268 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP
they risk underestimating the validity and tenacity of the correlated
systems.
While almost all organizations — not just European ones — face the
diversity challenge, Europe presents a much more complex situation.
Diversity issues, according to any human resources management or
organizational behavior textbook, traditionally include local minorities,
gender, disability, sexual orientation, and the like. Obviously, Europe
faces all of these, but if we see Europe as a single economic entity, unlike
other economies, it also faces diversity issues in several additional
dimensions.
To start with, there are signifi cant differences in national culture
across a wide spectrum of issues, including perspectives on time, indi-
vidualism versus collectivism, power distance, performance orientation,
tolerance of uncertainty, ascription versus achievement orientation,
emotional expressiveness, and general role differentiation — to name but
a few. People and organizations cannot help being infl uenced by these
differences between nations.
There are also important religious differences within Europe, which
impact on the way people work in organizations and affect values,
beliefs, attitudes, and behavior. These also have an infl uence on legal
matters, marriage law being one among many. Different levels of pene-
tration of religious values and practices in society mean differences in
the spiritual needs of organizational members. For example, when the
draft of the European constitution was being written, Poland insisted on
the inclusion of the notion of Christianity. Europe already has a signifi -
cant proportion of non - Christians among its citizens; if Turkey is admit-
ted, it will have a member - state that is predominantly Muslim.
Europe is also multilingual, and there is still no common language
that can be used with equal ease in its different parts. Even the offi cial
bodies of the European Union have considerable diffi culty fi nding suf-
fi cient qualifi ed translators and interpreters for all the languages used by
the member - states. The costs of keeping up with translation have grown
exponentially. Any reduction in the number of languages used has been
met with howls of protest, refl ecting sensitivities and pride of each
country ’ s standing.
Then there are the different educational systems within the different
European countries, which frequently have incompatible curricula and
requirements. The Bologna Process has tried to deal with the situation
by means of a voluntary agreement of 40 countries, signed in 1999, with
the aim of introducing a transparent, uniform system of higher education
degrees across Europe. Although the Bologna Process was geared toward
the unifi cation of degree - granting rules and procedures, so that levels
of educational attainment will be similar, there is still quite a way to go.