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Preparing Asian American leaders in higher education: an exploration study using Bronfenbrenner's ecological model

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Preparing Asian American Leaders in Higher Education: An Exploration Study Using
Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Model
by
Linh Ngoc Nguyen

A Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
A dissertation submitted to the faculty
in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Education

May 2022

© Copyright by Linh Ngoc Nguyen 2022
All Rights Reserved

The Committee for Linh Ngoc Nguyen Name certifies the approval of this Dissertation

Eric Canny
Courtney Malloy
Kathy Stowe, Committee Chair

Rossier School of Education
University of Southern California
2022

iv
Abstract
This study uses Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory to examine Asian American
academic leaders' under-representation in higher education through personal influences and
influences in the immediate and distal environments. The purpose of this study is to explore the
career trajectories of Asian American faculty in the context of environmental influences that
either supported or hindered them from advancing to academic leadership positions. The study
was designed to address two research questions: (1) What perceived influences in the Asian
American faculty's immediate environment support or hinder their professional advancement?
(2) What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's distal environment support or
hinder their professional advancement? The study employed a qualitative phenomenological
method and conducted an online interview with 10 Asian American academic leaders. As a
result, the themes emerged, focusing solely on the participants' cultural identity, self-efficacy,
networking, mentorship, professional development, and organizational support. The study
discussed and presented implications for personal and institutional practices, policies, and
recommendations for future research.

v

Acknowledgments
First and most, thank God for His abundant blessings, for safely bringing me to the U.S.
and placing me on the path to this doctoral program. Thank you to my parents, Ty and Suu
Nguyen, for bringing me into this world and raising me to become who I am. My father, who
passed away, always taught me to be a meek person through his life example. My mother planted
a seed that changed my life trajectory. She named me after a distinguished English professor and
dreamed that I would become a professor myself one day. My mother provided continuous
enthusiasm, interest in my well-being, and financial support for my study. I am incredibly
fortunate to have my parents' unconditional love and support. Finally, to my parents-in-law, Dinh
and Ngam Tran, thank you for trusting and giving me your daughter, my wife. Your love and
support for my family and your grandchildren are inexpressible.
I want to extend my deepest thanks to the members of my Dissertation Committee, Dr.
Kathy Stowe, Dr. Courtney Malloy, and Dr. Eric Canny. I am indebted to the advice and
guidance of Dr. Stowe, my dissertation chair. Dr. Stowe, I attributed my success in completing
this dissertation to you. Dr. Canny, thank you for your encouragement and valuable feedback on
improving my writing skills. Dr. Deanna Campbell, thank you for helping me understand
different concepts in the inquiry I class, especially distinguishing between theoretical and
conceptual frameworks. In addition, I want to thank the ten Asian American academic leaders
who participated in this study. This study would not be complete without their willingness,
enthusiasm, and sacrifice for this work.
I want to thank my wife, Phuong-Vien Nguyen, and my three children, Thomas Dzung-
Linh Nguyen, Anthony Gia-Linh Nguyen, and Maria Cat-Linh Nguyen, for being a part of my
life and my study. Because I wanted to set an example for them to pursue higher degrees in
vi

education, I decided to go back to school. Words cannot express how grateful I am for my wife's
great sacrifices, love, and support. My oldest child, Thomas, deserves special recognition for
loving and believing in me. He fulfills one of my goals to complete this doctoral program:
graduating his college and entering his Ph.D. program this year. I want to thank Anthony for
being the kindest child and being willing to help me take care of household chores. Thank you,
Maria, for accompanying me and proofreading my homework throughout my journey.
To my sisters and brothers, thank you for taking care of me and loving me. In particular,
my big sister and brother-in-law, Hand and Trieu Nguyen, for their generosity and support for
my family for many years. My sister, Uyen Nguyen, thank you for your care and for paying the
cost of all my books. Thank my brother, Phuong Nguyen, for your prayers and brotherhood.
Thank you, my little brother, Hung Nguyen, for your love and for being my childhood
companion.
To my dearest friends (i.e., Duc and Tam Dao, Truc Mai, Dr. Duong Hoang, Dr. Andrew
Nguyen, Dr. Thanh-Tam Nguyen, Rev. Bao Nguyen, Rev. Lo Dam, Dr. Derek Nguyen, Dr.
Savio Pham), colleagues (i.e., Penny White, Derek Olson, Ce Li), USC friends (i.e., Phil Katich,
Amelia Williams, Sergio Saenz, Elizabeth Moore, Andre Burrell, Chris Naler, Jason Womack,
Joe Hug, Rebecca Wolf, Dr. Natalie Nguyen), thank you for all your help and motivation.
Without your support, I could not have made it to this point. I especially want to thank Phil for
reaching out to me, opening his arms, and inviting me to become his study buddy. His invitation
means a lot to me, and he has journeyed with me through this program.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the two organizations where I worked and developed my
leadership skills for many years. First, the University of California, Irvine, provided me with a
secure job and flexible schedule to complete this study. Second, the Vietnamese Eucharistic
vii

Youth Movement (VEYM) in the USA helped me become a servant leader. To VEYM, I am
deeply grateful for the opportunities to serve in various roles from the lower management level
to the executive level in the organization.

viii

Dedication
To my children, I thank you for your support, patience, and understanding.

To my wife, I could not have achieved this without your sacrifice and love.

To my parents, I thank you for bringing me to this world and planting a seed that led me to this
achievement.

ix

Table of Contents
Abstract iv
Acknowledgements v
Dedication viii
Table of Contents ix
List of Tables xii
List of Figures xiii
Chapter One: Introduction to the Study 1
Context and Background of the Problem 3
Purpose of the Project and Research Questions 5
Importance of the Study 6
Overview of Theoretical Framework and Methodology 7
Definition of Terms 9
Organization of the Dissertation 11
Chapter Two: Literature Review 12
An Overview of Leadership and Leadership in Higher Education 12
Workplace Influences 16
Influences of Mentorship 29
Family Influences 33
Personal Influences 35
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework 43
Summary 45
Chapter Three: Methodology 47
x

Research Questions 47
Overview of Design 47
Research Question 48
Interviews 48
The Researcher 49
Data Sources 50
Validity and Reliability 54
Ethics 55
Limitations and Delimitations 56
Chapter Four: Findings 58
Participating Stakeholders 59
Research Question 1: What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's
immediate environment support or hinder their professional advancement? 60
Research Question 2: What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's distal
environment support or hinder their professional advancement? 75
Summary 90
Chapter Five: Recommendations 92
Discussion of Findings 92
Recommendations for Practices 99
Limitations and Delimitations 105
Recommendations for Future Research 106
Conclusion 107
References 109
xi

Appendix A: Interview Protocol 142

xii

List of Tables
Table 1. Research Questions and Data Collection Method .......................................................... 48
Table 2. Participants' Demographics ............................................................................................ 60

xiii

List of Figures
Figure 1. Leadership Communication Framework ....................................................................... 26
Figure 2. Conceptual Framework ................................................................................................. 45

1

Chapter One: Introduction to the Study
The U.S. Asian population grew 86% over the last 19 years since 2000 from 11.9 million
to 22.2 million in 2019, the fastest growth rate than other ethnic groups, including Hispanic,
Black, and White (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010, 2019). Although Asian Americans outperform
other racial groups in education, employment, and income, and have the lowest unemployment
rate (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018), they are underrepresented in higher education
administration. Asian Americans comprised 1.6% of higher education administrators, compared
to Hispanic (3.8%), Black (7.6%), and White (86.1%), although, among 700,000 full-time
faculty in higher education, Asian Americans shared 9.3% compared to Hispanic (4.7%), Black
(5.7%), and White (73.2%) (American Council on Education, 2017). For expanding Asian
American leader populations in higher education, the faculty pipeline needs to be properly
prepared for successful ascending.
According to the U.S. Census Burau (2010), the term "Asian" refers to people having
origins in any of the far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including Cambodia,
China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Asian Americans have been stereotyped as good in math and science and exceed all other racial
groups on SAT scores, graduate degrees, and numbers of students in the Ivy League schools
(Chin, 2013). Although the educational achievement of Asian Americans is highest among racial
groups with 61% of Asians in the labor force having four-year degrees or higher, compared with
40% of Whites, 30% of Blacks, and 20% of Hispanics (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018),
they are among the least represented group in higher education leadership. Researchers argue
that cultural and racial diversity impacts people of color advancing to leadership positions and
affects educational leadership practices (Coleman, 2012; Eagly & Chin, 2010).
2

Diversity in the workplace and higher education has become an important topic and an
essential concept because of the rapid globalization, demographic shifts, and social changes
(Bernstein, 2012; Broadnax, 2010; Chiavaroli et al., 2020; Clayton, 2011; Harrison & Sin, 2006;
Patrick & Kumar, 2012; Pew Research Center, 2015). In the workforce, the use of the term
"diversity" came about in connection with President Truman's 1948 Executive Order 9981,
establishing equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the U.S. armed services
regardless of their race, color, religion, or national origin (Chiavaroli et al., 2020). Subsequently,
the U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibited discrimination in the workforce helped to expand
the term "diversity" to include gender, sexual orientation to physical appearance, belief systems,
thought styles, socioeconomic status, and rural/urban geographic location (Laurencin, 2019). In
education, schools began the racial diversity effort in 1954 with the Brown v. Board of Education
of Topeka, Kansas case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled segregation in public schools
unconstitutional (Clayton, 2011). In 1978, the U.S. Supreme Court case, Regents of the
University of California v. Bakke, ruled that a university that used racial "quotas" in its
admission was unconstitutional. Since the Bakke decision, many higher education institutions
have pursued racial diversity, a compelling state interest (Gurin et al., 2002).
According to Broadnax (2010), since the 1980s, the concept of diversity began to evolve
quickly in the U.S., and census data began to reveal essential data regarding this change.
Recently, Espinosa and colleagues (2019) from the American Council on Education examined
more than 200 indicators, looking at students' accessibility to higher education, their experiences,
and outcomes reported that the student body was more racial and ethnicity diverse, increased
from approximately 30% to 45% since 1997 to 2017, whereas faculty and school leaders
remained predominantly White. Along the same lines, Gasman et al. (2015) reviewed the U.S.
3

postsecondary admission practices in higher education found the access and equity issue of
limited students of color admitting to graduate programs and doctoral degrees significantly
impacted the applicant pool of faculty of color. As a result, it narrowed the pool of candidates for
the leadership pipeline leading to academic leadership positions. In conclusion, Brayboy (2003)
found that many U.S. higher education institutions tried to implement diversity to show their
commitments to faculty and students of color but often failed to fully integrate diversity in their
research, teaching, and service missions. Researchers argued that institutions that truly value
diversity must consider implementing changes in policies and underlying structures, expanding
the leadership pipeline, and defining visible career paths to leadership (Betts et al., 2008;
Brayboy, 2003; E. B. Davis, 2008).
Context and Background of the Problem
When it comes to the underrepresentation of Asian American leaders, one controversial
issue has been the perception of Asian Americans being less qualified for leadership roles than
Whites because of Asian culture and stereotypes (Kawahara et al., 2013; Nie et al., 2017).
Researchers argued that traditional Asian culture values humility over self-interest, harmony
over conflict, and deference to authority over commanding authority, while Western culture
treasures the opposite values for leaders (S. Johnson & Sy, 2016; Nie et al., 2017). Johnson and
Sy (2016) added that being highly competent in the workplace and lacking social skills are
stereotypes that portray Asian Americans as ineffective leaders. On the other hand, Fernandez
(1991) contended that intelligence and diligence are Asian American stereotypes that fit
leadership traits. Furthermore, the so-called "model minority" stereotype is the most harmful
assumption about Asian Americans, believing that Asian Americans are a high-achieving racial
minority (Kiang et al., 2017; F. Wong & Halgin, 2006). This belief delegitimizes inequity claims
4

by Asian Americans, misleading dominant society to ignore their basic needs (S. J. Lee et al.,
2009). Consequently, this belief causes mainstream scholars to overlook Asian Americans'
leadership development in research (Akutagawa, 2013).
To date, studies investigating the underrepresentation of Asian American leaders,
especially in higher education, have produced few results. Leadership literature focuses on the
experiences of White European Americans and pays scant attention to explaining the
phenomenon of the underrepresentation of Asian American leaders (Chin, 2013; Neilson &
Suyemoto, 2009). Neilson and Suyemoto (2009) suggested researchers who study ethnic
minority leaders in higher education focus on race and culture specifics in their conceptual
framework and research methodologies. Harper (2012) posited that race and racism topics are
inseparable and discovered that higher education scholars avoided discussing racism issues in
their studies. Rosette et al. (2008) conducted four experiments to investigate the impact of race
on leadership evaluations of performance and leadership potential. From the studies, the
researchers found that "being White" was a leadership's prototypical attribute and had more
leadership potential than non-White (Rosette et al., 2008). Similarly, other researchers used the
connectionist model of leadership to investigate leadership's perception within the race context
and found that White is a more effective leader than non-White (Sy et al., 2010). In short, the
existing research on Asian American leadership focuses on racial biases, negative perceptions,
and deficiencies but lacks the exploration into Asian American leaders' career trajectories and
understand their leadership experiences from their cultural background and values (Kawahara et
al., 2013; Neilson & Suyemoto, 2009).
Asian cultural values play an essential role in the lives of Asian Americans, including
personality development, behavioral expression, and communication styles (C. S. Chan &
5

Berriochoa, 2019). According to Chan and Berriochoa (2019), collectivist culture is a primary
factor that drives all aspects of Asian Americans' lives. The collectivist culture impacts Asian
Americans' communication styles and decision-making (C. S. Chan & Berriochoa, 2019; Truong
et al., 2017). Researchers found that Asian Americans' communication styles are non-
confrontational communication, indirect expression, and nonverbal cues to maintain group
harmony (C. S. Chan & Berriochoa, 2019; Oyserman et al., 2002; Z. Zhou et al., 2009). Zhou et
al. (2009) argued that Asian communication styles are the opposite of Western communication
styles: direct, precise, and clear information. When making decisions, Asian American leaders
tended to value group's goals and interests and voided any conflicting views that disrupted group
harmony, whereas American leaders focused on and highlighted individual contributions,
accepted conflict, and appreciated the decision's outcomes more than group's social relationships
(Truong et al., 2017). Besides, Asian Americans consider family the basic unit of society because
of the collectivist culture (J. Kwok, 2013). Family plays a significant role in the lives of Asian
Americans and influences their educational attainment, career choices, and career development
(Leong & Serafica, 1995; Sue & Morishima, 1982).
Purpose of the Project and Research Questions
This study aims to explore the career trajectories of Asian American faculty in the
context of environmental influences that either support or hinder them from advancing to
leadership positions. Previous studies of higher education administrators' career trajectories have
only focused on the experiences of white European descent, not Asian Americans and other
minorities (Neilson & Suyemoto, 2009). However, the student and Faculty of color's significant
increase in higher education and the phenomenal underrepresentation of academic and
6

administrative leaders of minorities (M. Taylor et al., 2020) demand more theoretical
understandings of the experiences and trajectories of leaders of color.
The research questions that guide this study are the following:
1. What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's immediate environment
support or hinder their professional advancement?
2. What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's distal environment support or
hinder their professional advancement?
Importance of the Study
Researchers found that school leadership is a crucial influence on student academic
success (Leithwood et al., 2010). Minoritized students want to see more school leaders of color
who can be their role models and represent them at the school leadership meeting when making
decisions that impact the student body (Coleman, 2012; Flowers, 2003; J. F. L. Jackson, 2004).
However, Asian Americans are still underrepresented in leadership positions in higher education
institutions. This study will explore how environmental influences impact Asian American
faculty in their professional advancement.
The study will benefit Asian American faculty members, especially tenured Faculty
seeking ways to advance to leadership positions and shed light on barriers and support they are
encountering and operating within. Such information could be valuable to prepare them to
succeed in proceeding to leadership positions.
Research on leadership development for Faculty of color in higher education is scarce.
Traditional leadership development is based on Western ideals and values, not culture-specific
(Sy et al., 2017). Researchers suggested organizations focus on culture-specific in leadership
development and tailor training to meet minority leaders' needs (Day, 2000; Neilson &
7

Suyemoto, 2009). The findings of this study will make an addition to leadership development
literature for Asian American faculty members in higher education.
Finally, this study helps educational leaders better understand the lived experiences and
realities of minority faculty and the importance of diversity in school and school leadership. As
stated in the American College President, "the imperative of rapidly changing economic,
demographic, and political conditions suggest the need for adaptability and diversity in
educational institutions and their leaders" (American Council for Education, 2008, p. 58).
Gasman et al. (2015) recommended higher education institutions, having diversity in their
missions, hold school leaders accountable for implementing policies and hiring practices to
commit to diversity.
Overview of Theoretical Framework and Methodology
This study uses Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory (EST) to examine Asian
American leaders' underrepresentation in higher education through self-influences and influences
in the immediate and distal environments. Urie Bronfenbrenner, an American psychologist,
developed the ecological systems theory to provide the framework to understand human
development through the interactions and influences of the external systems (Bronfenbrenner,
1979). The EST originally comprised four environmental systems organized into four layers that
encircle an individual's development: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem.
Bronfenbrenner (1995) later added the chronosystem as the fifth environment system, which
involves all environmental changes over the developing individual's lifespan.
Microsystem
The microsystem is a pattern of activities, roles, and interpersonal relations experienced
by the developing person in the intermediate environment, closest to the person's life, such as
8

parents, peers, home, school, playground, and neighborhood (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).
Interactions and relationships between the growing person with their family members, neighbor
friends, classmates, and teachers have bi-directional behavior impacts, away from the person and
toward the person. According to Bronfenbrenner's theory, the microsystem is the most important
and influential of a person's development (Bronfenbrenner, 1979).
Mesosystem
The mesosystem is the interrelations of different microsystems, such as the interactions
between parents and teachers, parents and health services, or parents and church
(Bronfenbrenner, 1979). The mesosystem also involves bi-directional influences among various
settings at this layer. For example, parental expectations on their children's success in academics
with extra-curricular could have either direct or indirect influences on the school's instructional
settings. Good relationships among these microsystems positively impact the development of the
growing person and vice versa (Adu & Oudshoorn, 2020).
Exosystem
The exosystem is the environment or setting where events and interactions occur, do not
involve the person as an active participant but indirectly affect a person's development
(Bronfenbrenner, 1979). For example, a parent's new working schedule at the workplace affects
the child's drop-off and pickup time at school. The influence of these settings at this layer is no
longer bi-directional but uni-direction toward the growing person.
Macrosystem
The macrosystem refers to distal systems, such as political and economic systems, culture
and values, belief systems, or ideologies, that still shape individuals' development
(Bronfenbrenner, 1979). For example, children living in war zones have a different development
9

than those living in a peaceful environment. Bronfenbrenner's theory suggests that the
macrosystem, the overarching system, exerts uni-directional influences on all lower-order
systems (exo-, meso-, and micro-) and the developing person (E. S. Johnson, 2008)
Chronosystem
The chronosystem is an additional dimension, a time dimension, of the ecological system
to incorporate the time element of individual development (Bronfenbrenner, 2005). It refers to
the socio-historical time dimension at the macrosystem level (i.e., wars or economic cycles) or
the change at the microsystem level (i.e., family structure or school development) (E. S. Johnson,
2008).
The EST provides the most appropriate lens to view the lack of representation of Asian
American faculty in higher education leadership and enables examination of the environmental
influences that support or hinder their professional developments. This study employs qualitative
research through the phenomenological inquiry method to "describe the lived experiences of
individuals about a phenomenon described by the participants" (Creswell & Creswell, 2018,
Chapter 1). Phenomenological inquiry aligns with this study's purpose, which is to describe and
understand the experiences of Asian American faculty and how their experiences influence their
career development to succeed in the organization.
Definition of Terms
The following definitions provide clarity of concepts in this study.
Academic Leader
Academic leader refers to the department chair, dean, provost/vice-president of academic
affairs, and president in higher education (Cleverley-Thompson, 2016; E. B. Davis, 2008;
10

Enomoto & Matsuoka, 2007; Gmelch & Wolverton, 2002; Raines & Alberg, 2003a; Wepner et
al., 2015).
Asian
The term "Asian" refers to people having origins in any of the far East, Southeast Asia, or
the Indian subcontinent, including Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the
Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam (U.S. Census Bureau, 2010).
Diversity
The word diversity stems from the Latin word varietas, meaning variety or differences. It
refers to a list of identities such as race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, age, sexual orientation,
disabilities, socioeconomic status, religion, political beliefs, and cultural practices (Berger &
Hwang, 2013)
Minority or People of Color
Minority or People of color are non-White (non-Hispanic) people, such as Blacks,
Hispanics, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, American Indians, or Alaskan Natives.
Model Minority
Model Minority stereotype refers to a belief that Asian Americans are problem-free,
hardworking, and a high-achieving racial minority (Kiang et al., 2017). The term was first used
in the 1960s, referring to the "success" of Asian Americans among minority groups in their high
achievement by working hard and staying out of trouble (S. J. Lee et al., 2009).
Racism
Racism refers to a system of a dominant racial group that creates unequal access to
power, privilege, and resources and maintains influences over a non-dominant racial group
(Harrell, 2000).
11

Self-Efficacy
Bandura (1986) defined self-efficacy as "judgments of their capabilities to organize and
execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances" (p. 391).
White
White is a group of persons who reside in the United States whose roots reach back to the
continent of Europe, dominating the hierarchical structure in U.S. society and benefiting from
White privilege (Bonilla-Silva, 2014).
Organization of the Dissertation
There are five chapters in this dissertation. Chapter One addresses the problem at the
macro level, including the context and background of the problem, purpose of the project and
research questions, the importance of the study, an overview of the theoretical framework and
methodology, and definition of terms. Chapter Two presents a literature review on an overview
of leadership in higher education, professional development, cultural diversity and inclusion,
influences of mentorship, family influences, Asian cultural values, and self-efficacy. Chapter
Three will describe methods, research design, research questions, purposeful sampling, data
collection, data analysis, ethical considerations, and limitations and delimitations. Chapter Four
will highlight the data results and the findings. Finally, Chapter Five will provide an analysis of
the study's findings, recommendations for practices, the study's limitations and delimitations,
future research recommendations, and a conclusion.

