Diversity initiatives can work hand in hand with training and development ideas, as Denise Milani of the Metropolitan Police Service’s Diversity Directorate explains in our special Close Up feature on page 7.
Milani has targeted an audience of female police sergeants and inspectors to participate in a personal development and leadership programme that should encourage them to reach new goals.
Nationally, the picture is more patchy, with the Equal Opportunities Commission still pushing for a better balance in work-based learning, as our news story on page 4 shows.
The rest of this issue is dedicated to our annual international theme. It is always interesting to consider common practices and glaring cultural differences, and this month we continue the debate started by Ashridge business school on what characterises European leadership.
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This is particularly relevant to the new countries moving into the market economy (which we also cover in this issue), as some pundits predict that the newcomers may want to ‘choose’ between a US or a Western European approach to leadership.
But is this right? Surely people development is about growing people and organisations, not identifying and imposing divisive characteristics.
Where do you stand? Should we be thinking in terms of such models? Are these stereotypes, or a valid means of preserving the Western European idiom in the face of the popularity of US business schools? Send your thoughts to the e-mail address below.
