Black men and women continue to be vastly underrepresented in leadership roles in corporate America. Those who advance in majority-white organizations encounter both overt and implicit biases, and often struggle to feel authentic and connected, write contributors to the book Race, Work & Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience, edited by University of Virginia Darden School of Business professor Laura Morgan Roberts, Harvard Business School professor Anthony J. Mayo, and Morehouse College president David A. Thomas. The Program on Negotiation spoke with Roberts about the barriers facing African Americans who aspire to leadership roles and how to promote greater inclusion through negotiation best practices.
Program on Negotiation (PON): Overt discrimination aside, what subconscious or implicit biases do interviewers display toward Black applicants during the hiring process?
Laura Morgan Roberts: Some of the implicit biases that lead to lower likelihood of Black applicants being hired and Black workers being promoted include very subtle cues about racial identity, such as having a Black-sounding name. For instance, if two résumés are identical except for the name on top, the résumé with the Black-sounding name is much less likely to be selected, University of Chicago professors Marianne Bertrand and Sendhil Mullainathan, as well as others, have found in their research. When Black applicants show up for the interview, certain racial cues are penalized, including hairstyles. People who have an “ethnic” hairstyle are judged as being less professional and are less likely to receive opportunities, Tina Opie (Babson College), Katherine Phillips (Columbia Business School), and others have found in their work.
When it comes to performance evaluations, compelling research by Andrew Carton of the Wharton School of Business and Ashleigh Rosette of Duke University indicates that when Black leaders succeed, evaluators tend to give the credit to their team rather than to the individual. So, for instance, if a football team with a Black quarterback wins a game, the media is more likely to report on what the team did right. If the team with the Black quarterback loses, the media is more likely to report on the shortcomings of the Black quarterback himself. The converse is true for white quarterbacks. This discrepancy likely challenges Black job candidates, who may not receive full recognition for their prior leadership accomplishments.
PON: How can interviewers overcome these implicit biases?
LMR: First, by naming them. In many organizational contexts, race and racial bias are becoming unspeakable. Race is a scary topic, and being perceived as racist in any form is deeply threatening to the ego and psyche of members of dominant groups, especially white leaders. So the tendency is to shy away from conversations about implicit biases that disadvantage Black candidates and leaders. When we name them, we have a greater opportunity to pause before making assumptions.
Second, when evaluating a candidate’s profile, it’s important to recognize the various obstacles that many African American candidates had to traverse to get to where they are. For instance, when you’re evaluating two graduates from an MBA program, look not only at their degree and class placement but also at their journey to and through the entire educational system.
Metaphorically speaking, one student may have traveled on a smooth road with a prepaid gas card; the other student may have traveled on a dirt road and had to stop to work to buy more gas. People often debate which students have access to greater or less privilege. In many cases, racial prejudice constitutes a bumpy dirt road. This doesn’t mean you have to lower the bar for a Black student who traveled this road. Rather, it means respecting and recognizing the incredible talent, endurance, and ingenuity that many African American leaders have displayed for years before they even show up at the hiring organization—and viewing it as a source of strength.
PON: What hurdles do Black leaders face, and how might they negotiate to overcome them?
LMR: One is the experience of trying to navigate your own career path in an organization where you’re a numerical minority. In those situations, Black employees feel more pressure to behave in inauthentic ways at work. They may feel they need to modify their appearance or what they share about their interests and families, and so forth, if they believe those attributes will be stigmatized, research by Courtney McCluney shows. On a personal level, I have had to learn how to negotiate with myself about my own identity and the tradeoffs I’m willing to make for the sake of advancement. We’ve heard many Black leaders strategize about that type of agentic and calculated processing—which is often fraught with tension but also sometimes rather empowering. Black employees are making a set of decisions about what aspects of their racial identity they want to share at work and which they would rather not. They have to decide what tradeoffs feel most ethical, comfortable, and sustainable for them.
The other hurdle that African American leaders often have to negotiate has to do with taking on different types of job opportunities. In our book, Simmons University president dean Lynn Perry Wooten and Wharton School dean Erika Hayes James describe their research showing that African Americans are disproportionately more likely than whites to be offered and to accept “glass-cliff” CEO assignments—risky leadership positions that involve managing organizations in crisis. Again, those are tradeoffs African Americans are making to have the opportunity to lead. One interpretation is that Black CEOs are more comfortable taking on such positions because many of them had to travel a dirt road with little gas in the tank to get to where they are. So, they’re not afraid of a challenge. The question they face is, “What is my BATNA, or best alternative to a negotiated agreement? This is my only option to lead. I’m going to have to take this risk because what is my alternative?”
PON: What can those in the majority do to increase diversity and inclusion in their organizations?
LMR: Our book highlights three key roles that guide the pathway toward change and that ultimately have to work together. The first key role is that of the bottom-up outsider advocate—those students who took matters into their own hands and said, “We’re tired of hearing that you can’t find qualified applicants. Just give us the support and resources, and we’ll show you how it’s done.”
The second key role is top-down, at the C-suite level. Diversity and inclusion research shows that senior management has to be onboard in a genuine and sincere way. People who are in positions of power have to take public leadership actions to shape the culture, determine the reward systems, and place a higher premium on diverse talent.
The third key role is that of ally. White partners need to have a level of humility that communicates they don’t know everything about the Black experience but are interested and open to learning. They also need to take ownership of the problem, so it’s not just thrust upon the shoulders of the person on the margins. Allies’ most important role is as bridge builders to the dominant group. Many folks in power get fixated on retaining their power, so they presume that inclusion is a zero-sum game—“Why should I give up my seat at the table?” White allies can help organizational stakeholders view inclusion as akin to integrative bargaining, not distributive bargaining.
For example, how can we expand our resources to maximize diverse human potential? Then white allies can articulate the BATNA of failing to change: For people on the margins, what are the costs of homogeneity, exclusion, and identity suppression in organizations? Why would the CEO care if these individuals are less represented and included? Organizations often fail to articulate what they like about their BATNA—the status quo. Allies can help drive that conversation.
What experience do you have with implicit biases in the workplace, whether as an applicant, employee, or interviewer?
