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Improving workforce diversity and inclusion in higher education leadership
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Running Head: IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 1
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION IN HIGHER EDUCATION
LEADERSHIP
by
Shuna Holmes McMichael
A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC ROSSIER SCHOOL OF EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
May 2020
Copyright 2020 Shuna H. McMichael
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 2
DEDICATION
To my late parents, I dedicate this dissertation to you. Despite being taken away from me
at such a very young age, I know I inherited your strength, determination, tenacity, and courage
to pursue such a huge accomplishment. Because of you, I am the first in our family, on both
sides, to accomplish this great feat and I know I have made you both proud.
A special dedication to my wonderful husband, James McMichael. You are my rock, my
BALANCE, my voice of reasoning with persistent motivation and words of encouragement
throughout my academic journey and marriage. Most importantly, thank you for patience! To
my beautiful three children, Brittnei, KeiAndre, and J’Sean and bonus daughter, Leiani; your
encouragement, faith and belief in me has been a source of my strength to keep going. I am
encouraged to be a role model each of you would be proud of, as well as being an example to
follow. To my little “big” brother, John Holmes, I also dedicate this dissertation to you; you are
a walking miracle.
To my bonus “mothers” I gained, Mrs. Eunice Henderson (step-mom), Mrs. Sidney
Miller (aunt/guardian), Ms. Elaine Gibson (god-mother), and Mrs. Lilia McMichael (mother-n-
law); each of you helped shaped me into the woman, mother, and wife I am today by providing
unconditional love and support throughout my life in the absence of my parents. A special
dedication to my Aunt Sidney, for being that first role model of what a college graduate and a
professional business woman looks like. As research supports, we aspire to be what we can see.
By seeing you, watching you, and learning from you, significantly shaped and transformed my
life and career as a successful Black Woman aiming and dedicated to impact and empower the
lives of others. Lastly, to my siblings, immediate family members, and dearest friends I have
lost along this journey, I love and miss you but I know you are with me in spirit.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 3
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
There are many individuals I would like to personally acknowledge, instead I will say
THANK YOU to everyone in my support group, near and far, for encouraging me! Special
acknowledgement to my Organizational Change and Leadership (OCL) peer learners, you are
now my Trojan extended family.
I had the privilege of being a member of two great Cohorts and also be a part of the
Saturday Warriors. Additionally, I would like to personally acknowledge two of my classmates,
Christopher Smith and Marchelle Broussard. No matter the time or hour, whenever I reached out
to Christopher, he was always there willing to assist. To my writing partner, Marchelle (Write
On, Fight On!), thank you for sharing resources, being that sounding board, and support system I
needed. I especially thank you for making my transition into the new Cohort a pleasant one, as
well as, introducing me to new academic, professional, and personal adventures.
To my social media friends and doctoral support groups, especially #DoctoralMomLife.
Having the opportunity to share this academic journey with others experiencing the highs and
lows of the doctoral pursuit, as well as, being vulnerable and sharing our immediate family with
our new extended family of female scholars was invaluable. Despite being a small
representation of women having a terminal degree, your ongoing support was a true lifeline
regardless the hour or topic.
To my dissertation committee, Dr. Angela Hasan (Chair), Dr. Darnell Cole and Dr.
Susanne Foulk, thank you for your guidance, willingness, and commitment to support me in
accomplishing this great milestone. Lastly, to my research participants, THANK YOU for
lending your voices, your contributions, and your willingness to support my research study.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 4
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication .......................................................................................................................................2
Acknowledgements .........................................................................................................................3
List of Tables ...................................................................................................................................7
List of Figures ..................................................................................................................................8
Abstract ...........................................................................................................................................9
Introduction to the Problem of Practice .........................................................................................10
Context of the Field of Practice .....................................................................................................11
Importance of Addressing the Problem .........................................................................................12
Global Goal and Current Performance ..........................................................................................13
Stakeholder Group of Focus .........................................................................................................14
Purpose of the Project and Questions ...........................................................................................15
Conceptual Framework .................................................................................................................15
Review of the Literature ...............................................................................................................17
Advancing Workforce Diversity in Higher Education Leadership ...................................17
Increasing Women of Color in Higher Education Leadership .....................................19
Barriers and challenges ........................................................................................19
Career development ............................................................................................. 20
Inclusion in leadership ......................................................................................... 22
Knowledge, Motivation, and Organizational Influences ...............................................................24
Knowledge .............................................................................................................................25
Motivation ..............................................................................................................................28
Organization ..........................................................................................................................30
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 5
Interactive Conceptual Framework ............................................................................................... 32
Methodological Approach ........................................................................................................... 34
Data Collection and Instrumentation ........................................................................................... 35
Surveys .................................................................................................................................. 36
Interviews ............................................................................................................................. 37
Data Analysis ............................................................................................................................... 39
Participating Stakeholders ............................................................................................................ 44
Researcher Positionality ............................................................................................................... 46
Results and Findings .................................................................................................................... 47
Knowledge ............................................................................................................................. 48
Motivation.............................................................................................................................. 54
Organization .......................................................................................................................... 66
Summary ................................................................................................................................ 71
Limitations .................................................................................................................................... 72
Future Research ............................................................................................................................ 72
References ..................................................................................................................................... 74
Appendix A: Sampling Criteria for Surveys ................................................................................. 83
Appendix B: Survey Protocols...................................................................................................... 84
Appendix C: Validity and Reliability ........................................................................................... 85
Appendix D: Assumed Knowledge Influences Survey Item Matrix ........................................... 86
Appendix E: Assumed Motivation Influences Survey Item Matrix ............................................. 87
Appendix F: Assumed Organization Influences Survey Items Matrix ........................................ 88
Appendix G: Sampling Criteria for Interviews ............................................................................ 89
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 6
Appendix H: Interviews Protocols ............................................................................................... 90
Appendix I: Credibility and Trustworthiness .............................................................................. 91
Appendix J: Assumed KM Influences Interview items for RQ1 ................................................. 92
Appendix K: Ethics ...................................................................................................................... 93
Appendix L: Recommendation for Practice to Address KMO ................................................... 94
Appendix M: Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan ................................................. 103
Appendix N: Evaluation Instrument .......................................................................................... 116
Appendix O: Blended Evaluation Instrument ............................................................................ 117
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 7
LIST OF TABLES
Table 1. Assumed KMO Influences and Supporting Literature ................................................. 31
Table 2. Quantitative Data Preparation ....................................................................................... 41
Table 3. Qualitative Data Preparation ......................................................................................... 42
Table 4. Emerged Themes .......................................................................................................... 43
Table 5. Demographics of Survey Participants ........................................................................... 44
Table 6. Institutional Demographics of Survey Participants ...................................................... 45
Table 7. Demographics of Interview Participants ....................................................................... 46
Table 8. Summary Validated Influences as Determined by the Data ......................................... 72
Table 9. Summary of Knowledge Influences Recommendations ............................................... 93
Table 10. Summary of Motivation Influences Recommendations ............................................. 95
Table 11. Summary of Organization Influences Recommendations .......................................... 98
Table 12. Outcomes, Metrics, and Methods for External and Internal ...................................... 104
Table 13. Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation ........................... 105
Table 14. Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors ........................................................ 106
Table 15. Evaluation of the Components of Learning for the Program ..................................... 110
Table 16. Components to Measure Reactions to the Program .................................................. 111
Table 17. Bi-annual Human Resources Executive Report ........................................................ 114
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 8
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1. Three-tiered Approach to Institutional Diversity ......................................................... 13
Figure 2. Gap Analysis Process ................................................................................................... 16
Figure 3. Interactive Conceptual Framework ............................................................................. 34
Figure 4. Convergent Parallel ..................................................................................................... 35
Figure 5. Convergent Parallel: Data collection and analysis flowchart ...................................... 39
Figure 6. Data analysis and disaggregated “Not Difficult” results survey item #2 ..................... 49
Figure 7. Data analysis and disaggregated “No” results for survey item #6 ............................... 53
Figure 8. Data analysis and disaggregated “Yes” results survey item #9 .................................. 55
Figure 9. Data analysis and disaggregated “Disagree” results survey item #12 ........................ 56
Figure 10. Data analysis and disaggregated “Yes” results survey item #14 ............................... 60
Figure 11. Data analysis and disaggregated “Strongly Agree” results survey item #16 ............. 60
Figure 12. Data analysis and disaggregated “Strongly Agree” results survey item #17 ............. 61
Figure 13. Data analysis and disaggregated “Disagree” results survey item #19 ........................ 64
Figure 14. Relationship Between Organization and Individual .................................................. 64
Figure 15. Cultural model visual analysis for survey item #21 .................................................. 67
Figure 16. Cultural model visual analysis for survey item #23 .................................................. 68
Figure 17. Cultural model visual analysis for survey item #24 ................................................... 68
Figure 18. Cultural setting visual analysis for survey item #25 ................................................. 70
Figure 19. Cultural setting visual analysis for survey item #28 ................................................. 70
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 9
ABSTRACT
Diversity, in education, is a major and continuous concern in the United States (US). The
purpose of this study is to examine the lack of diversity of non-academic leadership roles in
higher education and what more can be done to improve the recruitment, career development,
and retention of high-performing individuals seeking such roles. Research shows having a
diverse workplace has benefits as well as risks associated with the lack of institutional
commitment to advancing diversity (Jean-Marie, 2011), yet the lack of minority representation in
the higher education workforce remains. There have been many research studies focusing on the
benefits of having a diverse faculty and student population, but unfortunately, limited research is
available to identify the benefits of having a diverse workforce in higher education
administration. The researcher utilized a convergent parallel mixed-method to assess the
knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences from the perception of Black Women
currently employed in non-academic roles. Data gathered from surveys and interviews were
analyzed to determine if the identified gaps were validated as a negative (gap), partially
validated, or validated as a positive (asset). The key stakeholders in this research study were a
small representation, resulting in global generalization not being made. In the research study,
gaps related to knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences were revealed. The data
revealed the lack of procedural knowledge, motivation, and organizational support of Black
Women being valued, encouraged or considered for non-academic leadership roles at their
current institutions. The results and findings from the data are intended to be utilized by
Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to answer research question two, supported by the
Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick New World Mode to advance workforce diversity in higher
education non-academic leadership.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 10
Introduction to the Problem of Practice
The lack of diversity in the workforce is an important issue and remains a problem,
despite the changing demographics dynamics in the United States (US) (Burns, Barton, & Kerby,
2012). The lack of diversity is also prevalent in education administration workforce, defined as
K-12 and Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs). In 2007, there were 108,478 women
professionals, which constituted 41% White Women and of that only 6% were African
American, 1.6% were Asian, and 2.7 % were Hispanics (Jean-Marie, 2011). Per the Department
of Professional Employees, the workforce of education professionals is approximately 928,000.
The low 13.4% Black or African American, 9.3% Hispanic or Latino, and 3.8% Asian
demonstrates a racial and ethnic deficiency in the profession (Department for Professional
Employees [DPE], 2016; U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2017).
The lack of diversity remained among education professionals, despite the increase of the
number of Women in 2015 (School Professionals: An Occupational Overview, 2016).
Employees of Color remain under-represented despite widespread organizational commitment to
the advancement of diversity initiatives (Buttner, Lowe, & Billings-Harris, 2009). This is a
significant diversity issue because there is more to educating students to prepare them to work in
a diverse workforce; the institutions of learning themselves should also display diversity (Vos,
Celik, & de Vries, 2016). The evidence highlights that organizations with cultural diversity can
be beneficial and have a positive effect in the workplace. Having a diverse workforce creates
different backgrounds and brings a different frame of thinking, which can increase creativity and
innovation (Martin, 2014).
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 11
Context of the Field of Practice
Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) are first defined as public and private nonprofit
educational institutions, proprietary institutions, postsecondary vocational institutions, and
vocational schools per the federal register (34 C.F.R. § 86.7) and are governed by the Higher
Education Act of 1965 (HEA). IHEs can be recognized as degree and non-degree-granting
institutions sharing similar missions and beliefs. Some similarities are assuring access to a high-
quality education to students and the public (Eaton, 2012) and that diversity in student
population, faculty and staff is important to help fill their mission (ACE, 2012). One of the
known strengths of the higher education system in America is the collective diversity among
them (American Council on Education, 2012). As colleges and universities face the pressures of
remaining competitive, the needs of the students and public are changing as diversity rapidly
evolves.
Leaders in higher education also encounter demands to create a change in culture setting
among their campus community that promotes a sense of inclusion and reflective of the diverse
student population they serve (Hannum, Muhly, & Shockley-Zalabak, 2015). Such leaders of
these institutions should avoid putting their own personal interest, or that of their board, before
that of the organization. Many post-secondary institutions share a common belief and
organizational mission that preserving diversity is essential in providing access to a high-quality
education. However, defining institutional diversity varies per IHE and one definition does not
fit all. It is important the meaning of diversity, in an IHEs mission and vision statement, is
inclusive of faculty, administration, and professional staff at all levels in addition to the student
population (University of Southern California, 2017). It is equally important Institutions of
Higher Education (IHEs) recruit faculty and administrative staff that are representative of their
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 12
student population as well as the population of the state in which they reside (State University of
New York, 2015). The Colleges and University Professional Association for Human Resources
(CUPA-HR) and the U.S. Department of Education (ED) provides statistical ethnicity
employment data for post-secondary institutions in the US and the underrepresentation of Black
Women working in higher education is visible. An improvement field study will be conducted
of Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) throughout the US to assess barriers and challenges
that affects advancing workforce diversity.
Importance of Addressing the Problem
The lack of diversity in the US is not just a workforce problem for education but a
problem for the economy as well (Green, López, Wysocki, & Kepner, 2002). Sanchez-Hucles
and Davis (2010) state the needs of organizations are not being met due to the US not producing
enough education leaders. If the lack of diversity in key sectors, such as gender and minorities,
are not solved or there is not a visible increase in the workforce, there could be consequences
related to economic competitiveness (Burns et al., 2012). Bringing people together from various
background is what is needed to remain competitive economically (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009).
Burns et al. (2012) have suggested that having a culturally diverse workforce fosters new
thinking and enhances an organization's ability to be economically competitive. Improving
diversity in education administration workforce not only contributes to economic growth but also
pave the way for social mobility (Hannum et al., 2015).
To meet the need of the changing demographic dynamics in the US requires changing the
organizational culture and minimizing the identified barriers (Hannum et at., 2015). An
organization with a culturally diverse workforce can be beneficial with the expanded knowledge
of their employees, thus contributing to different ways of thinking and a variety of perspectives
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 13
to analyze a matter (Martin, 2014). The benefits to an organization when the workforce is
racially and ethnically diverse is that it contributes to attracting and recruiting the best talent,
which increases creativity and innovation (Milem, 2003). When diversity is present,
organizational performance is enhanced (Burns et al., 2012).
Global Goal and Current Performance
The organizational performance problem at the root of this field study is low
representation of Black Women in non-academic leadership roles at degree-granting institutions
of higher education (IHEs) in America. IHEs are continuously looking for strategies to improve
ethnic and racial diversity among students and faculty, however, little attention is given to the
importance of diversification of non-academic workforce, represented in Figure 1 below
(Jackson & O'Callaghan, 2009). The non-academic workforce are just as equally important and
committed as the faculty members that play an invaluable role in contributing to the mission of
their institution of higher education.
Figure 1. Three-Tiered Approach to Institutional Diversity. Adapted from “Ethnic and
racial administrative diversity: Understanding work life realities and experiences in
higher education,” J. L. Jackson and E. M. O’Callaghan, 2009, ASHE Higher Education
Report, 35(3), p. 5.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 14
Stakeholder Group of Focus
The global goal is to advance the workforce by improving diversity recruitment and
promote inclusion among non-academic leaders in higher education. For the focus of this field
study, the primary stakeholders selected were non-academic professionals in higher education.
The target group are those individuals with non-teaching responsibilities, also known as non-
academic professional responsible for day-to-day operations and services at colleges and
universities (Knapp, Kelly-Reid, & Ginder, 2009). Despite the contributions of the non-
academic workforce to the academic success of student learners, the diversity and inclusion of
this group is often given little attention in research in comparison to students and faculty
(Jackson & O'Callaghan, 2009; Milem, 2003).
The participants recruited, from the non-academic workforce, were currently employed
Black Women aspiring to be leaders in higher education administration. Administrative
leadership are senior-level leaders at colleges and universities and is an interchangeable term
(Rosser, 2004). Being a leader in higher education should be a professional career inclusive to
everyone. Therefore, it is necessary for Black Women to have an equal opportunity for access,
attainment and career advancement opportunities.
