A Summary of Small-Group Discussions on the Advancement of Minority Managers

Abstract

As part of the conference sponsored by Rutgers Graduate School of Management on Ensuring Minority Success in Business, held September 24–25, 1984, 10 small discussion groups met to assimilate the presentations and provide a forum for defining critical issues regarding minority advancement in management careers (See preface for further description of the conference). The composition of each group included representation of academics and experienced managers, both minority and nonminority and male and female. Most of the minority participants in both the conference and the small-group discussions were black, with only limited participation by Hispanics and Asians. The representation partly reflects the specific networks that developed as the conference was being planned and partly the current distribution of minority managers, especially in the affirmative action and equal employment opportunity positions from which many of the conference participants were drawn. There was an attempt to balance the discussion groups in terms of type of industry represented. Each group had two cofacilitators, one a manager and one an academic.