Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The purpose of this research was to investigate the social and cultural constructions of leadership and how search committee members evaluate candidates for leadership positions. Moreover, how they conceptualize, measure, and evaluate leadership potential of candidates. To explore this issue, the following research questioned were answered: How do members of an executive search committee construct their views of leadership?; In what ways do the individual, social, and cultural constructions of leadership held by search committee members influence behaviors and outcomes of a search committee? In this study, I investigated how members of a search committee constructed their views of leadership and in turn how this influenced the search process for an executive leader. In order to explore this issue, this study is approached through the constructivism paradigm and informed by critical inquiry, using case study methodology. I followed one executive search process from the charge meeting until the committee made its recommendation to the hiring authority. The unit analyzed in this search employed a leadership competency model and tools which mapped to this model, in an effort to mitigate the influence of bias. I used semi-structured interviews with committee members to understand their views on leadership. I supplemented interviews with observations and document analysis as means of collecting data for the study. Three findings emerged through data analysis: the role of background and identity on views of leadership, the influence of personal and societal constructions of leadership on individual behaviors and search outcomes, and the application or utility of using a leadership competency model. Through my findings, I demonstrated how individual’s background and identity shaped their perceptions of what it meant to be a leader. Additionally, how they rated and talked about candidates matched their individual views about leadership rather than the leadership competency model they were asked to use. More specifically, analysis illuminated that minoritized search committee members had drastically different beliefs about leadership and experiences serving on the search committee. I concluded the study by outlining implications for policy, future practice, and future research, including offering a conceptual framework and tools for an equity-minded search process.

African American youth comprise one-third of the 17,300 victims annually impacted by gun violence (National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, CDC, 2016). Injuries they sustain lead to extensive rehabilitation processes often overshadowed by the youths’ perceptions of discrimination and mistrust in medical staff, exacerbated by limitations in patient–provider communication and collaboration (Alston, Gayles, Rucker, &Hobson, 2007; Liebschutz et al., 2010). Healthcare staff often misinterpret youth gunshot survivors’ behavior and engagement efforts, labeling them noncompliant and implying they overexaggerate their pain. Overall, research suggests that African American patients do not have positive rehabilitation outcomes comparable to those of White patients (Suarez-Balcazar et al., 2009). Studies identify cultural competence, considered a best practice in healthcare professions, as a mitigating factor in this health disparity. The central aim of this doctoral project is to enhance patient–provider relationships to support optimal rehabilitation processes and outcomes and reduce this disparity. The Calhoun Cultural Competency Course (4C) was designed to address this urgent and profound problem according to a sound theoretical foundation and best evidence in cultural competency training. It is an online training on best practices for treating young African American gunshot-wound survivors. Course content and instruction methods were developed based on in-depth review of theories and evidence-based literature (Liebschutz et al., 2010; Teal, Gill, Green, & Crandall, 2012). Upon course completion, participants master skills necessary to provide care that is culturally sensitive, responsive, and appropriately tailored to these individuals’ needs, leading to more successful outcomes and community reintegration. The 4C program pilot is anticipated within 1 year of content completion. The program’s effectiveness in fostering change in participants’ cultural competency will be measured using a mixed-methods pre–post program evaluation design. First-year expenses include funding to support personnel during program-module development, create the online platform, and launch and evaluate the course pilot. The course moves forward in Year 3 with modifications and publishing pilot study results. Dissemination efforts will be written, electronic, and person-to-person methods with hopes of inspiring others to instill cultural competence training in their settings. Cultural competency training has potential to mitigate health disparities. The program described in this doctoral project aims to promote engagement of African American youth in rehabilitation following gunshot assault for better health and participation outcomes for them and their caretakers.

