Research Project on MinoritiesAnn M. Morrison, director...

Research Project on Minorities

Ann M. Morrison, director of San Diego’s Center for Creative Leadership, has been selected to head a research group that will investigate senior management opportunities for women and minorities.

The center’s new Leadership Diversity Research Group will begin its study in January, but Morrison has started to collect information for the more than 200 interviews that will be needed for the national study. She has already interviewed managers of dozens of companies about policies concerning advancement of women and minorities.

“We decided to establish this new research group and focus on diversity issues--diversity meaning sex, race, culture, ethnic, international,” Morrison said. “We want to look at how we are going to be able to use this incredibly diverse work force growing in our country and use it intelligently.”

Morrison said the research will focus on the tensions and issues that can arise among various groups within a company and suggest ways to bring the groups together, particularly in high-level management.

Morrison will continue as center director until January, when she will officially take over as head of the new research group. The group consists of Morrison and four researchers and will be a permanent part of the center. It is partly funded through grants.

The center, a nonprofit educational institution based in North Carolina, was founded in 1970. Morrison launched the San Diego branch in 1987.

Morrison has authored two books on identifying leadership skills and developing executive talent, and she hopes to publish the research group’s findings late next year. She has a master’s degree in business administration from Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, N.C., and a master’s in psychology from Bucknell University in Pennsylvania.