Stella M Nkomo
Biographic Data
| ID | 366388 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Stella M Nkomo |
| GIVEN NAMES | Stella M |
| FAMILY NAME | Nkomo |
| SIGNATURE | NKOMO S M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Pretoria |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-3397-631X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 31 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 516 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 13 |
Writing Africa into MOS: The dangerous perpetuation of “Tribe(s)” and other misrepresentations
We critique the use of “tribe” in management and organization studies (MOS) research, aiming to unsettle its normative acceptance as a way to describe ethnic groups in Africa. We draw from postcolonial theory to illuminate the invention of “tribes” by European colonizers to subjugate and control African people during colonialism. Our analysis reveals the various ways the term “tribe” has been employed in MOS research and the meanings attached to …
Critical conversations in MOS: A dual-interview on the continuing struggles against anti-Blackness and racial capitalism
Our special issue critically engages with anti-Blackness in MOS by approaching it from a structural analysis of racial capitalism and how this has been developed by radical Black feminist thought. Our call for papers invited contributions from management scholars and activists that address the systemic discrimination against Black people in organizations and academia, focus on Black peoples’ experiences of embodying difference in these spaces, an…
The Role of Africa Journal of Management in Decolonizing Management and Organization Studies
In this paper, we discuss the role of journals in decolonizing management and organization knowledge. We illustrate that role by using the Africa Journal of Management (AJOM), a publication of the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM). AJOM was deemed critical to decolonizing knowledge about and in Africa, the context where the colonial enterprise wreaked havoc on all sectors of African societies, from political structures, commerce, and culture to…
Workplace Diversity
Workplace diversity would appear to have a rather short history as a field in organization studies if its emergence were located only within contemporary scholarship. Issues that commonly fall within the study of workplace diversity have always existed. This entry gives a brief history and review of the scholarship on workplace diversity, outlining key debates around defining diversity and adjacent concerns, and identifying different theoretical …
Ring the alarm: Project 2025’s anti-DEI threat to higher education
Purpose The purpose of this essay is to shed light on the implications of Project 2025 for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in management education and practice. Design/methodology/approach We review the Project 2025, corresponding executive orders, and state laws that relate to reduce or eliminating DEI programs and goals. Findings We highlight the ways in which anti-DEI actions are harming and may continue to harm DEI scholars and practiti…
Reflections on the continuing denial of the centrality of “race” in management and organization studies
Purpose The purpose of this article is to share reflections about the progress toward the inclusion of race as a core analytical concept in MOS since the article. The emperor has no clothes: Rewriting “race in organizations” was published in the Academy of Management Review twenty-nine years ago. Design/methodology/approach I critically reflect upon the past and future of race in management and organizations studies drawing upon my own subjective…
Making Black Lives Matter in academia: A Black feminist call for collective action against anti‐blackness in the academy
In this article, as have many Black women scholars in the past, we again call for collective action against anti‐blackness and White supremacy in the academy. Drawing from black feminist theory, we discuss the long history of Black women academics' activism against anti‐black racism and introduce the current movement: Black Lives Matter (BLM). Although BLM is often construed as resisting anti‐black violence outside the academy, it is also relevan…
Intersecting viruses: A Clarion Call for a New Direction in Diversity Theorizing
Purpose The purpose of this article is to provoke diversity scholars to think about the implications of the confluence of the racial disparities in the effects of the Coronavirus and the persistence of racial inequality for a new direction of theorizing in the field. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon three major analogies between the Coronavirus and the virus of racism, the author discusses their similarities as a means to think about why …
Diversity at a Critical Juncture: New Theories for a Complex Phenomenon
In 2015 we issued a call for papers for a Special Topic Forum (STF) on Diversity at a Critical Juncture in response to contextual shifts that raised questions regarding the assumptions, scope, and implications of prevalent theorizing on diversity in management. Four years later, societal trends have made this call even more urgent and relevant. Although these trends are both ominous and disruptive to the current state of knowledge, they also prov…
Joan Acker's influence on Management and Organization Studies: Review, analysis and directions for the future
This paper pays tribute to Joan Acker by discussing how her ideas have been utilized in Management and Organization Studies (MOS). Through a systematic review of journal articles citing Acker's scholarship from 2000 to 2017 (September), we show how recent scholarship has used Acker to advance discussions in the field and examine how her work was received, and which promises made by her work are still to be met. We identify avenues to carry her le…
Workplace Diversity
Since its emergence, workplace diversity has evolved from being solely focused on issues of discrimination and exclusion to efforts to understand the many different dimensions on which employees differ. This entry provides a description of this evolution and ends with a summary of current debates and research streams
Wedding Intersectionality Theory and Identity Work in Organizations: South African Indian Women Negotiating Managerial Identity
This paper addresses the continuing tension between focusing on identities and categories rather than processes and systems in intersectionality research, based on a study of the identity work of South African Indian women managers. We wed intersectionality theory with extant understandings of managerial identity work in organizations to demonstrate the dynamic interaction between both identities and categories and the institutionalized processes…
The Theory and Praxis of Intersectionality in Work and Organisations: Where Do We Go From Here
Discrimination
Discrimination can be defined as any behavior that denies persons' certain rights because they belong to specific groups. In recent years, literature on discrimination in organizations suggests that considerable progress has been made to address barriers to job entry for women and minorities; however, more subtle discrimination still exists and impacts on their career progress. This article discusses discrimination in organizations, specifically …
Prejudice
Prejudice has been conceptualized as a negative attitude toward a particular group usually based on inflexible generalizations or stereotypes. Scholars have proposed a number of theories to explain prejudicial behaviour with social identity theory holding a dominant place. Much of the research on prejudice in organization settings has focused on the effect of prejudice in the form of discrimination and discriminatory practices.
