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Facilitating Career Planning for African American Women in Organizational Leadership

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Most nonprofit agencies follow the same management structure. The structure normally consists of a vertical hierarchal structure with the chief executive manager at the helm, and divisional leaders rounding out the strategic leadership team. Since 9/11, then government shutdowns, multiple wars, natural disasters, and the government sequester, the challenge to most nonprofits is to compete for every available charitable dollar. Chief Executive Officers (CEO) of nonprofits must not only be skillful in maximizing the outcomes with fewer dollars, but also politically savvy in vying for monies for federal, state, local, foundation, and private funding sources. Because of this conundrum, political, academic, and social connections become …show more content…

One identified contributor to women's slower than expected assent into leadership is the persistence of assumptions and stereotypes that women are intrinsically "communal" or "dependent" and "passive", and therefore, lack the capacity to succeed as leaders. (National Academy of Sciences National Academy of Engineering Institute of Medicine of the National Academies, 2006 as cited by Isaac, Kaatz & Carnes, 2012). The main problem is the challenges to recruitment and retention of women in general, and the particular subset of African American women in particular. Quantitative analysis will be used to ascertain and organize data to offer empirical evidence that supports the claims of low representation of African American women in Philadelphia leadership roles; however, this qualitative study will delve into the causality of this phenomenon, and this qualitative study may offer new insights into the involvement, and articulation of business strategies surrounding recruitment and retention of, African American women in levels of leadership within the Commonwealth. And while this topic may cause discomfort to both the researcher and the interviewees, “discomfort is an important, even desirable component of qualitative research. Being uncomfortable makes us more aware and alert, stretches our thinking, and enriches our insight about the very struggles and experiences of the marginalized or

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