Laura Morgan Roberts is a Professor of Practice at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business and a visiting scholar at Harvard Business School’s Gender Initiative. A thought leader in diversity, inclusion, authenticity and identity development, she is the coeditor of Positive Identities and Organizations and Positive Organizing in a Global Society, and the author of numerous research articles, teaching cases, and practitioner-oriented tools, including influential Harvard Business Review articles.

Laura’s co-authors for this book are Anthony J. Mayo, the Thomas S. Murphy Senior Lecturer of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit of Harvard Business School, and David A. Thomas, President of Morehouse College.

About Race, Work, and Leadership: New Perspectives on the Black Experience 

Race, Work, and Leadership is a rare and important compilation of essays that examines how race matters in people’s experience of work and leadership. What does it mean to be black in corporate America today? How are racial dynamics in organizations changing? How do we build inclusive organizations?

Inspired by and developed in conjunction with the research and programming for Harvard Business School’s commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the HBS African American Student Union, this groundbreaking book shines new light on these and other timely questions and illuminates the present-day dynamics of race in the workplace. Contributions from top scholars, researchers, and practitioners in leadership, organizational behavior, psychology, sociology, and education test the relevance of long-held assumptions and reconsider the research approaches and interventions needed to understand and advance African Americans in work settings and leadership roles.

At a time when–following a peak in 2002–there are fewer African American men and women in corporate leadership roles, Race, Work, and Leadership will stimulate new scholarship and dialogue on the organizational and leadership challenges of African Americans and become the indispensable reference for anyone committed to understanding, studying, and acting on the challenges facing leaders who are building inclusive organizations.