Date of Award
Fall 12-3-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Department
Educational Policy and Leadership
First Advisor
Eric Dimmitt
Second Advisor
Donnie Hale
Third Advisor
Eric Dimmit
Abstract
Black men in executive roles within U.S. nonprofit organizations lead under racialized and gendered expectations that shape when and how they are perceived as leader-like. This qualitative study examines how these leaders interpret their lived experiences of code-switching, across speech and broader self-presentation, within White-normed nonprofit cultures. Guided by intersectionality and informed by impression-management theory, the study employed an interpretivist, phenomenological design and Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) of in-depth, semi-structured interviews with six Black male executives. Four themes emerged: (1) Black Male Leaders Consciously Navigate Authentic Identity, balancing cultural self-expression with perceived professionalism; (2) Confronting the Race–Gender Double Bind in Executive Spaces, where agentic behaviors risk being recast as aggression; (3) Adapting to White-Normed Nonprofit Cultures through Strategic Code-Switching, modulating speech, demeanor, and presence to meet institutionally coded expectations; and (4) Leveraging Resilience & Social Capital for Leadership Mobility, activating mentors, sponsors, and reframing strategies to advance without abandoning self. Findings recast code-switching as both adaptive leadership labor and an organizationally induced cost with emotional and psychological consequences. Practice implications include implementing bias-aware evaluation, robust sponsorship pipelines, and board-level learning to reduce identity taxation and decouple advancement from assimilation. Theoretically, the study connects performative labor to structural conditions in nonprofit organizations and extends intersectional leadership research centered on Black men.
Comments
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)