12

Chapter Two: Literature Review
This chapter presents a summary of the literature related to leadership and influences on
faculty of color, especially Asian Americans, in advancing to leadership positions in higher
education using a modified Bronfenbrenner social-ecological model. The review begins with an
overview of leadership and leadership in higher education as an overarching key concept of the
study. Academic leadership is a critical component for strong performance and student
achievement (Anderson, 2017). Especially for higher education institutions with significant
racial diverse students, a lack of diverse leaders could adversely influence student advancement
and upward mobility (Gasman et al., 2015). The review then examines perceived influences in
Asian Americans Faculty's distal environment (i.e., professional development, and cultural
diversity and inclusion) and immediate environment (i.e., influences of mentorship and family
influences). The last section reviews personal influences, Asian cultural values, and self-efficacy,
supporting Asian American faculty in educational attainment, career choices, and career
development. The purpose of this review focuses on the literature's application to increase the
representation of Asian Americans at the academic leadership levels, such as department chairs,
deans, provost/vice-president of academic affairs, or presidents in higher education institutions.
An Overview of Leadership and Leadership in Higher Education
Leaders are inspirational persons who lead and inspire their followers to achieve specific
goals or outcomes (Siddique et al., 2011). Mumford and colleagues (2017) argued that leaders
must put their followers first: considering followers' values and identities in communicating the
plan and sharing out the vision to maximize their impact on followers. One of the most important
debates related to leaders is whether leaders are born or made (Claar et al., 2016; Joyce &
O’Boyle, 2013; McDermott et al., 2011; Middlehurst, 2008). Joyce and O'Boyle (2013) asserted
13

that if leaders are born, then organizations must have great selection systems to choose them
because they are scarce. However, if leaders are made, then organizations should pay attention
and invest in leadership development.
Leadership is the art of motivating, inspiring, and directing a group of individuals to work
hard to attain a common goal (Northouse, 2019; Siddique et al., 2011; Spendlove, 2007).
Kurniawan et al. (2013) asserted that leadership is the ability to motivate and move followers in
a direction that they are uncomfortable to discern or develop resources, whether human or
material. The concept of leadership has been evolving since the early 1900s (Northouse, 2019).
Traditionally, leadership scholars focused on the individual's traits, personality, characteristics,
skills, goal attainment, effectiveness, contingencies, situation, and styles (Gmelch & Wolverton,
2002; Spendlove, 2007). Scholars found different leadership styles, such as authentic leadership,
spiritual leadership, servant leadership, adaptive leadership, transactional leadership, and
transformational leadership (Joyce & O’Boyle, 2013; Northouse, 2019). Transactional and
transformational leadership styles (Burns, 1978) have dominated leadership studies since 1978
(Gmelch & Wolverton, 2002; Spendlove, 2007). Studies of leadership in higher education found
that transformational leadership may be more effective in an educational setting or a combination
of transactional and transformational styles (Basham, 2012; Muijs et al., 2006; Pounder, 2001).
However, other scholars asserted that the most effective style is the one that fits the
organizational setting in which leaders and followers can interact (Lim & Ployhart, 2004;
Mahdinezhad et al., 2013). Siddique (2011) posited that leaders change their leadership styles
throughout their lives and different organizations use different styles depending on their
environments. Likewise, Gmelch and Wolverton (2002) argued that leaders need to know a
particular profession or institution that they lead to influence it. Leaders in higher education
14

institutions need to examine how to better lead their organizations and find the most effective
leadership approach fitting the higher education context (Black, 2015).
Leading universities can be a unique challenge because of the organizational complexity
of the university, its multiple goals and traditional values, and the nature of leadership, which is
often ambiguous and contested in higher education (Petrov, 2006). Higher education institutions
create and provide intellectual resources to improve the quality of human resources (Kurniawan
& Puspitaningtyas, 2013). The strength of higher education lies in the independent thought,
creativity, and autonomy of people (Spendlove, 2007). According to Siddique and colleagues
(2011), leadership in higher education refers to academic leadership. Middlehurst (1993) argued
that academic leadership with a unilateral top-down approach is unfit for the traditional values of
academic freedom and autonomy, democratic participation, and various academic interests.
Therefore, a formal leader who can keep up the existence of university life, lead people in the
right directions (Kurniawan & Puspitaningtyas, 2013; Siddique et al., 2011), and provide
academic responses which consider academia and bureaucracy are needed (Siddique et al., 2011;
Spendlove, 2007). In addition, academic leadership has a different set of challenges compared to
leadership in business organizations (Sathye, 2004; Siddique et al., 2011; Spendlove, 2007).
Leaders in academia serve multiple stakeholders, such as students, staff, and faculty members,
and use different policies to deal with them (Sathye, 2004). In short, academic leadership is to
incorporate all core functions of academia, such as teaching/learning, research, and scholarship,
together with a broader focus on academic values and identity (Joyce & O’Boyle, 2013).
Studies of leadership in higher education have been discussing the concept of diversity to
address the under-representation of leaders of color. (Chang et al., 2014; Coleman, 2012). Chin
and colleagues (2016) argued that diversity is about valuing differences between ethnic groups
15

and including all groups. According to Chang and colleagues (2014), leaders of color, especially
Asian Americans (F. Lee, 2019; S. M. Lee, 2002; Lloyd-Jones, 2011; Neilson & Suyemoto,
2009), experience challenges with career advancement as well as with inclusion and integration
into the school. Although Asian Americans group has the highest educational achievement with
61% of Asians having four-year degrees or higher in the workforce, compared to other racial
groups, Whites (40%), Blacks (30%), and Hispanics (20%) (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics,
2018), they are among the least represented group in academic leadership. American Council on
Education (2017) reported that Asian Americans made up 1.6% of higher education
administrators, compared to Whites (86.1%), Blacks (7.6%), and Hispanics (5.7%). Researchers
emphasized the lack of formal preparation among faculty members for leadership positions
(Land, 2003; Raines & Alberg, 2003b; Wepner et al., 2015) and recommended high education
institutions focus on leadership development to increase internal applicant pools (Land, 2003; F.
Lee, 2019). In a study of Asians' barriers (e.g., stereotypes, leadership perception) to leadership,
Lee (2019) posited that school leaders play an important role in minimizing the effect of these
barriers on Asian faculty's access to leadership opportunities. In addition, higher education
institutions need to ensure diversity and offer clear and more accessible paths to leadership for
all competent candidates (Amey & Vanderlinden, 2002; E. B. Davis, 2008).
In summary, leadership in higher education refers to academic leadership, which faces
different challenges than leadership in private or public sector organizations (Sathye, 2004;
Siddique et al., 2011; Spendlove, 2007) and requires a formal leadership position (Middlehurst,
2008; Siddique et al., 2011). Nowadays, many higher education institutions face many
challenges, such as enrollment issues, financial difficulties, changes in student demographics,
and emerging technologies, including online learning (Espinosa et al., 2019; L. Johnson et al.,
16

2013; National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, 2020). Therefore, academic leaders
should be knowledgeable and competent to lead the institution effectively (Siddique et al., 2011).
Workplace Influences
Professional development is a recommended approach in developing junior and senior
professionals, especially faculty of color in higher education (Dancy II & Jean-Marie, 2014).
However, research showed that existing professional development is a one-size-fits-all approach
and does not pay attention to the unique developmental needs of Minorities (Sy et al., 2017).
The literature review examines three crucial skillsets for Asian Americans: leadership skills,
networking skills, and communications skills. According to Akutagawa (2013), Leadership
Education for Asian Pacific (LEAP), which was established in 1982 to address the lack of Asian
and Pacific Islander leadership representation, suggested adding leadership, people, and
communication skills to participants' tool-box. Nie and colleagues (2017) posited that there is a
leadership gap, such as networking skills, communication skills, and leadership competencies of
Eastern-cultural leaders who pursue leadership positions in Western cultural organizations. The
study then presents a comprehensive description of cultural diversity and inclusion and its
impacts on people of color in the workplace.
Professional Development
Asian Americans outperform other racial groups, including Whites, in education,
employment, and income (Pew Research Center, 2012). However, Asian Americans are
perceived to lack leadership skills and competencies, unfitting to Western leadership roles (Nie
et al., 2017). White and Hollingsworth (2005) posited that leadership and professional
development programs help develop traits, skills, knowledge, and behaviors for leaders.
17

Professional development refers to many different educational experiences, including
institutes, conferences, seminars, workshops, collaborative learning among peers, and
professional meetings (Mizell, 2010). In addition, Garcia (2000) argued that professional
development for faculty in higher education mainly involves a strategic selection of professional
associations, networking with leaders in the field/discipline, reviewing journal manuscripts and
conference proposals, choosing mentors, volunteering for assignments, and performing those
assignments with excellence. People participate in professional development to enhance their
knowledge and skills to better their job performance and develop behaviors that foster success
(Dancy II & Jean-Marie, 2014; Mizell, 2010). White and Hollingsworth (2005) argued that
leadership and professional development for professionals of color must go beyond the
traditional leadership skill set and consider the effect of race, gender, and ethnicity on one's
ability to be a successful leader. Minorities face many challenges in the workplace, such as
prejudice, stereotypes, discrimination, and the glass ceiling (Daft, 2018). As a result,
professionals of color have managed to achieve success by adding more leadership skills, such as
relationship-building, skillful communication, and managing stereotypes, into their repertoire
(White & Hollingsworth, 2005; Woods, 2003). For developing leaders of color, leadership skills
(Akutagawa, 2013; Nie et al., 2017; White & Hollingsworth, 2005), networking skills (Hyun,
2006; Nie et al., 2017), and communication skills (Nie et al., 2017; Z. Zhou et al., 2009) are a
primary focus among other skill sets.
Leadership Skills
Leadership skills are context-specific behaviors that can be learned and developed
(Northouse, 2019). Researchers proposed a skill-based model of organizational leadership to
improve leadership performance based on three types of capabilities: (1) creative problem-
18

solving skills, (2) social judgment skills, and (3) knowledge (Mumford et al., 2000). Mumford
and his colleagues based on and advanced Katz's (1995) approach, which transcended leadership
traits by developable skills: technical skills, human skills, and conceptual skills (Northouse,
2019). According to Katz, "a skill implies an ability which can be developed, not necessarily
inborn, and which is manifested in performance, not merely in potential" (p. 34). Within the
skill-based model, skills have a more direct impact on leadership performance than traits but do
not diminish the importance of traits (Kalargyrou et al., 2012; Mumford et al., 2000).
Creative Problem-solving skills are the ability to identify the problem, understand it, and
creatively develop potential solutions to resolve it (Mumford et al., 2000). Mumford and his
colleagues (2017) identified nine key skills, work in conjunctions with one another, that leaders
employ to resolve the problem: (1) problem definition – the ability to identify the problem, (2)
cause/goal analysis – the ability to analyze the causes and goals relevant to address the problem,
(3) constraint analysis – the ability to identify the constraints or limitations that impact problem
solutions, (4) planning – the ability to develop plans to carry out the implementation based on
cause/goal analysis and constraint analysis, (5) forecasting – the ability to anticipate the
implementations of executing the plans, (6) creative thinking – the ability to create alternative
approaches to address the potential issues (identified in the forecasting) of a plan, (7) idea
evaluation – the ability to evaluate these alternative approaches' viability in executing the plan,
(8) wisdom – the ability to evaluate the appropriateness of these alternative approaches within the
context and settings that leaders act, (9) sensemaking/visioning – the ability to articulate the
vision to help followers understand and carry out the plan to address the problem (Northouse,
2019). Problem-solving skills help organizational leaders first develop short-term goals to
implement a solution, then create long-term goals to address external issues that potentially
19

influence the solution. With problem-solving skills, leaders can also create organizational goals
to anticipate novel and ill-defined problems due to the constantly changing environment
(Mumford et al., 2000; Northouse, 2019). In a study of the perceived leadership style in higher
education, Al-Omari (2011) found that academic leaders are open to different strategies in
problem-solving and have other considerations to make changes and increase morale within the
college. For example, making sure faculty/staff members understand the goals and solution
implementation's details, having an open-door policy to listen to faculty/staff, or involving or not
involving faculty/staff members in goal setting.
Social-judgment skills are the people skills and ability to motivate and direct others
during solution implementation (Mumford et al., 2000; Northouse, 2019). Mumford and
colleagues (2000) delineated social-judgment skills into four social skills: (1) perspective taking
- being sensitive to others' perspectives and goals (Northouse, 2019), (2) social perceptiveness -
understanding the unique needs, goals, and demands of organizational constituencies (Zaccaro et
al., 1991), (3) behavioral flexibility - being flexible to change and adapt new approaches to a
problem from an understanding of others' perspectives (Northouse, 2019), and (4) social
performance – including a wide range of leadership competencies such as communication and
persuasion, negotiation, conflict management, and coaching (Mumford et al., 2000; Northouse,
2019). According to Northouse (2019), conflict management is an essential skill of social
performance. In short, social-judgment skills are the people skills that enable leaders to work
with others to develop solutions for organizational problems, motivate subordinates, marshal
support, persuade their peers to implement change, communicate organizational visions, address
resistance to change, manage conflicts, and coach followers (Kalargyrou et al., 2012; Mumford
et al., 2000; Northouse, 2019).
20

Knowledge is "the accumulation of information and the mental structures used to
organize that information" (Northouse, 2019, p. 51). Knowledge results from having a developed
mental structure, a schematic organization of crucial facts and information of the characteristics
of objects, for learning and organizing data (Fleishman & Mumford, 1989; Northouse, 2019).
Studies found that people with a lot of knowledge have more complex schematic structures than
those with less knowledge; people call these knowledgeable individuals experts (Northouse,
2019). According to Northouse, knowledge is as necessary as skills because the effective
application of skills depends on knowledge. Knowledge directly influences leader performance
in problem-solving (Northouse, 2019). For problem-solving skills, there are three types of
knowledge that leaders need to possess to solve ill-defined problems: (1) tasks at hand, (2) the
organization that leader leads, and (3) the people whom the leader works with (Mumford et al.,
2000; Northouse, 2019; Zaccaro et al., 1995). Each type of knowledge may exert different effects
on leader performance (Mumford et al., 2000). Leaders use knowledge from past experiences to
identify organizational problems, including novel, complex, and ill-defined ones, and develop
strategies and solutions to address them. "It is knowledge that allows people to use the past to
constructively confront the future" (Northouse, 2019, p. 52).
In summary, leadership development based on the skill-based model helps leaders
develop three essential competencies: problem-solving, social-judgment, and knowledge
(Mumford et al., 2000). Mumford and his colleagues argued that leaders need problem-solving
skills to solve organizational problems and complex (i.e., novel, ill-defined) social issues, social-
judgment skills to refine potential solutions, motivate and direct others during solution
implementation. The practical application of these skill sets relies on various forms of knowledge
(i.e., knowledge of the job, the organization, the business, and the people) (Mumford et al., 2000;
21

Northouse, 2019). Skills and knowledge emerge over time as a function of capabilities and
experiences (Mumford et al., 2000). Ultimately, leadership development needs to attend to
leaders' perceptions about roles and work context to encourage effective networking skills (Lieff
et al., 2020).
Networking Skills
Networking skills are essential to leadership effectiveness and crucial for improving an
individual's social capital and career success (De Janasz & Forret, 2008; Lieff et al., 2020).
Researchers defined networking skills as one's capabilities to figure out whose help one needs,
build interpersonal relationships with these people, maintain, and utilize these relationships to
mobilize resources (Bolman & Deal, 2017; Forret & Dougherty, 2004; Wolff & Moser, 2010). In
fact, the time investment in maintaining these social relationships will convert to social capital as
valuable resources that one can access and mobilize for job search, job attainment, job
performance, job promotion, and career success (De Janasz & Forret, 2008; Forret & Dougherty,
2004; Lin, 1999; Wolff & Moser, 2010). De Janasz and Forret (2008) further added that
networking is a crucial human capital skill that helps increase the social capital of individual who
possesses it.
Specific networking types predict specific outcomes (Wolff & Moser, 2010). Macintosh
and Krush (2017) examined three common types of networking related to sales performance:
peer networking, customer networking, and professional networking. Peer networking serves as
valuable resources for information sharing, career strategies, and job performance. Customer
networking provides a great source of information about opportunities and influences (i.e.,
referrals, recommendations). And professional networking is the only networking that has
significant relationships with perceived career success (Forret & Dougherty, 2004). Through
22

professional networking, individuals have opportunities to meet influential people (Durbin,
2011) and join professional associations to access external mentors (Hartmann et al., 2013) and
enhance professionalism feelings and self-efficacy (Clarke, 2011). Furthermore, Wolff and
Moser (2010) found that internal networking has an impact on career advancement. Individuals
who focus on the internal network to obtain resources (i.e., future job openings, influential
persons in organizations) are more likely to get promoted.
Developing networking skills is beneficial for one's career success; however, certain
people appear to have a natural ability to build connections and relationships, others feel
uncomfortable or intimidating (De Janasz et al., 2019; De Janasz & Forret, 2008). Miller (2003)
posited that different personality traits, temperament, cognition, and interaction style impact
human relations at work. Forret and Dougherty (2001) found that extroverted individuals and
high self-esteem people are more likely to engage in professional activities and make themselves
visible in their organizations, whereas introverted individuals and low self-esteem people are less
likely to engage in networking. Furthermore, Mooradian and Swan (2006) found that people in
extroverted cultures, like Americans, rely more on information's interpersonal source of
information or interpersonal networks. Conversely, researchers argued that Asian cultural values
discount networking behaviors and cause limitations to career advancement (Hyun, 2006;
Tokunaga, 2003). However, De Janasz et al. (2008) argued that people could learn networking
skills and improve networking behaviors. Individuals become more comfortable and effective in
networking behaviors if they receive training, opportunities to practice, and feedback. Besides,
individuals should look for mentors to help them develop networking skills (Ebbers et al., 2010).
Mentors can provide potential access to a greater network of individuals (De Janasz et al., 2003;
McHenry, 1997) and transmit the social capital of the mentor to protégés (Sosik & Lee, 2002).
23