The secondary stakeholders of this field study are Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs)
and are also known as the organization. IHEs consists of Human Resources (HR) and Executive
Leadership working together collaboratively to make data-driven decisions, recommendations,
and implementation of new initiatives to serve the community of the organization and advance
the diversity of the non-academic workforce. IHEs’ Human Resources are responsible for the
recruiting of human capital, building relationships, as well as providing guidance and ensuring
compliance of employees’ rights, in addition to knowing the organization’s personnel needs
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 15
necessary to achieve its institutional mission and goals (HR Professionals, n.d.). Executive
Leadership has decision-making authority with responsibilities to carry out organizational
change beneficial to all stakeholders (Kezar & Holcombe, 2017).
Purpose of the Project and Questions
The Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis is a performance improvement model to
identify potential barriers and causes within the organization. The purpose is to gain an
understanding of how to improve current policies and practices to achieve an increasingly
diverse workforce in leadership at IHEs. The gap analysis was applied to examine the root cause
by utilizing the knowledge, motivation, and organizational framework. The primary
stakeholders of focus for this study are non-academic Black Women professionals.
The analysis focused on barriers identified in the Association for the Study of Higher
Education (ASHE) Higher Education Report by Jackson and O’Callaghan (2009). The barriers
identified in the literature that guided the assumed influences for this study addressed target areas
of recruiting, inclusion, advancement and retention As such, the questions that guide this study
were the following:
1. What are the barriers and challenges contributing to the underrepresentation of non-
academic Black Women in leadership roles at post-secondary institutions from the
knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences perspective?
2. What strategies are recommended to improve existing workforce diversity policies and
practices?
Conceptual Framework
The Clark and Estes (2008) Knowledge, Motivation, and Organization (KMO) gap
analysis, also referred to as the “Big Three” (p.43), was applied in the field study. The gap
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 16
analysis is a performance improvement model to identify continuous causes within the
organization (Clark & Estes, 2008). The “Big Three” assumed gaps are from three distinct
categories: knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences (Clark & Estes, 2008). The
KMO framework provides an analytic and systematic method that allows for organizational and
stakeholder performance goals to first be clarified. After the clarification of the organizational
and stakeholder performance goals are made visible, the gaps between actual performance level
and performance level gaps, within an organization, are identified (Clark & Estes, 2008).
Figure 2. The Gap Analysis Process. Adapted from Clark and Estes (2008) and Rueda (2015)
For the purpose of this study six assumed influences were chosen from relevant literature
to support the KMO framework of Clark and Estes (2008). The data of the perceived
knowledge, motivation, and organizational barriers and challenges of Black Women currently
employed at IHEs were analyzed to validate the assumed influences as a negative (gap)
contributing to the organizational performance goals. Recommendations are made that will
outline solutions to implement, evaluate and monitor to improve workforce diversity. While the
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 17
joint efforts of all stakeholders will contribute to the achievement of the overall global goal, it is
important for IHEs to examine the impact of knowledge, motivation, and organization
improvements needed to create new initiatives to promote diversity and inclusion and amending
policies and practices to recruit and retain non-academic Black Women in leadership roles.
Review of the Literature
The review of the research addresses the benefits of a diverse faculty and student
population as it relates to students. In particular, the research on non-academic administrators of
color focused primarily on those in student affairs and athletics. The analysis of the literature
revealed there is a gap in identifying the benefits of having an overall diverse higher education
administration workforce beyond faculty, students, athletics, and student affairs. Fine &
Handelsman (2010) stated, “Despite the benefits that a diverse faculty, staff, and student body
provide to a campus, diversity also presents considerable challenges that must be addressed and
overcome” (p. 4).
Advancing Workforce Diversity in Higher Education Leadership
Diversity, in education, is a major and continuous concern in the US, however, when
diversity is present in an organization, enhanced performance is visible (Burns et al., 2012). As
the population of post-secondary students continues to become more diversified, it should be
equally important for the same representation to be visible among leadership. Additionally, the
US reflects a diverse population, yet this diversity is deficient in the workforce of education
professionals. Great leadership at IHEs can result in success, however, success can be limited by
the lack of diversity (Hannum et al., 2015). Lacking diversity at the leadership level can limit
the success of an IHE, however, those displaying the skills to act as change agents can benefit
the organization (Dowdy & Hamilton, 2011).
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 18
● Hannum, K. M., Muhly, S. M., Shockley-Zalabak, P. S., & White, J. S. (2015). Women
leaders within higher education in the United States: Supports, barriers, and experiences
of being a senior leader. Advancing Women in Leadership
○ Advancing and promoting non-academic Women leaders in higher education does
not just benefit Women overall, but the institution and society as a whole.
○ Despite the fact that Women of Color are overrepresented relative to population,
fewer female colleagues are visible the higher a woman climbs in leadership.
● Jackson, J. L., & O'Callaghan, E. M. (2009). Ethnic and racial administrative diversity:
Understanding work-life realities and experiences in higher education. ASHE Higher
Education Report
○ Diversity is a significant and important factor in higher education, which is
relative to every aspect of life.
● Jean-Marie, G., Williams, V., & Sherman, S. (2009). Black Women's Leadership
Experiences: Examining the Intersectionality of Race and Gender. Advances in
Developing Human Resources
○ Women of Color professionals at IHEs doubled from 13% to 32% over a 10-year
period, however, the percentage was minimal in comparison to White Women.
● Valverde, L. A. (2011). Chapter 3 Women of Color: Their Path to Leadership Makes for
a Better Higher Education for All. In Women of Color in Higher Education: Turbulent
Past, Promising Future.
○ Women of Color have been successful in advancing into administrative roles;
however, the progress is slow.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 19
○ Per the Chronicle of Higher Education 2006 almanac issue, 18.6% was reported
for senior-level Women of Color professionals per the U.S. Department of
Education 2009 statistic report and in 2007 23% of administrative and managerial
staff in higher education were Women of Color.
Increasing Women of Color in Higher Education Leadership
Barriers and challenges. Women seeking leadership roles at IHEs are often met with
challenges and barriers, yet Women of Color are distinctively different. Men dominate in
leadership roles in higher education administration; Women are just as worthy of inclusion of
senior administrative positions. IHEs should place institutional importance on barriers and
challenges identified as contributing factors to lack of representation of Women of Color in
leadership roles.
● Hannum, K. M., Muhly, S. M., Shockley-Zalabak, P. S., & White, J. S. (2015). Women
leaders within higher education in the United States: Supports, barriers, and experiences
of being a senior leader. Advancing Women in Leadership
○ Women of all ethnicities face barriers to being a senior leader at IHEs, however,
Women of Color face multiple challenges.
● Jean-Marie, G. (2011). “Unfinished agendas”: Trends in Women of Color's status in
higher education. In Women of Color in Higher: Turbulent Past, Promising Future.
○ Lack of representation of Women of Color leaders in education can be contributed
to the additional barriers and multiple challenges not common to White Women.
● Jean-Marie, G., Williams, V., & Sherman, S. (2009). Black Women's Leadership
Experiences: Examining the Intersectionality of Race and Gender. Advances in
Developing Human Resources
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 20
○ When examining the lack of increased presence of Women of Color in IHEs,
workplace barriers exists.
● Valverde, L. A. (2011). Chapter 3 Women of Color: Their Path to Leadership Makes for
a Better Higher Education for All. In Women of Color in Higher Education: Turbulent
Past, Promising Future.
○ Women of Color in leadership are known to overcome hardship, in addition to
gender bias, racism, and white privilege.
○ To meet the need of the changing demographic dynamics in the United States
requires changing the organizational culture and minimizing the identified
barriers of Women of Color.
Career development. Failure to prepare, cultivate or recruit non-academic Women
leaders in higher education could limit the pool of talented replacements and the success of the
institution. It is difficult to aspire future Women leaders in higher education if role models are
not visible at the top.
● Dowdy, J. K., & Hamilton, A. (2011). Lessons from a Black woman administrator: "I'm
still here." The Negro Educational Review
○ Working in a predominantly White work environment, Women of Color rely on
their own vision and become somewhat thick-skinned on a personal level while
determined and inspired by the challenges to succeed in all professional
situations.
○ Minimizing the identified barriers for Women of Color could lead to increased
representation.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 21
○ Women of Color are met with barriers as they climb the professional ladder, more
than their white counterparts, as well as seeing fewer colleagues as they achieve
higher leadership positions.
● Dunn, D., Gerlach, J. M., & Hyle, A. E. (2014). Gender and leadership: reflections of
Women in higher education administration. International Journal of Leadership and
Change
○ Becoming a successful leader cannot be achieved alone, it requires the help of
others through networking and mentorship.
○ Such networking and mentorship first must be visible before it can become
obtainable.
● Horsford, S. D. (2012). This bridge called my leadership: An essay on Black Women as
bridge leaders in education. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
○ Black Women in education have historically practiced Bridge leadership,
resulting in the ability to serve as a bridge across divisions, contradictions, and
differences.
● Jean-Marie, G., Williams, V., & Sherman, S. (2009). Black Women's Leadership
Experiences: Examining the Intersectionality of Race and Gender. Advances in
Developing Human Resources
○ Double jeopardy, the intersection of race and gender of Black Women seeking to
ascend to leadership careers in higher education.
● Sanchez-Hucles, J. V., & Davis, D. D. (2010). Women and Women of Color in
leadership: Complexity, identity, and intersectionality. American Psychologist
○ Mentoring and the importance of Women of Color to attain success in leadership.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 22
○ Such success, for Women of Color, in educational leadership can become mentors
to those who will follow them.
Inclusion in leadership. Women of Color are often referred to as natural leaders due to
having the ability to turn a difficult situation to their advantage and are often ignored and
overlooked for leadership roles in IHEs due to occupational segregation, gender differences,
female stereotypes, and inadequate career opportunities. Racial and gender inequality continues
to exist in the higher education workforce and the burden is proving you are a victim.
● Dunn, D., Gerlach, J. M., & Hyle, A. E. (2014). Gender and leadership: reflections of
Women in higher education administration. International Journal of Leadership and
Change
○ “The underrepresentation of Women in academic administration suggest that
masculine practices and leadership norms functions exclude Women.” (p. 9).
○ Leadership in higher education administration is not gender specific.
○ A strong effective leadership in higher education is a diverse leadership.
● Jean-Marie, G. (2011). “Unfinished agendas”: Trends in Women of Color's status in
higher education. In Women of Color in Higher: Turbulent Past, Promising Future.
○ IHEs are faced with institutional challenges brought on by organizational climate
and culture.
○ “At the institutional level, advancing diversity through the alignment of policies
and procedures and practices ensures the development of diverse talents for
Women of Color.” (p. 14).
○ There are great risks associated to the lack of institutional commitment to
advancing diversity.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 23
○ It is evident there are Women of Color that are more than capable of being
successful in leadership role, however, improving the experience to increase the
numbers can benefit the organization.
● Jean-Marie, G., Williams, V., & Sherman, S. (2009). Black Women's Leadership
Experiences: Examining the Intersectionality of Race and Gender. Advances in
Developing Human Resources
○ The diversity and inclusion of Women of Color in leadership continues be
deficient at Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) in the United States despite
the changing population demographic dynamics.
○ Despite IHEs being ethnically and racially diverse, little attention continues to be
given to improving Women of Color serving in non-academic leadership roles.
● Luedke, C. L. (2017). Person First, Student Second: Staff and Professionals of Color
Supporting Students of Color Authentically in Higher Education. Journal of College
Student Development
○ The importance of having non-academic professionals of Color and the benefits
provided to students of Color.
○ The research data revealed, “White staff and professionals did not support
Students of Color holistically.” (p. 37).
● Sanchez-Hucles, J. V., & Davis, D. D. (2010). Women and Women of Color in
leadership: Complexity, identity, and intersectionality. American Psychologist
○ The lack of Women qualified to serve as leaders to meet the needs of the
organization and how to expand the number of Women and Women of Color in
leadership positions.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 24
○ The needs of organizations are not being met due to the United States not
producing enough leaders, the barriers identified of Women of Color may restrict
leadership opportunities.
● Valverde, L. A. (2011). Chapter 3 Women of Color: Their Path to Leadership Makes for
a Better Higher Education for All. In Women of Color in Higher Education: Turbulent
Past, Promising Future.
○ The lack of institutional commitment and follow-through to invest and foster
diversity contributes to the low representation of Women of Color as educational
leaders at IHEs in the United States.
○ Women of Color possess natural leadership styles of participatory and
transformational, resulting in the ability “…they are better able to redesign
institutions, change outdated practices, and shape the future of IHEs to fit the new
paradigms...” (p. 51).
Knowledge, Motivation and Organization Influences
Clark and Estes’ (2008) gap analysis guided this research. According to Aguinis &
Kraiger (2009), the organizational framework of IHEs’ settings are comprised of human capital:
“the collective set of performance-relevant knowledge, skills, and attitudes within a workforce
(at an organizational or societal level)” (p. 453). What more can be done to improve the
attraction and retention of the most talented and qualified applicants from all ethnicities? When
looking at the administration supporting the higher education infrastructure, faculty (academic)
personnel is a small percentage in comparison to non-academic professionals (Liebmann, 1986).
Historical research supports the neglect of non-academic professionals in higher education. By
utilizing past research, field research, and the gap analysis model of Clark and Estes (2008),
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 25
currently employed Black Women will be assessed through the improvement model to determine
if the identified knowledge, motivation, and organizational barriers and challengers are causes
contributing to the gap.
The KMO conceptual framework of Clark and Estes (2008) examined perceived
knowledge (declarative, procedural), perceived motivation (emotion, value), and perceived
organizational (models, settings) barriers and challenges of currently employed Black Women at
IHEs as causes to attain leadership careers in higher education. The first section discusses the
declarative and procedural knowledge influences impacting currently employed Black Women’s
ability to identify vacant leadership career opportunities. The next section reviews motivational
causes of currently employed, mid-level Black Women, focusing on two of the motivational
“push points” identified by Clark (2003): (1) the influences of positive emotion; and (2) effective
personal values. Organizational influences impacting Black Women’s ability to see a culture of
diversity and inclusion at their current institution are discussed in the last section.
Knowledge
One of the major challenges identified by researchers monitoring higher postsecondary
education to achieve administrative diversity is how to best use past research studies (Jackson &
O'Callaghan, 2009). According to research, diversity is significantly relative to every aspect of
life and that educators should structure opportunities for students which allows them to build
relationships outside of their comfort zone (Gurin, Nagda, & Lopez, 2004). Having non-
academic minority professionals, at colleges and universities, have shown the importance and
benefits provided to underrepresented students (Luedke, 2017). However, the literature review
revealed a gap when researching leadership in higher education pertaining to qualified Women
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 26
of Color and non-academic professionals; these individuals have been largely ignored (Jean-
Marie,2011; Wolfe and Dilworth, 2015).
The literature reviewed for this section focused on the importance of knowledge to
achieve the improvement of access to leadership careers in higher education of Black Women
and Women of Color. To identify the appropriate knowledge type, to help support the global
goal, the four distinctive knowledge types of the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy of Krathwohl
(2002) and literature of Brewer and Brewer (2010) were utilized. Krathwohl (2002) revised
Bloom’s Taxonomy identified the four major knowledge types: (1) factual; (2) conceptual; (3)
procedural; and (4) metacognitive. Brewer and Brewer (2010) focus on knowledge management
(KM) activities in higher education and utilized the revised Bloom’s Taxonomy knowledge
dimensions to identify the relationship with the actives of the organization and HR. “Knowledge
is an intangible asset imbedded in individual workers in organizations.” (Brewer & Brewer,
2010, p. 331).
Assumed declarative and procedural knowledge influences. Evidence highlights the
barriers minorities face, especially Women of Color, in comparison to White Women (Hannum
et al., 2015). It is an important need for IHEs’ Human Resources to have analyzed barriers and
challenges data, from the perspective of Black Women, pertaining to declarative knowledge
about the “what” and the procedural knowledge about the “how” to improve recruiting practices
based on the organizational barrier indicators (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009).
Declarative (factual) knowledge. The literature states, attracting talent or talent
acquisition consists of many factors in employee recruiting. Knowing how to reach the targeted
stakeholder is one of the five key strategies Breaugh (2016) identified as significant to
developing a recruitment strategy, while attracting the attention is one of the job-related variables
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 27
that affects the recruitment process. Of the different recruitment approaches, research reveals
there is not one method to yield the best results. However, the success of the recruitment
approach is determined by the distinctive developed methods of organizations (Breaugh, 2016).
In order for IHEs to meet the organizational goal of improving diversity recruitment,
Black Women need to know leadership career opportunities are available. To attract and recruit
qualified Black Women for non-academic leadership in higher education, declarative (factual)
knowledge of specific details of the employment opportunities is needed (Krathwohl, 2002;
Brewer & Brewer, 2010). A potential applicant can be made aware of a vacant career
opportunity with the following common methods: a current employee, the organization’s
website, or social networking sites (Breaugh, 2016). Therefore, it is necessary for Black Women
to have the declarative knowledge of career opportunity vacancies, where to locate recruitment
postings, and how to apply.
