Afro-Diasporic women navigating the black ceiling: Individual, relational, and organizational strategies

Erskine, Samantha E.; Archibold, Estelle; Bilimoria, Diana

doi:10.1016/j.bushor.2020.10.004

Cited by 20 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 41 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Through allyship, Afro-Diasporic women may begin to feel increased organizational commitment, reduced feelings of spirit murder (West, 1999; Williams, 1991) and emotional taxation (Catalyst, 2016), reduced barriers to their full leadership potential, and improved career advancement outcomes. Allyship may help Afro-Diasporic women shift from a mindset of surviving, enduring, coping, “making lemonade out of lemons,” and hoping that “something good will come out of something bad” (Carver, 1998, p. 262; Erskine et al, in press) to an increased sense of thriving—a psychological state in which individuals experience a sense of vitality and learning, feel alive at work, are passionate about what they do, produce their own energy through excitement for their work, believe they are getting better at what they do, and are not satisfied with the status quo (Porath, Spreitzer, Gibson, & Garnett, 2011; Spreitzer, Porath, & Gibson, 2012; Spreitzer, Sutcliffe, Dutton, Sonenshein, & Grant, 2005).…”

Section: Outcomes Of White Allyshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

White Allyship of Afro-Diasporic Women in the Workplace: A Transformative Strategy for Organizational Change

Erskine

Bilimoria

2019

Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies

Self Cite

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Given the underrepresentation of Afro-Diasporic women in senior leadership roles, this conceptual article points to the transformative potential of antiracist, feminist White allyship to serve as a missing piece in organizations that may propel the career development and leadership advancement of Afro-Diasporic women. We define White allyship as a continuous, reflexive practice of proactively interrogating Whiteness from an intersectionality framework, leveraging one’s position of power and privilege and courageously interrupting the status quo by engaging in prosocial behaviors that foster growth-in-connection and have both the intention and impact of creating mutuality, solidarity, and support of Afro-Diasporic women’s career development and leadership advancement. We describe the behaviors, outcomes, motivations, and detractors of White allyship and offer suggestions for future research. White allyship of Afro-Diasporic women holds important opportunities for meaningful relationships to develop in organizations, for which would-be allies need support, coaching, and training to increase their allyship competence and self-efficacy.

show abstract

Section: Outcomes Of White Allyshipmentioning

confidence: 99%

White Allyship of Afro-Diasporic Women in the Workplace: A Transformative Strategy for Organizational Change

Erskine

Bilimoria

2019

Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies

Self Cite

106

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…(Baxter-Nuamah, 2015). The levels of mental and emotional labor that is required for a Black woman in a position of leadership while maintaining her authentic racial and sexual identity has been identified as exhausting (Erskine et al, 2020). Alas, once the hurdle of the concrete ceiling has been overcome for these female leaders a new series of challenges present.…”

Section: Limited Vertical Mobility and The Concrete Ceilingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resilient Leadership: A Phenomenological Exploration Into How Black Women in Higher Education Leadership Navigate Cultural Adversity

Chance

2021

Journal of Humanistic Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article explores adversity and the lived experiences of Black women in higher education leadership. Using phenomenology, this study specifically explores how Black women in higher education leadership navigate the adverse challenges of intersectionality, stereotype threat, and tokenism. Black women in leadership undergo adversity including limited role models, the concrete ceiling, and the intersectionality of racism, sexism, and ageism, as well as tokenism. The current findings validate that Black women in higher education leadership experience adversity. Some of the more salient codes that emerged were discrimination such as racism, sexism, ageism, and the intersection of these challenges with identity, cultural diversity and belonging, resilience, and leadership callings. Referred to as “superwomen,” Black women are resilient and strong. The results of this study reveal that Black women use adversity as fuel, thus helping them develop the necessary skills to prepare them for leadership. Their strength through adversity is driven by the resilience that has manifested as motivation factors such as family and relationships, mentorship and sponsorship, as well as the support of cultural identity and diversity. The current findings support the notion that adversity shapes Black women into leaders with an emphasis on higher education leadership.

show abstract

“…Although, it is clear Black women face harmful prejudgments, which can impact how they are perceived, as well as how their work may be perceived (Erskine, et al, 2021), because of who the output is coming from, studies have proven these factors to be adversely influenced by stereotyped bias (Heilman, 2012), which spoke to the importance of the PSCT study (Kunda & Thagard, 1996), as mentioned earlier in this chapter.…”