Studies found that faculty of color who have support systems (e.g., mentors) and diverse social
networks are most likely to be retained and promoted (Cooper 2006; Rockquemore and
Laszloffy 2008; Wright 2006). For faculty of color in higher education, networking skills also
involve creating a community/network with other faculty of color to share experiences and
provide mutual support (Stockdill & Danico, 2012; Võ, 2012). Mentoring and networking help
ethnic minority people shifting their focus from the barriers to what helps to overcome these
obstacles in higher education leadership (Coleman, 2012; Mackay & Etienne, 2006). Finally,
mentors can also assist in developing many other skills that may arise unexpectedly from the
changing environment and interpersonal skills such as conflict resolutions and communication
skills (De Janasz et al., 2003).
Communication Skills
Communication skills are essential for everyone and must-have skills for today's leaders
(Shokri et al., 2014). Leaders must be able to communicate effectively (Barrett, 2006), lead
through effective communication (Zulch, 2014), and articulate a message that inspires people
(Conger, 1991). Gulch (2014) added that good communication skills would help leaders create
the understanding and trust necessary to encourage followers to follow them.
The research discussed different types of communication for leaders, such as person-
centered communication, position-center communication, crisis communication, and leadership
communication (Barrett, 2006; Fix & Sias, 2006; Foote, 2013). Person-center communication
refers to the communication practices that consider others' perspectives in the communication
messages, in which leaders encourage followers to reflect upon the problem, encourage them to
perceive themselves as autonomous and responsible agents, and allow them to choose the
solution and develop their role in novel ways (Fairhurst, 1993; Fix & Sias, 2006). In contrast,
24

position-center communication lacks the person-centered message features and focuses on rules,
commands, and even threats that discourage followers from perceiving themselves as
autonomous and responsible agents (Fix & Sias, 2006). Frandsen and Johansen (2010) defined
"Crisis communication consists of a complex and dynamic configuration of communicative
processes which evolve before, during, and after an event, a situation or a course of events that is
seen as a crisis by an organization and/or one or more of its stakeholders." (p. 431). Mitroff and
Anagnos (2005) posited that leaders often struggle in their communication during crises. Crisis,
an inevitable feature of lives and the growth of social media, adds the urgency of preparing
leaders to face it. Leaders need to utilize leadership communication to anticipate all disruptions,
overcome interferences, and deliver strategic messages that guide, direct, motivate, or inspire
others to action (Barrett, 2006; Mitroff & Anagnos, 2005; Wright & Hinson, 2009).
According to Barrett (2006), leadership communication consists of three primary rings
(Figure 1): core communication, managerial communication, and corporate communication.
Effective communication skills start from the core (i.e., effective writing and speaking), expand
to managerial (i.e., coaching/mentoring, listening, meetings, teams, emotional intelligence, and
cultural literacy), then corporation ring (i.e., employee relations, change communication, media
relations, crisis communication, and image/reputation management). Barret (2006) explained as
follows: the framework is not a hierarchy but a spiral. Core communication starts at the center,
where all effective communications depend more on individual core skills. Managers need to
master these core skills to write effective emails, proposals, reports, correspondence, and
documents and speak correctly and concisely in the language expected of business leaders.
Managerial communication adds new skills that build on the core skills enabling managers to
interact with others and manage groups. Managerial communication requires emotional
25

intelligence and understanding of cross-cultural differences to interact effectively with others.
Listening is an essential skill for managers to get a correct message from others before
responding. Corporation communication involves expanding managerial skills to those abilities
needed to lead an organization and address a broader community. As managers move into the
higher levels of organizations, they need to think about how best to communicate to all internal
and external stakeholders. Ultimately, managers will benefit from the knowledge of cross-culture
differences and communication styles of stakeholders to master communication skills (Barrett,
2006; Jonasson & Lauring, 2012; B. S. K. Kim & Park, 2015). Differences in cultural values
influence how people communicate (Jonasson & Lauring, 2012; B. S. K. Kim & Park, 2015). For
example, studies found that Asian collectivism tends to use indirect or high-context
communication and non-confrontational communication styles to maintain group harmony (C. S.
Chan & Berriochoa, 2019; Hall, 1976; Oyserman et al., 2002; Z. Zhou et al., 2009). In contrast,
Western individualism prefers to communicate in low-context fashion: direct, precise, and clear
information (Hall, 1976; Z. Zhou et al., 2009). Park et al. (1996) studied communication issues
in foreign subsidiaries and found that U.S. expatriates felt that cultural differences and
communication styles affected their managerial abilities. Similarly, Peltokorpi (2007) posited
that differences in communication styles, cultural values, and language created barriers to Nordic
expatriates and local employees in Japan. In conclusion, managers desiring to advance to
leadership positions must possess good communication skills and master leadership
communication (Barrett, 2006).
26

Cultural Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity has become an important topic and an essential concept in the workplace and
higher education due to rapid globalization, demographic shifts, and social changes (Bernstein,
2012; Broadnax, 2010; Chiavaroli et al., 2020; Clayton, 2011; Harrison & Sin, 2006; Patrick &
Kumar, 2012; Pew Research Center, 2015). Whereas studies on diversity are relatively recent,
the concept of cultural diversity in organizations dates back to the 1960s in connection with the
U.S. Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Laurencin, 2019; Mousa, 2017). According to Humphrey et al.
(2006), cultural diversity refers to the co-existence of people with various group identities within
the organization. In addition, cultural diversity refers to multiculturalism, in which members of
minority groups continue maintaining their distinctive collective identities and practices, not
Figure 1
Leadership communication framework (Barrett, 2006, p. 3)

27

assimilating, melting pot (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017), into the dominant culture (Lichter, 2013;
Watkins & Noble, 2015). The concept of organizational inclusion is the crux of the current
diversity efforts (Broadnax, 2010; Casad & Bryant, 2016; Đoàn et al., 2019; Lichter, 2013;
Lightfoote et al., 2016; Shore et al., 2011; Tan, 2017). According to Sabharwal (2014), diversity
and inclusion are two parts of a whole, inseparable. Sabharwal posited that improving
organizational performance requires dedicated leaders to foster an inclusive environment that
empowers employees to influence group decisions and includes them in the decision-making
process.
The growing of people with different identities, backgrounds, and beliefs in the
workforce challenges leaders to create diversity policies, educate people to appreciate cultural
diversity, and revise organizational hiring practices (Coleman, 2012; Inegbedion et al., 2020;
Mousa, 2017; Sabharwal, 2014). Developing diversity policies to promote equity and minority
representation at all levels of the organization is the first step, but having it as a vital part of
human resources management policies is critical (Ashikali & Groeneveld, 2015; Sabharwal,
2014). Besides, having policies promoting diversity and equity helps organizations attract and
retain talent (Alshathry et al., 2017; Bernard & Cooperdock, 2018; O’Donovan, 2018).
Furthermore, educating people to appreciate cultural diversity is crucial to the success of
diversity and inclusion efforts, such as cultural competency training to improve cultural
knowledge and implicit bias training to increase awareness of the implicit bias (i.e., unconscious
prejudices in the minds of individuals) and reduce its impacts (Applebaum, 2019; Hagiwara et
al., 2020; Humphrey et al., 2006; S. M. Jackson et al., 2014; Onyeador et al., 2021). Last, it is
essential to review and address organizational policies and hiring practices that dismantle
diversity and inclusion efforts (Gasman et al., 2015). To avoid internal power conflicts, Gasman
28

and colleagues suggested using outside evaluators to review the current policies and practices
that disfranchise people of color and provide suggestions of change to challenge the existing
power structure within the organization. Ultimately, researchers recommended adjusting the
hiring practices to increase diversity in organizational leadership positions, especially in higher
education (Clifford, 2010; Đoàn et al., 2019; Gasman et al., 2015).
Increasing representation of people of color in educational leadership positions helps
prevent the isolation attribution of students and faculty of color (i.e., being a token person of
color) and benefits the entire discipline with new specialties and diverse topics (Crawford &
Smith, 2005; Gasman et al., 2015). However, diversity in higher education leadership encounters
a serious challenge because of lacking scholars of color in the faculty pipeline (Espinosa et al.,
2019). One explanation for the dearth of diversity in the faculty pipeline is the postsecondary
admission practices in higher education limit students of color admitting to graduate programs
and doctoral degrees (Gasman et al., 2015). The other explanation is leadership in higher
education does not address the key issues (i.e., financial aid) to support underrepresented student
enrollment. Because the purpose of financial assistance is to increase access to postsecondary at
all socioeconomic levels (Eichelberger et al., 2017; Rendon & Hope, 1996). Coleman (2012)
argued that accessing leadership is a known issue, but the leadership practices that foster cultural
diversity and inclusion in educational institutions are equally important. Leadership practices in
higher education require experienced leaders who embrace diversity as a core value, understand
the oppression of the people they serve, create support programs and mentoring networks to
expand the pipeline of scholars of color, and provide professional development to retain the
professionals of color (Aguirre & Martinez, 2006; Gasman et al., 2015).
29

Influences of Mentorship
Mentoring is a developmental and dyadic relationship between an individual with more
experience in a specific field (the mentor) and a less experienced individual (the mentee) for
personal growth, psychological support, and career advancement (Chang et al., 2014; Fuller et
al., 2008; Torrens et al., 2017). For personal growth, mentoring is a conduit through which the
mentor transmits his wisdom, knowledge, experiences, skills, principles, access to a network of
individuals, and social capital to the mentee (De Janasz et al., 2003; Sosik & Lee, 2002). To
support the mentee's psychological, the mentor provides counseling, encouragement, friendship,
role modeling, acceptance, and confirmation (Fuller et al., 2008). Fountain and Newcomer
(2016) found that mentees value the mentor's advice on professional development, constructive
feedback and collaboration, and information about navigating the university system. In career
advancement, the mentors help mentees acquire and develop competencies such as teaching,
research, and career planning. Smith and colleagues (2000) found that the mentors provide
mentees with sponsorship, coaching, consultation, advising, exposure, visibility, and
opportunities for collaboration on research projects.
Much literature on mentorship in higher education surrounds and focuses on the
relationship between faculty mentors and student mentees for vocational discernment and
academic success (Briscoe & Freeman, 2019; Campbell et al., 2012; Chang et al., 2014). Light
(2001) posited that mentoring students is a critical component of academic advising for faculty
members. More recent mentoring studies since the 1980s have explored the connection between
mentorship and leadership development (Campbell et al., 2012; Clarke, 2011). Scholars began
recognizing the link between mentoring and leadership through modeling leadership behaviors
had potential influences on mentee's capacities for leadership (Godshalk & Sosik, 2000). In the
30

study of community college leaders, Amey and Van-Derlinden (2002) described that the mentor
and protégé relationship is a long and professionally centered relationship in which an
experienced leader provides career advice and encouragement to a protégé, an aspiring leader.
Amey and Van-Derlinden found that 56% of respondents had been in a mentor-protégé
relationship, 42% had been mentors for others, and 18% had mentored more than one person.
Boggs (2003) posited that mentoring programs effectively inspire and prepare future college
leaders. In addition, Godshalk and Sosik (2000) examined mentor-protégé agreement regarding
the mentor's transformational leadership behavior and the quality of mentoring relationship
experienced. Godshalk and Sosik found that the increased receipt of mentoring functions of the
protégé couples with the mentors' transformational leadership.
Traditionally, mentoring occurs in a dyadic (i.e., mentor-protégé) (Torrens et al., 2017;
Walker et al., 2002) and unidirectional relationship (e.g., from the mentor to the protégé)
(Briscoe & Freeman, 2019). The dynamics of mentoring have shifted to a bidirectional, a co-
learning experience between the mentor and the protégé (Barker, 2006; Burgess et al., 2018;
Mullen & Schunk, 2012) and triadic relationship (i.e., organization-mentor-protégé) (Fuller et
al., 2008; Walker et al., 2002). Researchers argued that mentoring provides both mentor and
protégé opportunities to gain insight into other fields or areas within the organization, share their
experiences and wisdom to nurture future leaders and become more aware of their professional
skills and work practices (Briscoe & Freeman, 2019; Burgess et al., 2018). Walker et al. (2002)
suggested the paradigm shift from the dyad to a triad of the mentoring model, including the
organization, the mentor, and the protégé. The organizational characteristics, hierarchical
structures, specific task designs, reward structures, performance appraisal systems, and ranks
positively influence the mentoring process (Kram, 1985). The study conducted by Fountain and
31

Newcomer (2016) regarding developing and sustaining effective faculty mentoring programs
also revealed similar findings. Fountain and Newcomer found that higher educational
institutions' leadership commitment and support (e.g., ensuring adequate training and rewards for
mentors) are critical factors affecting the mentoring's success. Another paradigm shift in dyadic
relationships involves protégé/mentee seeking out multiple mentors for specific developmental
goals or skillsets based on the mentor's expertise, availability, support, and communication styles
(Torrens et al., 2017). Researchers argued that the expectation of one mentor to meet all the
mentee's needs is no longer realistic. Mentees need to expand their mentoring networks to
increase their time spent with mentors collectively and set clear expectations in developing
skillsets within the mentor's field of expertise (Dancy II & Brown II, 2011; De Janasz &
Sullivan, 2004; Sorcinelli & Yun, 2007).
Studies on mentoring also explored benefits to people of color in business and education
(Chang et al., 2014). In higher education, mentoring is essential for the success of new faculty
members in terms of research agenda, tenure, and promotion, especially for faculty of color (J.
M. Johnson et al., 2018; Ponjuan, 2011; Turner et al., 2008). Turner and González (2008) argued
that a critical factor contributing to the growth and development of faculty of color was having
mentors along their career path. However, finding mentors whom faculty of color shared identity
(e.g., ethnicity, gender, or nationality) was a challenge (T. M. Davis et al., 2021). In addition,
there were fewer mentors available for faculty of color because White mentors were more
comfortable mentoring others like them (T. M. Davis et al., 2021). To address the problem of
inadequate mentoring, faculty of color sought mentors outside of their university (e.g., faculty
they met at conferences) (T. M. Davis et al., 2021) or formed their own peer mentoring group to
assist and advise one another (Packer-Williams & Evans, 2011). According to Packer-Williams
32

& Evans, peer mentoring helped participants cope effectively with micro-aggressions, increase
positive self-identity, self-efficacy, and combat oppression and negative stereotypes. Pololi and
Evan (2015) developed and conducted 5-year long facilitated group peer mentoring programs
that targeted early-career or mid-career faculty in five cohorts over four years within a
department of medicine to address the shortage of mentoring. Pololi and Evan found that group
peer mentoring helped address the need for effective faculty mentoring, form deep relationships
among peers for career development, focus on individual values and professional choices, and
foster an appreciation of diversity.
Mentoring helped disrupt the effect of impostor syndrome among scholars of color
(Dancy II & Brown II, 2011). Impostor syndrome refers to the internal feelings of an achieved
individual that they do not possess the intellect, believe that they are the impostors, and live in
fear of being exposed as impostors (Chandra et al., 2019; Clance & Imes, 1978). Impostor
syndrome also aligns with the internalized racism belief that Whites are superior to people of
color (Dancy II & Jean-Marie, 2014). Dancy II and Jean-Marie argued that impostor syndrome
contributes to disparate success trends among marginalized groups in higher education.
Researchers found the presence of impostor syndrome (Arleo et al., 2021; Chandra et al., 2019;
Clance & Imes, 1978; Cozzarelli & Major, 1990; Fried-Buchalter, 1997). According to Chandra
and colleagues (2019), impostor syndrome is associated with psychological distress, especially
anxiety and depression, and does not diminish with time, experience, or success. A supportive
mentor can help mentees recognize feelings of impostorism as common and irrational (Chandra
et al., 2019). Ultimately, building a good relationship with a supportive mentor and talking
through feelings with a mentor helped mentees find courage and confirmation, resisting impostor
feelings (Sanford et al., 2015).
33

Family Influences
Family plays a central role in the lives of Asian Americans, such as educational
attainment, career choice, and career development (Ghosh & Fouad, 2016; Leong & Serafica,
1995; Pew Research Center, 2012; Sue & Morishima, 1982). Family interests are a higher
priority than individual desires and need to maintain stability and harmony (Pyke, 2000). Sung
(1987) posited that success in school or later in the life of Asian children is a family obligation
tied to filial piety and face-saving. Children's success will bring honor to the family, and failure
will bring shame (Li, 2012). For example, getting straight A grades, going to an Ivy-league
university, or graduating as a doctor, a lawyer, or a professor are enhancing the family's sense of
face (Yang & Rettig, 2003). Lam's (2002) study on the career's path of Asian Pacific American
college presidents revealed that their parents have a strong influence on them at an early age to
attain good education, especially getting college/university degrees.
Education attainment
Researchers found that many parents believe that educational attainment is the primary
means for social mobility and raising one's socioeconomic status (Bhattacharya & Schoppelrey,
2004; Pyke, 2000; Sorensen, 1987; M. Zhou, 2014). Even with economic success, a person finds
it difficult to attain high social status without education (Sorensen, 1987). Asian parents
strengthen their faith further in education after arriving in the United States and believe that
education is the only feasible means for their children to achieve wealth and upward social
mobility (Bhattacharya & Schoppelrey, 2004). They rarely leave education success to chance and
pressure their children to study (Sorensen, 1987). They send their children into a formal
educational structure at a young age (S. Chan, 1999; K. H. Kim, 2007) and willingly make
economic sacrifices for their children's education, even through college (Sorensen, 1987).
34

Espinosa et al. (2019) reported that Asian students were among the least likely to borrow Federal
direct loans to pay for college. Asian parents mainly focus on their children's education at an
early age, engage them in learning, cooperate with teachers to supervise children doing
homework at home, and support their school (S. Chan, 1999; Haynes & Chalker, 1998; Hong &
Lee, 1999; Sorensen, 1987). Most children can read and write at the age of two before beginning
formal schooling (S. Chan, 1999). In Asian parents' view, education achievement is the only
route to social advancement (M. Zhou, 2014). Consequently, findings suggested that Asian
parents influence their children's career choices (S. C. K. Wong & Liu, 2010).
Career choices
Researchers found that Asian Americans make their career choices not based on their
career interests instead of on their family's guidance (Leong & Serafica, 1995; Tang et al., 1999).
For example, Asian American adolescents may be interested in an artistic career but end up
choosing a career in medicine or engineering because of parental guidance or pressure (Leong &
Serafica, 1995). In a study of the relationship between Asian American, Caucasian American,
and Chinese college students' career choices and parental influences, Tang (2002) found that
Asian Americans and Chinese Americans were more likely to choose their career choices
significantly related to their parent's expectations. Asian American students tend to comply with
their parents' preferences because of traditional values (e.g., filial piety, respect for authority)
(Leong & Serafica, 1995). In addition to family involvement, Tang and colleagues (1999) also
found that acculturation impacts Asian college students' career choices. Studies suggested that
Asian Americans who were less acculturated to the dominant culture may choose their career
choices less desire for self-expression or enjoyment than pragmatic, culturally linked values
(e.g., financial security and prestige), which may benefit their families and communities (Hui &
35

