Best Practices in Leading
a Diverse Workforce

NOTE TO EDITORS AND NEWS DIRECTORS: Amid the rapidly changing workplace in corporate America, organizations face new leadership challenges. On Saturday, Nov. 3, Cal State L.A.’s PepsiCo Leadership Center will present “Best Practices in Leading a Diverse Workforce” at Cal State L.A.’s Golden Eagle Ballroom.

Journalists are welcome to attend this inaugural PepsiCo Leadership Center Research & Practice Conference, which will begin at 8:30 a.m. and run through 4 p.m.

According to Kevin Groves, director of the PepsiCo Leadership Center at Cal State L.A., “Companies in today’s dynamic business environment confront several highly significant workforce demographic changes and major shifts in employee attitudes and needs that require new approaches to developing organizational leaders.

“The rapid retirement of the baby boom generation, the sharp differences in workforce growth rates across major ethnic and immigrant groups, the dramatic increase of working-age women outside the home, and the considerably different career aspirations of younger workers compared to older employees are a few examples of workforce trends forcing companies to re-formulate their approach to leadership development,” Groves said.

Keynote addresses will be presented in the morning by Major General William A. Cohen, president of The Institute of Leader Arts, and in the afternoon by Rose M. Ochi, executive director of the California Forensic Science Institute at Cal State L.A.

Sessions will cover workforce demographics and cultural shifts, leadership competency models at industry-leading companies, how companies are adapting to a diverse workforce, cross-cultural mentoring practices, bi-culturalism and its impact on leadership development, and leadership assessment methods. PepsiCo/Frito-Lay, IBM, CIA, and Wells Fargo are a few of the organizations whose leadership development practices will be discussed at the conference.

Groves said, “The PepsiCo Leadership Center Research & Practice Conference will bring together a talented group of leadership scholars and industry practitioners to share their findings concerning best practices in leading a diverse workforce.”

The PepsiCo Leadership Center was established on the Cal State L.A. campus in 2001 to provide training and development to students and the business community. The Center enhances organizational leadership skills and diversity awareness, builds alliances with the business community and its leaders, and develops leadership competency among Cal State L.A. students.

WHAT:
Cal State L.A. presents inaugural PepsiCo Leadership Center Research & Practice Conference.

WHEN:
8:30 a.m. – 4:00 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 3, 2007. (Breakfast and lunch will be served to the first 100 to RSVP.)

WHERE:
Golden Eagle Ballroom, Cal State L.A. campus. For directions, see http://www.calstatela.edu/misc/trans

INFO:
Free to the public. Seating is limited. Call (323) 343-5270 or email gmorale3@calstatela.edu

Working for California since 1947: The 175-acre hilltop campus of California State University, Los Angeles is at the heart of a major metropolitan city, just five miles from Los Angeles’ civic and cultural center. More than 20,000 students and 200,000 alumni—with a wide variety of interests, ages and backgrounds—reflect the city’s dynamic mix of populations. Six colleges offer nationally recognized science, arts, business, criminal justice, engineering, nursing, education and humanities programs, among others, led by an award-winning faculty. Cal State L.A. is home to the critically-acclaimed Luckman Jazz Orchestra and to a unique university center for gifted students as young as 12. Programs that provide exciting enrichment opportunities to students and community include an NEH- and Rockefeller-supported humanities center; a NASA-funded center for space research; and a growing forensic science program, housed in the Hertzberg-Davis Forensic Science Center. www.calstatela.edu

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