Dr. Condoleezza Rice's Leadership Strategies While Overcoming the Glass Ceiling

The underrepresentation of African American women in executive levels of leadership results from lack of diversity in hiring and promotion practices. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to delineate the leadership strategy used by Dr. Condoleezza Rice to overcome the glass ceiling, defined as the unofficially acknowledged barriers to the advancement of her career within the U.S. Department of State. The research question guided the investigation of the leadership strategies employed by African American women to overcome this glass ceiling. Transformational leadership and the glass ceiling conceptual frameworks informed the study. The data collection consisted of an exhaustive web search for primary and secondary archival data inclusive of 120 autobiographical and biographical content sources specific to Rice's experiences as first African American woman Secretary of State. Qualitative data analysis consisted of word frequency queries, text searches, and coding comparison queries. The results of the study revealed 3 themes of behavior traits, significant life experiences, social pressure of society, and cultural experiences relative to transformational leadership that are characteristic of African American women. The themes also indicated race and gender constructs and glass ceiling barriers African American women face as they pursue executive level leadership. The emergent themes indicate a need for the implementation of diversity in hiring and promotion practices. The research findings may contribute to social change by reducing organizations' participation in discriminate practices with the implementation of diverse appointment and promotion procedures. These practices will continue to increase the opportunities for African American women to achieve higher levels of leadership.