makers within business, meaning that a failure to recognize diversity at this level creates an environment where persons with disabilities are not included or represented. However, this does not mean that some leaders have not tried to manufacture change. Kotter, in his article, points out common errors such as a lack of urgency, a lack of vision, under communicating the value of the vision
and so on that hamper the change process producing a less than satisfying result. Kotter offers
an explanation for this phenomenon, namely that because we have relatively little experience in renewing organizations to be more inclusive, even very capable people often make at least one big error. I offer a second explanation based on some of the content offered in a previous course I took on disability. That, in actuality, diversity and inclusion initiatives fail due to a lack of leadership engagement. I believe this because I was taught in that course that in order to create inclusive change, one must gain the attention of the C-suite. This is because leaders are the catalyst for involvement and action across an entire organization (Valuable 500). This means that if a leader communicates that disability inclusion is an important value of the organization, employees will follow suit. In this way the current failure of many organizations
to recognize disability inclusion at the level of the C-suite is not only a limitation but presents an opportunity for change. That is, in order to make a shift toward a more inclusive work environment, leaders need to model inclusivity through their own behaviour, setting the tone for the entire organization. I believe the errors that Kotter points out provide good starting points for improvement. For instance, Kotter suggests that failure to have and communicate a vision can hamper inclusivity. Therefore, leaders should create a clear, easily communicable vision to share organization wide. Similarly, Kotter believes that many executives attempt to rush the change process. Considering this, the C-suite should recognize that sustainable change will take a considerable amount of time and be willing to make that commitment both personally and financially. Ultimately, leaders play a huge role in making the shift toward a more inclusive environment and should take accountability for diversity and inclusion efforts or failures within their organization.