Procedural knowledge. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) 2016
Employee Benefit Report stated career advancement opportunities were important to 47% of
employees and were important to their job satisfaction at 33% (Society of Human Resource
Management, 2016). Currently employed Black Women pursuing leadership or career
advancement at colleges and universities should have a choice, have equal access, and the
opportunity to attain such roles. Resulting in the important need to have procedural knowledge
of the criteria and how to pursue a leadership opportunity in higher education to make an
informed decision (Krathwohl, 2002; Brewer & Brewer, 2010). “When a person believes that
feedback received is a mixture of prejudice and realistic performance evaluation, it becomes
difficult to determine what areas need to be changed. (Cox,1993, pp. 82-83)” (Guillory, 2001, p.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 28
114). Therefore, currently employed mid-level Black Women at IHEs need to know the clear
path into leadership or career advancement.
Motivation
Women and Women of Color face many challenges in leadership (Sanchez-Hules &
Davis, 2010). Yet, the need for the organization to expand the number of qualified women and
Women of Color in leadership positions remains as an area of improvement. The motivational
gap analysis for this research is to examine the motivational influences of Black Women when
making the decision to seek career advancement to attain a leadership role in higher education.
Active choices of individuals are what make up motivation, according to Clark and Estes (2008).
There are multiple theories to support motivation, and for this research two were chosen: (1)
social cognitive career theory (SCCT) and (2) expectancy value theory. The literature reviewed
expanded on emotions and the utility value influence of stakeholders to support the benefits of
diversity in leadership at colleges and universities (Jackson & O'Callaghan, 2009).
Social cognitive career theory- emotions and affect. The social cognitive career theory
is fairly new and is based on the social cognitive theory developed in 1986 by Albert Bandura
(Lent, Brown, & Hackett, 2002). The social cognitive career theory incorporates concepts from
Bandura and the interactions between three aspects of career development that appear in career
theories (Lent et al., 2002). The three interrelated career development aspects identified by Lent
et al. (2002) are: (1) the development of career and education interests, (2) the decisions related
to career and education, and (3) how career and academic success is achieved.
Wolfe and Dilworth (2015) research focused on the disparity between Black and White
Women working in higher education. If an organization displays an appearance of unfairness,
this affects and destroys the motivation of an individual (Clark, 2003). According to Pekrun
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 29
(2011), one of the critical components of cognitive development are emotions which affect the
motivation of an individual to persist. It is important Black Women need to feel valued and
authentically welcomed while currently employed at IHEs to remain motivated and pursue
leadership opportunities.
Jackson and O’Callaghan (2009) identified barriers preventing IHEs professionals of
colors from sustaining a successful career. The three barriers identified are individual,
organizational and institutional, and social (Jackson & O'Callaghan, 2009). Some people of
color may have internal struggles, questioning their ability to perform the duties of a leadership
position which may cause them not to apply (Jackson & O'Callaghan, 2009). Additional barriers
Women of Color face are “stereotype threat,” (Fine and Handelsman, 2010) and occupational
segregation which often leads to isolation. Sanchez-Hucles & Davis (2010) and Enomoto et al.
(2000), both identified race and gender as being a barrier Women of Color face. According to
Clark (2003), one way an organization can make motivation work is by removing unnecessary
work barriers.
Expectancy-value theory – utility value. According to Pekrun, there is a positive
relationship between expectancy and value (Wigfield & Cambria, 2010). An individual’s beliefs
can drive motivation, which has influences on their performance, the persistence of the tasks, or
the choice to accept the task (Wigfield & Eccles, 2000). Women in leadership can have the same
aim as they strive to become senior leaders, however, the paths are distinctively different from
White Women and Women of Color (Hannum et al., 2015; Jean-Marie, 2011). Barriers were
identified in the literature in comparison of White Women to Women of Color in their pursuit of
becoming a senior leader. Research supports the importance of mentoring Women of Color to
attain administrative leadership at colleges and universities. When employees witness their
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 30
colleagues experience success, they will be motivated to experience the same success (Bandura,
2005). Black Women need to value the utility of mentorship in their pursuits of leadership
opportunities (Enomoto, Gardiner, & Grogan, 2000). Such outcomes can then lead these leaders
to become mentors to those who will follow in their footsteps (Enomoto, Gardiner, & Grogan,
2000). According to Horsford (2012), Black Women in leadership serve as bridges, “How and
why bridge relationships can serve as an effective model for leading diverse communities…”
which is a significant bridge leadership model for educational leaders in the twenty-first century.
Organization
Though an abstraction, forces created from the culture are powerful (Schein, 2005).
Cultural settings and cultural models, the lens in which organizations are viewed, can be used to
analyze its culture (Gallimore & Goldenberg, 2001; Schein, 2005). Cultural settings and cultural
models, the lens in which organizations are viewed, can be used to analyze its culture (Gallimore
& Goldenberg, 2001; Schein, 2005). Based on the review of the literature, this section expands
on the cultural models and settings contributing to the identified organizational related influences
that may be impacting the achievement of the stakeholder’s goals. Transparent organizational
communication to the campus community about plans and processes can increase organizational
performance (Clark & Estes, 2008). As the accountability for leaders in higher education
continues to increase, so does the expectations of their institutional performance.
Seeing a culture of diversity and inclusion. Cultural models are ingrained in an
organization naturally, automated and visible through cultural practices (Rueda, 2011). It is
imperative that organizations create a culture promoting a sense of purpose. Institutions of
Higher Education (IHEs) are facing ethical dilemmas, more evident at historically Predominately
White Institutions (PWIs), in which is the lack of visibility of professionals of Color (Wolfe &
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 31
Freeman, 2013). A racially and ethnically diverse workforce can contribute to attracting,
recruiting and retaining some of the best talents, leading to innovation and increased creativity
(Milem, 2003). Gurin, Nagda, & Lopez (2004) states, having exposure and dialogues with other
diverse ethnicities can reveal there are more similarities than there are differences. Additionally,
Gurin et al. (2004), speaks about the importance of a racially integrated learning environment
and how such intergroup contact is positive and can lead to educational benefits.
Table 1
Assumed KMO Influences and Supporting Literature
Assumed
Influences
Knowledge Motivation Organization
Knowledge
Motivation
Organization
1. Black Women
need to know
leadership
employment
opportunities are
available.
2. Black Women
need to know the
path to
leadership.
3. Black Women need to
feel valued and
authentically welcomed.
4. Black Women need to
value the utility of
mentorship in their
pursuits of leadership
opportunities.
5. Black Women need
to see a culture of
diversity and
inclusion.
6. Black Women need
to see career
advancement
opportunities and
ongoing resources.
Supporting
Literature
• Breaugh, 2013
• Breaugh, 2016
• Brewer &
Brewer, 2010
• Jackson &
O'Callaghan,
2009
• Enomoto, Gardiner, &
Grogan, 2000
• Hannum, Muhly, &
Shockley-Zalabak, 2015
• Jackson & O'Callaghan,
2009
• Jean-Marie, Williams, &
Sherman, 2009
• Lent, Brown, & Hackett,
2002
• Sanchez-Hucles &
Davis, 2010
• Wolfe & Dilworth, 2015
• Wolfe & Freeman, 2013
• Jackson, 2001
• Jackson &
O'Callaghan, 2009
• Wolfe & Dilworth,
2015
• Wolfe & Freeman,
2013
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 32
If IHEs continue to do things as they always have, it can create a poor climate resistant to
change. When researchers analyzed hiring practices on some IHEs, it revealed the following: (1)
once a goal was met in minority recruitment the search for minority applicants stopped; and (2)
intentional actions were taken to prevent the recruitment of minorities (Wolfe & Freeman, 2013).
Recruitment models are just one method to bring people together from various backgrounds, yet
it can serve as a template for colleges and universities to develop their own tailored to their
vision and organizational goals (Breaugh, 2016).
Interactive Conceptual Framework
The KMO conceptual framework is to explain the relationship between key variables by
examining the literature and the interaction between them (Maxwell, 2013). In addition to
explaining, the conceptual framework also assists with selecting the best appropriate method to
the research questions (Maxwell, 2013). The conceptual framework is to provide a visual or
written illustration that explains, either graphically or in a narrative form, points to study
including key factors, concepts, or variables and the identified influences and interactions
amongst them (Maxwell, 2013). The three primary factors, in the KMO conceptual framework,
within the area of study focuses on stakeholder’s knowledge and influences of motivation and
the organization.
The primary stakeholder in this study were Black Women in non-academic, non-teaching
or professional roles at a 4-year US institution of higher education. Women of Color working at
Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) are critical contributors to the knowledge influencers of
HR within their institution. “At the institutional level, advancing diversity through the alignment
of policies and procedures and practices ensures the development of diverse talents for Women
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 33
of Color” (Jean-Marie, 2011). Human Resources have the duty, within legal and ethical limits,
to promote the mission and vision of their IHEs.
Figure 3, on the following page, illustrates the conceptual framework which focuses on
the IHEs’ global goal and the relationship between the primary stakeholders and the
organization. The section provides a narrative describing the interaction and its supportive role
for goal achievement of the field of practice. Knowledge, motivation, and organizational
influences are three elements affecting the improvement of structural diversity and inclusion
recruitment. Though presented separately, each do not operate in isolation but involves
interaction to achieve the performance goal.
In this section, the proposed conceptual framework illustrates the ways in which the
interaction between the organization the primary and secondary stakeholders’ knowledge and
motivation to achieve improvement with the advancing and promoting diversity and inclusion
recruitment and retention of Black Women in the higher education administration workforce.
Procedural knowledge and commitment to the duties, which are the cornerstone to improving
recruiting practices, can improve the representation of the primary stakeholders; Women of
Color. Assessing the existing structural diversity of a college or university will make visible the
cultural model (Forman, 2014). The three stakeholders, in Figure 3 represents how the
declarative and procedural knowledge are all interconnected with the motivational influencers.
Each identified knowledge and motivational influencer can only co-exist to achieve the
organizational goal of improving diversity and inclusion to advance workforce diversity in
higher education. Without an organizational vision to improve workforce diversity, which
includes improving the representation of Women of Color in non-academic leadership roles, the
knowledge and motivational influencers could not exist. Colleges and universities are under
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 34
constant pressure to be more innovative to transmit and advance knowledge while providing a
diverse environment for their student, faculty, and administration community.
Figure 3. Interactive Conceptual Framework
Methodological Approach
The researcher conducted the combination of quantitative and qualitative approaches of
convergent parallel mixed-methodology to determine if knowledge, motivation, and organization
barriers are indicators contributing to the lack of representation of Black Women in the higher
education leadership gap. Surveys were selected to provide the overall picture of IHEs global
goal and in-depth interviews would corroborate the results. The interviews were selected to
allow participants to expand on their beliefs, opinions, perceptions and to provide additional
insight into their organizational awareness. Data was gathered from a combination of 28 KMO
survey items and 23 KM interview items, aligned with the six assumed knowledge, motivation,
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 35
and organizational variables listed in Table 1 (p. 30) to complete an analysis. At the conclusion
of the improvement model field study, the interpreted data acquired from mixed-methods
collection, will provide IHEs with knowledge to improve existing policies to increase the
representation of Black Women in leadership roles and also create efficient recruitment and
retention strategies where there are deficiencies.
Data Collection and Instrumentation
This research study used a convergent parallel design to provide a comprehensive
analysis of the data collected (Figure 4) (Croswell, 2014, p. 220). This approach allowed the
researcher to collect quantitative surveys and qualitative interview data at the same time, analyze
the data separately, and merge the results (Creswell, 2014). There were two phases for the
research study: (1) quantitative data collection utilizing Qualtrics self-administered surveys, and
(2) semi-structured informal qualitative interviews. This concurrent gathering of quantitative
and qualitative data was to assess the perception of currently employed Black Women’s
knowledge and motivations as well as an organizational culture that affects their ability to attaint
non-academic leadership roles in higher education.
Figure 4. Convergent Parallel
Data was collected from Black Women currently employed in higher education in non-
academic careers to provide perceived barriers and challenges toward the knowledge,
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 36
motivation, and organizational influences. The researcher utilized a concurrent approach in the
field study because it provided the ability to reach a large sample due to time restraints.
Employment title, position, total years working in higher education, employment type and other
qualifier criterion were not applied during the recruitment of the survey and interview
participants to expand eligibility and increase the participation response rate. Stratified,
snowballing, and purposeful sampling strategies were utilized for the recruitment of participants.
The protocol of dissemination was included in the IRB application for IRB Committee approval.
Every week, up to six weeks, the researcher disseminated another participation solicitation until
the data collection timeframe expired.
Surveys
Instrumentation. The primary method of collection of data was a self-administered
online Qualtrics survey. The original survey instrument contained 83 questions utilizing a
different research approach. However, during pilot testing, it was revealed the research approach
should be revised, thus directly reducing the number of questions to best realign with the KMO
assumed influences of currently employed Black Women as the primary stakeholder.
Notification of changes were messaged to USC IRB. An official amendment was not required
due to no significant changes in research protocol or additional questions being added.
The revised survey instrument utilized for data assessment contained 51 questions that
consisted of the following: (1) demographic; (2) 4-point Likert-scale questions based on the
assumed influences of knowledge, motivation, and organizational; (3) open-ended; and (4)
dichotomous questions. Of the survey, questions gathered participant employment and
organizational demographic information as a criterion of the key stakeholder population of the
study. A self-selecting question was located at the end and after the completion of the
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 37
quantitative surveys. To ensure anonymity, volunteered participants were able to click the
researcher’s email link to immediately notify their interest.
Collection. The informed consent form and online self-administered Qualtrics
questionnaire were disseminated to participants the last week of May, following the approval of
USC’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). Participation solicitations were disseminated utilizing
professional organizations in higher education listservs, multiple secured scholarly Facebook
groups for minorities and Women in academia, and LinkedIn. All data collected during the
quantitative phase of the research study were stored on a password-protected travel drive and
back-up data was stored on a password-protected personal computer. Both the travel drive and
laptop were password-protected and secured with the researcher. The researcher is an IRB
Administrator; therefore, all policies, procedures and federal regulatory requirements were
adhered to protect the data collected from the participants in the research study.
Interviews
Instrumentation. Interviews were utilized for the qualitative data collection.
Participants were recruited concurrently with the quantitative data analysis of Phase I of the
research project. The original interview protocol consisted of 44 questions, however, during
pilot testing and expanding the eligibility to increase participation, a revised research approach
was required to best realign with the KM assumed influences of currently employed Black
Women as the primary stakeholder. Notification of changes were messaged to USC IRB. USC
IRB determined an official amendment was not required. The revised interview protocol utilized
for data assessment contained 23 questions. The data collected from the survey identified
participants willing to be interviewed for Phase II of the research project.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 38
Semi-structured and informal interviews were chosen as the method of data collection
because open-ended questions enabled the researcher to collect data related to the knowledge
(declarative and procedural) and motivation (emotion and utility value) variables and to the
research questions in the research study. The semi-structured interviews provided additional
data towards the awareness of the underrepresentation of Black Women in non-academic
leadership roles, as well as, in the ability to gauge subjective viewpoints and perceptions towards
improving recruitment, retention, and career advancement.
Collection. Data was collected over a span of six weeks; a series of 12 semi-structured,
informal interviews were conducted. The frequency of the interviews could not be pre-
determined due to the availability of each participant. The researcher accommodated the
availability of each participant to maximize their willingness to participate. The primary
stakeholders were asked to participate in a semi-structured, informal interview designed to be
completed in 60 minutes. Interviews were conducted utilizing Skype and Zoom during the hours
chosen by the participant at their home or workspace. Each interview was conducted separately
with the 12 volunteered participants and the total hours to complete the informal interviews
varied per participant to accommodate and respect their willingness and eagerness to share.
The data was collected, with the permission of the participants, utilizing video, audio, and
notetaking. All data collected during the qualitative phase of the research study was stored on a
password protected travel drive and back-up data was stored on a password protected personal
computer of the researcher. Both password-protected travel drive and laptop were secured with
the researcher. The researcher is as an IRB Administrator; therefore, all policies, procedures and
federal regulatory requirements were adhered to protect the data collected from the participants
in the study.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 39
Data Analysis
The goal of this study was to gather data from survey and interview instruments to
analyze and provide recommendations for IHEs to meet their global goal. The quantitative
survey was disseminated before the qualitative self-selecting interviews, however, the research
study collected data concurrently from participants and was analyzed separately (Creswell,
2014). To answer the study’s first research question, the researcher analyzed collected
quantitative survey data (28 survey items) organized by two knowledge, two motivation, and two
organization assumed influences and qualitative interview data (23 interview items) organized by
two knowledge and two motivation assumed influences to identify recommendations for IHEs to
improve diversity recruiting and retention practices. Figure 5 provides a process flow of the data
collection and analysis of the convergent parallel mixed-methods.