Southern voices in management and organization knowledge
The rationale for this special issue has been to open a space for reflection about management and organizational knowledge (MOK) as it is practiced and constructed in the global South. Organizational scholars working outside the West rarely appear on the radar of the most prestigious scholarly journals of the field, the institutionalized ‘core’ of the management and organizational science. However, there is life beyond Northern academia, both in …
Leading organizational change in the ‘new’ South Africa
This paper reports on a two‐pronged qualitative research study that used leaders’ life stories and the case research method to understand the leadership of change in 14 South African organizations. We describe how leaders led the changes required to balance the imperatives emanating from South Africa's socio‐political changes and return the country to the international business arena, as well as the challenges created by years of inequality and n…
A postcolonial and anti-colonial reading of 'African' leadership and management in organization studies: Tensions, Contradictions and Possibilities
This article reports on a postcolonial and anti-colonial reading of representations of 'African' leadership and management in organization studies. The resulting analysis revealed tensions and contradictions between stereotypical colonial images of 'African' leadership and management and proposed counter-images that often reflect the excesses of cultural relativism. Finding alternatives between colonized representations and counter-representation…
Gender role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics: The case of South Africa
Purpose Although Schein's gender role management stereotype hypothesis has been examined in many countries around the world, no studies specifically examine the combined effects of race and gender on this phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to use an intersectional analysis to test the hypothesis among different race and gender groups in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach The 92‐item Schein descriptive index was randomly administered …
The Sociology of Race: The Contributions of W. E. B. Du Bois
This article aims to review the seminal work of W. E. B. Du Bois—who has been proclaimed, ‘the first sociologist of race’ (Lewis 2000: 550)—and to explore its relevance for organization studies. This review is done within the complex contours of today's global racial context. W. E. B. Du Bois wrote of race as the problem of the twentieth century and while Du Bois wrote primarily about race in the United States, he astutely recognized the problem …
African women in leadership: Current knowledge and a framework for future studies
While the empirical literature on leadership and management in Africa is sparse, the literature on African women in leadership is even sparser. This article offers a critical examination of the current state of knowledge on African women in leadership and management. It draws from an extensive review of existing published research to summarise what has been studied and is currently known about their status, leadership styles, and the influence of…
Workplace Diversity
Workplace diversity appears to have a rather short history as a field in organization studies if one locates its emergence only within contemporary scholarship (Nkomo & Cox 1996). Issues that commonly fall within the study of workplace diversity have always existed. Yet, early conceptualizations of organizations were rooted in universalistic approaches that largely ignored race, ethnicity, gender, culture, sexuality, and other social identities (…
Gender and race differences in leader behaviour preferences in South Africa
Purpose This research was undertaken to investigate the differences in preferred managerial leadership behaviour among genders and racial groups in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from part time MBA students in South Africa, and subjects' preferences for explicit leader behaviour was assessed by the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire XII, with samples of Asian[1], black, coloured[2], and White South Africans …
Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity
Deja Vu: Human Resource Management's Courtship of Strategic Management
A postcolonial and anti-colonial reading of 'African' leadership and management in organization studies: Tensions, Contradictions and Possibilities
This article reports on a postcolonial and anti-colonial reading of representations of 'African' leadership and management in organization studies. The resulting analysis revealed tensions and contradictions between stereotypical colonial images of 'African' leadership and management and proposed counter-images that often reflect the excesses of cultural relativism. Finding alternatives between colonized representations and counter-representation…
The Theory and Praxis of Intersectionality in Work and Organisations: Where Do We Go From Here
Southern voices in management and organization knowledge
The rationale for this special issue has been to open a space for reflection about management and organizational knowledge (MOK) as it is practiced and constructed in the global South. Organizational scholars working outside the West rarely appear on the radar of the most prestigious scholarly journals of the field, the institutionalized ‘core’ of the management and organizational science. However, there is life beyond Northern academia, both in …
Making Black Lives Matter in academia: A Black feminist call for collective action against anti‐blackness in the academy