Lent, 2018; Leong & Chou, 1994). According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2019),
Asian Americans continue to overrepresent (55%) in management, professional, and related
occupations, the highest paying major occupational category, compared to Whites (41%), Black
(32%), and Hispanics (23%).
In summary, Asian Americans' career choices correlate with family background (i.e.,
filial piety) in conjunction with levels of acculturation (Farver et al., 2002). Leung and
colleagues (2011) further argued that parental expectations and cultural values orientation impact
Asian students' career decision-making difficulties. Tang et al. (1999) found that self-efficacy is
also a considerable determinant in Asian college students' career interests and career choices.
Personal Influences
Culture plays a vital role in human development. According to Rogoff (2003), human
development is a cultural process in which "people develop as participants in cultural
communities. Their development can be understood only in light of the cultural practices and
circumstances of their communities – which also change" (pp. 3-4). This study reviews
influences on Asians' personal development through the lens of Asian cultural values and self-
efficacy related to their career choices, career advancement, and leadership career pursuits.
Asian Cultural Values
Asian culture stemmed from Confucianism, the major cultural influences in Asian
countries including China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taiwan (Chaves,
2002; Diriik, 1995; Greer & Lim, 1998; Hahm, 2003; Kim & Park, 2003; Martinsons &
Martinsons, 1996). Hofstede and Bon (1988) summarized the fundamental principles of
Confucian teaching as the emphasis on education, family system, hierarchical relationships, and
benevolence. In Confucianism, the emphasis of education is to help develop a virtuous person,
36

focusing on accumulating skills and education and practicing virtues such as hard work,
patience, and perseverance (Hofstede & Bond, 1988). The family system considers Confucian
society itself as a large family, in which the father comes first and the son comes second (i.e.,
hierarchical relationships) (K. H. Kim, 2007). Hierarchical relationships emphasize the five
basic and unequal relationships between people: ruler/subject, father/son, husband/wife, older
brother/younger brother (Chen & Chung, 1994; Hofstede & Bond, 1988). These relationships are
based on mutual and complementary obligations: juniors obligate to respect and obey their
seniors, and seniors owe their juniors consideration and protection (Chen & Chung, 1994;
Hofstede & Bond, 1988). The hierarchical relationships start from the family through filial piety,
obedience, and loyalty practices, transferring to a more prominent family, a society with a
custom of disciplined subordination and acceptance of authority (Chuang & Wang, 2018; K. H.
Kim, 2007). Benevolence is the cardinal concept of Confucian teachings, comprised of various
virtues (i.e., self-restraint, self-discipline, brotherly love). But love is the core meaning of
Benevolence. Given these principles of Confucianism, Asian cultural values, such as
collectivism, respect for education, hard work, filial piety, and respect for authority, reflect
overarching differences in cultural orientation between Asian and Western cultures and influence
the perception of leadership effectiveness (Chin, 2013).
Collectivism. Collectivism, regarding in-group norms, is an ideology that places the
collective or group's (e.g., family, community, or country) needs and goals before an individual's
(Kashima et al., 1995; K. H. Kim, 2007). Collectivism emphasizes the collective good and
harmony, such as sacrifice for the common good and maintaining harmonious relationships with
others (Chung, 1994; Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Oyserman, 1993). For the sake of the group's
interests to ensure in-group harmony, one practice to restrain emotional expression rather than
37

directly express personal feelings (Hofstede & Bond, 1988; Oyserman et al., 2002). To sum up,
collectivism implies that group membership comes first, a central aspect of identity, and the
individual is second (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Oyserman, 1993). In contrast, individuals
within individualistic cultures, like American culture (Oyserman et al., 2002), seek to maintain
their independence from others, focus on self, and express their unique characteristics (Markus &
Kitayama, 1991; Oyserman et al., 2002). The worldview of individualism centralizes on the
individual's uniqueness, personal control, and personal goals, which take precedence over the
group's or organizational goals (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Truong et al., 2017).
Respect for education. According to Confucianism, education is much more quality for a
leader than technical competence or professional expertise (K. H. Kim, 2007). In Confucianism,
education aims to develop all-around human beings (Cheng, 1998). The Confucian educational
philosophy prioritizes the teaching of ethics (e.g., manners) so that a developing person becomes
a rounded person with a perfect personality (i.e., morality) who commit to making a positive
contribution to society (Chen & Chung, 1994; Cheng, 1998; K. H. Kim, 2007). Besides, the
Asian educational system focused on learning mechanically (e.g., memorize and remember
textbook information) to pass examinations instead of developing abstract thinking abilities
(Cheng, 1998; K. H. Kim, 2007). Success in education through the civil tests, and nothing else,
was the social ladder that enabled mobility upward in East Asian societies (Cheng, 1998; M.
Zhou, 2014). Conversely, the purpose of Western education aims to develop the potential
capacity of individuals fully and pays much attention to the development of abstract knowledge
as well as technical knowledge and skills (Cheng, 1998; Gardner, 1984; K. H. Kim, 2007). Last,
the Asian educational philosophy teaches that a strong work ethic and devotion to learning are
more contributory to achievement than an inherently gifted mind (K. H. Kim, 2005). Although
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education is no longer the only route for upward mobility, education itself is an essential
component of the virtues (S. Chan, 1999).
Hard work. In Confucianism, hard work is a Confucian value. Numerous studies found
that Asian people are hard workers (Atkin et al., 2018; Kiang et al., 2017; A. E. Kim & Park,
2003; K. H. Kim, 2007; C. R. Taylor & Stem, 1997). Stevenson and Stigler (1992) posited that
hard work is not an abstract ideology but a practical guide in everyday lives in Japanese and
Chinese. Pew research center's report (2012) emphasized that Asian Americans believe hard
work leads to success in life and place more excellent value on hard work, career success,
marriage, and parenthood than other Americans.
Filial piety. Filial piety is one of the five constant virtues (i.e., filial piety, faithfulness,
brotherhood, loyalty, and sincerity) (S. Chan, 1999). Filial piety is a set of norms, values, and
practices regarding how children should behave toward their parents (Bedford & Yeh, 2021).
Filial piety is the foundation and the supreme principle of human life (Liu, 2003) and the most
essential value in Asians' minds (Hwang, 1999). Because the Confucian constructs filial piety on
the concept of the family as one body that a person's body exists solely because of their parents,
parents assume a duty to educate and take care of their children. Children, in return, have a
primary obligation of respect, obedience, and care for their parents and elderly family members
(Hwang, 1999; Morishima, 1984). Hwang further added that a person's duty was first to their
parents and only secondly to the state. Finally, with the emphasis on filial piety to parents,
Confucianism extended the obligation toward society and encouraged workers to commit to their
jobs (Morishima, 1984). Thus, filial piety was transformed into company loyalty (A. E. Kim &
Park, 2003).
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Respect for authority. Respect for authority and elders is one of the Confucian values to
maintain social order and harmony in the family (A. E. Kim & Park, 2003). Often, to uphold the
societal hierarchy, a rigid organizational structure with vertical relationships, paternalism, exists
(Redding & Wong, 2012). According to Redding and Wong, paternalism emphasizes the
submission of subordinates' behaviors (i.e., respect for authority, conformity, and deference)
toward superiors' benevolence (i.e., care and support). For example, an employer provides job
security and insurance, and recreational benefits in exchange for employee loyalty. Employees,
in turn, demonstrate their filial submission and devotion to jobs. Any open conflict would
suggest disrespect for authority and challenge the power of the superior (Tjosvold et al., 2004).
In conclusion, although respect for authority to maintain harmony was exemplary of Confucian
ideology, it could cause the subordinates to refrain from making decisions, leave all decision-
making to the superior, and conform to their decisions (Kwek & Lee, 2010).
In sum, Asian culture influences how Asian Americans behave, and Asian cultural values
toward career trajectories, such as respect for authority and family influences because of filial
piety, may hinder opportunities for leadership advancement (Neilson & Suyemoto, 2009; Pew
Research Center, 2012).
Self-Efficacy
Studies showed that self-efficacy plays an essential role in career development and career
pursuits (Bandura, 1997). According to Bandura, self-efficacy refers to the belief in one's
capabilities to organize and execute courses of action to attain designated goals. Perceived self-
efficacy is a judgment of ability, not a judgment of self-worth/self-esteem (Bandura, 2006).
Researchers consistently showed that efficacy beliefs significantly impact an individual's level of
motivation, well-being, and performance (Bandura & Locke, 2003). Different levels of self-
40

efficacy can enhance or impede motivation (Bandura, 1997). People with a high level of self-
efficacy tend to perform more challenging tasks, put in more effort, set higher goals for
themselves, and remain committed to their goals than those with low self-efficacy (Bandura,
1997; Salanova et al., 2012).
Sources of Self-Efficacy
People acquire and modify perceived self-efficacy through four sources of information:
(1) mastery experiences, (2) vicarious learning, (3) verbal persuasion, and (4) physiological and
affective states (Bandura, 1997). Mastery experiences are the most reliable source because they
can inform what one can accomplish. When actions are appraised cognitively, self-efficacy is
established (Salanova et al., 2012). Vicarious learning refers to one's observations of other
performance to adjust their self-efficacy. Observing a successful performance can raise an
observer's self-efficacy, whereas observing a failure can lower it. Receiving persuasive verbal
feedback or statements from others can affect one's self-efficacy. Physiological and affective
states (e.g., stress, anxiety) signal personal efficacy. People are more capable of succeeding when
they feel less anxious in a situation. Among the four sources of information, mastery experience
is the most influential source of self-efficacy information (Bandura, 1997). When people believe
that they master specific careers and think that these careers will lead them to outcomes they
desire, they will nurture their goals to pursue these careers (Lent & Brown, 1996). In addition to
mastery experiences under leadership development context, Hannah et al. (2008) argued that
individuals might develop leader self-efficacy through vicarious learning, social persuasion,
positive feedback, and psychological, physiological, and emotional arousal. Despite many
barriers, scholars found that female faculty of color with high self-efficacy endure challenging
41

conditions persistently and successfully navigate them (Bass & Faircloth, 2011; Suarez-Mccrink,
2002).
Career Pursuits
"Perceived efficacy can contribute to career pursuits through its effects on the
development of interest" (Bandura, 1997, p. 424). Bandura and Locke (2003) found that the
higher the perceived efficacy to complete educational requirements and job functions, the more
career options individuals consider pursuing, the greater their interest in those career choices,
and the greater their endurance in challenging career pursuits. Career pursuits require more than
specialized knowledge and technical skills (Bandura, 1997). Hackett and colleagues (1985)
developed a taxonomy of career competencies necessary for women to pursue a professional
level. They found 620 career-related behaviors and psychosocial skills. They grouped them in
eight major categories: (1) communication skills, (2) interpersonal skills, (3) political skills, (4)
organizational skills, (5) general-career planning and management skills, (6) career-advancement
skills, (7) job-specific skills, and (8) adaptive cognitive strategies. These psychosocial skills are
not only for measuring one's self-efficacy but also for career development and career pursuits
(Hackett et al., 1985). For professional academic careers, competencies in political skills,
organizational skills, and job-specific skills are essential. Especially, competencies in political
skills (e.g., attending professional conferences, presenting papers) and organizational skills (e.g.,
chairing a committee) refer to behaviors related to negotiating the academic system. Categories
fifth and sixth, general-career planning and management skills, and career-advancement skills
contain competencies needed for professional career planning and development. Specifically,
career-advancement skills include behaviors need for career advancements, such as initiating and
taking advantage of opportunities, risk-taking behavior, or willingness to change one's situation
42

to fit aspirations or goals. Finally, Adaptive cognitive strategies refer to cognitive behaviors used
for coping successfully with rejections, failures, or setbacks, such as positive self-talk and
realistic and internal self-appraisal.
Leader Self-Efficacy
Rooted in Bandura's (1997) theory of self-efficacy, leader self-efficacy (LSE) refers to
one's level of confidence in their knowledge, skills, and abilities to lead and influence others
(Chemers et al., 2000; Hannah et al., 2008, 2012). LSE goes beyond possessing knowledge,
skills, and abilities and focuses on one's confidence to enact one's leadership capacities (Hannah
et al., 2009). Within leadership development literature, LSE is one of the critical concepts of
leader self-views (N. Kwok et al., 2020). Leader self-views reflect cognitive outcomes, mental
models, and structures that individuals utilize to carry out leadership processes (DeRue & Myers,
2014). Ross (2014) argued that individuals could not expect to lead others if they cannot lead
themselves. Leadership involves individuals exercising responsibility and control (self-efficacy)
over their actions (Neck & Manz, 2010). However, there are needed conditions for individuals to
want to become leaders (Csikszentmihalyi, 1993). Cziraki and colleagues' (2017) findings
suggested that LSE is an essential determinant of individuals' motivation and intention to pursue
leadership careers.
According to Ng and colleagues (2008), LSE is a specific form of efficacy beliefs related
to leadership behaviors and a key motivational construct for predicting behaviors. Chan and
Drasgow (2001) confirmed that LSE had been linked to outcomes such as ratings of leader
potential and motivation to lead. Motivation to lead (MTL) refers to "an individual-differences
construct that affects a leader's or leader-to-be's decision to assume leadership training, roles, and
responsibilities and that affect his or her intensity of effort at leading and persistence as a leader"
43

(K. Y. Chan & Drasgow, 2001, p. 482). According to K. Y. Chan and Drasgow, Individual
differences in MTL are stable over time and may interact with individual's career and abilities to
predict leadership behaviors (e.g., participation in leadership training or roles) within a specific
domain of work. In a study of examining developmental trajectories of leader efficacy and
identity, Kwok and colleagues' (2020) results for leader efficacy support the leader
developmental need perspective. They concluded that individuals lower on affective MTL
experienced the most significant changes to their leader efficacy during leadership training.
In conclusion, self-efficacy is one's belief in their capabilities to execute behaviors
necessary to produce specific performance attainments (Bandura, 1997). Of the four sources of
information (i.e., mastery experiences, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and physiological
and affective states) where efficacy beliefs come from, mastery experiences are the most reliable
source. Mastery experiences lead individuals to pursue careers that they perform well, especially
leadership careers for those with high leader self-efficacy (Cziraki et al., 2017; Lent & Brown,
1996).
Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
This study uses Bronfenbrenner's Ecological Systems Theory (EST) to examine Asian
American leaders' underrepresentation in higher education through self-influences and influences
in the immediate and distal environments. Urie Bronfenbrenner (1979), an American
psychologist, developed the ecological systems theory to provide the framework to understand
human development through the interacts and influences of the external systems. The EST
originally comprised four environmental systems organized into four layers that encircle an
individual's development: microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and macrosystem.
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Bronfenbrenner (1995) later added the chronosystem as the fifth environment system, which
involves all environmental changes over the developing individual's lifespan.
The conceptual framework is based on a modified EST model with three levels: personal,
micro-, and exo- level (refer to Figure 2 for the conceptual framework). The first circle, Asian
American academic leader, is at the center of this modified model. The other three large circles
represent different levels in the modified Bronfenbrenner's ecological model. The big arrow in
the middle pointing from left to right refers to the leadership advancement of Asian American
faculty throughout their childhood development to professional development to become an
academic leader. All the rectangles represent the study's key concepts supporting or hindering
Asian American faculty's professional growth. The small arrows show the directional influences
of the key concepts on Asian American faculty either directly or indirectly.
At the personal level, the literature highlighted two concepts that shape the developing
person and influence their educational attainment, career choices, and career aspirations. These
two concepts are Asian cultural values and self-efficacy. Next is the microsystem circle,
representing the immediate environment that Asian American academic leaders interact with
impacts on their career advancement. The immediate environment includes two key concepts:
family influences and influences of mentorship. Last, the exosystem circle includes the last two
concepts, organizational cultural diversity and inclusion, and professional development. These
final two concepts are crucial to Asian American faculty's leadership advancement. They either
support or hinder Asian American faculty from advancing to leadership positions.

45

Figure 2
Conceptual Framework

Summary
The literature review presented perceived influences in environments that hinder or
support Asian American faculty in advancing to academic leadership positions in higher
education institutions. In the distal environment, Asian American faculty's workplaces, the
literature discussed the impacts of cultural diversity and inclusion and the professional
development on Asian American faculty's leadership advancement. Studies revealed that
fostering cultural diversity and an inclusive environment help to increase diversity in the faculty
and leadership bodies. Providing professional development programs is critical for Asian
46

American faculty to access the leadership pipeline. Research suggested that organizations should
focus on a culture-specific professional development program and tailor training to meet
minority leaders' needs, such as leadership, networking, and communication skills.
Bronfenbrenner's model pointed out that certain environmental influences (i.e., family
and mentorship influences) have different impacts on a developing person depending on the
individual's personal qualities. Studies found that family influences play an important role in
Asian Americans' education attainment and career choices. And mentoring experiences have
influenced people of color's leadership development and contributed to their leadership
advancement. In conclusion, the literature review examined all key concepts, emerged from the
review process based on the modified Bronfenbrenner's model. Each environment has different
perceived influences on Asian American faculty advancing to the academic leadership positions.
Chapter three will outline the research methodology, including research questions, the
design overview, research setting, the research's positionality, data source, validity and
reliability, ethics, and limitations and delimitations.

47

Chapter Three: Methodology
The purpose of this study is to explore the perceptions, influences, and experiences of
Asian American faculty in the environments which directly or indirectly impact their
professional development and career advancement to academic leadership positions. Chapter
Three outlines the research's methodology, including research questions, a design overview, and
research setting. The study then presents the researcher's positionality and describes multiple
methods of collecting data. Finally, it discusses the study's validity, reliability, and ethics and
acknowledges the limitations and delimitations of the study.
Research Questions
The research questions that guide this study are as follows:
1. What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's immediate environment
support or hinder their professional advancement?
2. What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's distal environment
support or hinder their professional advancement?
Overview of Design
For the purpose of this study, the researcher used the pragmatism paradigm, which
originated from the actions, situations, and consequences of inquiry (Creswell, 2014) and
focused on problems, practices, solutions, and informed future practices (Saunders, 2019). While
conducting the study, the researcher must accept the research paradigm, which refers to a set of
fundamental beliefs or assumptions (Aliyu et al., 2015). The design of this study was qualitative
phenomenological. Through the phenomenological inquiry method, participants explained their
lived experiences toward academic leadership positions (Creswell & Creswell, 2018). The study
employed a semi-structured interview with Asian American faculty intending to explore
48

influences of the environments on their leadership advancement. All notes and transcripts were
converted to PDFs and stored in an encrypted file vault with a password. Refer to Table 1 for
research questions and data collection method.
Table 1
Research Questions and Data Collection Method
Research Question Interviews
1. What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's immediate
environment support or hinder their professional advancement?
X
2. What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's distal
environment support or hinder their professional advancement?
X

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The Researcher
As for the positionality, the researcher is a male Asian American who grew up in
Vietnam, where its culture stems from Confucianism culture and sees the world through the lens
of Confucianism, which has a significant influence on Vietnamese people's lives. Asian
collectivists treasure family values. Schools and families raise children to live and practice
Confucian virtue ethics in school and at home. The researcher migrated to the United States as a
refugee in the late 1980s as a college student. Living in the United States for many years, the
researcher still struggles to adapt to the Americans' individualistic culture. The researcher has
been working for a higher education institution for almost 30 years and has firsthand experience
with the underrepresentation of Asian Americans in leadership positions, primarily academic
leadership positions.
Early studies about the researchers as insiders/outsiders to a particular group of research
assumed that there are disadvantages and advantages for the researchers as either predominantly
insiders or outsiders (Holmes, 2020; Merriam et al., 2001). For this study, the researcher could
be an insider studying Asian American faculty and an outsider or less of an insider due to the
differences in origin, age, gender, and education background (Merriam et al., 2001). Merriam
and colleagues argued that both researchers' and participants' experiences of being insiders and
outsiders related to their cultural values and norms. They concluded that what the insiders view
and understand would be different but as valid as the outsiders do. Second, the researcher will
disclose the positionality to help readers understand the researcher's identity, bias, and
perspectives and determine the researcher's position in relation to participants (Maxwell, 2013;
Merriam et al., 2001). Last, there is no concern of power imbalance in the research relationship
50

because the researcher does not have any supervision or working relationship with the
participants.
The researcher constantly reminded its role as a researcher and was aware of potential
biases to mitigate biases and assumptions while conducting this study. The researcher identified
and documented potential biases and reviewed them often to reduce personal bias and
assumptions. In addition, the researcher carefully developed and followed the interview guide to
consistently ask questions within the framework. As Patton (2002) said, "usually, the interviewer
would not be expected to go into totally new subjects that are not covered within the framework
of the guideline" (p. 344). In conclusion, reflecting on and disclosing the researcher's
positionality relative to the study orientation is critical to help readers understand the researcher's
potential biases that could influence the conduct and conclusion of the study. The researcher's
beliefs, values, and views are present and inseparable from the research process, including data
collection, data analysis, and conclusion (Holmes, 2020).
Data Sources
In qualitative research, data collection comes from interviewing the subjects (Creswell &
Poth, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Information gathered from the interview sessions are the
primary data source of the study.
Interview
The researcher interviewed participants via Zoom with audio recording and live transcript
enabled. The Zoom transcripts were used for capturing the conversations between the researcher
and the individual participants. The interviews were approximately 60 minutes in length.
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Participants
The participants of this research were Asian American faculty members who are either
currently or formerly holding leadership positions. The researcher purposefully selected and
interviewed 10 Asian American faculty to explore their career trajectories in the context of
environmental influences that either support or hinder them from advancing to academic
leadership positions. According to Merriam and Tisdell (2016), this approach was nonprobability
sampling or purposeful sampling. Nonprobability sampling is the most suitable method for
qualitative research (Merriam & Tisdell).
The researcher recruited participants through email, groups on Facebook and the
professional LinkedIn network (e.g., Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education, Leadership
Education for Asian Pacific alumni network). The researcher identified Asian American faculty
who are/were in academic leadership positions. Additionally, the researcher ensured gender
equity by choosing an even mixed number of females and males. The study invitation's message
on social media included a link to the Qualtrics survey form for screening key demographics for
eligibility in the study. Interested participants will answer these screening questions. If the
participants are eligible for the study, the survey form asks the interested participants to provide
their name, email, and phone number to follow up. If the above conditions are not met, the
Qualtrics system shows the thank you message.
Instrumentation
The interview protocol employed a semi-structured interview with 17 open-ended
questions, broken down into three sections that provide a topical framework for the interviews.
In qualitative research, the interview format is the best fit to collect data from the participants
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Patton (2002) added that using interviews helps the researcher assess
52