Figure 5. Convergent Parallel: Data collection and analysis flowchart
During analysis, position data was utilized to determine participants as key stakeholders.
In the next two sections, data cleaning, coding, and determination for validation is expanded. To
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 40
validate the influences as a gap or not, the researcher merged the quantitative survey results and
qualitative interview findings and synthesized the data as they pertained to Research Question 1
(RQ1). To further contribute to the validation of the influences as negative or positive, the
researcher considered disaggregated data of the survey items by IHEs’ region, type of
Private/Public, and classification of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU),
Predominately White Institutions (PWI), Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSI), or Minority
Serving Institutions (MSI) to determine if there were differences among institutions.
Surveys
Cleaning. The survey recorded 130 having met the basic parameters to participate. The
first initial step of data cleaning involved eliminating 65 incomplete surveys per the Qualtrics
recorded responses. The survey included qualifier demographic questions to ensure the key
stakeholders were easily identifiable. The research study excluded responses of the following
sample population: (1) faculty; (2) higher education experience less than two years; and (3)
Black Women as Dean or in executive leadership roles. After reviewing the cleaned survey data,
missing volunteer responses to the survey and open-ended questions were revealed. An
additional 19 surveys were eliminated due to ten or more missing responses to the 28 KMO
assumed influences to address the first research question. Utilizing a mixed-method approach, as
described by Creswell (2014), offered the researcher clarity and developed a more complete
understanding of the research problem and research questions that guided this improvement
study.
Coding. The 28 KMO survey items were analyzed to contribute to the validation of the
influences as gaps to RQ1 utilizing the measurement of agreement, difficultly, interest,
importance, and value of a 4-point Likert scale. The 4-point Likert scale results were grouped in
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 41
two categories to present the data. The following survey items matrix is provided: (1) Assumed
Knowledge Influences (Appendix D); (2) Assumed Motivation Influences (Appendix E); and (3)
Assumed Organization Influences (Appendix F). The last question of the survey instrument
invited participants to be interviewed during the second phase, allowing each an opportunity to
expand on questions asked through the survey.
Organizing and coding the data, in a usable form for statistical analysis, contribute to the
reliability (Fink, 2013). Descriptive statistical analysis was utilized due to the limited accepted
surveys for the research study. Numeric values were assigned to non-numerical institutional
demographic data and missing responses. In such cases of missing responses, to allow for
statistical computation, a data value of “five” was entered. Of the 65 completed surveys, 19 did
not meet the criterion resulting in conflicting data, thus excluded from the statistical analysis
(Salkind, 2017). Of the 65 completed surveys, only a confirmed 70.77% (46) were accepted to
be analyzed for the research study captured in Table 2. Microsoft excel was utilized to calculate
frequencies, percentages, mode and mean of the survey responses.
Table 2
Quantitative Data Preparation
# of Recorded
Surveys
# of Incomplete
Surveys
# of Completed
Surveys
# of Accepted
Surveys
130 65 65 46
Interviews
Cleaning. Forty-six participants successfully completed the survey and volunteered
when they selected Yes, “Would you be interested and willing to volunteer in Phase 2 of this
study and participate in a virtual interview?” As a direct result of self-selecting anonymity, the
researcher could not assess participants’ eligibility until the scheduled interview. To be mindful
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 42
and respectful of the participants’ willingness and eagerness to participate, the interviews were
conducted after additional consent was received to be audio and video recorded. Webcam-based
electronic platforms, Zoom and Skype, were utilized to concurrently conduct interviews over six-
weeks. As a field study, the researcher extended the preference of date, time, and platform to the
participants. The location of the virtual interviews did not contribute to the potential bias of the
participant when conducted in their workspace.
Eighteen respondents agreed to participate, however, six participants withdrew leaving 12
participants to be interviewed. After the final assessment of key participants, six (6) out of 12
met the criterion of the research study: Black Women currently employed as higher education
professionals for more than three (3) years, in non-academic mid-level positions and between the
ages of 25 and 65. Due to the lost audio and video of one participant, the researcher utilized
responses and feedback of 5 (83.33%) Black Women meeting the criterion exclusive to this
research study. The interview length varied among participants. As a result of their willingness
to share their experiences, interviews lasted from 60 to 120 minutes.
Table 3
Qualitative Data Preparation
# of Conducted
Interviews
# of Disqualified
Interviews
# of Qualified
Interviews
# of Accepted
Interviews
12 7 6 5
Coding. The Informed Consent form to be audio and video recorded and Invitation to
Participate in the Qualitative Study was emailed to the participants at the same time. Prior to the
start of each interview, the researcher printed the Invitation to Participate in a Qualitative Study
form. The form recaptured criterion data, as well as, allowed the researcher to record details of
the interview. Secondly, the researcher printed the interview items (Appendix J), for each
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 43
interview, allowing for notes to be taken and making time notations of key responses to be
utilized during the transcribing and coding of the transcripts.
A week following the last interview, each was transcribed and coded. The researcher
created and maintained a codebook utilizing excel. The interview data was organized per
participant, question, researcher’s notes, and color-coded for each assumed knowledge, and
motivation influences. Utilizing open coding, the interviews were summarized into categories
and codes were created relevant to the research: recruitment, retention, career advancement, and
mentoring. The data was independently coded by the researcher. These data sets and approach
allowed the researcher to identify consistency and emergent themes, from a subset of Black
Women, to interpret the findings presented in the Results and Finding section. The coded data
were analyzed utilizing and eight themes emerged and are listed in Table 4 below.
Table 4
Emerged themes
Assumed Knowledge Influences
Improve Recruiting Practices Declarative
Professional Development Experiences Procedural
Lack of Internal Career Advancement or Growth Procedural
Assumed Motivation Influences
Being Respected Emotion
Being Treated Equally Emotion
Mentorship/Role Models and Staff-Student Interaction Utility Value
Lack of Motivation Utility Value
Biases and Stereotypes Utility Value
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 44
Participating Stakeholders
For this study, the primary stakeholder group of focus consisted of (1) participants
identifying as female; (2) Black/African American or Black/African plus one or more race; (3)
between the ages of 25 and 65; and (4) currently employed at a 4-year IHE in the US. After
widening and extending the survey data collection period, the researcher was not able to achieve
the target sample size, therefore the sample size is not representative of Black Women currently
employed at 4-year US IHE, in non-academic roles. Due to the small group of key stakeholders
in this research study, global generalization cannot be made. Table 5 illustrate the survey
participant demographics, Table 6, illustrate the institutional demographics, and Table 7 lists
demographics captured from the self-selecting interview participants, each on the following
pages. Of the 46 qualified participants, 93.48% (43) identified as an Administrator and 45
(91.11%) out of 45, have been higher education professionals five years or more.
Table 5
Demographics of Survey Participants
Variable Percentage Count
Age: n = 46
25 to 45 73.91% 34
45 to 65 26.09% 12
Years as Higher Education Professional: n = 45
Less than 4 years 2.22% 1
Less than 5 years 6.67% 3
More than 5 years 91.11% 41
Current position classification: n = 46
Administrator 93.48% 43
Faculty and Administrator 4.35% 2
Other 2.17% 1
Current position level: n = 46
First level manager/supervisor 30.43% 14
Manager/supervisor higher than first level 32.61% 15
Not a manager or supervisor 36.96% 17
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 45
Degree attainment: n = 46
Bachelor's degree 8.70% 4
Master's degree 58.70% 27
Doctoral degree 30.43% 14
Professional degree 2.17% 1
Current position category: n = 46
Academic Affairs 30.43% 14
Advancement/Development/Fundraising 4.35% 2
Athletics 2.17% 1
Financial Services 4.35% 2
Student Affairs 39.13% 18
Other 19.57% 9
Table 6
Institutional Demographics of Survey Participants
Variable: n = 46 Percentage Count
Region
South 41.30% 19
Midwest 17.39% 8
Northeast 28.26% 13
West 13.04% 6
Type
Private 45.65% 21
Public 54.35% 25
Classification
HBCU 4.35% 2
PWI 86.96% 40
HSI 2.17% 1
MSI 6.52% 3
Category
PUI
30.43% 14
Research
34.78% 16
Liberal Arts
23.91% 11
N/A
4.35% 2
2 or more
6.52% 3
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 46
Table 7
Demographics of Interview Participants
Variable: n = 5 Percentage Count
Current position level
First level manager/supervisor 60% 3
Manager/supervisor higher than first level 20% 1
Not a manager or supervisor 20% 1
Length in current position
Less than one year 20% 1
2 to 3 years 40% 2
4 to 5 years 40% 2
Region
South 40% 2
Midwest 20% 1
Northeast 20% 1
West 20% 1
Type
Private 40% 2
Public 60% 3
Classification
PWI 60% 3
HSI 20% 1
MSI 20% 1
Category
PUI 20% 1
Research 20% 1
Liberal Arts 40% 2
N/A 20% 1
Researcher Positionality
As a Black woman working in a non-academic administrative position in higher
education, the researcher was aware of her role and acknowledges the assumptions and the
potential for bias. The acknowledgment of a researcher’s assumptions and biases is not to
eliminate, instead, it is to gain an understanding of their values and expectations (Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016, p. 249). The potential relationship could have derived from the researcher having
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 47
worked directly or indirectly as a Black Woman performing and having performed in mid-level
and institutional level management positions at several IHEs in the southern California region.
Though the researcher career is a higher education administrator, the positions held
consists of predominantly departmental, institutional work-alone, autonomous, and independent
environment with a minimum of two to three direct subordinates at any given time comprised of
student workers and administrative support personnel. To mitigate potential risks associated
with the relationship to the research, the researcher conducted a field study of 4-year IHEs in the
US. The research was designed using explicit inclusion and exclusion criteria for the selection of
human subject participants. The researcher’s current and former institution were excluded due
explicit criteria designed. The researcher did not have prior relationships with the stakeholders
interviewed in this field study.
Results and Findings
The purpose of utilizing a mixed-method approach was to explore the barriers and
challenges of the assumed knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences perceived from
Black Women currently employed at 4-year intuitions in the US. The study aimed to assess if
the identified influences were validated as gaps hindering Black Women from attaining or
pursuing non-academic leadership roles at IHEs. The mixed-method approach was utilized to
answer the study’s first research question, with the second research question being answered in
the Recommendation for Practice to Address KMO Influences (Appendix L). The following
research questions guided this improvement study:
1. What are the barriers and challenges contributing to the underrepresentation of Black
Women in non-academic leadership roles at post-secondary institutions from the
knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences perspective?
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 48
2. What strategies are recommended to improve existing workforce diversity policies and
practices?
Declarative Knowledge Results and Findings for Research Question 1
Black Women need to know leadership employment opportunities are available.
The gap is not validated. Five survey items and one interview item were asked to assess and
analyze the declarative knowledge to identify and locate employment opportunities, from the
perspective of Black Women. Only the analysis of the five survey items were utilized to
determine the presumed declarative knowledge gap was not validated. Survey item (S-2) was
selected to visualize the difficulty of identifying the recruitment advertisement and the
disaggregated results visualizes the differences among the stakeholders’ institutions to further
validate the gap. Interview participants provided additional details and insight of their
organizational awareness contributing to coding, allowing one theme to emerge.
Hiring is a challenging task and is one of the most critical components to the success of
an organization and if poorly designed, it can impact workforce diversity (Breaugh, 2013).
According to Breaugh (2016), it is critical to attract the attention of potential applicants,
however, if IHEs do not have a strategic recruiting plan, some target groups could easily be
excluded. In order for Black Women to seek leadership opportunities or have the ability to
apply, Jackson & O’Callaghan (2009) states the available opportunities must be visible. In
addition to the visibility of the employment opportunity, the attractiveness of the opportunity is
another component of the recruitment strategy (Breaugh, 2016; Jackson & O’Callaghan, 2009).
Survey results. Black Women were asked five questions in which three were 4-point
Likert to measure difficulty, agreement, and the importance of knowing leadership employment
opportunities are available. Participants were asked “How did you learn about your current
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 49
position?” (S-1). Of the 46 participants, 34.78% (16) selected “HigherEdJobs.com,” while
30.43% (14) selected “referral” out of five options: internal, Indeed.com, and other.
Additionally, 52.17% (24) participants answered ”Yes” (S-3), they researched the institution
prior to applying to their current position and 80.43 % (37) agreed they were able to find the
answers to their questions on the IHEs‘ website (S-4). The participants were also asked (S-5) the
importance and 76.09% (35) answered their findings were important in their decision-making
process to apply for their current position.
Declarative survey item selected to provide visual data was (S-2): How difficult was it to
identify the recruiting advertisement of your current position? It can be clearly seen in Figure 6
a significant variance between the responses and the data reflects 42 Black Women (91.30%) did
not experience difficulty identifying career opportunities. The disaggregated data in Figure 6,
also displays minimal variances between each of the three categories and represents the
similarities in the response selection, further validating the influence is not a gap. Barriers and
challenges will be expanded in the findings section of this assumed influence.
Figure 6. Data analysis and disaggregated “Not Difficult” results survey item #2
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 50
Interview findings. In the interviews, the Black Women were asked declarative
influence interview item (I-1): How did you learn about the vacancy of your current position?
All interviewees revealed the declarative knowledge and the findings showed three of the five
interviewees were notified of their current position by internal referral, one used HigherEdJobs
and one found the vacancy on the IHEs’ website. The theme that emerged with all respondents
was that recruiting practices should be improved, however, the experiences of Ebony and Tariqa
were strikingly similar.
Ebony learned of her current role utilizing HigherEdJobs and Tariqa learned of her
current role through a former colleague. Ebony and Tariqa applied for the employment
opportunity, of their current IHEs. Both were selected to be interviewed, however, neither
woman was offered the position during the initial selection process. Despite the known fact that
Ebony and Tariqa were not the first choice of the IHEs during the selection process, each was
initially contacted by the institution and eventually hired into their current role.
Ebony stated:
Yes. Long story I'm supposed to be the director and obviously did not get that position
and they called me afterward. And they called me afterward and they were like, hey, you
know, like we ended up going with an internal candidate but would you be interested in
this position? I said yes to this position because I needed to leave my other position.
Ebony also stated the original position she applied for was offered to an internal female
(Asian/White) candidate, and in her opinion, less qualified for the director position.
Tariqa stated:
So yeah, I applied and had an interview and they didn't hire me. They hired someone
else. A month before orientation, freshman orientation, she took a job elsewhere. There
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 51
was no one to run first-year student orientation, which is about 200 students, and there
was no one to oversee campus activities for the beginning of the school year, which is
very important. You know, and so my mentor drove nine and a half hours to come
convince me to take the job and I told her no, you had your opportunity. Needless to say,
I said the only way that I will accept this position is if you guys will wait for me until the
spring semester because I cannot leave my current position.
Tariqa also stated the original position she applied for was offered to an external female (White)
candidate, in which the candidate later accepted a position at another institution offering more
money prior to the selected start date.
Procedural Knowledge Results and Findings for Research Question 1
Black Women need to know the path into career advancement careers are available.
The gap is validated. According to Breaugh (2016), other factors can contribute to the decision
to apply for a career opportunity. The stakeholders, in this field study, were asked three survey
items and three interview items to assess and analyze if professional and growth opportunities
were available at their current IHEs and if they knew the path into leadership. To validate the
presumed procedural knowledge gap, the analysis of the survey items was utilized. To visualize
the stakeholders’ procedural career advancement knowledge, survey item (S-6) data was
selected and disaggregated to further validate the gap. The interviews provided personal
experiences and lead to two themes to emerge: (1) professional development experiences, and (2)
lack of internal career advancement or growth, thus reflecting the procedural influence is a gap
and improvement of existing practices should be a consideration.
In addition to the attractiveness, other factors contribute to the decision of an applicant to
apply or not and career advancement is identified as a variable (Breaugh, 2013). Professional
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 52
and career development does not necessarily result in a path to career advancement or leadership
opportunities. The 2018 SHRM Employee Benefits report stated professional and career benefits
contributed significantly to the overall job satisfaction of employees at 86% (Society of Human
Resource Management, 2018). Research supports the lack of awareness of career advancement
opportunities contributes to the underrepresentation of Black Women in leadership roles in
higher education administration (Jackson & O'Callaghan, 2009).
Survey results. Black Women were asked three survey items. Survey items S-7 and S-8
asked a 4-point agreement Likert to identify which IHEs offered opportunities to their employees
to learn and grow through professional development opportunities. Of the 46 participants,
23.91% (11) disagreed their current institution provides the opportunity to learn and grow
professionally and 23.09% (12) disagreed professional development opportunities were
available.