Med en mångfaldig arbetsplats följer många fördelar, ändå fortsätter underrepresenterade grupper ha en svag position på arbetsmarknaden. Arbetet mot detta påbörjas i rekryteringsprocessen men rekryterares unconscious bias kan stå i vägen för lyckade, mångfaldiga anställningar. Studiens syfte är att undersöka hur företag och enskilda rekryterare arbetar för att motverka unconscious bias vid rekrytering inom den privata sektorn för att öka den etniska mångfalden på arbetsplatsen. Frågorna berör vilka strategier som används samt hur enskilda rekryterare upplever att unconscious bias påverkar deras omdöme. Det empiriska materialet är insamlat från intervjuer med totalt åtta rekryterare från fem olika företag, varav några kommer från samma företag. Materialet har analyserats i en tematisk analys med hjälp av det psykologiska begreppet unconscious bias i relation till rekryteringsprocessen, där kompetensbaserad rekrytering utgör det främsta teoretiska perspektivet. Resultatet visade att det var få företag som använde uttalade strategier för att motverka unconscious bias i rekryteringsprocessen och snarare har sina egna metoder. Detta gällde alla strategier förutom beteendeintervjuer som de flesta intervjupersoner beskrev att de använder i sina rekryteringsprocesser. I princip samtliga företag utgår från en kompetensbaserad rekryteringsmodell vilket innebär att rekryteringsprocesserna fokuserar på kompetenser istället för fysiska attribut. Rekryterarna upplever att unconscious bias påverkar deras omdöme främst vid CV-granskning och kan ta sig till uttryck i första intryck och magkänsla. Det gick dock att utläsa skillnader i hur mycket man upplever sig påverkas av sin unconscious bias beroende på om man rekryterar internt eller externt till kunder. / A diverse workplace comes with many benefits, but minority groups keep having a weak position in the labour market. The work against this starts in the recruitment process but recruiters' unconscious bias can stand in the way of a successful, diverse recruitment. The aim of this study is to understand how organizations and individual recruiters work to counteract unconscious bias in recruitment within the private sector to increase ethnic diversity in the workplace. The questions for the study is what strategies organizations use for this and how individual recruiters experience that their unconscious bias affects their judgement. The empirical material comes from interviews with eight recruiters from five different companies, where some come from the same company. The materials have then been analyzed using thematic analysis with help from the psychological concept unconscious bias in relation to the recruitment process, where competency based recruitment is the main theoretical framework used. The result showed that there were few companies that used stated strategies to counteract unconscious bias in the recruitment process and rather have their own methods. This applied to all the mentioned strategies except for behavioural interviews which nearly all of the interviewees described as a strategy they use in their recruitment process. Almost every organization is working from a competency based recruitment strategy, which means the recruitment process focuses on competencies instead of physical attributes. The recruiters feel that their unconscious bias is mostly affecting their judgement when screening resumes and can take shape in a first impression or gut feel. However, it was possible to see some differences in how much they experienced they were affected by their unconscious bias depending on if they were recruiting internally or externally for clients.

By successful implementation of EDI both individual and company gains can be achieved, based on a sense of satisfaction, belonging, and additional thinking perspectives. That result in increased likelihood and conditions for innovativeness and competitiveness. EDI is perceived as necessary for companies to become and remain attractive and competitive. At the same time it is based on voluntary commitments which might affect resource dedication. The focus of the study is the perception and management of EDI based on empirical and theoretical grounds, i.e., contrasting theory and practice of EDI. It was performed as a qualitative case study with an inductive approach, by purposefully sampled respondents within HR management, to enable understanding and knowledge about the notion of EDI in the Swedish industry. Notable observations and valuable additions for future research are an absence of practical possibilities to demonstrate result-wise advantages of implementing a wider range of diversity dimensions, complexity in measuring multiple diversity imensions without violating personal integrity, lack of or active negation of general framework models, unclear responsibility distribution, lack of dedicated resources, homogenous approach without uniqueness towards EDI incentives, and reward issues. The result indicates that the focus is on equal conditions for everyone, e.g., by conscious knowledge-based recruitment, to a greater extent than fulfillment of diversity, e.g., nonnuanced gender focus, and inclusion, e.g., changes in policies and job descriptions. This study contributes to and extends existing EDI literature and emphasizes codification of knowledge to increase the transferability of EDI-related perceptions and incentives between and within individual Swedish industrial companies.

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