In this article, as have many Black women scholars in the past, we again call for collective action against anti‐blackness and White supremacy in the academy. Drawing from black feminist theory, we discuss the long history of Black women academics' activism against anti‐black racism and introduce the current movement: Black Lives Matter (BLM). Although BLM is often construed as resisting anti‐black violence outside the academy, it is also relevan…
Invisible men and women: A status report on race as a variable in organization behavior research
Twenty‐five years after passage of the Civil Rights Act, the full integration of racial minorities in the Unites States workforce has still not been achieved. Recent demographic trends indicating that the workforce will be increasingly composed of racial minorities make this a critical issue for academics and practitioners alike. This paper reports on a review of journal research addressing issues of race in organizations. Articles published in t…
A Race and Gender-Group Analysis of the Early Career Experience of MBAs
This study examined race and gender differences in four career experience variables using a sample of Black and White MBAs (masters of business administration). Results supported hypothesized race effects for job involvement, access to mentors, career satisfaction, and gender differences in job involvement and hierarchical level. However, Black MBAs were not at lower hierarchical levels than White MBAs of comparable experience, and female MBAs di…
Joan Acker's influence on Management and Organization Studies: Review, analysis and directions for the future
This paper pays tribute to Joan Acker by discussing how her ideas have been utilized in Management and Organization Studies (MOS). Through a systematic review of journal articles citing Acker's scholarship from 2000 to 2017 (September), we show how recent scholarship has used Acker to advance discussions in the field and examine how her work was received, and which promises made by her work are still to be met. We identify avenues to carry her le…
Factors Affecting the Upward Mobility of Black Managers in Private Sector Organizations
Compared to the 1970s blacks made less progress in moving into the managerial occupational category in the private sector during the 1980s decade. This study utilized a model of intrafirm mobility to examine the factors affecting the upward mobility of black managers in private sector organizations. Results indicated that line position experience, company seniority, mentor assistance, organization size, and the rate of job vacancies were the best…
Gender differences in the upward mobility of black managers: Double whammy or double advantage
Wedding Intersectionality Theory and Identity Work in Organizations: South African Indian Women Negotiating Managerial Identity
This paper addresses the continuing tension between focusing on identities and categories rather than processes and systems in intersectionality research, based on a study of the identity work of South African Indian women managers. We wed intersectionality theory with extant understandings of managerial identity work in organizations to demonstrate the dynamic interaction between both identities and categories and the institutionalized processes…
Reflections on the continuing denial of the centrality of “race” in management and organization studies
Purpose The purpose of this article is to share reflections about the progress toward the inclusion of race as a core analytical concept in MOS since the article. The emperor has no clothes: Rewriting “race in organizations” was published in the Academy of Management Review twenty-nine years ago. Design/methodology/approach I critically reflect upon the past and future of race in management and organizations studies drawing upon my own subjective…
Leading organizational change in the ‘new’ South Africa
This paper reports on a two‐pronged qualitative research study that used leaders’ life stories and the case research method to understand the leadership of change in 14 South African organizations. We describe how leaders led the changes required to balance the imperatives emanating from South Africa's socio‐political changes and return the country to the international business arena, as well as the challenges created by years of inequality and n…
Armoring: Leaming to Withstand Racial Oppression
This article explores the concept of psychological armor among African American women. Armor is a concept found in the psychological literature describing a selfprotection strategy against racism. Using narratives taken from life histories, we examine this process among African American women raised in two kinds of family systems: families of nurturance and support; and families of struggle and stress. Our analysis reveals that armoring is as muc…
Gender role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics: The case of South Africa
Purpose Although Schein's gender role management stereotype hypothesis has been examined in many countries around the world, no studies specifically examine the combined effects of race and gender on this phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to use an intersectional analysis to test the hypothesis among different race and gender groups in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach The 92‐item Schein descriptive index was randomly administered …
Intersecting viruses: A Clarion Call for a New Direction in Diversity Theorizing