The procedural survey item validating the influence as a gap was S-6: Do you have a
clear understanding about your career development path and promotion plan at your current
institution? Figure 7 reflects the data results and disaggregated data of survey item #6 measuring
Black Women’s procedural knowledge of the path into leadership. Of the 46 participants,
63.04% (29) responded they do not have a clear understanding, represented in Figure 7. Black
Women lack the knowledge to attain leadership or promotion at their current institution. Again,
the disaggregated data between the region, type and classification reflect minimal variances
between each of the three categories. The graph also represents the similarity in the response
selection, further validating the gap. Barriers and challenges will be expanded in the findings
section of this assumed influence.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 53
Figure 7. Data analysis and disaggregated “No” results for survey item #6
Interview findings. Procedural influence interview item (I-2) was asked: Is there a policy
on professional development or career advancement at your current institution? The first theme,
professional development experiences, is highlighted in this findings section. All five
interviewees stated their institution offered some form of professional development or career
development, informally or formally. However, Ebony and Rhana stated professional
development would only be allowed if supported in their departmental budget.
Ebony stated:
So, if your department budget has it in their budget to send you to a conference, you can
go. But more often than not, your budget doesn't allow for it. And the President of the
institution has said himself, he doesn't believe in professional development and that's
something people should do on their own time.
Rhana stated:
Well, they do champion career development. We have classes, we can take and get
certificates and they do have a tuition remission which I will be taking advantage of soon
to get a second master.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 54
Interview findings. To assess if the IHEs allow for leadership growth, interviewees were
asked procedural interview item (I-3): Is there room for leadership growth at your current
institution? All five interviewees responded there were no leadership growth at their current
institutions. The theme that emerged with all respondents was the lack of internal career
advancement or growth at their current institution. Having procedural knowledge for Black
Women to attain career advancement or leadership opportunities requires being able to locate or
access this information from their employer. The personal experiences of each of the
interviewees were not favorable for their current IHEs, however, Rhana stated the following
about her former institution, “They were all about definitely career development.” Having
inadequate career opportunities is one of the many barriers contributing to the
underrepresentation of Black Women in leadership (Sanchez-Hules & Davis, 2010). These
finding contributes to the validation of the procedural gap.
Motivation Results and Findings for Research Question 1
Black Women need to feel valued and authentically welcomed. The gap is validated.
Black Women face multiple barriers as administrators in higher education. Double jeopardy can
result in Black women being misunderstood, devalued, their experiences being ignored,
misrepresented, and being discriminated against (Enomoto et al., 2000; Jackson & O’Callaghan,
2009; Jean-Marie, Williams, & Sherman, 2009). Data was collected from five survey items and
ten interview items to assess the emotions of Black women currently employed at IHEs. It is
important for Black women aspiring to be non-academic leaders in higher education to feel
motivated and valued in their abilities to be successful leaders in higher education (Jackson &
O'Callaghan, 2009). The five survey items were analyzed to measure the emotions influence as a
gap. Survey item (S-9) and survey item (S-12) were selected to visualize the gap and
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 55
disaggregated to further validate the gap. Two themes to emerged from the interviews: (1) being
respected, and (2) and being treated fairly.
Survey results. Black Women were asked five questions in which four were 4-point
Likert to measure agreement, and the value, to assess if they felt valued and authentically
welcomed at their current IHEs. All 46 (100%) participants were agreed that having a diverse
workforce positively influences organizational performance and the number of Black Women
employed at US IHEs should increase. To further assess if participants felt valued, survey item
(S-9) asked: I have personally experienced harassment or discriminatory treatment at my current
institution. Data reflects a higher percentage (61%) of participants did not have such
experiences, however, 18 (39%) of the Black Women did. The disaggregated data in Figure 8,
display similar responses per region, institution type, and category and further validates the gap.
Figure 8. Data analysis and disaggregated “Yes” results survey item #9
Survey results. Survey item (S-12) asked: Do you agree you are equally valued as other
employees of different races at your current institution? Of the 46 participants, 52.17% (24)
responded they did not feel equally valued, while 22 (47.83%) of the participants agreed they are
equally valued as employees of different races at their current IHEs, visible in Figure 9. The
disaggregated data for survey item (S-12) reflects similar results. A follow-up survey item was
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 56
asked to assess how they feel valued overall at their current IHEs. The results reflect that
67.39% (31) participants feel valued overall.
Figure 9. Data analysis and disaggregated “Disagree” results survey item #12
Interview findings. This section explored if the Black Women perceive themselves to be
respected as a woman and as a Woman of Color. Interview item I-8 asked: How important is it
to feel respected by your colleagues as a Black Woman in your work environment? One key
ingredient of diversity is accepting and respecting the differences of others (Wolfe & Freeman,
2013; Wolfe & Dilworth, 2015). The theme that emerged with all interviewees is that everyone
should be respected regardless of race or ethnicity. Of the five interviewees, Ebony and Emanii
responded the same, “it is important to feel respected,” while Rhana stated:
Is relatively important but it really is not a deal breaker because as long as I'm doing my
job I don't have to be in your face and you don’t have to be in mine. So that's why I feel I
mean you're not going to be disrespectful to me, like talk down to me but I don't really
have to deal with you if I don't want to.
Dina and Tariqa stated race should not be a factor. For example, Dina stated:
I think it’s important they just respect me as just a human being. I just think that it’s
highly, highly important because when I make a decision to not, you know, overturn it
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 57
because they sit within a power and privilege to be able to do so or they just back up
some of my ideas. I think that's highly important.
Tariqa stated:
I think it's very important, and not just because I'm black, but just in general because we
as people, we all deserve respect. And even though sometimes people, some don't
understand that and they don't necessarily give you the respect that you deserve. I think
the best way to shut them down nicely is to give them respect. And so, I think it's very
important that I'm respected, I am valued as an employee of this college, of this
department and that my input does matter.
Interview findings. The second interview item (I-10) asked: As a Black woman, do you
believe you must present yourself differently as you interact with others in your work
environment? All five interviewees displayed eagerness, with their body language, when hearing
the question being asked. The theme that emerged was being treated equally. All of the
interviewees spoke of having to code-switch and the type of changes Black women conduct to
present themselves differently included: changing their voice and speech to not sound
aggressive, being selective with their choice of words, being mindful of their body language and
hand gestures. For example, Emanii stated, “I don't ever want to be told again that I'm articulate,
‘Oh, you're so articulate ‘as opposed to what?” The responses demonstrate Black Women
experience organizational and internal barriers, thus affecting their motivation (Jackson &
O'Callaghan, 2009).
Ebony shared:
I think that if I were 100% authentic, people would, I would get labeled… they would
say, I'm so loud. I've been told, like I'm inappropriate because I speak with my hands a
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 58
lot. I've heard that I'm not approachable, that I'm aggressive… like I'm not engaged. I
have to be very mindful of when I'm talking to people when I'm interacting with people.
Emanii shared:
Yeah, my dad told me, you have to work twice as hard. And I don't think I believed him
until I started working and I saw what was going on… you can watch some of your
colleagues, who pretty much do the complete opposite and they still get the same
opportunities and they're promoted and it's frustrating. But you know we're constantly
fighting some of the stereotypes. You know, if you disagree or you aggressive.
Rhana shared:
Yes, I do. So, I cannot get angry, I cannot use sarcasm, that’s how I feel. As far as, it's
almost like you got to bow down or you'll be accused of being aggressive. I tend not to
hover over anybody because I don't want them to think, oh, well, she's trying to
intimidate me.
Dina shared:
Code-switching is something that just has just become so normal. The push to be
anonymous almost in one's identity is something that's important for us to know how to
do because we don't. We know the stereotypes that come with us being who we are. Is
this a good thing? No, because if you see the damage and feel the damage in yourself
and you see the damage in other people and what that does psychologically and causes
level of stress. I do find that I have to pull back or pull into who I am, so that oddly
enough the white America can feel comfortable. Yeah, it is literally, like physically
exhausting. I think that it's exhausting. But it's also frustrating because when I'm in
those moments when I am being myself, I'm being judged for it, it's disappointing.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 59
Tariqa shared:
I kind of pick and choose how I act in front of who because I understand there are certain
people that I can present myself this way, and then there are others I have to present
myself this way. Sometimes I understand it, but sometimes I don't want to and I just
want to, just be me. Just let just let me do me, just let me be me and accept it. And there
are moments where I have to, you know, bring myself back in, you know, bring it back.
Black Women need to value the utility of mentorship in their pursuits of leadership
opportunities. The gap is partially validated. Limited upward mobility, limited career
advancement opportunities are known barriers contributing to the lack of diversity of Black
Women in leadership (Wolfe & Dilworth, 2015). The literature supports the importance of
having organizational support and having a mentoring relationship for Black Women to be a
successful leader in higher education administration (Enomoto et al., 2000; Hannum et al., 2015).
According to Jackson & O’Callaghan (2009), “Often, ascending to leadership positions is met
with unrelenting challenges and discrimination Black Women find themselves subjected to” (p.
564).
Data was collected from seven survey items and nine interview items to assess the
assumed value of Black Women currently employed in mid-level positions at IHEs. Four survey
items selected to visualize the utility of mentorship for Black Women pursuing leadership
opportunities. The disaggregated results, or each survey items, reflects the differences among
the stakeholders’ institutions. Three themes emerged: (1) mentorship/role models and staff-
student interaction, (2) lack of motivation, and (3) biases and stereotypes.
Survey results. The first utility-value interview item (S-14) asked: Do you have a
professional mentor? Of the 46 respondents, 56.52% (26) responded “Yes,” visible in Figure 10.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 60
The disaggregated data, in Figure 10, reflects a striking similarity in the response selection.
Under half of the participants, 43.48% (20), responded they do not have a mentor, thus
supporting the gap is partially validated.
Figure 10. Data analysis and disaggregated “Yes” results survey item #14
Survey results. The second utility-value interview item (S-16) asked a follow-up: If yes,
do you agree having a mentor has assisted you as a higher education administrator professional?
Of the 26 participants that responded yes, 100% responded with a degree of agreement that
having a mentor has assisted them as a higher education administrator professional. Looking at
the disaggregated data, six of the ten data points the participants “Strongly Agree” 100%.
Figure 11. Data analysis and disaggregated “Strongly Agree” results survey item #16
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 61
Survey results. Third utility value interview item (S-17) asked: Do you agree having a
mentor can assist other Black Women with the ascension to higher education administration? Of
the 46 participants that responded yes, 100% responded with a degree of agreement that having a
mentor can assist other Black Women with the ascension to higher education administration.
The disaggregated data, in Figure 12, reflects nine of the ten data points that the participants
“Strongly Agree” over 65%.
Figure 12. Data analysis and disaggregated “Strongly Agree” results survey item #17
Interview findings. The first utility value interview item (I-23) asked participants: Do
you feel there are benefits to having a mentor? Mentorship and role models were the first theme
that emerged with all of the interviewees. All five interviewees stated they have a mentor, either
formally or informally. All five of the interviewee’s mentorship evolved from either
professional colleagues, former undergraduate administrators, or family member and they each
expressed the importance and benefits of having one. Dina, Emanii, and Tariqa shared their
mentorships were nothing official or formal. For example, Tariqa shared:
There was never a formal “Hey can you be my mentor?” or “Hey can you be my
mentee?” There was never, never anything formal of that nature. It was just kind of like,
it was almost like if it just happened, you know, it's just natural. And our relationship has
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 62
grown since working in her office and so I think through that growth in that relationship
it just kind of developed into a mentor type of relationship.
Dina stated:
All of our mentors are informal. You know, I think we know as Black Women, there are
no formal systems in higher education that introduced us and match us with mentors...
So, for me, it's been nothing formal in terms of I got matched up with a mentor very
informal more relational.
Secondly, when Dina was asked if mentorship was beneficial, she shared:
Yeah, I think that you get, you get realness. You kind of just get, you get a true
understanding you know of, like, what the ramifications of your decision is going to be.
Run things past people or you get someone to tell you no, you're actually wrong in that
situation. You know, I think that's helpful.
Additionally, all five Black Women shared they would be willing to be a mentor to
someone. Ebony shared she would absolutely want to serve as a role model and stated, “I think
when I’m in a position where I feel like I can give back.” While Tariqa shared:
Definitely, yeah. Definitely someone helped me. So, I want to be able to give that back
to someone else.
Staff-student interactions. The third them emerged was the significant staff-student
interactions unrelated to the interviewee’s official duties and responsibilities in their current role.
A probing question asked the interviewees if they find themselves being like a mentor to students
in their current roles or other roles held in higher education. Ebony voiced her professional and
personal experience with students in her role:
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 63
Yes, all the time. Yes, I will say like every single job I've ever had. I think every single
student come and talk to me. I think just naturally like you know I'm fairly open and
people like talking to me. But students of color, especially, were always in my office at
my last job. Because I used to have a couch in my office at my last job, and I had to take
the couch out because I would have students that would be in my office and I wasn't
there, it became like the informal student of color hangout...I just think that they didn't
have a space on campus so it became like my office was the space. And so, um, and then
when I came to my current position. It's the same thing. Like all the students of color
come and talk to me even about things that I can't even help them with.
Survey results. Black Women were asked two 4-point Likert to measure agreement. For
survey item 18 (S-18), 60.87% (28) do not know what is expected for career advancement at
their current institution. To visualize the data, interview item (S-19 was selected and asked: Do
you feel encouraged to apply for higher education leadership positions at your current
institution? The data reflects 58.70% (27) of Black Women currently employed do not feel
encouraged at their current institution to apply for leadership positions. In viewing the
disaggregated data, it reflects the higher degree of disagreement of Black Women feeling
encouraged to apply for higher education leadership at their current IHEs. The representation in
Figure 13, further support the gap being partially validated.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 64
Figure 13. Data analysis and disaggregated “Disagree” results survey item #19
Interview findings. The responses from the interviewees revealed an intersection of
barriers: social, organizational, and individual, to their desire to pursue leadership opportunities
at their current institution or elsewhere (Jackson & O'Callaghan, 2009, p. 39). The second utility
value interview item (I-16) asked participants: Are you interested in advancing to a leadership
position at your current institution? The theme that emerged was a lack of motivation and
internal support or encouragement. Three (Ebony, Emanii, and Rhana) of five stated they were
interested in leadership but not with their current institution. According to Jackson &
O’Callaghan (2009), the experiences of the Black Women in this study can be linked to
organizational and institutional barriers, see Figure 14. Ebony shared with emphasis, “Hell no, I
am not interested at this current institution.” She wants to stay in higher education and pursue
leadership opportunities at a community college.
Figure 14. Relationship Between Organization and Individual. Adapted from “Ethnic and racial
administrative diversity: Understanding work-life realities and experiences in higher education,”
J. L. Jackson and E. M. O’Callaghan, 2009, ASHE Higher Education Report, 35(3), p. 42.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 65
Biases and Stereotypes. Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) are becoming more
racially and ethnically diverse, however, racial microaggression and double burden continue to
exist (Jackson & O'Callaghan, 2009; Sanchez-Hucles and Davis, 2010). The third utility value
interview item (I-18) asked participants: Do you feel Black Women are overlooked for
leadership positions? Themes emerged around what Black Women perceive to be barriers and
challenges included: bias, stereotypes, the white man’s world, and Black Women to meeting the
appearance of what the decision-makers think a leader should look like. The responses of all
five Black Women were strikingly similar when asked the question regarding presenting
themselves differently. All five agreed, with conviction, Black Women are often overlooked for
leadership positions.
Ebony shared:
Absolutely feel Black Women are overlooked for leadership. There is this notion like,
we're just not qualified or we can't do it, or I don't know if it's us, you know. I don't
know if it's a situation like we're not applying. But I think in situations where Black
Women are applying, I think it's just this whole thing of like they can't do that or you
know how can they be in a position higher than me. So, I think that if a woman of color
does get a position, she would have to jump through a lot of hoops, rings of fire, walk on
water, or turn water into wine.
Emanii shared:
I've sat on search committees, I've heard just the general downplaying of candidates’
resumes and responsibilities, words like ‘you know it's not academic enough’ just kind of
general, you know, it's coded language. ‘We need leadership that look like our students’
is what I have heard on pretty much every search committee I have been on.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 66
Rhana shared she was on a hiring committee and witnessed the following:
...it was just an African American lady; she was sharp, I mean, she had her stuff together.
She came in, she was like, you know, real polite real nice look good. She had A JD, you
know, and she knew about policy and just overall great. And so, as we talked about her,
you know, I was like, I thought she was great, you know, that she'll fit into the office, she
seem personable and one of the women were saying, well, I think she's going to be a
b*tch.
Dina shared:
I think Black Women are overlooked because... people in leadership positions that make
those decisions about who they hire... not able to transfer understanding who their black
female administrators are, I think there is a disconnect.... negative characteristics for
Black Women.
