Rethinking How to Build Inclusive Organizations

Race, Work, and Leadership is a rare and important compilation of essays that examines how race matters in people's experience of work and leadership. What does it mean to be black in corporate America today? How are racial dynamics in organizations changing? How do we build inclusive organizations?

Inspired by and developed in conjunction with the research and programming for Harvard Business School's commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the HBS African American Student Union, this groundbreaking book shines new light on these and other timely questions and illuminates the present-day dynamics of race in the workplace. Contributions from top scholars, researchers, and practitioners in leadership, organizational behavior, psychology, sociology, and education test the relevance of long-held assumptions and reconsider the research approaches and interventions needed to understand and advance African Americans in work settings and leadership roles.

At a time when--following a peak in 2002--there are fewer African American men and women in corporate leadership roles, Race, Work, and Leadership will stimulate new scholarship and dialogue on the organizational and leadership challenges of African Americans and become the indispensable reference for anyone committed to understanding, studying, and acting on the challenges facing leaders who are building inclusive organizations.

Laura Morgan Roberts is a Teaching Professor of Management at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard Business School's Gender Initiative, researching the influence of African American business leaders. She has previously served on the faculties of Harvard Business School and Antioch University and has taught courses at Wharton, Tuck, the University of Michigan, and UCLA. She is the cofounder of RPAQ Solutions, Inc., a research and consulting firm that brings strength-based practices to leaders who seek extraordinary performance and personal fulfillment. She is the author of numerous research articles, teaching cases, and practitioner-oriented tools, as well as two influential Harvard Business Review articles. Anthony J. Mayo is the Thomas S. Murphy Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit of Harvard Business School. He currently teaches Leadership and Organizational Behavior and Authentic Leader Development in the MBA program; he also teaches extensively in leadership-based executive education programs. With Nitin Nohria, he is the coauthor of In Their Time and Paths to Power, both published by Harvard Business Review Press. David A. Thomas is President of Morehouse College. He previously served as Dean of Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business and as Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, where he launched numerous initiatives for undergraduates, MBAs, faculty, and staff and grew the Executive Education program by 400 percent. His research addresses issues related to leadership, executive development, and cultural diversity in organizations, and his book, Breaking Through, coauthored with fellow HBS professor John J. Gabarro, is the standard on how minorities become executives.

Author social media/website info:
Laura Morgan Roberts: lauramorganroberts.com/index.htm, twitter.com/alignmentquest
Anthony J. Mayo: hbs.edu
David A. Thomas: twitter.com/morehouseprez

Race, Work, and Leadership is a rare and important compilation of essays that examines how race matters in people's experience of work and leadership. What does it mean to be black in corporate America today? How are racial dynamics in organizations changing in a post-Obama era? How do we build inclusive organizations?

Inspired by and developed in conjunction with the research and programming for Harvard Business School's 2018 celebration of the 50th anniversary of the founding of the HBS African American Student Union, this groundbreaking book shines new light on these and other timely questions and illuminates the present-day dynamics of race in the workplace. Contributions from top scholars, researchers, and practitioners in leadership, organizational behavior, psychology, sociology, and education test the relevance of long-held assumptions and reconsider the research approaches and interventions needed to understand and advance African Americans in work settings and leadership roles.

At a time when there are fewer African American men and women in corporate leadership roles (following a peak in 2002), Race, Work, and Leadership will stimulate new scholarship and dialogue on the organizational and leadership challenges of African Americans and become the indispensable reference for anyone committed to understanding, studying, and acting on the challenges facing leaders who are building inclusive organizations.