Purpose The purpose of this article is to provoke diversity scholars to think about the implications of the confluence of the racial disparities in the effects of the Coronavirus and the persistence of racial inequality for a new direction of theorizing in the field. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon three major analogies between the Coronavirus and the virus of racism, the author discusses their similarities as a means to think about why …
Gender differences in the upward mobility of black managers: Double whammy or double advantage
Invisible men and women: A status report on race as a variable in organization behavior research
Twenty‐five years after passage of the Civil Rights Act, the full integration of racial minorities in the Unites States workforce has still not been achieved. Recent demographic trends indicating that the workforce will be increasingly composed of racial minorities make this a critical issue for academics and practitioners alike. This paper reports on a review of journal research addressing issues of race in organizations. Articles published in t…
Factors Affecting the Upward Mobility of Black Managers in Private Sector Organizations
Compared to the 1970s blacks made less progress in moving into the managerial occupational category in the private sector during the 1980s decade. This study utilized a model of intrafirm mobility to examine the factors affecting the upward mobility of black managers in private sector organizations. Results indicated that line position experience, company seniority, mentor assistance, organization size, and the rate of job vacancies were the best…
A Race and Gender-Group Analysis of the Early Career Experience of MBAs
This study examined race and gender differences in four career experience variables using a sample of Black and White MBAs (masters of business administration). Results supported hypothesized race effects for job involvement, access to mentors, career satisfaction, and gender differences in job involvement and hierarchical level. However, Black MBAs were not at lower hierarchical levels than White MBAs of comparable experience, and female MBAs di…
The Emperor Has No Clothes: Rewriting "Race in Organizations"
Armoring: Leaming to Withstand Racial Oppression
This article explores the concept of psychological armor among African American women. Armor is a concept found in the psychological literature describing a selfprotection strategy against racism. Using narratives taken from life histories, we examine this process among African American women raised in two kinds of family systems: families of nurturance and support; and families of struggle and stress. Our analysis reveals that armoring is as muc…
Deja Vu: Human Resource Management's Courtship of Strategic Management
Our Separate Ways: Black and White Women and the Struggle for Professional Identity
Gender and race differences in leader behaviour preferences in South Africa
Purpose This research was undertaken to investigate the differences in preferred managerial leadership behaviour among genders and racial groups in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from part time MBA students in South Africa, and subjects' preferences for explicit leader behaviour was assessed by the Leader Behaviour Description Questionnaire XII, with samples of Asian[1], black, coloured[2], and White South Africans …
Workplace Diversity
Workplace diversity appears to have a rather short history as a field in organization studies if one locates its emergence only within contemporary scholarship (Nkomo & Cox 1996). Issues that commonly fall within the study of workplace diversity have always existed. Yet, early conceptualizations of organizations were rooted in universalistic approaches that largely ignored race, ethnicity, gender, culture, sexuality, and other social identities (…
The Sociology of Race: The Contributions of W. E. B. Du Bois
This article aims to review the seminal work of W. E. B. Du Bois—who has been proclaimed, ‘the first sociologist of race’ (Lewis 2000: 550)—and to explore its relevance for organization studies. This review is done within the complex contours of today's global racial context. W. E. B. Du Bois wrote of race as the problem of the twentieth century and while Du Bois wrote primarily about race in the United States, he astutely recognized the problem …
African women in leadership: Current knowledge and a framework for future studies
While the empirical literature on leadership and management in Africa is sparse, the literature on African women in leadership is even sparser. This article offers a critical examination of the current state of knowledge on African women in leadership and management. It draws from an extensive review of existing published research to summarise what has been studied and is currently known about their status, leadership styles, and the influence of…
Gender role stereotypes and requisite management characteristics: The case of South Africa
Purpose Although Schein's gender role management stereotype hypothesis has been examined in many countries around the world, no studies specifically examine the combined effects of race and gender on this phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to use an intersectional analysis to test the hypothesis among different race and gender groups in South Africa. Design/methodology/approach The 92‐item Schein descriptive index was randomly administered …
Leading organizational change in the ‘new’ South Africa
This paper reports on a two‐pronged qualitative research study that used leaders’ life stories and the case research method to understand the leadership of change in 14 South African organizations. We describe how leaders led the changes required to balance the imperatives emanating from South Africa's socio‐political changes and return the country to the international business arena, as well as the challenges created by years of inequality and n…