Tariqa shared:
Yes, from my personal opinion and what I've seen, I don't think we are wanted in
leadership roles and higher leadership roles. When you look start looking at presidents
and executive VP and just any senior leadership role provost, things like that, umm
Deans, I don't think we're necessarily wanted in those roles. I think it's because of the
power that we possess and the things that we can and will do once we are in those roles.
Organization Results for Research Question 1
Black Women need to see a culture of diversity and inclusion. The gap is partially
validated. Four survey items were asked to assess organizational goals and commitment to
diversity and inclusion. Four survey items were selected to present visual and disaggregated
analysis of the data. Multiple barriers, identified in the literature, are manifested by policies and
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 67
practices of IHEs (Jackson & O'Callaghan, 2009). To combat the organizational culture,
promoting diversity and inclusion is a multidimensional task that should be an organizational
goal and a core value (Wolfe & Dilworth, 2015). One known barrier contributing to a successful
career of Black Women is the underrepresentation of Black Women in higher education
leadership (Jackson & O'Callaghan, 2009).
Survey results. The first cultural model survey item (S-21): There is good
communication between Executive leadership and the administration at your current institution.
Figure 15 reflects a minimal variance between the agree and disagree responses. Of the 46
participants, 56.52% (26) disagreed communication between Executive leadership and the
administration was good. Survey item (S-22) assessed the communication of the participants’
current IHEs by asking if they heard leadership speak about diversity in the past year. Of the 46
participants, 82.61% (38) agreed that the leadership at their current IHEs spoke about diversity in
the past year. The data analysis of S-21, the disaggregated data of S-21 (Figure 15), and the
results from S-22, support the gap is partially validated.
Figure 15. Cultural model visual analysis for survey item #21
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 68
Survey results. The second cultural model survey item (S-23) asked: My current
employer enables a culture of diversity. The data reflects a significant variance between each of
the participants’ responses. What is not visible in Figure 16, is most of the respondents (27)
selected “Agree = 2.” Despite their perception of the communication at their current institution
not being good (56.52%), 30 (65.22%) of Black Women agreed their IHE enabled a culture of
diversity. The results from both survey items and disaggregated data contributed to the gap
being partially validated by the assumed influence.
Figure 16. Cultural model visual analysis for survey item #23
Survey results. The third cultural model survey item (S-24) asked: I have personally
witnessed instances of racial bias at my current institution.
Figure 17. Cultural model visual analysis for survey item #24
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 69
Black Women need to see career advancement opportunities and ongoing resources.
The gap is validated. In the research study presented by Jackson (2001), the results revealed
several themes in which IHEs could institutionalize as practices to increase the retention of Black
Women professionals. Participants were asked four Likert agreement survey items to assess if
there were existing organizational changes to improve recruiting and retention policies and
practices of Women of Color in leadership roles and to analyze if the influence is a gap. Two
survey items were selected to present visual and disaggregated data. The disaggregated data
results, of two survey items selected to present visual data, will be utilized to further validate the
gap. Implementation of institutional policies to promote professional advancement, in addition
to professional development, are necessary to address the underrepresentation of Black Women
in leadership (Jackson, 2001). In order to transform the leadership diversity in higher education,
IHEs must do more than simply acknowledging the existing culture; they need to listen to the
personal experiences of Black Women and put emphasis on developing a strategic plan to
strengthen the pipeline to leadership (Wolfe & Dilworth, 2015).
Survey results. The first cultural setting visual analysis survey item (S-25) asked:
Practices and policies are in place to recruit a racially and ethnically diverse workforce. Despite
the small variance between the responses visible in Figure 18, on the next page, 25 (54.35%)
participants responded their current institution does not have practices and policies in place to
ensure a diverse administration workforce which is significant. Additionally, the participants
were asked if there were clear organizational goals, at their current IHEs, to increase the number
of People of Color (S-26) or Women (S-27) in leadership and each question yielded the same
result.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 70
Figure 18. Cultural setting visual analysis for survey item #25
Out of the 46 participants, 65.22% (30) disagreed to survey item (S-26) and survey item
(S-27). The 65.22% (30) disagreed there were clear goals in place to increase recruiting of
People of Color or Women in leadership roles at that current IHEs. The disaggregated data, in
Figure 18, reflects minimal variances and the similarity in the response selection, thus further
validating the gap.
Survey results. The second cultural model visual analysis survey item (S-28) asked:
Current institution has clear goals in place for increasing Women of Color in leadership roles. A
significant number of participants (76.09%) disagreed with their current institution having clear
goals.
Figure 19. Cultural setting visual analysis for survey item #28
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 71
Summary
For this study, the convergent parallel mixed-methods research design collected data in
order to validate gaps, in the areas of knowledge, motivation, and organizational influences
necessary to improve the representation of Black Women in non-academic leadership roles in
post-secondary institutions of education. The data did not reveal a knowledge gap of Black
Women knowing how and where to seek leadership opportunities and apply. However, a major
procedural gap was identified in the data when 63.04% of Black Women responded not having a
clear path to career advancement or promotion despite 73.91% of the participants having access
to ongoing professional development opportunities.
The motivational influences of this study were identified as gaps. Black Women revealed
feeling invisible, overlooked, not valued as a woman and as a woman of color with silent voices.
Although some institutions provide ongoing professional development opportunity, 71.74% have
not received a promotion at their current institution. Without formal policies and procedures and
practices in place to actively provide and inclusive work environment, the data reveal this
contributes to the low representation in the higher education workforce.
The results and findings from the data indicated the institutions, of the respondents,
provided a racially and ethnically diverse work environment, yet many stated their target group
is underrepresented as employees and even more so in non-academic leadership roles. From the
interviews, a culture of institutional diversity was seen as a false positive. Tarika stated, “if
people do not live in a diverse environment outside of their job, then it is forced inside the job.”
Table 8 shows the knowledge, motivation and organizational influences for this study and their
determination is a gap.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 72
Table 8
Summary Validated Influences as Determined by the Data
Assumed Knowledge Influences
Validated?
Black Women need to know leadership opportunities are available. (D)
Not Validated
Black Women need to know the path to academic leadership. (P) Validated
Assumed Motivation Influences
Validated?
Black Women need to feel valued or authentically welcome. (E)
Validated
Black Women need to value the utility of mentorship in their pursuits
of leadership opportunities. (U-V)
Partially Validated
Assumed Organization Influences
Validated?
Black Women need to see a culture of diversity and inclusion. (CM) Partially Validated
Black Women need to see career advancement opportunities and
ongoing resources. (CS)
Validated
Limitations
Utilizing the KMO framework, developed by Clark and Estes (2008), imposed limitations
to the research approach of this study. The performance improvement model, of Clark and Estes
(2002) is designed to improve performance with the applications from the KMO assets, needs, or
issues of an organization and not the needs of individuals. This study and research approach
were designed to assess the needs of currently employed Black Women in non-academic, mid-
level careers in higher education with the desire and intent to pursue leadership opportunities.
Additional limitations consisted of the study being exclusive to Black Women, exclusive to non-
academic/non-teaching IHEs administrators, exclusive to mid-level professionals, time restraints,
low survey participation rates, numerous unanswered questions, and cancelation of interviews.
Future Research
Diversity in the US population continues to increase, yet minorities remain under-
represented in leadership at IHEs. “Diversifying higher education leadership is critical and the
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 73
stalled pace suggests that more work is needed to understand and address the underlying factors
that are contributing to the slowed progress.” (Hannum et al., 2015, p. 67). Minority, non-
academic, women administrators - outside of admissions, student affairs, and athletics - are also
institutional agents in higher education and despite the demographic shift and the instrumental
passage of Title IX, such women are still faced with workplace barriers which can be contributed
to the lack of inclusion of this group (Dowd, Pak, & Bensimon, 2013). There were several
scholarly articles identifying the gaps in the literature and highlighting the need for additional
research to be conducted. It was very interesting to read in the Luedke (2017) article, scholars
have now begun to investigate the role of staff and administrators, in higher education, as it
relates to the student’s college experience.
Luedke (2017) stated it best, “Students gained rich social capital in their relationship with
Staff and Administrators of Color who valued students’ backgrounds and supported them
holistically and authentically.” (p. 38). There has been a great deal of research to support the
benefits of the student-faculty relationship, yet the number of hours these two stakeholders
interact are often limited to course time and advising time. A couple of those potential benefits
to students are providing support and having someone who will listen to them. Interactions,
outside of these two, commonly involve settings with multiple individuals being around, thus
preventing an inter-personal relationship. On the other hand, the interaction and relationship
between students-staff is often unrestricted time in a less stressful and intimidating environment.
I recommend further examination of the relationship and benefits between non-academic
minority administrators and students because such an environment can pave the way for
mentoring and providing psychological and emotional support (Luedke, 2017).
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 74
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Appendix A: Sampling Criteria for Surveys
Survey Sampling Criteria and Rationale
Criterion 1. Primary participants must identify as female and as African American,
Black American, or having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa.
Criterion 2. The key stakeholder of this research study must be exclusive to currently
employed non-academic/non-teaching professionals in mid-level or lower-level roles at 4-year
institutions in the United States (US). Roles excluded for this research study included: faculty,
Dean, Assistant Dean, Vice President, Associate/Assistant Vice President or Provost.
Criterion 3. Key participants must be between the ages of 25 to 65 with more than three
years of experience working in higher education administration with access to a computer with
internet connectivity.
Survey Sampling (Recruitment) Strategy and Rationale
The survey strategy used in this field study were stratified random and convenience
(snowballing) sampling. Stratified random sampling is one of the three most commonly used of
the random sampling methods (Fink, 2013). For this study, 200 Black Women currently
employed at 4-year US post-secondary institutions were the target group due to an increased
interest in the topic which is suggested by Fink (2013). After approval of the Institutional
Review Board (IRB), participants were recruited by sharing a short video outlining the research
purpose and a link to the Qualtrics survey disseminated in professional organizations listservs of
the researcher, multiple secured scholarly Facebook groups for minorities and Women in
academia, and on the LinkedIn account of the researcher.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 83
Appendix B: Survey Protocols
Welcome and thank you for your willingness and voluntary participation in this research
study. My name is Shuna H. McMichael and I am a doctoral candidate at the University of
Southern California (USC). The research study is being conducted on diversity hiring and
retention policies and practices in higher education. The aim of the study is to understand the
low visibility of Black Women in non-academic leadership roles in higher education by
identifying barriers and challenges that can contribute to improving the recruiting and retention
process to advance workforce diversity. I hope the findings from this study will be able to
contribute to the growing body of literature on the importance of structural diversity and
recruiting practices in higher education administration.
The Qualtrics survey consists of 84 questions for Black Women currently employed at 4-
year institutions in the US. Although the survey is not timed, it may take approximately 25
minutes or less to complete. Please feel free to complete the survey at your own pace and be
assured anything you share will be and remain confidential. As a friendly reminder, your
participation is voluntary, and you may choose to skip any question and you may choose to end
the survey at any time without explanation. To maintain confidentiality and to aid in capturing
the information you are willing to share, I ask if you are willing to complete the survey on a
personal and password secured computer. I want to thank you again for your willingness to
participate in this survey. Prior to beginning, please take this time to read thoroughly the
Informed Consent form and if you have no disagreements, please click the consent button to
proceed to the survey.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 84
Appendix C: Validity and Reliability
The researcher also serves in the capacity of an Authorized Institutional Official,
Institutional Research Administrator, and an IRB Administrator for her current institution, which
is exempt from the research study. Each role is governed with an explicit code of ethics,
certifications, and assurances the researcher is mandated to adhere to, thus contributing to the
reliability of the study. Survey items were constructed utilizing the KMO conceptual framework
of Clark and Estes (2008) based on the critical measures for the research study: recruitment,
retention, career advancement, and mentoring. Additionally, survey items were adapted from
employee engagement and satisfaction surveys from academic sources. Utilizing preexisting
validated data, to contribute to the researcher’s findings in the survey data collection, was an
instrument to promote the liability validity to the underrepresentation of Black Women working
in non-academic administrator roles in higher education (Fink, 2013).
To maximize content and reliability, the researcher collaborated with peer scholars
having expertise in research design. Additionally, a small group of Black Women working in
academia with a terminal degree conducted peer examination and evaluation of the research
instrument. Each individual of the selected groups has the expertise, contributing to the
reliability, to flush or identify any ethical errors prior to dissemination. Secondly, the researcher
piloted the survey instrument with a small group of Women of Color working in academia in
multiple roles exempt from the study. The piloted survey contributed to the reliability prior to
the dissemination of the targeted primary stakeholders. Gathering data from the pilot
professionals familiar with the variables, the researcher maintains content and construct validity,
creating the reliability of what is intended to be measured is being measured. The dissemination
of the survey instrument was the same for all participants.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 85
Appendix D: Assumed Knowledge Influences Survey Item Matrix
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 86
Appendix E: Assumed Motivation Influences Survey Item Matrix
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Appendix F: Assumed Organization Influences Survey Item Matrix
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Appendix G: Sampling Criteria for Interviews
Interview Group Sampling Criteria and Rationale
Criterion 1. Primary participant must have completed the quantitative survey and
accessibility to participate in a web-based or an electronic virtual meeting platform.
Criterion 2. Key participant were exclusive to non-academic professionals currently
employed at a 4-year US institution for more than three years between the ages of 25 and 65 in
non-executive level or faculty related roles.
Criterion 3. Currently employed Black Women higher education professionals will be
required to have worked in their current position for two years or more.
Interview Group Sampling (Recruitment) Strategy and Rationale
The interview strategy used in this field study were purposeful sampling. The sampling
size is reflective of the statistical ethnicity employment data for IHEs provided by the Institute of
Education Sciences (IES), the arm of the U.S. Department of Education. In-depth interviews
with open-ended questions, of the participants, were conducted to determine the knowledge,
motivation, and organizational influences associated with improving recruitment practices to
increase structural diversity within their institution (Maxwell, 2013). With restraints of time and
financial resources, interviews were conducted virtually with self-selecting volunteers that
completed the surveys (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015).
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 89
Appendix H: Interview Protocols
Welcome and thank you for your willingness and voluntary participation in this research
study. My name is Shuna Holmes McMichael and I am a doctoral candidate at the University of
Southern California (USC). The research study is being conducted on improving the
representation of diversity in the non-academic leadership workforce of higher education. The
aim of the study is to understand the deficiency of Black Women in non-academic leadership
roles in higher education by utilizing identified challenges that can contribute to improving
existing practices or create new ones. I hope the findings from this study will be able to
contribute to the growing body of literature on the importance of institutional diversity in higher
education and advance workforce diversity in higher education leadership.
The interviews will take approximately 60 minutes or more to complete; additional time
will be granted if needed. Please be assured that anything you share during this interview will be
and remain confidential. With your consent, I would like to video and audio record this
interview to ensure your comments and responses are accurately transcribed. As a friendly
reminder, your participation is voluntary, and you may choose to skip any question and you may
choose to end the interview at any time without explanation. You will also have the opportunity,
if you so choose, to review the transcription of our interview to ensure your responses were
accurately captured. At the end of the research study, all video and audio recorded during the
interview will be discarded.
I want to thank you again for your willingness to participate in this interview. Prior to
beginning, please take this time to read thoroughly the Informed Consent form and if you have
no disagreements, please sign and date. Before the first question can be asked, do you agree to
be audio and video recorded? If “yes,” proceed with starting the recording.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 90
Appendix I: Credibility and Trustworthiness
As previously stated, the researcher serves in the capacity of an Authorized Institutional
Official, Institutional Research Administrator, and an IRB Administrator for their current
institution, which is exempt from the research study. Each role is governed with an explicit code
of ethics, certifications, and assurances the researcher is mandated to adhere to, thus contributing
to the credibility and trustworthiness of the qualitative study. To ensure the credibility and
trustworthiness of the research study, the researcher utilized triangulation and member checking.
The triangulation came from multiple approaches, quantitative survey collection, and the
conducting of qualitative interviews (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Triangulation is a strategy to
verify the accuracy of the data collected and to support the hypothesis of the researcher
(Creswell, 2008).
Credibility and Trustworthiness were attempted to be achieved by using a relatively large
sample of participants (10-15). Purposeful sampling of the interviewees was selected to establish
credibility and trustworthiness in the research study. Following the interview, the researcher
provided the interviewees with transcription, allowing for affirmation of their statements
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). The interview items were a mix of questions to assess only the K
and M of Clark and Estes’ (2008) conceptual framework. The K and M interview questions
were constructed utilizing five of the six categories: (1) behaviors/experiences, (2)
opinions/values, (3) feelings/emotions, (4) knowledge (factual), and (5) background (Patton,
2002). Each item aligned were aligned with the research questions and variables of the research
project to ensure the data collected is face validity (Miles, Huberman, & Saldana, 2014).
