Race to the top of the corporate ladder: What minorities do when they get there
Law & Economics: Toward Social Justice
ISBN: 978-1-84855-334-7, eISBN: 978-1-84855-335-4
Publication date: 19 May 2009
Abstract
Racing to the top of the corporate hierarchy is difficult, no matter how qualified or capable the candidate. Producing more widgets than one's competitors is not enough. Negotiating the political landscape of the institution is also required. More specifically, individual corporate officers have to be appeased, powerful interest groups have to be co-opted and made allies, and competitors have to be undermined or eliminated. The more bureaucratic the organization and the more opaque the promotion process, the more important this institutional game to climbing the corporate ladder. This chapter identifies the kind of racial minorities or racial types who are likely to play this game well and, consequently, race to the top of the corporation. It then explains why these racial types might not have the racial commitment, or feel institutionally empowered, to lift other people of color as they climb the corporate ladder.
Citation
Carbado, D.W. and Gulati, M. (2009), "Race to the top of the corporate ladder: What minorities do when they get there", Gold, D.L. (Ed.) Law & Economics: Toward Social Justice (Research in Law and Economics, Vol. 24), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 237-270. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0193-5895(2009)0000024013
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2009, Emerald Group Publishing Limited