Phenomenological Study of African American Female Partners in Top U.S. Corporate Law Firms

This doctoral dissertation delved into the intricate experiences of African American female law partners, seeking to unravel the diverse array of factors that shaped their ascension to the pinnacle of their legal careers. Employing a rigorous qualitative research methodology, this study undertook an extensive exploration of narrative data derived from in-depth interviews, with the overarching aim of addressing the research questions articulated at the outset. These questions revolved around understanding how African American female law partners perceived the factors influencing their professional promotion and how race and gender impacted their leadership journeys and broader careers within the legal profession. The culmination of this research endeavor resulted in the emergence of five overarching themes: (a) continuous race and gender challenges, (b) exceptional job performance, (c) relationship builders, (d) the firm’s environmental context, and (e) the tenacious doers. The narratives shared by African American female law partners in this study provided a rich tapestry of experiences that directly addressed the core research inquiries. Their journeys to partnership unveiled a complex interplay of racial and gender factors that significantly molded their professional identities, decision-making processes, and ultimate successes. These narratives offered profound insights into the multifaceted ways in which race and gender exerted influence on their careers, thereby presenting a valuable perspective on the challenges they faced and the strategies they employed as African American women within top-tier corporate law firms. Notably, job performance emerged as a pivotal mediator of success in attaining partnership status. “Being a good team member” emerged as a critical concept that intersected with supervisor and peer support, mentorship, and sponsorship. It signified a constructive engagement with colleagues and reflected a profound commitment to institutional objectives and practices. In this capacity, it acted as a conduit to sponsorship opportunities and, by extension, partnership status. On the other hand, “Being the Best in the Room” resonated with the theme of “Tenacious Doers,” amalgamating the categories of “Success Motivated” and “Overachievers.” This category epitomized the surpassing of preconceived expectations and limitations through meticulous skill and expertise, representing the zenith of professional development. Importantly, it countered stereotype threats, as evidenced by the narratives shared by study participants. In a broader theoretical context, the utilization of self-determination theory (SDT) provided a comprehensive framework for comprehending the intricate experiences and pathways of African American female law partners within top U.S. corporate law firms. Aligning the emergent themes with SDT’s constructs offered a layered understanding of how autonomy, competence, and relatedness played pivotal roles in shaping these unique professional journeys. In summary, this dissertation illuminated a constellation of factors that intersected to influence the professional advancement of African American female attorneys in the elite corporate legal environment. Through their lived experiences, these women navigated a labyrinthine career path characterized by systemic barriers and enriched by mentorship, sponsorship, and networking opportunities. Their narratives served as inspirational anecdotes and crucial data points for fostering organizational change, underscoring the imperatives of inclusion and diversity within the legal profession. These findings shed light on the challenges faced and the resilience and strategies employed by these remarkable individuals, thereby providing a roadmap for future scholars and practitioners seeking to comprehend the intricate interplay of race and gender in professional settings

Who\u27s In and Who\u27s Out?: What\u27s Important in the Cyber World?

The aim of this paper is to offer an introduction to the exploding field of cybersecurity by asking what are the most important concepts or topics that a new member of the field of cybersecurity should know. This paper explores this question from three perspectives: from the realm of business and how the cyber world is intertwined with modern commerce, including common weaknesses and recommendations, from the academic arena examining how cybersecurity is taught and how it should be taught in a classroom or laboratory environment, and lastly, from the author’s personal experience with the cyber world. Included information includes scholarly journals, news sources, special interest books, academic curricula, and relevant experience. By blending together information procured from these three distinct environments, this paper proposes a number of the most important concepts and lessons that one should know as they begin their career, whether professional or academic, in the cyber world

Implementing person centred dementia care: a musical intervention

Purpose - Recent years have seen the advocacy of person centred approaches to dementia care. An important component of this approach has been the use of arts in the promotion of health and wellbeing. However, relatively little attention has been given to the barriers and facilitators experienced in trying to implement these types of interventions in a dementia care setting. It is therefore the purpose of this article to help to redress this neglect by examining the process of implementing a personalized musical intervention for clients of a specialist dementia home care service. Design/methodology/approach - Drawing on interviews with five project stakeholders, the paper examines, not only the potential benefits to be gained from the musical intervention but also identifies the barriers experienced in its implementation and ways in which they could be overcome. Findings - It was found that although the musical intervention had a potentially positive impact, there were multi-leveled barriers to its implementation including issues of training, leadership as well as contextual issues such as commissioning and resourcing more generally. Originality/value - The key role played by these issues in the process of implementation suggests that practice should transcend its focus on individual well-being and address the wider factors that can facilitate or prevent its fulfillment. While the multi-leveled nature of the obstacles identified suggest that the implementation of innovative interventions within health and social care settings should adopt a similarly eclectic approach

Electronic and Physical Characterization of Hydrothermally Grown Single Crystal ThO\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3e

Actinide single crystals are important to the fabrication of next generation electronic devices that could possibly have radiation with the atmosphere and surroundings. Th02 single crystals were obtained previous to this work by hydrothermal synthesis. As these crystals were the first of their kind, the geometric and electric structure of the crystals needed to be extracted. The valence and conduction bands were studied in order to ascertain the band gap using ultraviolet photoemission spectroscopy (UPS) and inverse photoemission spectroscopy (IPES). The unoccupied structure was further characterized using x-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) and relativistic, real-space Green\u27s functions calculations. The local structure around the Th atoms was investigated using extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS). A novel Latin hypercube sampling code was developed to extract the local order structure. X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) was used to measure a surface-to-bulk level shift and extract two new shake-up satellite structures in the 4f region. A temperature dependent XPS study extracted the Debye coefficients

A Tactic for Intervention in Meetings that are Being Controlled

This article describes an approach which can be used to generate tactics to free meetings that are being controlled. More assertively it can also be used to increase the probability of achieving prescribed goals in meetings. The purpose of this paper is to present a framework that can be used by community workers to open up meetings that are being controlled. more assertive use can also be made of the framework to increase the probability of achieving prescribed goals in meetings. As a matter of convenience the focus in this paper will be on the use of the framework in the committee setting; it can, however, be used just as effectively in other types of meetings

The effective ingredients of social care support at home for people with dementia: a literature review

Purpose: Formal ties between the theatre and research dissemination have only recently developed and its general efficacy is largely unknown. Here the purpose of this paper is to redress this neglect by examining the effectiveness of a research-based theatrical event in promoting dementia knowledge transfer with a group of front line care workers. The event ran over eight days and consisted of an original theatrical production followed by a chaired audience discussion and workshops. Design/methodology/approach: Questionnaires which had been developed specifically for this evaluation were completed by 863 front line workers on the day of the event, eliciting their profiles and immediate reactions. Three months after the event, 30 completed a follow-up questionnaire and eight were interviewed. Findings: Attendance was well received with high degrees of both cognitive and emotional engagement being expressed in the initial questionnaire. The follow-up evaluation suggested that these positive reactions were sustained over time. However, many taking part in this follow-up thought that their practice had not changed as a result of event attendance. This apparent discrepancy between knowledge transfer and utilisation appeared to be partly the result of the influence of contextual factors in impeding this utilisation within work settings. Originality/value: Evidence is provided on the positive impact of theatre on dementia carers’ working lives. This is sufficient to warrant further applications of this method, provided there is careful attention to embedding the messages in the workplace context and evaluating their efficacy