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 91
Appendix J: Assumed KM Influences Interview items for RQ1
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Appendix K: Ethics
As the researcher in an improvement practice study, the focus is aligned with improving
the diversity and inclusion of non-academic professionals to advance workforce diversity at IHEs
by identifying barriers and challenges of Black Women currently employed. The researcher was
interested in the results due to the limited current quantitative and qualitative research conducted
on minorities in the non-academic higher education workforce. The primary responsibilities of
the researcher are to ensure the protection of the rights of the participants by providing adequate
information to obtain informed consent, respect voluntary participation or withdrawal of
participation without penalty, maintain the confidentiality of their identity and participation, and
secure the data collected from surveys and interviews. The researcher is ethically responsible for
ensuring the human participants have adequate information about the intent and purpose of the
research to make an informed voluntary decision to participate (Glesne, 2011; Merriam &
Tisdell, 2016).
An application was submitted in accordance with the guidelines and regulatory
requirements of the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of Southern California
(USC). Participants were not recruited, and no data was collected until IRB approval was
received. The data collection consisted of quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods. There
was no compensation for participation in either phase of the study. Prior to scheduling
interviews, an Informed Consent form was emailed to potential interviewees requesting
permission for audio and visual recording. The email did not include any identifiable
information and to minimize any risk, participants were assigned pseudonyms. Participants’
recorded videos were protected with an encrypted password and saved on researcher’s personal
computer.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 93
Appendix L: Recommendations for Practice to Address KMO Influences
Knowledge Recommendations
Introduction. Table 9 represents the knowledge influences and outlines the context-
specific recommendations to closing the gap of these identified barriers. One of the knowledge
influences validated through the data collected from quantitative surveys and supported with
qualitative interviews of Black Women currently employed at 4-year US institutions. The
procedural knowledge is knowing how to improve the path for Women of Color seeking
leadership careers (Aguinis & Kraiger, 2009). The validated procedural knowledge influence
listed in Table 9 is based on literature-based theory and theoretical and empirical principles.
Table 9
Summary of Knowledge Influences and Recommendations
Assumed Knowledge Influence Principle and Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
IHEs need to know the perceived
barriers and challenges of Black
Women when seeking non-
academic employment
opportunities. (D)
IHEs need to know if Black
Women know the path into career
advancement are available (P)
Modeled behavior is more
likely to be adopted if the
model is credible, similar
(e.g., gender, culturally
appropriate), and the
behavior has functional
value (Denler et al., 2009).
Provide HR personnel the
steps for effective career
advancement practices of
Black Women in non-
academic roles seeking
senior leadership roles.
D = Declarative, P = Procedural, IHEs = Institutions of Higher Education
Procedural knowledge solutions. Improving HR personnel’s knowledge, at 4-year US
institutions, about how to assess the effectiveness of their professional development or career
advancement practices are for Black Women in non-academic roles seeking senior leadership
roles. The results of this study indicated that 63.04% of Black Women currently employed in
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 94
non-academic roles at 4-year US institutions expressed they did not know the path into non-
academic leadership positions. A recommendation rooted in social cognitive theory has been
selected to close this procedural knowledge gap. Denler et al. (2009) found that modeled
behavior is more likely to be adopted if the model is credible, similar (e.g., gender, culturally
appropriate), and the behavior has functional. This would suggest that providing learners with
results from the survey and interviews of currently employed Black Women would support their
learning. The recommendation is to provide HR personnel with steps for effective career
advancement practices of Black Women in non-academic roles seeking senior leadership roles in
the form of providing opportunities for learners to check their progress and adjust their learning
strategies as needed.
Jackson (2001) studied 10 African American administrators in higher education to
identify steps Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) could implement to potentially improve
retention. Eight essential themes were revealed in the qualitative study of the five participants
responses. The first theme relevant to professional development and career growth was to create
a program that would provide mentorship between senior and junior administrators and the
second theme revealed the importance of Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to promote
their employees to pursue professional advancement and development (Jackson, 2001). Jackson
(2001) stated the barriers of effective recruitment of African American administrators is nested
within the organization. Therefore, the recommendation for providing HR personnel with the
necessary information to develop steps for a more effective career advancement practice of
Black Women as non-academic administrator to confidently pursue senior leadership roles.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 95
Motivation Recommendations
Introduction. Table 10 represents assumed the motivation influences and outlines the
context-specific recommendations and theoretical principles to closing the gap of the perceived
identified barriers of the key stakeholders. The motivation influences, validated through the data
collected from quantitative surveys and supported with qualitative interviews of currently
employed Black Women at 4-year US institutions, are listed in Table 10 based on motivation
theory and literature review.
Table 10
Summary of Motivation Influences and Recommendations
Assumed Motivation
Influence
Principle and Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
IHEs may not know if Black
Women feel valued and
authentically welcomed
(SE)
The beliefs of the HR personnel
can drive their motivation to
accept the task and improve the
diversity recruiting process
(Wigfield & Eccles, 2000).
Rationales that include a
discussion of the importance and
utility value of the work or
learning can help learners
develop positive values (Eccles,
2006;
Pintrich, 2003).
Provide HR personnel with
target recruitment models that
promotes diversity and
inclusion aiming to eliminate
disparities.
IHEs may not know if Black
Women value the utility of
mentorship in their pursuits of
leadership opportunities. (V)
HR personnel need to witness
the success of their professional
colleagues to be motivated to
experience the same success
(Bandura, 2005).
Learning and motivation
are enhanced when
learners have positive
expectancies for success
(Pajares, 2006).
Provide HR personnel a
diverse workforce toolkit
from academic sources that
contains best practices on
career advancement for staff
from targeted group. After,
HR personnel should have the
opportunity to work with peer
models to create a career
development plan with
delayed feedback.
V = Value and SE = Self-efficacy
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 96
Self-Efficacy. Increasing the confidence level of HR personnel to improve existing
promotion and retention practices or develop new career growth plans for currently employed
Black Women in non-academic roles at 4-year institutions. The results of this study indicated
that 63.07% of Black Women seeking non-academic professional roles at 4-year US institutions
expressed they did not understand what is expected of their career development. A
recommendation rooted in self-efficacy theory has been selected to close this self-efficacy
motivation gap. Bandura (2005) found that individuals need to witness the success of their
professional colleagues to be motivated to experience the same success. In addition, Pajares
(2006) found that learning and motivation are enhanced when learners have positive
expectancies for success. This would suggest that providing learners with results from the
survey and interviews of Black Women currently at 4-year US institution would support their
learning. The recommendation is to provide HR personnel with a diverse workforce toolkit from
academic resources that contains best practices on career advancement for employees from
targeted group plus research data from the survey and interviews of Black Women currently
employed in non-academic professional roles at 4-year US institutions.
According to Dunn, Gerlach, & Hyle (2014), women in administrative positions are
underrepresented in higher education and it is problematic. Also, Black administrators are often
disproportionate due to colleges and universities failure to ensure diversity and inclusion
practices at the managerial and senior leadership level (Wolfe & Dilworth, 2015). Clark and
Estes (2008) identified vague and constantly changing performance goals as one element to
destroy work motivation. Providing a diverse workforce toolkit to HR personnel can provide
clear organizational goals, improve motivation, and increase their commitment and ownership of
the goals (Clark & Estes, 2008). Utilizing the survey and interview data collected of Black
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 97
Women currently employed, will increase the confidence of HR personnel to identify what
organizational goals are necessary to improve the promotion and retention of Black Women
currently employed at 4-year US institutions. Additionally, having a “we” culture motivates HR
personnel to work as a group to determine which organizational diversity goals are important
(Clark & Estes, 2008). Therefore, providing informative feedback to HR personnel will increase
their confidence to improve the promotion and retention of Black Women administrators in
higher education (Bandura, 2000).
Value. Motivating HR personnel to see usefulness for themselves in improving inclusion
and equity practices of Black Women as non-academic administrators. The results of this study
indicated that 52.17% of Black Women currently employed did not feel equally valued as other
employees of different races at their current institution. A recommendation rooted in expectancy
value theory has been selected to close this extrinsic motivation gap. Wigfield & Eccles (2000),
found the beliefs of the HR personnel can drive their motivation to accept the task and improve
the diversity and inclusion practices. In addition, Eccles (2006) and Pintrich (2003) found
rationales that include a discussion of the importance and utility value of the work or learning
can help learners develop positive values. This would suggest that providing learners with
results from the survey and interviews of Black Women, currently employed, would support
their learning. The recommendation is to provide HR personnel with target recruitment models
that promote diversity and inclusion aiming to eliminate disparities plus the research data results
from the survey and interviews of Black Women currently employed in mid-level, non-
academic roles at 4-year US institutions that would illustrate identified barriers related to
inclusion.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 98
According to Valverde (2011), White administrators are still overrepresented at
Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) and Women of Color continue to overcome institutional
barriers. The lack of institutional commitment to workforce diversity is visible with the lack of
representation of Black Women administrators in higher (Wolfe & Freeman, 2013). According
to Jean-Marie (2011), there should be an institutional level of commitment to advance diversity
through the alignment of policies and practices in higher education. Providing a diversity
workforce toolkit, contributes to HR personnel’s active choice (Clark & Estes, 2008).
Organization Recommendations
Introduction. The survey data of currently employed Black Women in non-academic
roles resulted in two assumed organizational influences explored by the researcher. Both
organizational influences were validated as high probability through data analysis results. The
first recommendation was prioritized utilizing organizational theory to improve diversity
recruiting process of Black Women in non-academic leadership roles. The second
recommendation was prioritized utilizing diversity and accountability principles structured
around cultural settings. Table 11 lists the context-specific recommendation based on theoretical
principles.
Table 11
Summary of Organization Influences and Recommendations
Assumed
Organization
Influence
Principle and Citation
Context-Specific
Recommendation
IHEs need to provide a
clear vision to foster a
culture of inclusion and
diversity.
Organizational effectiveness
increases when leaders ensure that
employees have the resources
needed to achieve the
organization’s goals.
The organization needs leaders
to establish a concrete
institutional goal to improving
diversity recruiting practices
and prioritize time for HR
personnel to develop improved
recruitment protocols.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 99
Effective leaders address
institutional policies and practices
that create barriers for equity
(Bensimon, 2005)
IHEs need to provide or
create leadership
pathways to improve
retention and advance
workforce diversity
Effective leaders share power
appropriately. They consider
equity in the process of
allocating resources (Johnson,
2006)
Equity, diversity and access are
important goals in private and
public sectors (Darling-Hammond,
2007; Lim,Haddad & Daugherty,
2013).
The organization needs leaders
to provide HR personnel
devoted time and access to
resources to improve existing
professional development and
retention practices or to create
new ones.
Cultural model solutions. Improving diversity recruiting practices. The results of this
study indicated that 65.22% of Black Women currently employed expressed their current
institution enables a culture of diversity, while the findings of this study indicated 100% of Black
Women expressed more needs to be done to increase representation of Women of Color. A
principle rooted in organizational theory has been selected to close this resistance to change gap.
Clark and Estes (2008) found organizational effectiveness increases when leaders ensure that
employees have the resources needed to achieve the organization’s goals. Additionally,
Bensimon (2005), found effective leaders address institutional policies and practices that create
barriers for equity. This would suggest providing organizations with results from the survey and
interview data of currently employed of Black Women in non-academic roles, would reveal
perceived organizational barriers to leadership. The recommendation is for organizational
leaders to establish a concrete institutional goal to improving diversity recruiting practices and
prioritize time for HR personnel to develop improved recruitment protocols. As an example,
organizational leaders send a mass email to the campus community communicating the
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 100
institution’s goal and commitment to promote a diverse and inclusive environment in the
administration of the university.
According to Clark and Estes (2008), having adequate, efficient material resources can
increase the effectiveness of an organization to achieve their goals. Recruiting practices cannot
be improved if an organization does not communicate their commitment to diversify their
workforce (Vos et al., 2016). Addressing policies and practices that create equity barriers makes
leaders effective according to Bensimon (2005). By utilizing the survey and interview data
collected from Black Women currently employed at 4-year US institutions, organizational
leaders can see deficiencies of current recruiting practices. Therefore, establishing concrete
institutional goals to improve the diversity of their workforce will prioritize time for HR
personnel to develop improved recruitment protocols.
Cultural settings. Creating systems to monitor diversity leadership of non-academic
administrator roles. While conducting data analysis, it was revealed this assumed influence for
cultural setting was most important due to organizations lacking policies or formal practices for
career advancement and professional development. The results of this study indicated 76.09% of
the institutions did not have clear goals to increase the representation of Black Women in
leadership roles. Principles rooted in diversity and accountability theory have been selected to
close the equity gap. Dowd and Bensimon (2015), found that understanding the meaning of
equity, diversity and access in your organizational context enhances the capacity to improve
organizational climate and outcomes.
Additionally, Bensimon (2005), found effective leaders use disaggregated data to make
informed decisions. They track the impact of their decisions on equity, access, and inclusion in
organizational practice. This would suggest providing organizations with results from the survey
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 101
and interview data of Black Women currently employed, would support their learning. The
recommendation is for organizational leaders to clearly define diversity recruitment expectations
by creating a recruitment monitoring process for non-academic administrator roles by regularly
meeting with individuals from all areas of the organization to review the data, share ideas, get
feedback, and make course corrections if needed.
Dowd and Bensimon states (2015), it is important for organizational leaders to have
expertise to identify the root causes of racial equity issues. The survey and interview data of
Black Women currently employed, organizational leaders can be utilized to make informed
decisions and track the impact of their decisions (Bensimon, 2005). Having the ability to
disaggregated data by selecting racial and ethnic groupings can assist organizational leaders to
clearly define the diversity recruitment expectations (Dowd and Bensimon, 2015). Therefore,
creating a recruitment monitoring process for Black Women professionals will provide
accountability of organizational leaders and HR personnel.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 102
Appendix M: Integrated Implementation and Evaluation Plan
Implementation and Evaluation Framework
The New World Kirkpatrick Model (2016) is utilized to implement and evaluate the
proposed assumed influences and context-specific recommendations in this research study. The
updated model still recognizes the original four outcomes evaluation levels, in reverse order
beginning with Results (Level 4), Behavior (Level 3), Learning (Level 2), and Reaction (Level
1). To reflect the importance of KMO context-specific recommendations, the focus is placed
first on the results in the updated model. The New World Kirkpatrick Model will serve as the
framework to generate data and diagnosing performance of the implemented solutions identified
by researcher. Each of the identified assumed knowledge, motivation, and organizational
influences were evaluated on the outcomes, metrics, and methods identified below. Utilizing the
data generated from and evaluation plan will reveal additional gaps, thus leading to continuing
discussions on how to improve existing policies and procedures and what new policies should be
created to improve recruiting and retention of Black Women in the non-academic leadership
workforce.
Organizational Purpose, Need and Expectations
Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) share similarities in their organizational purpose
to provide access to high-quality education in a diverse learning environment. The purpose of
most Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) is to reflect diversity in student population, faculty,
and staff. Active efforts and initiatives are visible at Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) to
improve diversity representation of students and faculty; however, little focus is given to the
inclusion and diversification of staff and administration. Students, faculty, staff, and
administrators are all equally important to achieving the organizational goal to assure access to
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 103
students and the public to a high-quality education. To align with the organizational goals and to
uphold its commitment to diversity, it is in the best interest of Institutions of Higher Education
(IHEs) to improve diversity recruiting practices of Black Women with the opportunity to
progress to leadership roles. As a strategy to increase the representation of underrepresented
students, it is important for diversity to be visible and represented in faculty, staff, and all levels
of administration. This research study utilized the framework of the knowledge, motivation, and
organizational influences causing potential barriers to recruiting and retaining Black Women in
non-academic administrative roles at 4-year US institutions. The recommended solutions of job
aids, diversity hiring toolkits, and retreat activity sessions are to improve job vacancy placement
to increase the diverse applicant pool, increase the number of Black Women applying and being
hired with improved recruiting practices, and assess organizational career advancement
opportunities. For institutions lacking an organizational goal to improve diversity recruiting and
career advancement opportunities, the recommended solutions are to create new policies and
procedures to foster a diverse and inclusive environment.
Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators
Table 12 shows the proposed Level 4: Results and Leading Indicators in the form of
outcomes, metrics and methods for both 4-year US institutions’ external and internal outcomes.
If the internal outcomes are met as a result of creating and improving diversity recruiting and
retention policies, procedures, and practices of Black Women, then the external outcomes should
also be realized.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 104
Table 12
Outcomes, Metrics, and Methods for External and Internal Outcomes
Outcome Metric(s) Method(s)
External Outcomes
1. Increase the number of
Black Women in non-
academic leadership roles
1a. The number of Black
Women who applied,
interviewed, and hired for non-
academic leadership roles at a 4-
year US institution each fiscal
year.
