The interview method was used to conduct a qualitative case study in a large business corporation to discover the organizational culture that supports moving minority employees into management positions, the management practices that enables the phenomena to occur, and the experiences of minority employees who have become managers. The literature was reviewed to explore studies that presented data from African American's perspective about corporate life in America and the specific themes that emerged during this research project. Those themes are culture, learning organization, motivation, leadership, goals, reward, group development, and mentoring. This researcher found little empirical work existing on mentoring and few adequate models that utilize mentoring as a legitimate management development strategy. Therefore the researcher created theoretical constructs and the MENTOR model to improve practice in this area. The findings of this investigation are that organizational culture is based on the assumptions, values, and norms shared by organizational members, that a company can create a culture that values all employees including minorities, and that the company can implement management practices that result in positive work experiences for minority employees which enables them to become managers. The minority managers interviewed have the ability to "fit" into the IBM organization and they have gained acceptance. An invisible barrier or "glass ceiling" does not prevent minorities from advancing beyond lower or middle management positions. Today, there are already minorities at the executive level and the current focus is on moving minorities into the Corporate Officer positions that manage the business. The study creates new knowledge about the value and legitimacy of mentoring as a management development strategy and it produces knowledge directly relevant to managing a diverse work force. Suggestions are offered for future research.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:dissertations-8372 |
| Date | 01 January 1992 |
| Creators | Reid, Barbara Addison |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Source | Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest |
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