BLACK MOBILITY IN WHITE CORPORATIONS - UP THE CORPORATE LADDER BUT OUT ON A LIMB

More than 30 years of social and political pressure to diversify corpo rate personnel and management teams has resulted in more black manager s but neglible gain for African American men in powerful decisionmakin g jobs in corporate America. Against this backdrop, this paper asks if constraints on blacks' corporate progress are manufactured in the wor k process. Using in-depth career interviews with 76 black executives, I argue that the ability to achieve top jobs is shaped by a link betwe en opportunity structure and human capital. The structure of black man agerial achievement erodes black skills over time because of role cons traints.