The influence of visionary leadership on the relationship between diversity, diversity mindsets & performance

“If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace. “ Franklin  D.  Roosevelt One of the most influential leaders of the United States of America saw the importance of diversity years ago. We have to do it together! Still until this day, having diversity in an organization is not always seen as something positive. Researchers do not agree with each other on the effect of diversity within organizations. (van Knippenberg & Mell, 2016) While diversity is present in almost every organization, there are still a lot of unknowns with respect to the potential benefits that come with diversity. Accurate and positive diversity mindsets are considered to not only reduce negative effects of diversity, but also to promote positive effects of diversity on team and organizational outcomes. (van Knippenberg, van Ginkel & Homan, 2013) The influence of diversity mindsets on information elaboration and eventually team performance is explored in this research. The results of this research show that diversity mindsets do not moderate the performance-diversity relationship. A non significant relationship has been found in this research. Leadership has proven to be an important determinant of the success in a team. (Yukl, 2010) Prior research proposed that leaders could possibly influence diversity mindsets (van Knippenberg et al., 2013). In this research we have taken a closer look what type of leadership can influence the diversity mindsets positively. To be more specific we took a closer look if visionary leadership could positively influence diversity     4   4   mindsets. The results of this research show that there is a significant relationship between visionary leadership and diversity mindsets. Which means that visionary leaders can possibly influence diversity mindsets and that diversity mindsets are manageable. The two conclusions above are the most important conclusions of this research.