participants' past lived experiences and perspectives that are not available to observe. Likewise,
Weiss (1994) stated, "Interviewing gives us access to the observations of others. Through
interviewing, we can learn about places we have not been and could not go and about settings in
which we have not lived" (p. 1).
The semi-structured approach allowed the researcher to pose the pre-defined questions
and using probing questions to explore the participant's responses and gather deeper information
from participants (Burkholder et al., 2019). According to Burkholder and colleagues, probing
questions can be pre-defined before the interview and evolved during the interview. All
questions connect to the two research questions and key concepts. These questions are grouped
into three sub-categories: personal influences, family and mentors' influences, and workplace
influences based on the conceptual framework (refer to Figure 2). The researcher designs 17
interview questions using six kinds of Patton's (2002) questions: behaviors/experiences,
opinion/values, feelings/emotions, knowledge, sensory, and background (refer to Appendix A for
the interview questions). Behavior/experience questions refer to inquiries about what a person
has done aimed to evoke behaviors and actions. Opinion/values questions help to understand a
person's judgments, opinions, and values. Feeling questions aim at eliciting a person's emotions
(e.g., anxious, happy, intimidated, or confident) through their experiences. Knowledge questions
ask for a person's factual information, not feelings or opinions, on a specific domain. Sensory
questions inquire about what a person saw, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled through the events.
Last is the background/demographic question, asking people about their age, education
background, or occupation to understand their characteristics.
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Data Collection Procedures
Merriam and Tisdell (2016) argued that researchers could conduct qualitative research
and collect data through an online video conference (face-to-face) synchronously or over email
or online forum asynchronously because of the Internet. Besides, some information and
communication tools save researchers time and money for transcripts because they can provide
transcripts (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016) created with online conference tools such as Zoom, Skype,
and Microsoft Teams.
Upon receiving their agreements, the researcher contacted participants via email or phone
to schedule personal interviews. The researcher then emailed participants the appointment
confirmation, a private Zoom link with a password, and an informed consent form. Each
interview took approximately 60 minutes to conduct.
On the day of the interview, the researcher enabled a Zoom live transcript and recorded
entire interviews with the permission of the participants. Zoom's transcript and video files were
recorded and stored in secure file storage locally and organized in separate folders for each
participant. The researcher cleaned up all the transcripts and used recordings to validate them.
Data Analysis
Data analysis is the complex process of making sense out of the data, which is from the
participants through listening, seeing, and reading (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Merriam and
Tisdell added that it is the process of finding answers to the research questions. These answers
are also called categories, themes, or findings (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Scholars suggested
five different types of qualitative research, such as narrative, phenomenology, grounded theory,
ethnography, or case study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016; Creswell & Poth, 2018; Creswell &
Creswell, 2018). Among these types, the researcher will use phenomenological analysis to guide
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the data analysis for this study. Data analysis proceeds with (1) constructing categories through
coding and recurring patterns from the transcripts, field notes, and documents, (2) sorting
categories and data by creating buckets for each category and placing evidence in them, (3)
naming the categories to be congruent with the purpose of the study and the research questions
(Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
The researcher used Atlas.TI qualitative data analysis program to help facilitate analysis.
Studies suggested that Computers Assisted Qualitative Data Analysis (CQDAS) has a great
capacity to organize research data and facilitate analysis instead of by hand or as a hybrid
(Creswell & Poth, 2018; Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). First, the researcher cleaned up the live
transcripts of the first two participants and used video recordings to validate the transcripts for
accuracy. Then the researcher employed the transcription service, Rev.com to transcribe the rest
of the video recordings. Second, the researcher imported these transcripts into Atlas.TI and
started a coding process. Third, the researcher constructed categories/themes from transcripts and
field notes using key concepts and sub-concepts informed by the literature review. Finally, the
researcher confirmed or disconfirmed the evidence.
Validity and Reliability
Validity and reliability are essential for any type of research, quantitative, qualitative, or
mixed methods. Merriam and Tisdell (2016) posited that research studies must design and use a
careful approach to collect, analyze, interpret, and present findings that deliver the truth to
readers, practitioners, and other researchers. Likewise, Lincoln and Guba (1985) approached
researchers with a similar question, "How can an inquirer persuade his or her audiences that the
research findings of an inquiry are worth paying attention to" (p. 290)? On the one hand,
traditionally, the term "reliability" refers to how research findings will be the same if the
55

researchers repeat the study (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). On the other hand, Merriam and Tisdell
(2016) argued that reliability is a challenge to achieve in the social sciences because human
behavior is dynamic instead focus on its consistency with the data collected.
To maximize this study's credibility and trustworthiness, the researcher employed three
strategies. The first strategy was triangulation, using multiple sources of data to verify the
findings. For example, the study tried to find the consistency of findings by analyzing
participants' responses on how people get promoted to leadership positions. Second was member
check or respondent validation, ensuring the participants review the interview summary and
confirm its accuracy (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Last was the researcher's positionality.
According to Merriam and Tisdell (2016), the researchers need to disclose their biases,
dispositions, and assumptions to help readers to understand researchers' interpretations of the
findings better. Maxwell (2013) further explained the need to describe researchers' positionality
is to help readers understand how particular researchers' values and expectations influenced the
research conduct and the conclusion of the study, but not to remove researchers' theories, beliefs,
and perceptual lens. Patton (2015) posited that the data's reliability depends on the
trustworthiness of those who collect and analyze the data and their competence.
Ethics
The researcher filed an application with the USC Institute Review Board (IRB) before
conducting the research and complied with all IRB's requirements and guidelines. Upon
receiving IRB approval, the researcher sent an informed consent statement to participants and
informed them that they could stop the interview or the process at any time. Participants'
information was kept confidential, including name, email, position, and employers' information.
The researcher obtained participants' permission to record the conversation at the beginning of
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the interview session. The researcher securely stored recordings, transcripts, and related
materials with a password and encryption. In addition, the researcher used pseudonyms chosen
by participants. There were no power dynamics or coercion concerns because the subjects
voluntarily participated in the study to support and prepare future Asian American leaders in
higher education.
Though policies, procedures, guidelines, and codes of ethics relating to conducting
research exist, the researcher's values and ethics are essential (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016).
Merriam and Tisdell further added that the researcher needs to protect subjects from harm,
deception issue, the notion of informed consent, and exposing their privacy. To validate their
responses, the researcher transcribed and requested participants to review and confirm their
answers. Finally, the researcher disseminated the findings to interested participants and the
leadership of the organization.
Limitations and Delimitations
The findings of this study may not be generalizable for other faculty members from
different cultures and ethnic backgrounds due to a small number of purposeful samplings. An
anticipated limitation of this study was the chosen methodology, an online interview with only
one brief session for each participant within 60 minutes. In addition, the interview questions
derived from the research questions did not address all the key concepts to disclose all
influences. Therefore, the result may not portray a complete lived experience of the participants
under the perceived influences in their environments.
The delimitation of the study was the exclusion of participants who are not faculty
members because faculty can qualify in all leadership positions in higher education, while staff
can only participate in a subset of leadership positions (e.g., chief student financial aid officer,
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chief accounting officer/controller, chief human resources officer, chief student affairs, chief
information officer, etc.). Bronfenbrenner's (1995) ecological system theory used in this study
would benefit from a deeper exploration of the lived experiences of Asian Americans within the
framework. At a minimum, the researcher has designed this study to help Asian American
faculty understand the challenges and seek support for future leadership advancement by sharing
the stories of Asian American leaders and their lived experiences.
Although these limitations and delimitations existed in the study, the researcher put many
considerations in a research design to ensure research value and that the research was not
weakened by these issues. For example, the researcher asked participants to verify the transcripts
and confirm their intentional responses. In addition, the researcher documented each data
collection and analyzed them carefully. These were a few techniques to ensure a high quality of
collected data for the study.
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Chapter Four: Findings
The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological inquiry is to explore the career
trajectories of Asian American faculty in the context of environmental influences that either
support or hinder them from advancing to academic leadership positions. The study employed
semi-structured interviews with voluntary participants who explained their lived experiences and
perspectives toward academic leadership positions. Asian refers to people having origins in any
of the far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including Cambodia, China, India,
Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam (U.S. Census
Bureau, 2010). Academic leadership position refers to the department chair, dean, provost/vice-
president of academic affairs, and president in higher education (Cleverley-Thompson, 2016; E.
B. Davis, 2008; Enomoto & Matsuoka, 2007; Gmelch & Wolverton, 2002; Raines & Alberg,
2003a; Wepner et al., 2015). The problem of practice was the underrepresentation of Asian
Americans in academic leadership positions in higher education. The research questions that
guided this study were the following:
1. What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's immediate environment
support or hinder their professional advancement?
2. What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's distal environment
support or hinder their professional advancement?
The first section of this chapter includes a general description of the participating
stakeholders, including their gender, generation, ethnicity, parents' education background, their
highest level of education, leadership position level, and years in leadership positions. The
second section includes the findings from participants' lived stories about their leadership
advancement. Although their journeys to leadership positions were unique because of family
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backgrounds, different generations in the U.S., and the environments they were living and
interacting with, they had similar experiences. These similarities appeared in various themes
throughout the thematic analysis.
Participating Stakeholders
The participants of this research are Asian American faculty in academic leadership
positions. The researcher purposefully selected and interviewed 10 participants: five females and
five males. Among 10 participants, eight participants had Ph.D., and two participants with
Master's degrees were working on their doctoral dissertations to get Ed.D. degrees. In addition,
five participants were born in America, four migrated to the U.S. from Asia, and one participant
was born in Canada. For the number of years in leadership positions, participants ranged from
one year to 36 years, with an average of 12.75 years. The researcher invited participants to
choose their pseudonyms. Most of the participants selected and provided their pseudonyms. One
participant specifically used their full name initials (JLC). Another participant preferred to use
their profession, Pediatric Nurse Practitioner (PNP). However, two participants had no
preferences; the researcher then assigned them pseudonyms. The researcher will refer to these
pseudonyms in discussing the findings throughout this chapter. Refer to Table 2 at the top of the
next page for participants' demographic, such as identity, gender, immigration generation, the
highest level of education, number of years in leadership positions, and pseudonyms.

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Table 2
Participants' Demographics
Participant Generation Gender Identity Highest level
of education
Years in leader
position(s)
Rob Third Male Japanese PhD 36
Denver First Male Japanese/Canadian PhD 20.5
Joseph Third Male Japanese PhD 20
Colorado First Male Indian/immigrated PhD 20
Malcolm Fourth Male Chinese/White PhD 11
PNP First Female Taiwanese/immigrated Master's 10
JLC First Female Taiwanese/immigrated PhD 4
Sonali Second Female Indian Master's 3
Bobby Third Female Chinese & Japanese PhD 2
Pepper First Female Chinese/immigrated PhD 1

