Department

Organization Development

Date of Paper/Work

Spring 5-8-2023

Degree Name

Doctor of Education in Organization Development (Ed.D.)

Type of Paper/Work

Dissertation

Advisors

Marcella de la Torre, Robert Barnett, Jean Davidson

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to understand the experience of Liberian Immigrants in career advancement to leadership positions in the United States. In this study, there were a total of six Liberians interviewed; three women and three men, and their ages ranged from 35-51. These interviews were done in a suburb of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Each participant interviewed in this study was able to speak in detail about their experience beginning with his or her migration process to the United States, their experiences living in the United States, and their achievements. Each participant has at least a master’s degree. One of the participants has a master’s degree from Liberia while the rest of the participants had their master’s degrees from universities or colleges in the United States.

The participants discussed details about their experiences in terms of the challenges, barriers, and opportunities they had in the United States since immigrating. During the interviews, four contextual themes and four essential themes emerged. The Contextual themes that emerged were (a) having an advanced or graduate education from the U.S., (b) having work experience in management, (c) networking and being actively employed while seeking advancement, and (d) cultural barriers. The essential themes were (a) growing as a leader, (b) behave as a responsible United States Citizen (c) Demonstrate Adaptability and Resilience in the Face of Potential Discrimination and Inequality.

Keywords

Liberian immigrants, career advancement, leadership, resilient, persistent

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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