Running head: MINORITIES IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT POSITIONS 1

Minorities in Business Management Positions

Clayton Krichinak

San Diego University for Integrative Studies

Author Note

Paper 1
MINORITIES IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT POSITIONS 2

Abstract

There should be more minority groups in management positions in the United States, since they

aren't represented in those jobs the same way they are in society. Those groups are now more

active and recognized, and they have been more present in workplaces. However, none of this

means that a significant number of said group manages offices and runs large corporations. The

presence of women and people of color in management positions in the United States is much

lower than the population of said groups. This can be explained by the way they feel while doing

their jobs and how their supervisors assess their work in a biased way, which leads to less

opportunity for growth. There are strategies to change this scenario, and most of the actions that

companies are taking seem to come from pressure from their investors who demand more diverse

boards.

Keywords: business management, corporations, minority groups, discrimination

Minorities in Business Management Positions

Women represent 29% of leadership positions in the United States, and African

Americans, both men and women, are only 10%. These numbers are much lower than the

percentage of said groups in the population of the United States, and even though things have

been slowly changing for minorities in business, white men still account for most leadership

roles. There should be more minority groups in management positions in America, based on the

fact that both women and people of color stand for a significantly large part of the American

population.

The figures are even more staggering when it comes to leading entire companies. A 2017

Fortune 500 study collected data from 800,000 employees, among them 5,089 executives and

senior officers, and, as Jones (2017) says, “Of those high ranking officials, 80% are men and

72% of those men are white” (par. 4). According to the same study, women account for 20% of

senior managers and only 6.4% of CEOs. The numbers are even lower for people of color, both

men and women, in senior positions, which are: 3% Latino/a, 2% black, 0.6% two or more races,

0.2% Native American and 0.1% Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (Jones, 2017, para.7).

The reason for the disparity between those numbers, however, may not be simply linked

to discrimination in the workplace, at least not flat-out discrimination. Promotions to

management and leadership jobs are commonly based on performance reviews and annual

evaluations, and those are subjective. This opens the door to gender and race bias. As Cecchi-

Dimeglio (2017) says, “women were 1.4 times more likely to receive critical subjective feedback
MINORITIES IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT POSITIONS 4

(as opposed to either positive feedback or critical objective feedback)” (para. 2). Moreover,

African Americans seem to have less positive performance reviews when white managers do

their reviews, and Hispanic workers who are even highly regarded by their supervisors are left

behind by white people with less relevant experience when it comes to getting a promotion.

Performance reviews focus on results, and the job one does is most of the time defined by

their assignments. Recent studies have found that, on top of biased performance reviews, there

are also differences between the assignments given to white men and both women and people of

color. The two kinds of assignments are defined as office housework and glamour work.

Williams and Multhaup (2018) state that “Glamour work gets you noticed by higher-ups,

gives you the opportunity to stretch your skills with a new challenge, and can lead to your next

promotion. It’s the project for a major client, the opportunity to build out a new team, or the

chance to represent the company at an industry conference. Office housework happens outside of

the spotlight. Some is administrative work that keeps things moving forward, like taking notes or

finding a time everyone can meet.” (par. 5). When there is bias as early as in the moment of

delegating assignments, and the bias goes through all the way to performance reviews, it is no

wonder why minorities are not promoted to management positions the same way their white

male counterparts do.

More explanation to why minorities rarely get leadership roles in companies may be in

their emotional aspects, or in what being a minority in the workplace does to their minds. A

study by Travis and Thorpe-Moscon (2018) found that women and men of color endure

experiences of being singled out or excluded because of their gender, race, and/or ethnicity on a

regular basis. They pay what is called an “emotional tax” for anticipating discrimination. This

leads to higher levels of stress and even sleep problems, and 58% of Asians, African Americans
MINORITIES IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT POSITIONS 5

and Latinos who responded to the study reported being constantly on guard for gender and race-

based bias. (Travis & Thorpe-Moscon, 2018, p.15). The bias may be in the form of pay

inequities, lack of visibility in top roles and others. This emotional tax limits their ability to

contribute to an organization, which will eventually result in performance reviews that are not as

positive as those of their white male coworkers.

There are strategies to change the scenario for minorities in management positions,

however. In a 2019 testimony before the House of Representatives Committee on Finances,

Chelsea Gurkin listed actions that prioritize Diversity. Among them are emphasis in the

importance of diversity and diverse candidates, mentoring women and minority board candidates

and improving information on board diversity. Solutions may also be in the investment that

companies get, since shareholders can influence diversity by pressuring the companies they

invest in to prioritize diversity when recruiting new directors. “There have been recent news

reports of investor groups voting against all candidates for board positions when the slate of

candidates is not diverse” (Gurkin, 2019, para. 31).

Minorities are finding their way to leadership roles in companies, but there is still a lot to

be done, especially by the companies themselves. The relationships between supervisors and

minority workers are proven to be biased, and so is the way those workers’ job is assessed.

Making sure that supervisors give assignments that are equally important to both white males

and minorities is a beginning, but there might be no changes before systematic discrimination in

the workplace decreases and minorities are heard. Bias takes a toll on the workers’ emotional

health, and that leads to less optimal performance and results. Nevertheless, companies are

beginning to learn that there might be less investment in their growth if their boards aren’t

diverse, and that is where this scenario might really change for now. There should be more
MINORITIES IN BUSINESS MANAGEMENT POSITIONS 6

minority groups in management positions in the United States, because even though there are

now more women and people of color doing those jobs, the numbers are still far from being an

equal representation of those groups in the American society.

References

Cecchi-Dimeglio, P. (2017, April 12). How Gender Bias Corrupts Performance Reviews, and

What to Do About It. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2017/04/how-gender-bias-corrupts-

performance-reviews-and-what-to-do-about-it

Gurkin, C. (2019, June 27). Strategies to Increase Representation of Women and Minorities—

Testimony Before the Committee on Financial Services, House of Representatives.

Retrieved from https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2019/06/27/strategies-to-increase-

representation-of-women-and-minorities-testimony-before-the-committee-on-financial-

services-house-of-representatives/

Jones, S. (2017, June 9). White Men Account for 72% of Corporate Leadership at 16 of the

Fortune 500 Companies. Retrieved from https://fortune.com/2017/06/09/white-men-

senior-executives-fortune-500-companies-diversity-data/

Multhaup, M., Williams, J. (2018, March 5). For Women and Minorities to Get Ahead,

Managers Must Assign Work Fairly. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2018/03/for-women-

and-minorities-to-get-ahead-managers-must-assign-work-fairly

Travis, D., Thorpe-Moscon, J. (2018). Day-to-Day Experiences of Emotional Tax Among

Women and Men of Color in the Workplace. Retrieved from

https://www.catalyst.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/emotionaltax.pdf