In addition, six out of 10 participants were first-generation college students. All of them
are/were professors and in leadership positions in higher education institutions. Among the 10
participants, five of them are in executive leadership positions (e.g., president/chancellor, vice
president/vice chancellor). The other five are either in the middle management level (e.g.,
department dean) or entry management level (e.g., chair, vice chair, associate chair).
Research Question 1: What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's
immediate environment support or hinder their professional advancement?
Through the semi-structured interviews, the participants shared lived experiences through
their cultural identities that influenced and changed their career trajectories. Out of their stories,
four themes identified to address the first research question were: (1) Cultural identity as both an
internal barrier and facilitator, (2) The influences of Asian cultural values on leadership styles,
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(3) The effect of leadership self-efficacy on leadership advancement, and (4) The role of mentor
in leadership advancement. These themes arose through the participants' responses to interview
questions and probing questions regarding their career pathways, journey to leadership positions,
and interactions with mentors.
Cultural Identity as Both Internal Barrier and Facilitator
Participants involved dynamic identity navigation processes, which could be both barriers
and facilitators of their leadership trajectories. Seven out of 10 participants were aware that their
cultural identities (e.g., nationality, ethnicity, generation, locality, etc.) influence their leadership
pathways and roles. These participants adopted the American identity but still connected to the
Asian cultural identity. For example, JLC was born in Taiwan and spent most of her adult life in
the U.S. She said, "I grew up in sort of two cultures…I try to go between both ways." She
believed that she had two identities and "switched" between them depending on the situation.
Sonali had a similar experience with JLC and learned how to do "code-switching." She explained
code-switching as "learning how to be very American in the way I connect with you versus being
very Indian in my family and cultural settings." As the above stories depict, these seven
participants were navigating different cultural identities and switching between them to
improvise.
As for the Asian cultural value of humility, participants do not feel comfortable engaging
in self-promotion, which is one of the typical leadership characteristics in the Western culture.
Six out of 10 participants mentioned how they wanted to stay in the background, did not want to
stick out, or boast about their achievements. Colorado, one of the male participants, recollected
his childhood and said that his mother taught him to be humble and "never brag. It was
absolutely forbidden to be proud." Throughout his career, from being a department chair, a dean,
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the head of an important national organization, and now a vice-chancellor, he shared, "so, in all
these roles, it was never about promoting my own career." Similarly, for PNP, being humble is
believing herself lesser than others, she shared, "I am always humbled by sort of all of my
colleagues, and their abilities, or what they have to deal with or what they carry." Further support
of humility came from JLC as she reflected, "it is ok to not know everything and to be ok to
reach out for assistance." A few participants suggested upcoming young Asian Faculty "step out
of comfort zone" and "need to speak up." For JLC, stepping out of her comfort zone allowed
others to recognize her and her abilities. She recalled, "when I stepped out of the comfort zone, I
had the opportunity to demonstrate my ability." Whereas PNP explained the importance of
speaking up, "make your voices heard. Don't be shy, and don't take the back seat in the
boardroom. In this day and age, in this kind of society, you do need to speak up (otherwise, no
one is going to know), and represent your background and culture, be proud of it."
Six out of these participants found that the Asian cultural value of harmony facilitated
their leadership roles and believed that leaders must create a peaceful and collaborative
environment, build a consensus, and engage in shared governance. For example, Colorado shared
that the cultural value of harmony, "not very confrontation," influenced his leadership style.
Another male participant, Malcolm, firmly believed in collaborative efforts to bring people
together and build good relationships. He shared, "When I'm accomplishing things, I try to do it
in a way that's collaborative and brings other people along and builds relationships, not getting
accomplishments at the expense of relationships." For Malcolm, his leadership style is
collaborating with people to build a consensus. Similarly, Denver found his style is leading by
consensus and engaging in shared governance because of his cultural identity.
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In contrast to the above seven participants, Rob and Joseph did not see much of the
impact of Asian cultural identity but American identity in their career and leadership
advancement. Rob shared,
When you asked how my [Asian] cultural identity influenced my leadership role, my first
impulse is to say: not at all. That's probably not true. There's probably an influence there
but not one that I was conscious of or really aware of in terms of making a decision about
how my career would develop and evolve. So, I would say that the influences seemed to
be very little or indirect.
Joseph claimed that he is very Americanized, "I don't have a strong tie to my Japanese roots
because I'm the third generation." Both Rob and Joseph were experiencing the process of cultural
change linearly or uni-directionally to the dominant culture, which Leong and Chou (1994)
defined as cultural assimilation. Cultural assimilation happens to those who become more and
more Westernized as they live longer in this country (Leong & Chou, 1994). Joseph shared, "I
am the third generation. So, I am a minority even amongst the Asian Americans, but because I
am so Americanized, it is some of the hurdles that others have faced I don't face." Rob tried to
stay away from Asian cultural identity his entire life. Although Rob's parents were born in the
U.S., their family was sent to the internment camp together with other Japanese in 1942 by the
executive order of President Roosevelt. After release from the camp, his father wanted the family
to assimilate and become Americans ultimately. To successfully assimilate to the U.S. culture,
Rob's father mandated "no Japanese food in the house and no speaking Japanese." Furthermore,
they decided not to return to their hometown, the Japanese town, to raise their family like other
Americans'. Instead, they moved to Iowa, where Rob was born and worked to be an American
kid. Similarly, Joseph's parents were also in the internment camps. As a result, Joseph became
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Americanized, not "an outsider." However, he later added, "because I blend in so well, they
[White] don't think of me as an outsider. [He immediately rephrased] They still think of me as an
outsider, but not as much." As Rob's and Joseph's stories illustrate, their experiences of being
forced to assimilate to American culture could support their career and leadership trajectories.
Evidently, they had broken the glass ceiling and advanced to executive academic leadership
positions in their organizations. Regarding cultural assimilation, PNP said, "As Asian
Americans, there are differences on when they come to the U.S. and how much they assimilated,
and so we have all levels of that."
In summary, the theme of the impact of cultural identity in leadership roles became
evident through the participants' responses to the first research question. On the one hand,
participants shared that their cultural identities and cultural values of harmony positively impact
their professional advancement. However, on the other hand, cultural values of humility could
impede their progress. Significantly, many participants believed that their cultural identity also
influenced their leadership styles.
The Influences of Asian Cultural Values on Leadership Styles
Asian cultural values of collectivism and humility were identified as facilitators to help
participants succeed in their leadership roles and advance to a higher level of academic
leadership. With these internalized cultural values, nine out of 10 participants engaged in the
leadership characteristics of transformational leadership, servant leadership, and collaborative
leadership styles, such as persuasion, commitment to the growth of followers, being humble,
listening, building community, leading by consensus, creating a collaborative environment (i.e.,
shared vision and values, mutual respect, or synergy), and individualized consideration (e.g.,
coaching, protecting, or promoting followers).
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As a mix of transformational and servant leaders, five participants focused on followers'
growth, listened to what followers had to say, and protected and promoted them. For example,
Pepper, a female participant, was committed to the growth of her postdoctoral students. She
explained, "if a postdoc emails me about something urgent, I won't wait until two days to
respond. I can sense the urgency, and I would just try my best to help them the best I can."
Pepper believed that leadership is all about an intention and a willingness to serve and support
others to succeed, not your success. Similarly, Colorado shared, "I never do what's good for me. I
do what is good for people around me and for the university."
As for Joseph's leadership style, protecting and promoting followers are critical. When
things went wrong, he stepped up and assumed the responsibilities. Joseph shared, "I am a leader
of the organization. And even I don't know what this person did; I have to assume responsibility.
It is very easy for some people [leaders] to throw people [followers] under the bus." And when
things go well, he "stepped in the background" because he doesn't want to "steal the spotlight
from them." Ultimately, according to four participants, one must be humbled as a leader.
Participants expressed the importance of being humble as a leader. Colorado said, "Being proud
was very, very, not considered to be a good thing." Denver further added, "In Asian countries,
there is a saying that you don't want to stick out, you don't want to be different from everyone
else." Being humble was helping PNP to recognize and respect her colleagues and their abilities
because she shared, "We all carry so much on our plate. And some are visible, and some are
invisible." Being humble means giving one the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of
others and inspire and transform others into better versions of them. Joseph shared, "I've had a
lot of people contact me. I've had a lot of people like you [the researcher] contact me… I've been
humbled that people would come to me and ask for my advice."
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Four male participants preferred not to use a traditional top-down leadership but the
team-centric, collaborative leadership style to lead their organizations. They build a collaborative
environment and lead by consensus. These four participants are currently in executive leadership
positions, such as president/chancellor and vice president/chancellor, with an average of 22 years
in leadership positions. Denver said, "I would say that my style is influenced by my cultural
identity as an Asian in that, typically, I try to lead by consensus." Like Denver, Malcolm's
leadership style is also to build a consensus and seek a general agreement. He acknowledged
that:
The most effective leaders are the ones that can build a consensus or build a general
agreement. I meant you can't always get everybody in line. But you are working to
collaborate with people to build a consensus, rather than just telling people what to do.
There are leaders that have a much more top-down style. But that's not my style, and I
don't think it's generally as effective.
Malcolm said with a collaborative leadership style, "you don't need a lot of
assertiveness;" however, leaders need to "project the confidence" to get people to collaborate.
Therefore, through Malcolm's sharing, a collaborative leadership style seems to be the best fit for
Asian leaders because Asians were reportedly less assertive (Zane et al., 1991). Moreover, Rob
explained the focus on collaborative efforts was to promote improved outcomes and convince
decision-makers, "When decision-makers see different stakeholders converging on a common
solution or change in policy, they are more likely to agree to that solution or change." Rob is
convinced that the chance of overcoming an obstacle or solving a problem goes up if there is a
collaborative effort among multiple stakeholders with different expertise and interests. Finally,
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Denver suggested that leaders need to build a team-centric, surrounding themselves with good
and diverse people. He shared,
No one person is an expert in all of those different skill sets that are necessary for you to
lead a major research university. So, the key thing is that you need to identify a diverse
team; you have to empower them, you can't micromanage them. And you have to identify
people that may be much stronger than you in those areas. When you come together as a
group, collectively, you're much more powerful if you surround yourself with people who
are very good.
Several participants discussed that leaders with a collaborative style need to have a vision
to convince followers to support their visions. For example, Malcolm asserted that leaders need
to have some directions, the ability to persuade people, and "project enough self-confidence" to
have people follow them. PNP, Denver, and Colorado also emphasized that leaders must have a
vision. Colorado said, "I don't think you can lead without a vision. You've got to have a vision of
where you want to lead."
In summary, nine participants led their organization not based on a specific leadership
style but a mix of transformational leadership, servant leadership, and collaborative leadership
styles. Because of cultural values of collectivism and humility, the facilitators in participants'
leadership roles and advancement, participants shaped their choices and engaged in various
leadership styles to successfully lead their organizations. Some focused on transforming and
developing followers to their fullest potential. Some wanted to lead by consensus and build a
collaborative environment. A few participants discussed that leaders must be humble to serve,
protect, and promote staff and followers.
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The Importance of Leader Self-Efficacy (LSE)
From the stories of six out of 10 participants, they had low LSE at the beginning of their
careers, which impeded them from assuming leadership roles in their organizations. With low
LSE, these participants had no interest in any leadership position or did not believe that they
could lead others. According to researchers on leadership, LSE is a specific form of efficacy
belief referring to one's confidence level in their knowledge, skills, and abilities to lead and
influence others and an essential determinant of individuals' motivation and intention to pursue
leadership careers (Chemers et al., 2000; Cziraki et al., 2017; Hannah et al., 2008, 2012). When
Joseph's colleagues suggested he apply for the vacant dean's position, he hesitated to proceed. He
shared his thoughts at the time, "I said I'm not interested. There was a part of me that said I don't
think I'd be very good at it. Now, it turns out that I was wrong. But at the time, I would say: that
job was not for me. I think I'd be horrible at it, and I just wouldn't succeed." JLC recollected her
thoughts about becoming a leader and shared, "I really think what makes me a leader is
somebody could tell me: you can do it…I couldn't see it [the ability to lead] myself." For PNP, a
nurse practitioner, she did not believe she could lead her organization effectively without proper
leadership training. PNP shared,
We never learned how to be leaders, and when you look at healthcare organizations, you
can see a lot of MBAs come through or physicians getting their MBA because we might
be excellent clinicians, but we might not know anything about budgeting, we might not
know how to run an organization and run teams well. So, either you have to hire
somebody who's really good at that on your team, or you yourself need to have some
foundational knowledge of that. So, you can't be a leader without those additional
knowledge support [soft] skillsets.
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Pepper, who has one year of experience in academic leadership, did not want to apply for the
leadership position because she thought she was too young. She explained, "I'm in my early 30s.
I'm younger than any other faculty member that our school has. Some of my colleagues are even
my grandparent's age." In comparison, Colorado agreed to serve as department chair when asked
by his superior, even though he was unsure if he could succeed. He responded to his superior,
"OK, I'll do it for two or three years, and then if it doesn't work for me, I'm going to stop." On
the one hand, the above five participants with low LSE did not see themselves as leaders at the
beginning of their leadership tracks. On the other hand, Joseph, Denver, and Colorado expressed
no motivation to lead. Denver said, "I had no intention or desire to be an administrator or to be a
university president when I began as a tenure track professor. I was just focused on doing my
research and teaching." Here is what Colorado explained, "in academia, in particular, leadership
is not value." Instead, faculty choose to "stay in their research or in the scholarship because that's
valued much more." Colorado talked about his experience:
In around the mid-nineties, I got essentially asked to serve as department chair. I wasn't
sure really sure that that was good for me. My research was really going at top speed, and
it was going extremely well. But then I did the department chair job and realized that I
actually have leadership skills and talent.
On the contrary, two other participants had the motivation to lead because they wanted to
make changes in the organization and support others to grow. Bobby talked about her bad
experiences with "racist incidents" and institutional practices that made her take on a leadership
role. She shared,
What I really saw was that, you know, I experienced a lot of things, racist incidents, and
things that don't change unless you can get people who are sitting in positions to make
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changes. And I wouldn't have said that early on, but when I began to see the kinds of
things that happened to me. I saw the institutionalization of practices and things that just
ticked me off. I realized that if I really wanted to make a difference and embody change
in leadership in a higher ed organization, I'd have to be the change, right? You know
what I mean? To use a phrase, but I'd have to put myself into that position. And this took
a really, really, really long time. It was 30 years before I left [a current university] to
become a dean [at another university].
PNP talked about her motivation to pursue an opening and unwanted leadership position, a vice-
chair position in her department. She said, "there was nobody else coming forward. I thought:
sure, I'll do that […] It's something that I felt like I was good at. It was a skill set I was good at. I
enjoy mentoring faculty. I enjoy the seeing, kind of their growth and their a-ha moments, and
troubleshooting." As the participants' stories illustrate, those with low LSE and no interest in
administrative work at the beginning of their career tracks ended up becoming leaders in their
organizations.
Evidence showed that five participants increased LSE over time through the four sources
of information of Bandura (1997): mastery experiences/feedback, vicarious learning, verbal
persuasion, and physiological and affective states. For example, Malcolm shared, "I get a lot of
positive feedback for what I'm doing on the committee. So that certainly encourages continuing
administrative type of work." Sonali adjusted her LSE from low to high after vicarious learning
and observing others' performances. She said,
Somebody I look up to a lot is S. Samantha. When I saw her and I saw somebody who
looked like me and had my upbringing, and she presented at the APAHE (Asian Pacific
American in Higher Education). That completely changed everything for me.
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JLC talked about her experience with her mentor, who convinced her to become a leader. She
shared, "because my mentor sees my potential, and I keep asking why you [her mentor] think I
can do it. She said because I [the mentor] can see it." Like JLC, Joseph's mentors pulled him
aside and persuaded him to assume the leadership role. He explained, "so effectively they
recognized characteristics that I couldn't even recognize. I really appreciate that. But they sought
me out to pull me aside and tell me these things." In short, these participants gained more LSE
through different sources of information. First, however, they must step out of their comfort
zones and pursue leadership positions. Joseph explained, "you earn leadership. You don't force
leadership on anybody." For PNP, she intentionally looked out for opportunities to move into
leadership positions. She shared, "knowing what your interests are for the time being, but also
look ahead and plan out kind of what opportunities are coming up ahead of time? And what does
it take for me to take advantage of those opportunities?" Pepper elaborated on the concept of
"leadership needs to be earned" as "leadership is that you are picked. If you're a leader of the
group, you need to serve. You're not sitting in that position and calling yourself a leader.
Leadership needs to be earned." Ultimately, they must step out of their comfort zones and take
on leadership roles. Sonali shared the experience of running for a position in her organization:
"so, I ended up taking a role as the equity chair in the faculty union at the college. I was very
scared, but I did it."
Leadership self-efficacy plays a vital role in Asian Faculty's leadership advancement.
Participants with low LSE and/or no motivation to lead increased their LSE over time through
vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and positive feedback from others or mentors. Participants'
mentors played essential roles in guiding and persuading them to become leaders.
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The Role of Mentor in Leadership Advancement
All participants acknowledged that mentors have been instrumental in their leadership
advancement. They found good mentors provide valuable advice and guidance to succeed in
career trajectory, recognize mentees' leadership potential, and foster mentees to grow and
become leaders.
Seven out of 10 participants stated that their mentors recognized their potential and
talents and fostered them to become leaders. JLC had great experiences with her mentor and
affirmed that she became a leader because of good mentorship. JLC said,
I really believe that because I had a strong mentorship […] She [mentor] provided strong
support to let me know what I can [do] for my limitations, and she gave me great
guidance. As a mentor, she's more like a big sister […] I can always call. I call her all the
time. For like, I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.
Her mentor recommended she join the Faculty Council and different communities on the
campus. JLC found that participating in the community allowed other people to see her potential
to lead and created an opportunity to lead the community in the future. JLC believed that being
involved in the community was her starting point in becoming a leader. She said, "So that's
actually the start of the sort of leadership career." Joseph admitted that "at least earlier in my
career, I have never imagined I'd ever been in leadership roles." However, Joseph's mentors
approached him, encouraged him to consider more administrative roles, and nourished him to
assume leadership roles. Like Joseph, Bobby's mentor reached out and talked to her about
becoming a dean, a leadership position in higher education. Besides recognizing their potential
and talents, mentors of Denver and Sonali involved them in administrative work and prepared
them to become successful leaders. Denver shared,
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He got me involved in many things, from being on the finance committee of the
university, to be on the board of the university, to help him with international
recruitments. And all these things broadened my experience as an administrator, even
though I was a full-time faculty member. He mentored me and really helped me become
the administrator that I am today.
For Sonali, the experience with her mentor is different. Her mentor introduced her to the APAHE
(Asian Pacific Americans in Higher Education) organization, where she received her leadership
training and met new mentors. She shared her experiences through the APAHE:
That was it. That was really it. That changed the trajectory of everything for me, really
big time to be in a space with so many Asian leaders across the country at my fingertips. I
really got an opportunity to have; I have mentors all over the country now who I can just
call when I need.
All participants had at least one or more persons who have been great mentors, a "high
expectations father" to Colorado or a "big sister" to JLC. They ran to their mentors for advice
and guidance relating to their leadership trajectories. JLC shared, "I have a good mentor that I
can always call. I call her all the time for like I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do." Rob's
mentor recognized his talent, allowed Rob to work in his lab and publish the first paper together
as a sophomore in college, and advised him to leave the state for future growth. His mentor said,
"get out of Iowa, go off to a really good place somewhere and do your graduate work, and you
can become a really terrific scientist." For Colorado, his mentor, a famous researcher, and a
founding figure father of the field, never acted as a mentor, "he was much more like a stern, high
expectations father." However, Colorado found good influences from his mentor. He shared,
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I think the thing that I really got from him was high standards and a very high level of
intellectual capacity. What does it mean to be a really leading-edge top-tier researcher
was? What he was. And I think I absorbed some of that from him.
Rob admitted that "Mentoring is so very important. My career has been so heavily aided
by great mentors. I've been very lucky." However, nine out of 10 participants neither sought
mentors nor asked someone to become their mentors officially. Joseph said, "I've never sought
out mentors." Instead, his mentors found him and nudged him into the administrative roles.
Malcolm, Pepper, and Bobby did not want to ask their mentors explicitly, but developed good
relationships with them first, then moved into mentoring relationships later. Malcolm shared,
I didn't want to make too big of an ask, but just sort of eased into mentoring relationships
by inviting people out to lunch and just sort of doing this on a repeated basis and asking
them lots of questions. So essentially, I had these two senior administrators that I used as
mentors for myself.
Like Malcolm, Pepper did not want to ask someone to be her mentor explicitly. Instead, she
found someone with the same interests and could be her mentor, but she wanted to have a great
working relationship first. She explained:
She [her mentor]'s such a great scientist, and I'm just naturally drawn to her, and I started
talking to her. She and I have the same interests, so I started working with her on my
papers. And we just got to know each other, and you know, things happening in life. I
supported her, and she supported me. And we have become good friends, and she has
become a great mentor.
Seeking mentors could be a barrier to leadership advancement for participants because of
Asian cultural identity. Malcolm explained:
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I never explicitly asked them to be mentors but developed relationships with them that
were essentially mentoring relationships. I never explicitly said it out loud, and I think
they both figured it out. I know one of them did because she mentioned it later. But I
guess, maybe that's sort of my coming from my cultural background where I didn't want
to necessarily impose anything on anybody.
Perhaps, Malcolm's story explained why the other seven participants did not seek mentors. Five
among those seven participants whose mentors sought and mentored them instead.
Overall, as participants' sharing illustrate, their mentors recognized their potential and
talents, gave them good advice (e.g., involving in the community, attending leadership
conferences), and nudged them to become leaders. Evidence showed that having good mentors is
essential to participants' career/leadership advancement and performance, especially when they
are new in leadership positions. Furthermore, for a few participants, their mentors were their role
models, "father figure," or big sister, who they could look up to and seek comfort and advice.
Research Question 2: What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's distal
environment support or hinder their professional advancement?
The four themes identified to answer the second research question were: (1) The
importance of community involvement, (2) The importance of networking, (3) Organizational
support for professional development, and (4) Organizational D&I efforts and practices.
The Importance of Community Involvement
Actively involved in different committees in the organization could increase a person's
chance to advance to leadership positions. Five participants spoke about opportunities they
encountered that led to leadership positions. For example, Malcolm talked about being on and
participating in various roles in the committees:
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I've just played a very active role in sort of governance and bureaucracy and organization
and so continue to do that on campus. I was involved in senate service on a variety of
other things. Where at some point, they had an opening for my current position, the vice
provost for academic affairs, and I was asked to fill in an interim position [...] because I
had been involved in lots of related things. So, I guess I've sort of shown an aptitude for
administrative-type work in a lot of the things I've been doing as faculty.
Malcolm was surprised and believed that he got the job because of his participation and
involvement in the committees' works. But conversely, Bobby started joining different
committees, even the "boring" ones, with the intention of moving into higher education
leadership because she wanted to be a change agent. In addition, she could connect with other
members of the committees:
I would say it wasn't until mid to late 2010 or so that I had to become very intentional
about what I needed to do to move into leadership. And some things I really, really
enjoyed like you put yourself on committees, you become active in governance in the
university […] I put myself on a committee that everyone thought was sort of a boring
committee, but I loved it because it involved networking.
Bobby believed that coming to these meetings "planted a seed" in her leadership pathways.
JLC's story reflected much of the same. She talked about joining the community to make
a difference and eventually leading it. She shared, "there's an opportunity for me to join a
community, which I find interesting to me. I want to make a difference. I'll just join, and when
the time comes, then I just lead the community." For JLC, joining the community allowed others
to see her potential and led her to a clinical doctoral degree. So, that was the beginning of her
leadership trajectory.
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Sonali began her leadership career by working with a committee to develop a new and
unique cultural curriculum for her college and presenting it across the country. She thought that
her involvement in the curriculum committee was a fortune because she is an Asian female, "fit
in a spot." This involvement was the beginning of her leadership pathways. She shared,
We created that [the new curriculum] in 2019 or 2018...And that has been the first step
for me to leadership heavily into the leadership of the college. I think a large part of it
was because I was an Asian female, and I fit in a spot that they didn't have somebody in.
But that has really helped my career […] We've presented that across the country. We've
presented it everywhere, and it's really elevated my name, my voice, and the work that
we're doing at the college.
Sonali then started receiving emails from deans, faculty, and "white women administrators"
complimenting her.
In conclusion, the involvement of participants in the community aided them in advancing
to leadership positions. In addition, it provided them an opportunity to connect with community
members, establishing a new network.
The Importance of Networking
Networking helps one's career success and leadership advancement. All participants
agreed that networking is crucial or "incredibly important" to career and leadership advancement.
Seven out of 10 participants said they established and maintained multiple networks
simultaneously to support their personal and professional lives.
JLC shared her thoughts about why networking could help someone advance to
leadership positions. She said,
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Because many times now, it is who you know. Many times, people recruit faculty for the
leadership position and reach out to people they know and trust. So, the network likes a
reputation. How to get our reputation out to other communities through the network? So,
I think it is critical really to have a professional network because for those recruiters, who
they would call. It is who they know also.
Sonali emphasized how people navigate and advance their careers through these networks,
"everybody's deeply interconnected. It's like a web […] This industry is heavily based on
network and how you move up. How you move throughout. How you navigate the space."
Bobby explained that her journey of getting her Ph.D. and landing jobs at several universities
was about knowing and connecting to people. She shared a story of getting a career position at
one of the universities, where she worked there for 30 years:
That, I would say, has had to do with knowing people that I happened to come upon at
the right time. There was a position there. I had met the director of their Asian-American
studies program at a conference I went to. And we just like walking around, and he is
like, "Whoa, I think maybe you might be pulling out the stops. Are you interested?" And
everything like that.
Denver added further emphasis that networking is necessary for getting hired in any leadership
position, especially for executive positions in the organization. He explained:
Networking is really important because, at every stage from the very beginning [of the
hiring process], they will ask you for references. And then when you get closer from the
50 to 11, 11 to four, then they start doing something called cold calling, which means
they will say, "We're very serious about you, we're thinking about hiring you, we need to
do a very comprehensive background check." Which means we can call anybody you've
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worked with. So, for me, they can call people from XYZ [a previous employer], they can
call people from Emory, they can call people from Harvard and say, "Do you remember
Denver? No. What was he like? Did he accomplish anything?" So, then they get a big
picture of you. And they won't call your current institution, but they'll call people in your
previous institutions.
As Denver's sharing illustrates, recruiters or search firms form candidates' pictures through
people in their network. Therefore, he suggested, "continue to network with people from the past
and other people in the world."
Participants utilized different networks to vent out their work-related stress, support
personal lives, or get advice/consultation for their work. Bobby, for example, connected with a
group of Asian women faculty to support one another during the pandemic:
I started holding these little chats, check-ins with them during COVID because we
weren't meeting in class or in person. And so, I would just check in to see how they were
doing. And then, I got together a group of other Asian women who were part of this
group and also with faculty, and it just became a really great thing to hang out with
because I need my batteries recharged also. I need women and people that I know that I
can get along with and talk to.
Malcolm actively developed and maintained multiple networks, including professional and
personal networks. He explained his reason for having various networks:
It's also helpful to have multiple different networks because sometimes you need to
escape one crisis and find a different group of people to talk to that does not involve that
crisis […] So, for leadership in academics, you need to find a way to stay sane. There's a
lot of stress. There are a lot of people that are upset with you. You need not take it
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personally, but you also need to have some way to talk with people. Maybe you need to
vent, or you need to commiserate, or you just need to talk with someone outside of
academics and do a sanity check. And so, having those personal social networks can be
really helpful for mental health.
Finally, in addition to professional networks, PNP and JLC, two Asian women faculty-working
moms, connected and became friends with the parents of their kids' friends to support one
another, such as taking turns to pick up kids from school. JLC said, "that's kind of social
networks really helped me tremendously for mental health, as well as raising kids."
Overall, all participants acknowledged the importance of networking in their career
pathways, leadership advancement, and leadership roles. Connecting to people to build and
maintain a network requires networking skills. Colorado admitted that he was not good at
networking:
Networking is foreign to me. I don't know. It somehow doesn't work for me, let me just
say. My wife tells me that one of my biggest downfalls is that: I'm bad at networking. So,
I'm aware of this weakness.
Joseph's network is his colleagues and counterparts at work. He did not socialize with others
outside. He said, "I don't social network in the true sense. I don't even have a Facebook page. As
I tell people: I am faceless." Therefore, networking skills could be a barrier for Asian Faculty in
career and leadership advancement. Researchers posited that Asian cultural values discount
networking behaviors and cause limitations to career advancement (Hyun, 2006; Tokunaga,
2003). However, one could learn networking skills and improve networking behaviors (De
Janasz & Forret, 2008). Higher education institutions could help participants improve their
networking skills through coaching and professional development programs.
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Organizational Support for Professional Development
Professional development in preparing leaders is essential to help faculty transition from
academia to administration (Raines & Alberg, 2003b). Eight out of 10 participants reported that
their universities/colleges had leadership and professional development programs to develop
their own leaders. However, not many people in the organizations were aware of the existence of
these programs. As Pepper explained:
The programs exist, but nobody knows about it until you start asking about it. In other
words, if you don't ask and you don't know they exist, you would never know they exist
[...] Usually, it's because I seek it. Nobody told me about it.
Likewise, PNP mentioned a few professional programs and workshops for faculty on her campus
and the necessity to look for them, "so, we have a formal mentoring program on campus. You
have to be the one to access it, so it's an optional kind of thing." As stories of another six
participants shared, they did not see much support from their organizations to help them as
faculty members in career or leadership advancement. Malcolm, for example, said, " I don't feel
like: I actually received much of any support as a faculty member. I've been pretty good at
figuring it out myself." Pepper shared her experiences regarding organizational support in
advancing to leadership positions. She recalled:
Unless you are applying for some sort of a fellowship and you have to identify leadership
development resources within your organization, and then they will probably put you in
touch. But I don't think our school has a systematic way of promoting leadership among
us.
JLC had to negotiate with her dean to have professional coaching:
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I negotiated with my dean to have a professional coaching session. Because I learned that
one of the department chairs has a coach. That is a professional coach. That's about
leadership […] The dean provided it to me as a package to become a department chair.
Bobby also mentioned that before accepting a position, she negotiated to attend a leadership
development program as part of the package:
So, I went to the HERS Leadership Institute, but I negotiated for that as part of my
package if I accepted the position. I wanted the dollars to attend that because that's what I
wanted for support.
Conversely, their organizations provided professional development opportunities only
after assuming leadership roles. Malcolm recalled, "when I became a leader, the university did
pay for a couple of external training things...that was helping me, be a better administrator."
Colorado talked about the offer he received after being in a leadership role to become a CIC
(Committee for Institutional Cooperation) fellow who will undergo a 1-year leadership training.
As he said, "so, they asked me, would you want to become a CIC fellow? It may have been my
very first year as department chair, and I immediately agreed." He found that the training was a
good start for his leadership career: "So, for the entire year, we would go through a series of
interactions and experiences which was designed to grow us into leadership. I think that was
very, very helpful to me at that stage in my life." Joseph also acknowledged the support and
enforcement from his organizations for career advancement. He shared,
I've taken career development because it was required to. I didn't volunteer, but a couple
places like at the Research Institute I talked about. And also, when I was at the National
Science Foundation, they essentially forced us to enroll in a career development
workshop.
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A few participants reflected on their leadership pathways and wished to have the
professional development programs at an early stage of their careers. Denver went through many
excellent leadership training programs and said, "I wasn't fortunate enough to have those
available when I was a young administrator." Malcolm also had significant professional
development experiences after assuming the leadership role and acknowledged the need for
faculty to receive leadership training before becoming an administrator. He recalled the time,
That was when I was already an administrator, so that wasn't helping me become an
administrator, but that was helping me be a better administrator. There are a few
opportunities, like our leadership academy. It is possible for our faculty to go to these
before they become administrators. But, for me, I had been an administrator for a couple
of years sort of learned what it meant to be an administrator.
As for Rob's situation, he moved up to leadership positions so quickly and had not participated in
any leadership training. He shared,
I moved quickly into leadership positions, becoming vice-chair of my department nine
years into my career, and holding at least one administrative role continuously since then.
I've been aware that the university makes various kinds of leadership training vehicles
available. I haven't participated in them, probably go to the perception of lack of time.
This was likely a mistake.
Organizational support for professional development is crucial to participants' career and
leadership advancement. Unfortunately, professional development opportunities were not
available to a few senior participants at the beginning of their leadership roles. Presently,
according to participants' reports, their universities/colleges have homegrown leadership
development programs or workshops to develop their leaders. However, there are no specific
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organizational practices or efforts to encourage participants to attend these programs. Therefore,
a few participants intentionally sought these professional training programs or negotiated to
include them before accepting the leadership positions. Participants reported that they had the
leadership training opportunities after becoming leaders and wished to have them early on.
The Increasing Efforts on Cultural Diversity and Inclusion
The final theme, the increasing efforts on cultural D&I, became evident in the
participants' responses to the interview question, "Do you think cultural diversity and inclusion is
important to your career/leadership advancement? If yes, tell me why?" Before answering this
question, participants were asked to share their understandings regarding the meaning of cultural
diversity and inclusion. Therefore, it was worth noting to include a few here to understand the
participants' perspectives. First, JLC's shared her thoughts:
Cultural diversity and inclusion are not just ethnicity. It has to do with age, too, because
we also have the culture of favor youth, not aging. All the aspects age, ethnicity, sexual
orientation. I think we've had to be able to accept that the beauty of difference among us.
And that's what makes the place interesting because we're different. So, for me, it is not
just race. People have different experiences which they bring to the team.
Then PNP shared her version of cultural D&I, "It's really embracing all the different
backgrounds that people have," such as cultural beliefs, practices, preferences, identity, food, and
sexual orientation. Sonali gave an example of inclusion that she experienced at her college:
My board of trustees reached out to me and said, "Hey, we're setting dates for our future
board meetings. We want to make sure that we're not impacting any holidays that connect
to your religious and cultural background when we're setting up board meetings."
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For Sonali, inclusion is being mindful, considerate, and respecting colleagues' cultural
backgrounds and practices in decision-making. Last, Malcolm defined "diversity as a wide
variety of different perspectives," such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity,
and ability-disability status. And for inclusion, he believed that bringing a diverse group to the
table and making them feel welcome should be active efforts.
As participants' sharing illustrate, most participants had a good understanding of cultural
diversity and inclusion and its impacts. Eight out of 10 participants acknowledged the
importance of cultural D&I and shared how it matters at their institutions and career
advancement. Bobby firmly responded to the question, "It is now. It was not a conversation as
much 20 years ago." JLC's response was similar, "yes, at least at XYZ [her university]. That is a
huge component." Malcolm also talked about his university's focus on D&I:
XYZ [his university] has a really strong social justice on value, and so at our campus,
diversity and inclusion has been an important part of advancement for everybody… It has
been true, I think, on our campus. It's a really strong activism campus. Students are quite
activists. Many of the faculty are former student activists, and so there is a really strong
social justice movement. Diversity-equity-inclusion is a really important part of what we
do.
Malcolm provided evidence, "and so, for most of my time, as administrator. I've been the only
Asian American principal officer on our campus. I'm excited now that we suddenly have four of
us due to recent hiring." Furthermore, Denver talked about how D&I matters now, especially for
moving up to executive leadership positions: "Now, because the communities, the society
demands it [DEI], almost every university has as a core part of their strategic plan: equity,
diversity, and inclusion." He then gave an example of how higher education institutions currently
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revised and implemented the hiring practices committed to DEI. According to Denver, every
candidate for a significant position (e.g., dean, provost, president) must share what they have
done or contributed to DEI efforts at their current jobs.
As participants' sharing depict, higher education institutions now focus and increase
efforts on cultural D&I compared to previous decades. Sonali talked about her appreciation for
these efforts: "I actually would applaud the DEI work happening across the nation. I think that
that has helped give voice to us as people of color and specifically me as an Asian American."
However, several participants expressed their concerns about organizations' genuine commitment
to cultural D&I, such as revising policies to promote diversity, changing hiring practices, or
educating people to change their perceptions and appreciate cultural diversity. PNP, for example,
pointed out that organizations treated the DEI leadership position as a "tokenism":
We've seen so many places that, yes, will give a DEI leadership title to so-and-so who's
the only African American person in our organization. But they don't have the resources;
they don't have funding; they don't have a budget to do anything. It's just tokenism. So,
while we can put people in these roles, let's not make it just a tokenism. And they actually
can't make a difference with their hands tied behind their back.
Increasing diversity is about embracing the different identities and backgrounds, not the
headcount, as PNP shared her story:
It feels somewhat invisible, I have to say. I don't know that...when the campus asks,
"What is your diversity makeup in your department or in your school?" We become a
number. That we become their statistics, we become the poster child for a minute, when
those are asked [...] I feel like it's not recognized. It's not part of the identity that people
see us.
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Promoting diversity involves selecting the best candidate for a position rather than meeting "the
diversity quota." For example, Sonali shared her thoughts about getting selected to participate in
the curriculum committee, "I like to believe that I'm selected for a position because I'm the best
person for the job, not because I fit their cultural and diversity quota." Malcolm also had a
similar thought after getting elected on his first senate committee, "Had I have been just White,
but also it's sort of you get trapped into that. It's like, ah, we need some more people who aren't
Whites. So, let's see who we can find." Furthermore, increasing diversity does not reduce
academic excellence in higher education, but the opposite holds. Rob explained:
Notably, embedded in that formulation is a damning concession: only by compromising a
little on our research excellence can we address our lack of diversity. As long as
institutions believe, even implicitly, that diversity means less excellence. We're not going
to get where we need to go. So, I've been stressing at the National Academies and at XYZ
[his university] that we have to recognize that flawed formulation and instead embrace
the notion that increased diversity will, in fact, produce greater academic excellence.
Here, participants shared their perceived experiences and their school leaders' implicit bias
regarding cultural diversity. These perceptions could demote participants' morals, and the
implicit bias could hinder their career/leadership advancement. Sonali, for example, shared that
she and other women of color who are in leadership roles feel that they do not deserve those
positions. As Denver recalled his rejections from getting admission to graduate programs, "I
wasn't always successful getting admission to certain graduate programs. Though, it's hard to say
why. It's possible there was implicit bias there. It's not really easy for me to say definitively."
Ultimately Denver suggested that organizations change hiring practices to reduce implicit bias
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(e.g., through implicit bias training or diversity training), which impacts the academic search to
place diverse leaders successfully.
Participants discussed and suggested different approaches to facilitate diversity and
inclusion goals, such as changing hiring priorities, diversifying hiring committees, using search
firms that support diversity efforts, and educating people to reduce implicit bias and appreciate
cultural diversity. Malcolm acknowledged recent changes in his university's hiring practices. For
example, they require all applicants to submit a statement of contributions diversity-equity-
inclusion and a diversity statement for leadership candidates and review these statements and
research statement on a first-round screening, not "the CV, a major source of implicit bias."
However, Malcolm admitted:
Those [practices] are not well developed. The faculty statements are much stronger than
the leader statements in general. Because it's sort of a new thing and so, it's still
developing. But we're trying, and that is changing some of the focus in the past. I've been
on lots of search committees, and diversity tends to be an afterthought historically.
He then concluded with intentional hiring, changing hiring priorities, "there's a tendency to push
diversity into the less or lower priorities. And so, you need to be really intentional if you're going
to keep it as one of your top priorities." Rob also talked about the intentional hiring to bring more
candidates from underrepresented groups:
We must intentionally and immediately hire across the faculty spectrum candidates from
historically underrepresented groups. This means both senior faculty and junior faculty.
Junior faculty great create a new base to build upon, but we don't have time to wait. So,
we must at the same time create diversity at the top. So, intentional hiring, coupled with
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active nurturing, of both leaders and junior faculty from traditionally underrepresented
groups.
So, regarding the search and hiring committees, Sonali and Denver suggested
diversifying members on the search and hiring committee, which traditionally are "White"
(Sonali) or "male Caucasians" (Denver). Denver went on further with a suggestion to provide
training to the search committee:
If most of your people in the search committee are male Caucasians. They're less likely to
know how to identify diverse talent, and they're more likely to have implicit bias. It's not
impossible for them to diversify leadership, but they need to be trained.
Denver also stressed the crucial of selecting a search firm that "has a history of building diverse
pools, and placing diverse candidates successfully, that's important."
Overall, participants agreed on the essential role of cultural diversity and inclusion in
their career and leadership advancement. In addition, they acknowledged and applauded the
recent increasing efforts of their and other organizations to support diversity, equity, and
inclusion. However, these efforts are not enough. As PNP concluded this theme with her
suggestion for:
Having the ability to actually change the rules that were systemically created by white
majority people in the past. But if you have rules so rigid that even if we sit in these roles
as people of color, we still can't change the rules. Then how far have we come [...] So,
that systemic change has to happen.
PNP referred to the change that scholars argue: it is a body of thinking concerned with designing
an entirely new system, not fixing the existing system that was never designed to address today's
challenges (Watson et al., 2008).
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Summary
Two research questions guided this study. The first research question was: what
perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's immediate environment support or hinder
their professional advancement? The four themes that emerged through data analysis to address
this research question were: (1) Cultural identity as both internal barrier and facilitator, (2) The
influences of Asian cultural values on leadership styles, (3) The importance of leader self-
efficacy, and (4) The role of mentor in leadership advancement. Findings to answer the first
research question indicated that Asian cultural identity positively and negatively impacts their
leadership roles and influences their leadership styles. Participants demonstrated that their
leadership styles were a mix of transformational leadership, servant leadership, and collaborative
leadership due to their internalized cultural values of collectivism and humility. They adopted
Western leadership styles and refined them to fit their identities and successfully lead their
organizations. Next, findings from the first research question asserted that leadership self-
efficacy plays a vital role in participants' leadership advancement. Participants with low LSE or
no motivation to lead increase their LSE over time through vicarious learning, verbal persuasion,
and feedback. Last, participants believed that their mentors play an essential role in their
leadership advancement. Their mentors recognized their leadership potential, helped them
increase LSE through valuable feedback and social persuasion, and fostered them to grow and
become leaders.
The second research question asked, "What perceived influences in the Asian American
faculty's distal environment support or hinder their professional advancement?" The four themes
that emerged through data analysis to address this research question were: (1) The importance of
community involvement, (2) The importance of networking, (3) Organizational support for
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professional development, and (4) The increasing efforts on cultural diversity and inclusion.
Findings to answer the second research question indicated that participants believed that their
involvement in different communities aided them in advancing to leadership positions and
provided them opportunities to establish new networks through community members. All
participants acknowledged the importance of networking in their career pathways, leadership
track, and leadership roles. However, a few lacked networking skills. Scholars posited that
leadership and professional development training help improve networking skills and behaviors
(White & Hollingsworth, 2005).
According to participants, most organizations now have leadership and professional
development programs to develop internal leaders. However, several participants had to seek
these programs in their institutions and negotiated to include them as a package before accepting
the leadership positions. Other participants reported that they wished to have these leadership
training opportunities before transitioning to leadership roles earlier in their careers. Finally,
participants admitted that the increasing cultural D&I efforts supported their career and
leadership advancement. Additionally, they acknowledged recent organizational support on
cultural diversity and inclusion in their workplace. Nevertheless, they believed that there is a
need for a systemic change to address diversity and inclusion completely.