Section: Dehumanisation Crises In Mie Work Environmentsmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…This inclusionary value construct is deemed necessary to deconstruct "interlocking systems of oppression" (Hull, et al, 2015) to best dismantle the interdependent systems (Collins, 2019;Carbado, et al, 2013) harming, not only them; but also, their spirits (Vega & Comer, 2005;Erskine, et al, 2021), and humanity (Fuller, 2016) more generally. Also, this approach, makes it more probable to (re)imagine and implement new possibilities, through "empowerment", as an integral part of the broader social justice and liberation project, for everyone (not just Black women), to be free (Lorde, 2009).…”

Section: Research Paradigm Black Feminist Social Constructivismmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In contrast, there has not been significant scholarship produced, to date, on Black women's career experiences in less examined, and more loosely business structured settings. Consequently, although scholars have advanced their respective fields, largely applying these theories and frameworks to academic (Clarke, 2010) and traditional corporate settings (Levchak, 2018;Erskine, et al, 2021), there remains a gap in the creative macro industries, such as music, which this doctoral thesis aims to fill and seeks to make an original contribution to knowledge productions in this area.…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectivesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Forget me not: demarginalising trailblazing and leading Black women’s WEIRD industrial, organisational, and societal career experiences with “power” in the world’s top music industry ecosystems

Blackwell¹

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Governments in the UK and US passed a slew of acts and laws, from 1960s onward, to prohibit discriminatory practices aimed at marginalised groups, across business and society. Despite these landmark rulings, it is still the case that ideological, institutional, interpersonal, and internalised acts of dehumanisation continue to permeate WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized [sic], Rich, and Democratic) consciousness, perceived-to-be justifiable behaviours, as well as (dysfunctional) ways of relating within cultural paradigms, as (nonaccountability) being ascribed to “social norms”. By framing this groundbreaking IO psychological research project, within multiple wider social contexts, while also centring the implications of “human (business) practices” in the music industry, I sought to cross-culturally examine trailblazing and leading UK and US Black women’s industrial, organisational, and societal career experiences, in this “equality” era. Accordingly, I developed this project from the specific lenses of Black women navigating “power”, “identity politics”, the “politics of identity” and the implications of social constructs, in the, purported-to-be, egalitarian, top- performing music industry ecosystems of the world. In commissioning both intersectionality theory (IT) and, what I will name, an “intrasectional” conceptual framework – a hybrid critical realist ontology and Black feminist epistemology (BFE), where reflexivity would be valued, were ultimately chosen to guide the methodological choices. Also, as narrative research is critical to understanding “lived experiences”, (a criterion in BFE), this thesis leaned towards a Big Q qualitative model, incorporating a multimethod design, featuring two reflexive thematic analyses, using archival data, for Study 1 (n=9 industry trailblazers), to inform the approach for in- depth semi-structured interviews, for Study 2 (n=12 industry leaders). Based on the findings, the themes I generated from Study 1 and Study 2, strongly indicate that Black women’s systemic WEIRD MIE career experiences, are an alarming cause for concern, as the negative workplace issues they tend to encounter fit the criteria of a “humanitarian crisis”, by the UN’s standards, which deserves macro-contexts, urgent attention, and a call- to-action for stakeholder and organisational interventions, as Black women spoke to themes of workplace abuse and incivility, prolonged poor mental and physical health outcomes, other forms of multidimensional exploitation, as well as experiences with disconnection, and barriers at every level in their careers, in the relationship-driven music industry. As these outcomes adversely impacted the pace and progression, as well as trajectories, of their careers across the multisectoral and occupational spectrums in the MIEs, this thesis sought to explore how and why, adding an original contribution to knowledge in psychology through this niche exploration.

show abstract

Afro-Diasporic women navigating the black ceiling: Individual, relational, and organizational strategies

Cited by 20 publications

References 41 publications

White Allyship of Afro-Diasporic Women in the Workplace: A Transformative Strategy for Organizational Change

White Allyship of Afro-Diasporic Women in the Workplace: A Transformative Strategy for Organizational Change

Resilient Leadership: A Phenomenological Exploration Into How Black Women in Higher Education Leadership Navigate Cultural Adversity

Forget me not: demarginalising trailblazing and leading Black women’s WEIRD industrial, organisational, and societal career experiences with “power” in the world’s top music industry ecosystems

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About