| This qualitative dissertation -- which employed a descriptive phenomenological design -- examined the associative links that situate racialized knowledge, leadership, and the actions leaders in organizations take to secure competitive advantage. The intent was to investigate the circumstances embedded in the everyday experiences, perceptions, and knowledge of leaders in ethnically and racially diverse organizational settings to discern patterns and themes that might illuminate more fully the complexity of racialized knowledge and its potential to inform decision-making, leadership practices, and organization competitive advantage. The study used a semi-structured interview format to obtain data from eight White and eight non-White participants via an online asynchronous interface. Seven significant themes emerged from participant interviews -- reckoning relationships and individual differences, race-coded communication, debunking bias, perspectival diversity, immutable leadership practices, racial spaying, and competitive diversity -- which extended the body of knowledge related to racialized knowledge, leading racially different others, and the actions undertaken by leaders to sustain organization competitive advantage. This research is significant to leaders in organizations because it helps them make sense of the often complex and shadowy world in which racialized knowledge is sanctioned, formalized, and operationalized by actors in social organizations. |