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Chapter Five: Recommendations
The purpose of this study was to investigate the under-representation of Asian American
faculty in leadership positions in higher education. The participants' lived experiences offered
their perception in the context of environmental influences that either supported or hindered their
professional advancement. Understanding the participants' lived experiences and perspectives
through the lens of facilitators (e.g., cultural identity, cultural values, networking, mentorship)
and barriers (e.g., self-efficacy, organizational agency) assist future Asian American faculty in
successfully navigating their environments to advance to leadership positions and help
educational leaders understand the realities of minority faculty and the importance of diversity,
equity, and inclusion in higher education. The research questions that guided this study were the
following:
1. What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's immediate environment
support or hinder their professional advancement?
2. What perceived influences in the Asian American faculty's distal environment
support or hinder their professional advancement?
First, this last chapter discusses the findings linked to the literature review and the
conceptual framework. Then, it presents recommendations for practices to Asian American
faculty and higher education institutions (HEIs), limitations of the study, and recommendations
for future research. Finally, it concludes with an overview and the importance and impact of the
study.
Discussion of Findings
The previous chapter presented the study's findings, including (1) cultural identity as both
internal barrier and facilitator, (2) the influences of Asian cultural values on leadership style, (3)
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the importance of leadership self-efficacy, (4) the role of mentor in leadership advancement, (5)
the importance of community involvement, (6) the importance of networking, (7) organizational
support for professional development, and (8) the increasing efforts on cultural diversity and
inclusion. These findings directly align with the literature and the study's conceptual framework
in describing the four main influences on Asian American faculty. The conceptual framework is
based on Bronfenbrenner's Ecological System Theory with five levels of the system, modified
with three levels (personal, microsystem, and exosystem). Across these three levels, there are
four main influences on Asian American faculty from the literature review: (1) workplace
influences, (2) mentorship influences, (3) family influences, and (4) personal influences.
However, there is insufficient evidence from the participants' experiences that participants'
families were instrumental in their career choice and advancement. Among the eight themes,
there were five themes identified as support (i.e., the influences of Asian cultural values on
leadership style, the role of mentor in leadership advancement, the importance of community
involvement, the importance of networking, and the increasing efforts on cultural D&I), two
themes as barriers (i.e., the importance of leader self-efficacy and organizational support for
professional development), and one theme as both support and barrier, cultural identity as both
internal barrier and facilitator. Overall, these findings illustrated the pathways participants
navigated across their immediate through distal environments with perceived influences (i.e.,
workplace, mentorship, and personal influences) to advance to their leadership positions
successfully.
Leadership Support: Values, Advancement, and Community
Values. Being an effective leader, one needs to know their core values and enact them in
their leadership practices. Asian Americans embrace the cultural values of collectivism (C. S.
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Chan & Berriochoa, 2019; Truong et al., 2017) and humility (Chuang & Wang, 2018; Nie et al.,
2017; Wu, 2013). These cultural values influence all aspects of their life (e.g., communication
styles, social arrangements, leadership styles). The participants' leadership practices, paired with
their values of collectivism and humility, enabled them to serve and lead their organizations.
Serving, transforming, inspiring, listening, collaborating, promoting, protecting, focusing on
followers, and being humble are participants' practices, which are leadership characteristics of
servant leadership, transformational leadership, and collaborative leadership (Northouse, 2019).
These three leadership styles helped participants fit well in the academic environment. Higher
education institutions would benefit from having these leadership styles in their organizations by
adding more diverse talent at the leadership level.
Advancement. Mentoring was identified as a facilitator to participants' leadership
advancement. Several participants acknowledged that they become leaders because of having
great mentors and mentoring relationships. According to participants, their mentors recognized
their talents and leadership potential even before them. Their mentors then prepared them and
nudged them to become leaders by providing them much good advice and guidance, such as
joining different committees in the organization, participating in professional networks, or
getting them involved in various administrative works. The more recent mentoring studies since
the 1980s found that there is a connection between mentorship and leadership development
(Campbell et al., 2012; Clarke, 2011). Based on participants' experiences and literature, mentors
play an essential role in their leadership development. However, nine out of 10 participants did
not seek or ask someone to become their official mentors. This finding highlights the need for
the mentoring program to address the lack of mentor-seeking behavior. The mentoring program
should be designed to have experienced leaders as mentors seeking out non-experienced faculty
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to offer support, guidance, and job shadowing. Having good mentors increases the chances of
advancing to leadership positions because mentors play a critical role in mentees' transitioning to
leadership roles (Briscoe & Freeman, 2019).
Community. Participants shared that their experiences of getting involved in the
community lead them to leadership positions. Five out of ten participants got involved and
served in various communities in their organizations. Asian Americans place the needs and goals
of family, community, or country before them because of collectivist culture (Kashima et al.,
1995; K. H. Kim, 2007). It became apparent that these participants' involvement in the
community was a chance encounter that affected their career trajectories and led them to
leadership positions. According to participants, by participating and involving different
communities in their organizations, other people recognized their talents and leadership
potential. As a result, it created a unique pathway to their first leadership positions. In addition, it
provided them an opportunity to develop new networks for future growth and advancement.
Professional Development: Leader Self-Efficacy and Organizational Agency
Leader Self-efficacy (LSE). Individuals with low LSE have no interest in leading their
organizations or community. LSE plays a vital role in participants' leadership trajectories.
However, at the early time of their careers, many participants had no interest in leading or did
not see themselves as leaders. They primarily focused on teaching and academic work. However,
there was evidence that participants increased LSE and motivation to lead over time through
mastery experiences (e.g., getting involved in administrative tasks, receiving helpful feedback),
vicarious learning, and verbal persuasion, three out of four sources of self-efficacy (Bandura,
1997). This finding was consistent with a previous study that LSE is an essential determinant of
individuals' motivation and intention to pursue leadership careers (Cziraki et al., 2017). The
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finding is vital for higher education institutions that want to develop their local academic leaders.
Developing an in-house professional development program that focuses on enhancing faculty's
leadership self-efficacy and self-awareness is critical to building a leadership pipeline. In
addition, involving faculty in administrative work or job shadowing is also helpful in increasing
their LSE over time.
Organizational agency. Institutional policies and practices could be a barrier to their
employee's professional development. Six participants shared that they did not receive much
support from their institutions to help them as faculty in leadership advancement. Although eight
out of 10 participants reported that there existed professional programs and mentoring programs
in their institutions, a few were not aware of the existence of these programs. They had to ask or
look for them, then negotiate with their supervisors to attend these programs. A few participants
reported receiving professional and leadership development training after assuming leadership
roles. The latter participants acknowledged the benefits of these professional training and wished
to have them earlier to improve their leadership skills and effectiveness. As participants'
experiences illustrate, the lack of organizational support to access these professional
development programs could impact their leadership advancement. Without proper training,
Asian Americans lacked leadership skills and competencies, unfitting for Western leadership
roles (Nie et al., 2017). An effort to develop and have local professional development programs
is vital for employees' growth but incomplete if policies and practices have not changed to be
more diverse and inclusive. Gasman and colleagues (2015) suggested that it is critical to review
and address policies and practices that dismantle diversity and inclusion efforts. Revising
policies and practices helps higher education institutions tackle inequity issues and promote
impartiality and fairness within the organization.
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Cultural Identity: Internal and External engagement
External Engagement. Cultural identity plays a significant role in the identity of
participants. Seven participants identified with Asian cultural identity were consciously
switching between Asian and American identities to improvise. Participants learned and adopted
the rules to behave appropriately depending on the situations or settings. As participants' stories
illustrate, they experienced cross-cultural code-switching, "the act of purposely modifying one's
behaviors, in a specific interaction in a foreign setting, to accommodate different cultural norms
for appropriate behaviors" (Molinsky, 2007, p. 623), that impact their effectiveness,
performance, and in turn organizational performance. In addition, while switching between
identities and performing a new set of behaviors, participants faced a challenge in a manner that
was potentially in conflict with their core values. This finding suggested professional training
can be more efficient if it focuses on interventions that help individuals, identified with the non-
American identity, navigate the dynamics of specific interactions. According to Zhang and Tsai
(2014), Asian Americans had different levels of engagement in American culture and
endorsement of specific Asian cultural values and practices. Finally, because of Asian cultural
values of collectivism, five participants got involved in the community to make a difference.
Scholars found that individuals in collectivist cultures place the group's needs and goals before
theirs (Kashima et al., 1995; K. H. Kim, 2007).
Internal Engagement. Asian Americans valued humility and enacted this value in their
leadership practices. Asian cultural identity has roots in Asian cultural values of humility. Six out
of 10 participants shared that they did not want to stick out or boast about their achievements.
They wanted to stay in the background. Being humble is a paradox. It supports participants in
leading their organizations and could hinder their professional advancement (Neilson &
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Suyemoto, 2009). Because participants did not feel comfortable engaging in self-promotion, they
may lose opportunities to advance into leadership positions. Professional development or
coaching can help to improve self-promotion skills. This finding highlights the importance of
organizational supporting Asian American faculty to overcome this barrier, successfully
integrate with the Western culture, and retain their cultural identity.
Although family influence was not a key finding, it was worth noting to include it in this
discussion. From the literature review in chapter two, family is instrumental in the lives of Asian
Americans, such as educational attainment, career choice, and career development (Ghosh &
Fouad, 2016; Leong & Serafica, 1995; Pew Research Center, 2012; Sue & Morishima, 1982).
Asian parents rarely leave education success to chance, often pressuring their children to study
and perform academically (Sorensen, 1987). Two out of 10 participants' parents expected them
to finish a college degree or doctoral degree. One participant's father expected him to become a
scientist. Last, two other participants were born and raised in educated families, where their
parents were university professors and teachers. Half of the participants believed that was a
considerable influence on their early education but not on career choice or career development.
Among these five participants, two said their parents had no or high education, so they would not
know what career to suggest. The other three participants' parents respected and supported their
children's choices.
Overall, there were three direct influences (i.e., personal influences, family influences,
and mentorship influences) on participants' development and workplace as an indirect influence
from the conceptual framework. However, there was insufficient evidence from the participants'
experiences that families were instrumental in their career choice and advancement. A total of
eight themes from this study are grouped in three main areas for discussion: leadership support,
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personal development, and cultural diversity engagement. By discussing the findings in these
three areas, the study presents additional information for future practices in organizational
policies, practices, and training.
Recommendations for Practices
The findings of this study led to three significant recommendations for practices that help
increase the representation of Asian American faculty in academic leadership. The study
recommendations are based on Bronfenbrenner's (1979) Ecological System Theory (EST) to
frame the study findings and seek to advance Asian American faculty to leadership positions in
higher education. The personal and microsystem levels were considered an immediate
environment (e.g., family, school) of an individual's development, and the exo- level was the
distal environment (e.g., workplace). In the immediate environment, two recommendations for
Asian American faculty, the aspiring leaders, and HEIs are active community participation and
engagement, and mentor relationships and networking. Organizational support is the third and
last recommendation for HEIs in the distal environment.
Recommendation 1: Active Community Participation and Engagement
Participating and actively getting involved in the different communities increases the
chances of leading the community, then the institution. Five out of 10 participants in this study
spoke to opportunities they encountered and how their active involvement in the local and
professional community changed their career trajectory, expanded their network, and led them to
leadership positions. According to Bandura (1982), chance encounters affect an individual's life
trajectories through the reciprocal influence of personal and social factors. Skillsets (i.e.,
leadership skills, communication skills) that one possesses are the personal factors. The social
factors are the environment in which they interact and associate. Asian American faculty, the
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aspiring leaders, need to step out of their comfort zone and get involved with the community in
the organization, such as attending meetings, doing community services, volunteering work on
new projects, or initiative efforts in the organization. Attending organizational meetings
frequently allows people to spot new initiatives, new development programs, or events so that
they can join in. Doing community services helps them connect and interact with others
improving their social behaviors and expanding their networks. Volunteering work on different
projects allows others to see their talent and potential, increasing their chances of leading the
community, then the organization.
HEIs could create an environment that promotes a sense of belonging makes Asian
American faculty feel comfortable joining and participating in the community for networking
and leadership opportunities. A sense of belonging is a personal feeling or perception that
individuals relate to or interact with others, a group, or a system different from their actions,
behaviors, and social participation (Mahar et al., 2013). According to Mahar and colleagues, the
environment may hinder or promote a sense of belonging to modify individuals' interaction with
others, the group, or the system. With the workplace promoting a sense of belonging, Asian
American faculty could comfortably get involved and eventually lead the community, changing
their leadership trajectory.
Asian American faculty also need to engage at the professional level to develop their
leadership skills. HEIs need to encourage their faculty participation beyond their home
institutions by attending academic conferences and actively partaking in professional
development opportunities, including networking, mentorship, and subject-specific society
engagement.
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Recommendation 2: Mentor Relationships and Networking
Having good mentors positively impacts one's career and leadership trajectory. However,
half of the participants did not seek mentors at the beginning of their careers from the findings.
Another two participants hesitated to ask others to become their mentors. Yet, mentors play an
essential role in career and leadership advancement. Asian American faculty need to seek
mentors willing to be career and leadership role models to fortify their aspirations and success.
Studies found that Asian Americans seeking leadership positions benefit from mentoring (Sy et
al., 2017). All participants stated that the emotional, academic, and leadership support they
received from their mentors was key to achieving their leadership goals. From participants'
experiences, they received the following support from their mentors: (1) psychological or
emotional support, (2) academic subject knowledge, (3) goal settings, (4) leadership aspiration,
and (5) leadership skills.
Having multiple mentors is essential for leadership skills development, as evidenced by
study participants having one or more mentors throughout their careers. Leadership scholars
suggested that mentees seek multiple mentors for specific development goals or skillsets based
on the mentor's experience, expertise, availability, and communication styles (Torrens et al.,
2017). Building a good relationship with mentors is necessary for psychological and emotional
support. Many participants shared that they had great relationships with mentors, often engaging
monthly via phone or over meals. Positive mentoring experiences may increase mentees' leader
self-efficacy (Godshalk & Sosik, 2000). In addition, participants sought their mentors' guidance
on numerous topics from campus issues, leadership advancement, personal advice, and when
needed, for offering "tough talk" for redirection.
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Another institutional factor that impacts the success of preparing a diverse leadership
pipeline is the availability of mentoring in the organization. This study's findings showed that
mentoring is an important but often neglected area. Only one participant reported the mentoring
program for faculty in their institution existed. As mentioned before, many participants lack
mentor-seeking behavior. Based on this finding, HEIs need to provide a formal and local
mentoring program, especially one-on-one mentoring for Asian faculty, and designate a certain
amount of leave time, not vacation time or sick leave, for them to participate in mentoring
activities. Because of Asian cultural values of respect for authority, one-on-one mentoring in the
form of master and pupil development relationships is particularly effective for Asian
Americans. Scholars found that Asians value one of the Confucian virtues, respect for authority
and elders, to maintain social order and harmony in the family (A. E. Kim & Park, 2003). To
address the lack of mentor-seeking behavior, mentor and mentee assignment is necessary. The
mentoring program needs to select a mentor with skillsets and experiences that meet mentees'
needs based on their professional development plan. From this study, a mentor should involve
the mentees in administrative work (mastery experience) and provide relevant and valuable
feedback (verbal persuasion) to increase the mentee's leadership self-efficacy. Last, mentors may
consider introducing mentees to their networks to increase mentees' networks, networking
behaviors, and leadership opportunities.
Asian American faculty need to develop networking skills and expand their networks for
career success and leadership advancement. Stanley (2006) recommended that faculty of color
network with other professionals in their discipline through conferences, symposiums,
committees, or any places where they can find opportunities to advance their careers. Seven out
of 10 participants shared that they have multiple networks to support their personal and
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professional lives. Through their networks, participants got job referrals and connected to
influential people for mentoring and leadership advancement. Ultimately, Asian American
faculty could depend on their mentoring relationships and professional networks to successfully
navigate the system and turn their focus from barriers to what helps to overcome impediments in
advancing to higher education leadership.
Recommendation 3: Organizational Support
Professional development is an essential institutional factor in preparing the leadership
pipeline. People want to attend professional development programs to improve their knowledge
and skills to better their job performance and develop behaviors that foster success (Dancy II &
Jean-Marie, 2014; Mizell, 2010). White & Hollingsworth (2005) found that professionals of
color who added more leadership skills to their repertoires, such as relationship-building, skillful
communication, and managing stereotypes, have managed to achieve success. Most participants
acknowledged that their institutions had leadership and professional development programs in
place. However, three of these participants noted that they had to negotiate to attend leadership
programming, while two pointed out that the programming was not well-publicized at their
institutions. HEIs need to inform, promote, and make professional development programs
available to all members, especially new members. Attending these professional programs is
critical to developing local leaders and building a diverse leadership pipeline. Though several
participants stated they had no desire to lead in their early careers and lacked networking skills,
mentor-seeking behaviors, and self-promotion skills, they need to be encouraged by their
institutions to attend these professional development programming. Traditionally, a professional
development program is a one-size-fits-all presumption with universal leadership skills (e.g.,
reasoning, critical thinking, decision making, etc.). This one-size-fits-all approach ignores the
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unique development needs of minorities, especially Asian Americans. It is imperative that the
professional programs should be designed to improve their leadership self-efficacy, networking
skills, mentor-seeking behavior, and feel comfortable in self-promotion behavior and include
one-on-one coaching for a specific competency.
Having a cultural diversity and inclusion environment helps provide equitable access to
leadership. Findings from the study illustrated that cultural D&I is instrumental in career and
leadership advancement. Successfully addressing cultural diversity and inclusion in higher
education may require a systemic change. However, HEIs can continue developing policies and
practices that embrace cultural D&I to increase diverse leaders in academic leadership. HEIs can
start with revising hiring and recruitment practices that commit to diversity. Gasman and
colleagues (2015) suggested that it is vital to review and address organizational policies and
practices that dismantle diversity and inclusion efforts. Likewise, organizational scholars
recommended adjusting the hiring practices to increase diverse leaders in organizations,
significantly higher education (Clifford, 2010; Gasman et al., 2015). To avoid internal power
conflicts, HEIs should hire an outside consultant to review the current practices and provide
suggestions for change to increase diversity in organizational leadership positions. Next, HEIs
can adjust their hiring priority to add more diverse leaders to the organizations. Seeing more
leaders of color like them in higher education leadership helps to increase Asian American
faculty's leader self-efficacy. HEIs can also increase the role of the DEI office in the organization
and provide necessary funding and resources for them to effectively do their jobs and improve
institutional DEI efforts. According to Wilson's (2013) study, HEI that embraces diversity should
have a chief diversity officer report directly to the president, provide them with sufficient
resources and staff, and support their initiatives and recommendations to address diversity on the
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campus. Ultimately, having training programs to help people manage their unconscious biases
and understand and appreciate cultural diversity and inclusion is necessary to build and nurture
environments that support and promote diverse leaders.
Limitations and Delimitations
There are several limitations found in this study. The most salient issue is the lack of
representation in higher education institutions which stemmed from the scarcity of Asian leaders
in academic leadership positions. A handful of institutions represented in this study are mainly
from the West Coast region of the U.S. Participants' experiences and institutional context cannot
be generalized to all Asian American leaders in higher education academic leadership.
The second limitation was the participants' time limit accessible to the study. It was a
concern about not getting these leaders onboard the study if it required participants to spend
more than 60 minutes in the interview or additional time for the follow-up interviews. Therefore,
there was not enough time to build rapport before or during the interviews. However, Marriam
and Tisdell (2016) posited that it is essential to establish rapport with participants when
conducting qualitative interviews. In addition, although the study employed a semi-structured
interview to ensure the same basic lines of inquiry for each participant, there was not enough
time to come back to a few questions that participants did not respond to accordingly. As a
result, the study could not collect sufficient data to derive useful information and insights
Finally, the delimitation was the limited number of data sources (e.g., written speeches,
organizational policies, hiring practices, videos, news articles) used in this study. The only
source of data analyzed was the information provided by the participants. However, data
triangulation, a method of analyzing different sources of information, is essential to increase the
study's validity (Guion et al., 2011). What mitigated this delimitation was the study's
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employment of interviewee transcript review (ITR), a form of respondent validation, as a tool to
improve data quality. ITR refers to the process of sharing and verifying the interview transcripts
with participants (Rowlands, 2021).
Recommendations for Future Research
As a result of the finding and implications, the study suggested three future research
studies contribute to learning more about: (1) the impact of Asian cultural values on mentor-
seeking behavior of Asian American faculty, (2) the impact of acculturation on Asian Americans'
career and leadership trajectories, and (3) the influences of Asian cultural values of family
interests on the career and leadership advancement of the Asian female faculty.
This study focused on exploring the career and leadership advancement of Asian
American faculty in the context of environmental influences. It would be valuable to gain a
broader understanding of the Asian cultural values influence on Asian American faculty's
mentor-seeking behavior. There might be several facets due to the Asian cultural values of
collectivism, a psychological factor as loss of face, and the levels of acculturation and
assimilation. Perhaps individuals from collectivist cultures are less willing to seek help than
those from individualism. With this in mind, understanding why Asian Americans did not seek
mentors becomes a critical issue in designing the professional development or mentoring
program.
Although the sample was small, this study showed that the influences of acculturation on
participants' career and leadership trajectories are positive for the third and fourth generation in
the U.S. Five participants successfully broke through the glass ceiling and held executive
leadership positions. Among these five participants, two participants with a low level of
acculturation are the first generation. The other three participants who demonstrated a high level
107