1a. Solicit annual data from the
U.S. Department of Education
on Black Women employed at
4-year post-secondary
institutions.
Solicit published research data
from Colleges and University
Professional Association for
Human Resources (CUPA-HR).
1b. The number of Black
Women who are employed in
non-academic leadership roles at
4-year US institutions.
1b. Solicit annual data from the
U.S. Department of Education
on Black Women employed at
4-year post-secondary
institutions.
Solicit published research data
from Colleges and University
Professional Association for
Human Resources (CUPA-HR).
Internal Outcomes
3. Improved policies and
practices related to
diversity and inclusion
3a. The number of diversity and
inclusion policies and
procedures communicated and
accessible to employees.
3a. The diversity and inclusion
written, reviewed, established
policies and procedures
approved by executive
leadership and disseminated by
Human Resources.
3b. The number of instances the
established diversity and
inclusion policies and
procedures was adhered to as
recorded by Human Resources.
3b. Aggregated data (Level 3.1)
from hiring leaders of each
recruiting position (collected via
survey)
4. Improved retention
practices for non-
academic workforce
4a. The number of retention
practices established to
encourage retention in non-
academic roles.
4a. The written, reviewed,
established retention practices,
approved by executive
leadership and disseminated by
Human Resources.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 105
5. Reduce turnover by
creating pathways to
leadership with career
advancement
opportunities
5a. The number of Black
Women who leave the
organization within the fiscal
year for professional career
growth.
5a. Compare annual survey
results
Level 3: Behavior
Critical behaviors. The stakeholders of focus are Human Resources and hiring leaders
at 4-year US institutions. The first critical behavior is for Human Resources to maintain
diversity and inclusion policies and procedures for Black Women. The second and third critical
behavior is that they must maintain retention and recruiting practices for Black Women in non-
academic roles. The last critical behavior is that they must appropriately refer new employees to
professional development, career advancement, and/or leadership opportunities. The specific
metrics, methods, and timing for each of these outcome behaviors appears in Table 13.
Table 13
Critical Behaviors, Metrics, Methods, and Timing for Evaluation
Critical Behavior Metric(s) Method(s) Timing
1.Maintain diversity
and inclusion
policies and
procedures.
The number of
diversity and inclusion
policies adhered to
and procedures
performed by hiring
leader when reviewing
Black Women’s
application for
interview
consideration.
1a. The hiring leader
shall indicate in a written
report which diversity
and inclusion policies
and procedures were
followed when
reviewing a Black
Woman’s application for
interview consideration.
1a. Five business
days following the
selected candidate
for interview.
2. Maintain retention
practices of Black
Women in non-
academic roles.
The number of
retention practices
adhered to performed
by hiring leader.
2a. The hiring leader
shall indicate in a written
report which retention
practices were followed
when an employee
submits resignation.
2a. During the exit
process.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 106
3. Appropriately refer
new employees to
professional
development, career
advancement, and/or
leadership
opportunities.
The number of new
employees requesting
information regarding
professional
development, career
advancement, or
leadership
opportunities.
3a. The hiring leader will
track each request in a
written report and
provide to their Human
Resources.
3a. During a new
hire orientation.
3b. The hiring leader will
track which opportunity
or opportunities the new
employee is interested in
a written report and
provide to their Human
Resources.
3b. During a new
hire orientation.
Required drivers. Senior Human Resources administrators at 4-year US institutions are
responsible for sharing information on how to create a diverse workforce with Human Resources
and hiring leaders. Senior Human Resources administrators also require the commitment and
support from executive leadership to reinforce the institutional goal to improve diversity
recruiting practices and increase the number of Black Women being interviewed for non-
academic leadership roles. When Human Resources achieve the institutional and performance
goals, they will be rewarded. Table 14 shows the recommended drivers to support the critical
behaviors of Human Resources.
Table 14
Required Drivers to Support Critical Behaviors
Method(s) Timing
Critical Behaviors Supported
1, 2, 3 Etc.
Reinforcing
Disseminate scholarly
articles and published
research on effective
diversity and inclusion
principles
Quarterly 1, 2, 3
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 107
Disseminate scholarly
articles and published
research on internal barriers
preventing an inclusive work
environment
Monthly 1, 2, 3
Job Aid that provides steps
for effective career
advancement practices for
employees seeking leadership
roles.
Ongoing 1, 2, 3
Encouraging
Peer modeling of target
recruitment, hiring toolkit,
and diverse workforce toolkit
during professional
development sessions.
Quarterly 1, 2, 3
Feedback and
recommendations from
executive Human Resources.
As needed 1, 2, 3
Rewarding
Performance incentives when
the percentage of Black
Women applied for non-
academic roles increases.
Quarterly 1, 3
Public acknowledgement at
Board of Trustees meeting
when the percentage of Black
Women employed increases.
Quarterly 1, 3
Monitoring
Diversity recruitment
monitoring with individuals
from all areas of the
organization.
Monthly 1, 2, 3
Conduct meetings with
executive leaders to
communicate the institutional
goal and commitment to
improving the diversity of
non-academic roles that leads
to leadership.
Quarterly 1, 2, 3
Organizational support. The critical behaviors and required drivers monitored for
performance improvement are promised upon implementation of recommendations at the
organizational level. In this case, for the stakeholder to achieve their goals the organization
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 108
would need to establish a clear and concrete institutional goal to improving diversity recruiting
practices campus-wide. The organization would also need to prioritize time for Human
Resources, separate from their day-to-day administrative services, to develop improved
recruitment protocols to align with the institutional goal. Finally, the organization will need to
provide performance incentives when the percentage of Black Women applied for non-academic
administrator roles increases.
Level 2: Learning
Learning goals.
1. Recognize the internal and external challenges to diverse recruiting when given a
scenario, (D)
2. Interpret employee turnover data, (D)
3. Foster and promote the culture of diversity and inclusion, (D)
4. Modify and improve current diversity recruiting, (P)
5. Use effective strategies to support Black Women Administrators and their retention,
(P)
6. Discuss strategies and practices for improving retention of Black Women
Administrators, (Interest)
7. Establish diversity recruiting and retention goals in support of organizational goals,
(Goal Setting)
8. Use formative feedback to determine the efficacy of their retention strategies and to
guide adjustments to retention efforts of Black Women, (Formative Feedback)
Program. The learning goals listed in the previous section, will be achieved with a two-
day off-campus Diversity and Inclusion retreat conducted annually in the summer. One
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 109
beginning of day one, four hours will consist of Senior Executives, two Board Members, and
Human Resources Executive. The executive stakeholders will review and discuss published
research on effective diversity and inclusion principles. Following extensive discussions, the
executive stakeholders will collaboratively write a commitment statement of the university’s
organizational goal to cultivate a diverse and inclusive workforce. The goal will outline the
identified steps to achieve the organizational goal. The executive stakeholders Diversity and
Inclusion retreat will take place every two years with a completion time of three (3) hours.
During the second session of day one of the Diversity and Inclusion (D&I) retreat,
following the introduction, Human Resources Executive will disseminate the organizational
goals and identified steps to HR personnel from throughout the university. The D&I retreat will
consist of review of four hiring toolkits and four diversity workforce toolkits. The HR personnel
will actively participate in an activity to write their own and receive feedback from the Executive
HR. The total learning time for completion is half day (3 hours).
During the first session of day two, HR personnel will complete two of the following
interactive CUPA-HR webinars: (1) diversity recruiting; and (2) retention and employee
turnover. Each of the interactive webinars will take a total time of one hour to complete (120
minutes). The first webinar will be diversity recruiting and immediately following, HR
personnel will participate in one case studies to identify causes and solutions to the following (60
minutes). At the completion of the case studies for diversity recruiting, the HR personnel will
actively write their own diversity recruiting strategies and receive feedback from the HR
Executive (120 minutes). The second webinar will be retention and employee turnover and
immediately following, HR personnel will participate in one case studies to identify causes and
solutions to the following (60 minutes). At the completion of the case studies, the HR personnel
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 110
will actively write their own retention and employee turnover strategies and receive feedback
from the HR Executive (120 minutes). The total learning time for completion (6 hours).
Evaluation of the components of learning. Demonstrating declarative knowledge is
often a necessary precursor to applying knowledge to solve problems. As is the case with all the
stakeholders, HR personnel need to feel confident that they can successfully apply the
knowledge and skills acquired through their training. Evaluating learning for both declarative
and procedural knowledge being taught is important. Furthermore, it is equally important that
learners value Diversity & Inclusion and must feel confident and committed to and applying their
knowledge on the job.
Table 15
Evaluation of the Components of Learning for the Program.
Method(s) or Activity(ies) Timing
Declarative Knowledge “I know it.”
Knowledge checks through paired activities and
discussions with colleagues and HR Executive.
Periodically during the two-day D&I
retreat sessions.
Knowledge checks through using action planning
At the end of the tasks by evaluating
the created toolkits and strategies.
Knowledge checks through table group
Periodically during the two-day D&I
retreat sessions via causes and solutions
assignments.
Procedural Skills “I can do it right now.”
Use real case studies in group tabling and create a
diversity career leadership strategy with peer-to-peer
activities
At the end of activity session
Use real case studies in group tabling and create a
retention and employee turnover strategy with peer-
to-peer activities
At the end of activity session
Quality of the feedback from HR Executive At the end of activity session
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 111
Attitude “I believe this is worthwhile.”
Discussions between colleagues of the value of and
interest in what they are asked to in their role
During activity session
Discussions between HR Executive of the value of
what they are being asked to do in their role
At the end of activity session
Confidence “I think I can do it on the job.”
Discussions following practice and feedback During the activity session
Dedicated time to discuss the HR personnel
concerns about implementing new diversity
recruiting strategies
At the end of the retreat
Post training and reflections After the retreat
Commitment “I will do it on the job.”
Discussions following practice and feedback During the activity session
Check-ins during HR personnel quarterly meetings After the retreat
Level 1: Reaction
Table 16 shows the proposed Level 1: Components to Measure Reactions to the Program
in the form of methods, tools, and timing for engagement, relevance, and customer satisfaction of
the program for HR personnel at 4-year US institutions. Throughout the retreat and activity
sessions, the method and tools will be used to measure the learning activities and HR personnel’s
reactions to the activity sessions.
Table 16
Components to Measure Reactions to the Program.
Method(s) or Tool(s) Timing
Engagement
Completion of the activity session After the activity session
Observation by HR Executive During the activity sessions
Attendance During activity sessions
Activity sessions evaluation During activity sessions
Completion of CUPA-HR webinars
Periodically during the
synchronous webinars
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 112
Relevance
Activity sessions evaluation During activity sessions
Brief pulse-check with HR personnel via small group
discussions during first retreat day
After last activity session
Brief pulse-check with HR personnel via large group
discussions during second retreat day
After each activity session
Customer Satisfaction
Retreat activity sessions evaluation Two weeks after retreat
Brief, informal pulse-check with HR personnel via small
group discussions during first retreat day
After last activity session
Brief, informal pulse-check with HR personnel via large group
discussions during second retreat day
After each activity session
Evaluation Tools
Immediately following the program implementation. The Human Resources
Executive will have a sign-in roster twice a day of the D&I retreat to collect the name of the HR
personnel. The roster should indicate the HR personnel who completed each D&I activity
session from start to finish. Each day, the HR Executive will be present for observation of the
HR personnel, to collect data after each activity session, and to conduct brief pulse-checks via
small and large groups. The HR Executive utilizes these methods to determine if the CUPA-HR
webinars, hiring toolkits, diversity toolkits, and case studies are relevant to their roles at the
university. The delivery and content of the activity sessions will be demonstrated in the data of
engagement, relevance, and engagement of Level 1. In learning the content, the methods of
Level 2 will include knowledge checks, procedural skills, attitude, and confidence. Knowledge
checks will be executed through paired case studies activities and discussions with colleagues
and HR executive. The survey that will be disseminated after the D&I retreat can be found in
Appendix N.
Delayed for a period after the program implementation. Two months following the
implementation of the D&I activity sessions, the Human Resources Executive will administer a
survey containing Likert-scaled items and open-ended questions using the Blended Evaluation
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 113
approach to measure the participant’s level of relevance of the activity sessions (Level 1),
confidence and value toward applying the knowledge and skills gained during the activity
sessions (Level 2), application of the training to maintain the recruiting and retaining practices
Black Women in non-academic roles as well as the support from the Human Resources
Executive (Level 3), and outcomes resulted from their performance as it relates to improving
retention strategies (Level 4). The survey that will be sent to HR personnel two months after the
implementation of D&I retreat activity sessions can be found in Appendix O.
Data Analysis and Reporting
The 4-year US institution’s Level 4 goal is measured by the number of Black Women
who applied, interviewed, and employed in all positions and non-academic leadership positions.
Each time a hiring leader completes the hiring written report, he or she will track the measures
related to diversity recruiting ads, the Black Women who applied, the Black Women who were
interviewed, the Black Women who were offered the position, and the Black Women who
accepted the employment offer. Furthermore, the HR personnel will track the data in a written
report after new hire orientation when a Black Woman requests information regarding career
advancement, professional development or leadership opportunities. The HR personnel will then
send the data to the Human Resources Executive. A designated HR support staff will collate the
data from each HR personnel across the university and generate reports on the measures. The
dashboard below, which will be used by Human Resources Executive to present to Senior
Executives and Board Members, illustrates a report of the data provided by HR personnel across
the university. The dashboard also includes a table that monitors Levels 2 and 3.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 114
Table 17
Bi-annual Human Resources Executive Report
HR Executive Report Metrics Frequency Dashboard
Application of Black
Women
Monthly hiring reports Bi-annually Recruiting
Funnel
Interviewed Black Women Quarterly interview rate Bi-annually Recruiting
Funnel
Employment offer to Black
Women
Quarterly employment
offer rate
Bi-annually Recruiting
Funnel
Hired Black Women Monthly Hiring rate Bi-annually Recruiting
Funnel
Black Women promoted
internally
Quarterly retention efforts
rate
Bi-annually Monthly
graphs
Resignation of Black
Women
Quarterly Black Women
turnover rate
Bi-annually Monthly
graphs
Conclusion
The implementation and evaluation plan, to develop, evaluate the knowledge, skills,
motivation, and organizational recommendation for the 4-year US institutions, used the New
World Kirkpatrick Model (2016). The model is designed to start at Level 4 Results and moving
to Level 3 Behaviors, Level 2 Learning, and Level 1 Reactions. The program recommended by
the researcher meets expectations for the four levels, which is the focus of the New World
Kirkpatrick Model (2016). Successful training implementation will produce HR personnel who
are committed to improving the diversity workforce at their institution. Furthermore, with
ongoing monitoring, 4-year US institutions can achieve their organizational goals and see an
increase of Black Women employed at their institution.
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 115
Appendix N: Evaluation Instrument
Add Level 1, 2 Immediate Kirkpatrick Evaluation Instrument
2-day Diversity and Inclusion Retreat Evaluation Survey
Immediately after D&I retreat
Scale 1-4 (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree)
1. I feel confident about applying what I learned at the D&I retreat in my role of HR
personnel at my university (L2: Confident)
2. I can identify external challenges to diversity recruiting (L2: Declarative)
3. The retreat activities were engaging (Ll: Engagement)
4. I would participate in a Diversity and Inclusion Retreat again (L1: Customer Satisfaction)
Open-ended questions
5. Please describe your strategic plan to retain and reduce turnover of Black Women at your
institution (L2: Commitment)
6. Please explain how the D&I activities are applicable to your role in the University (L1:
Relevance)
IMPROVING WORKFORCE DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 116
Appendix O: Blended Evaluation Instrument
Level 1, 2, 3, and 4 Blended Kirkpatrick Evaluation Instrument
2-day Diversity and Inclusion Retreat Program Evaluation Survey
Two months following D&I retreat
Scale 1-4 (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree)
1. The content provided in the D&I activity sessions, are relevant to me (L1)
2. I am able to track the placement of diversity recruiting ads (L2)
3. My university has implemented improved retention strategies (L4)
4. My colleagues and I are able to use the D&I activities to maintain recruiting and retention
practices of Black Women in non-academic roles (L3)
Open-ended questions
5. Please describe the steps used to interpret employee turnover data (L2)
6. Please explain how you foster and promote a culture of diversity and inclusion in your
role (L2)
Abstract (if available)
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Asset Metadata
Creator
McMichael, Shuna Holmes
(author)
Core Title
Improving workforce diversity and inclusion in higher education leadership
School
Rossier School of Education
Degree
Doctor of Education
Degree Program
Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)
Publication Date
02/14/2020
Defense Date
10/18/2019
Publisher
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Tag
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Hassan, Angela (
committee chair
), Cole, Darnell (
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), Foulk, Susanne (
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