Abstract
Many Black women in executive leadership roles in corporate and/or business settings are being undermined, underpaid, overworked, and excluded despite their tenure or executive-level positions. This qualitative phenomenological study explored role conflict and role ambiguity experienced by Black women serving in executive leadership roles in corporate or business settings in the United States. The lived experiences, as described in narrative accounts, provided a platform for Black women to voice their stories, struggles, triumphs, and aspirations and offer insights into the broader context of role conflict and role ambiguity for Black women in executive leadership. The theoretical underpinnings of role theory, critical race theory, critical race feminist theory, and social cognitive learning theory guide this study. A purposefully selected sample comprised eight Black women who serve in executive leadership roles in U.S. corporate and/or business settings. Each participant engaged in a virtual semi-structured personal interview. A field-tested interview protocol consisting of open-ended questions was used to elicit data needed for analysis. Interpretative phenomenological analysis identified seven personal experiential themes (PETs) that provided the individual idiographic focus of meaning-making for each participant. Six group experiential themes (GETs) revealed the broader patterns of meaning across the whole participant group: marginalized presence in leadership, the burden of hyper-performance, emotional and cultural self-regulation, isolation in professional growth, tokenism and the performance of inclusion, and resilience rooted in legacy and faith. Tokenism emerged as a significant theme with a unanimous overlapping presence in PET and GET foci. Participants resoundingly described being placed on display as proof of diversity while being denied meaningful leadership influence and remaining unheard.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
African American women executives—United States; Role conflict—United States; Discrimination in employment—United States
Date of Award
2026
School Affiliation
Graduate School of Education and Psychology
Department/Program
Education
Degree Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctorate
Faculty Advisor
Latrissa Neiworth
Recommended Citation
Claybrooks, Alyssa D., "Role conflict and role ambiguity amongst U.S. Black women in executive leadership: a qualitative phenomenological study" (2026). Theses and Dissertations. 1697.
https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/etd/1697