Leveraging diversity through career development: Social and cultural capital among African-American managers

Leveraging diversity involves organisations drawing upon the diversity of its members to not only benefit the organisation in terms of its profit margins but also for the individual's career experiences. The primary purpose of this article was to explore this concept further, a qualitative research study was conducted utilising a purposeful sample of 13 African-American managers who were employed in Fortune 500 companies. In-depth, structured interviews were held with these managers about their career development experiences. The findings revealed that cultural and social capital positively impacted the career development experiences of these participants. However, even with this capital, there were structures within the organisations, which negatively affected their career opportunities afforded to them.