Nineteenth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

In this study, I draw upon data from the Religious Leadership and Diversity Project - a national, multi-method study of leadership of multiracial/multiethnic religious organizations in the United States (see www.rldp.net for more) - to address how leaders experience developing and sustaining racially and ethnically diverse organizations. A good deal of scholarship notes the importance of leaders for achieving this aim. However, I argue that it is critical for scholars to situate leaders within their social contexts to understand their leadership capacity. In other words, leaders’ ability to forge diverse communities is dependent upon the power that their followers, organizational peers, and even society affords them. I draw upon role strain theory to frame the analysis. I propose that leaders of diverse religious organizations in the United States, due to structural constraints on their influence and authority, occupy what I call an “unscripted role” in society. I discuss the implications of this type of role.