Black Careers Matter: How Organisational Social Experiences and Social Networks Affect Career Development for Black People and People of Colour

The ‘business case for diversity’ (Cox, 1993) has been widely stated, evidencing that ‘diversity pays’ as it leads to higher creativity (Gurin, Nagda, & Lopez 2004), increased innovation (Morley, 2018), and stronger teams (Cox, 2001). However, even with ubiquitous focus on diversity – in both theory and practice - the organisational reality of ‘managing diversity’ is complex (Cox & Blake, 1991).

Resultantly, focus has shifted to ‘inclusion’ (Nishii & Mayer, 2009). Irrespective of the important scholarly interest in diversity and inclusion (D&I), there is a lack of meaningful, measurable progress in supporting the career development of Black people, Indigenous people and People of Colour (BIPOC) in practice.

Experiments have shown BIPOC are significantly less likely to get a job interview due to racial inequality (Bertrand & Mullainathan, 2004). Systemic racism has impeded career development for BIPOC, with a 21.7% difference in the median hourly pay between people of White ethnicity and BIPOC across all employed individuals in London (Office for National Statistics, 2018).

This study investigates the role of social experiences and organisational social networks on career development for BIPOC. While quantitative approaches are frequently used in D&I literature (Roberson et al, 2017), this study adopts a novel qualitative case study approach, utilising the triangulation of qualitative case studies and qualitative social network analysis to further understand the micro-processes and mechanisms of career development for BIPOC.