A postcolonial and anti-colonial reading of 'African' leadership and management in organization studies: Tensions, Contradictions and Possibilities
This article reports on a postcolonial and anti-colonial reading of representations of 'African' leadership and management in organization studies. The resulting analysis revealed tensions and contradictions between stereotypical colonial images of 'African' leadership and management and proposed counter-images that often reflect the excesses of cultural relativism. Finding alternatives between colonized representations and counter-representation…
Southern voices in management and organization knowledge
The rationale for this special issue has been to open a space for reflection about management and organizational knowledge (MOK) as it is practiced and constructed in the global South. Organizational scholars working outside the West rarely appear on the radar of the most prestigious scholarly journals of the field, the institutionalized ‘core’ of the management and organizational science. However, there is life beyond Northern academia, both in …
Discrimination
Discrimination can be defined as any behavior that denies persons' certain rights because they belong to specific groups. In recent years, literature on discrimination in organizations suggests that considerable progress has been made to address barriers to job entry for women and minorities; however, more subtle discrimination still exists and impacts on their career progress. This article discusses discrimination in organizations, specifically …
Prejudice
Prejudice has been conceptualized as a negative attitude toward a particular group usually based on inflexible generalizations or stereotypes. Scholars have proposed a number of theories to explain prejudicial behaviour with social identity theory holding a dominant place. Much of the research on prejudice in organization settings has focused on the effect of prejudice in the form of discrimination and discriminatory practices.
Wedding Intersectionality Theory and Identity Work in Organizations: South African Indian Women Negotiating Managerial Identity
This paper addresses the continuing tension between focusing on identities and categories rather than processes and systems in intersectionality research, based on a study of the identity work of South African Indian women managers. We wed intersectionality theory with extant understandings of managerial identity work in organizations to demonstrate the dynamic interaction between both identities and categories and the institutionalized processes…
The Theory and Praxis of Intersectionality in Work and Organisations: Where Do We Go From Here
Workplace Diversity
Since its emergence, workplace diversity has evolved from being solely focused on issues of discrimination and exclusion to efforts to understand the many different dimensions on which employees differ. This entry provides a description of this evolution and ends with a summary of current debates and research streams
Joan Acker's influence on Management and Organization Studies: Review, analysis and directions for the future
This paper pays tribute to Joan Acker by discussing how her ideas have been utilized in Management and Organization Studies (MOS). Through a systematic review of journal articles citing Acker's scholarship from 2000 to 2017 (September), we show how recent scholarship has used Acker to advance discussions in the field and examine how her work was received, and which promises made by her work are still to be met. We identify avenues to carry her le…
Diversity at a Critical Juncture: New Theories for a Complex Phenomenon
In 2015 we issued a call for papers for a Special Topic Forum (STF) on Diversity at a Critical Juncture in response to contextual shifts that raised questions regarding the assumptions, scope, and implications of prevalent theorizing on diversity in management. Four years later, societal trends have made this call even more urgent and relevant. Although these trends are both ominous and disruptive to the current state of knowledge, they also prov…
Making Black Lives Matter in academia: A Black feminist call for collective action against anti‐blackness in the academy
In this article, as have many Black women scholars in the past, we again call for collective action against anti‐blackness and White supremacy in the academy. Drawing from black feminist theory, we discuss the long history of Black women academics' activism against anti‐black racism and introduce the current movement: Black Lives Matter (BLM). Although BLM is often construed as resisting anti‐black violence outside the academy, it is also relevan…
Intersecting viruses: A Clarion Call for a New Direction in Diversity Theorizing
Purpose The purpose of this article is to provoke diversity scholars to think about the implications of the confluence of the racial disparities in the effects of the Coronavirus and the persistence of racial inequality for a new direction of theorizing in the field. Design/methodology/approach Drawing upon three major analogies between the Coronavirus and the virus of racism, the author discusses their similarities as a means to think about why …
Sociology (24 works) · Gender Diversity and Inequality (23 works) · Political science (18 works) · Gender Studies (14 works) · Psychology (13 works) · Management and Organizational Studies (12 works) · Law (10 works) · Social Psychology (7 works) · Anthropology (6 works) · Gender Studies (6 works)