of acculturation are the third or fourth generation. Future research or theory could expand to
examine whether there is a correlation or causation relationship between levels of acculturation,
immigrant generation, and their success. This recommendation could potentially provide a
deeper understanding of the acculturative stress linked to career and leadership development.
The third and final recommendation is to investigate the impact of Asian cultural values
of family interests on the career and leadership advancement of the Asian female faculty. Two
female participants shared that family interests were far more important than their careers. They
attributed their career success to their family. They wanted to work in an environment that would
support their family and career advancement. Future studies could provide a deeper
understanding of Asian women faculty's perspectives on their engagement in career and
leadership advancement within the family value context.
Conclusion
This study investigated the perceived influences in Asian American faculty's immediate
and distal environments that supported or hindered their professional and leadership
advancement. The study employed semi-structured interviews with 10 voluntary participants
who shared their lived experiences and perspectives toward leadership advancement. On the one
hand, the findings from this study revealed that Asian cultural values of harmony (positively)
and humility (negatively) impact their professional advancement. On the other hand, Asian
cultural values of humility and collectivism support them in their leadership roles and influence
their leadership styles, a mix of the transformational, servant, and collaborative styles. Another
important finding related to the leader self-efficacy (LSE) and the role of the mentor in
leadership advancement. Many participants who had low LSE at the beginning of their career
eventually increased their LSE over time through mastery experiences, vicarious learning, and
108

verbal persuasion from their mentors. Therefore, mentors are instrumental in participants' career
and leadership advancement. Participants admitted that their mentors placed them on the
pathway to leadership positions. In addition, participants found that active involvement in the
community, networking, the increasing organizational efforts on cultural diversity and inclusion
were the facilitators, providing them leadership opportunities and advancing to leadership
positions. However, participants reported that they did not receive much organizational support
and encouragement to improve their leadership capacities through the professional development
programs. Ultimately, the lack of organizational support for professional development was a
barrier to participants' career and leadership advancement.
Overall, this study provided a unique opportunity for higher education institutions and
researchers to understand the under-representation of Asian American faculty in leadership
positions through their career and leadership trajectories. In particular, the study will benefit
Asian American faculty seeking ways to advance to the leadership level in higher education
institutions. First, the study presented barriers and facilitators they encounter and operate within
and recommended practices that prepare them to advance to leadership positions. Next, the
findings of this study will make an addition to the scarce leadership development literature for
faculty of color, especially Asian American faculty. Last, the study helped educational leaders
better understand the lived experiences and realities of faculty of color and the importance of
cultivating cultural diversity and inclusion in high education.

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142

Appendix A: Interview Protocol
Preamble

Thank you for agreeing to participate in my study. I appreciate the time that you have set
aside to answer my questions. As I mentioned when we last spoke, the interview should take
about an hour. Does that still work for you? Before we get started, I want to remind you about
this study, the overview provided to you in the Study Information sheet and answer any
questions you might have about participating in this interview. I am a USC doctoral student and
am conducting a study on Asian American faculty regarding their career advancement to
academic leadership positions. I want to assure you that the nature of my questions is not
evaluative. I will not be making any judgments on your performance. My goal is to understand
your lived experiences and perspectives. Your participation is entirely voluntary, and you can
skip questions or stop the interview at any time. Do you have any questions before we proceed?
May I have your permission to record this interview session?

Interview Questions Potential Probes R.Q. Key Concept Addressed
1. Tell me about your
educational background.
How did you become
interested in this field?

Did your family influence
your career choice? If so,
tell me more about it.
1, 2 Culture Values

Family Influences
2. What do you value most
about your culture?
1 Culture Values
3. How do you feel about
questioning authority
figures in your
workplace?
1 Culture Values
Leadership perception
4. What kind of
relationship do you have
with your supervisor?
a. What does the term
'mentor' mean to you?
2 Culture Values
143

5. Tell me about your
career aspirations or
career path
a. Does your family have
any influence on your
career aspiration?
b. If so, tell me more
about it.
1 Self-Efficacy
6. What led you to want to
become an academic
leader?
1 Self-Efficacy
7. In your experiences,
what skills do you think
one needs to become a
dean?
1 Professional Development
8. What are the three most
important traits or
attributes that a leader
should have?
2 Leadership Prototypes
9. In your opinion, which
racial or ethnicity makes
a better leader?
Which gender makes a
better leader?
2 Leadership perception
10. When people get
promoted at your
workplace, to what
extent do you think this
is due to their abilities in
the job or to something
else?
If something else is an
answer, then ask them
what that is.

Tell me more about your
workplace's hiring
practices
2 Culture Diversity

Hiring practices
11. Describe the approaches
people use at your
workplace to advance in
their careers?
2 Networking / Professional
Development
12. What are you in control
of and not in control of
when it comes to career
advancement?
In what ways, if any,
could you take greater
control?
2 Self-Efficacy
13. Tell me about your
"social network" both at
work and outside work
2 Networking Skills
14. What are your
experiences as an Asian
American faculty
member in career
advancement?
2 Leadership perception

15. Tell me about the
support you receive as a
Can you recall a
conversation in which you
2 Professional Development
144

faculty to help your
career advancement if
any?
felt supported to advance
to a leadership position?
Describe that
conversation.
16. Please describe any
professional learning
opportunities you have
received in the last three
years related to
leadership development,
if any?
How did you hear about
this professional learning
opportunity?

What were some reasons
you decided to attend?
2 Professional Development
17. If you were in a position
to encourage more
Asian American faculty
to become academic
leaders, what would you
suggest?

Abstract (if available)

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Asset Metadata

Creator Nguyen, Linh Ngoc (author)

Core Title Preparing Asian American leaders in higher education: an exploration study using Bronfenbrenner's ecological model

School Rossier School of Education

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Organizational Change and Leadership (On Line)

Degree Conferral Date 2022-05

Publication Date 04/27/2022

Defense Date 04/27/2022

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag academic leaders,Asian Americans,cultural identity,cultural values,environmental influences,Higher education,leadership advancement,OAI-PMH Harvest,under-representation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Stowe, Kathy (committee chair), Canny, Eric (committee member), Malloy, Courtney (committee member)

Creator Email linhngocnguyen@gmail.com,linhnn@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-oUC111136586

Unique identifier UC111136586

Document Type Dissertation

Format application/pdf (imt)

Rights Nguyen, Linh Ngoc

Type texts

Source 20220428-usctheses-batch-934 (batch), University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the author, as the original true and official version of the work, but does not grant the reader permission to use the work if the desired use is covered by copyright. It is the author, as rights holder, who must provide use permission if such use is covered by copyright. The original signature page accompanying the original submission of the work to the USC Libraries is retained by the USC Libraries and a copy of it may be obtained by authorized requesters contacting the repository e-mail address given.

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA

Repository Email cisadmin@lib.usc.edu