Introduction: Special section on Asian American leadership.

Abstract

Why an issue on Asian American leadership? Asian Americans, known as the model minority, typically "overachieve" and exceed all other groups on SAT scores, achievement tests, graduate degrees, and higher educational levels. If Asians are so smart, why are they so "underrepresented" in the ranks of political and business leadership within the United States? In this special section, we try to answer that question and how Asians can achieve equity. We review the current state of the art on leadership and its failure to incorporate diversity into its principles and models. We examine Asian cultural values and how they might influence the exercise of leadership among Asian American leaders. We also review perceptions of incongruity between Asian Americans and their potential for leadership roles. Consequently, Asian Americans may behave in response to stereotypical threat expectations and how bias may mitigate against positive views of Asian Americans as effective leaders. Finally, we call for an affirmative paradigm in developing a model of diversity leadership.

Asian American Women in the Academy: Multiple Success Case Study of their Leadership Labyrinths and Practices<br /> &nbsp;

“…And given little research on leadership experience of AAW and limited scholarly works following the approach of diversity leadership model under intersectionality concept (Chin, 2013;Kawahara et al, 2013;Liang & Peters-Hawkins, 2017); my study contributed to enriching the existing literature on women and leadership in general, and on AAW and leadership in particular under the novel approach.…”

“…At least, the author could find Reeves' (2014) study as the most recent research making use of this software in data management and analysis. Moreover, in broader field of leadership, Chin (2013) argues, "Current theories of leadership have been relatively narrow in their incorporation of diversity; the theories generally portray a White, Anglo, North American, heterosexual male biased view of leadership" (p. 235). She thus proposes a model of diversity leadership, which is "inclusive, respectful of differences, empowering, collective, and oriented to social change" (p. 238).…”

Intergroup anxiety, cultural sensitivity and socio-cultural diverse leaders’ effectiveness

“…Because leadership is frequently associated with male gender, theories that intend to explain the phenomenon have emerged. The Role Congruity Theory proposed by Eagly and Karau (2002) states that women are usually perceived negatively when trying to occupy leading positions by virtue of the incongruity with their gender's attributes, mainly communal (e.g., protection), and those expected for such positions: agent attributes (e.g., dominance), which forces them to adopt an androgen style to be perceived as effective leaders (Eagly & Karau, 2002;Lupano Perugini & Castro Solano, 2008, 2013. The same difficulties would be faced by gay men since many are perceived with many female stereotype attributes (Fassinger et al, 2010;Malden, Blackwell & Madon, 1997).…”

“…For instance, in Argentina, country where this study was conducted, women occupy 22% of management positions, but only 1% gets the CEO -Chief Executive Officer-position (Casas, 2010). In the United States women occupy the 23% of executive positions, while 5% are occupied by Hispanic, and 4% by Afro and Asian descents despite the high academic scores obtained by the latter group (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009;Chin, 2013).…”

“…Thus, it is interesting to analyze the impact generated by the inclusion of these minorities in the field of leadership (Chin, 2013;Eagly & Chin, 2010;Fassinger, Shullman & Stevenson, 2010).…”