Fostering Inclusive IT Leadership in U.S. Higher Education

Study Focus

This dissertation examines how higher education information technology professionals experience the mechanisms that shape recruitment, retention, and advancement. The study focuses on underrepresented IT professionals, mid-level IT managers, and HR or equity partners working in U.S. higher education institutions.

The core idea is direct: equity outcomes are not produced by policy statements alone. They are shaped through routine managerial decisions, access to mentorship and sponsorship, visibility in decision-making spaces, and the use of AI-enabled HR tools in hiring, evaluation, and advancement processes.

Research Question

How do underrepresented higher education IT professionals, mid-level IT managers, and HR or equity partners working in U.S. higher education institutions experience middle-management engagement, mentorship and sponsorship, and AI-enabled HR tools as mechanisms that shape recruitment, retention, and advancement outcomes?

Framework

The study integrates intersectionality theory, critical race theory, and generative interactions theory. Together, these lenses help explain how identity, power, organizational routines, and team interactions shape access to opportunity in higher education IT environments.

Key Finding

Across the findings, opportunity emerged as the central mechanism through which leadership behavior, visibility, mentorship, sponsorship, inclusion, bias, AI-enabled systems, emotional intelligence, and structural constraints converged. In practical terms, the study shows that career mobility is experienced through the everyday systems that decide who is seen, who is trusted, who is advocated for, and who receives access to meaningful work.

Ten Themes

• Middle management as a gatekeeping mechanism.
• Visibility as a mechanism of access.
• Mentorship as a development mechanism.
• Sponsorship as an advocacy mechanism.
• Bias as a structural and experiential mechanism.
• Inclusion as a multi-dimensional experience.
• Opportunity as the core mechanism of advancement.
• AI as a filtering and support mechanism.
• Emotional intelligence and mindset as selection and development factors.
• Resources and structural constraints as limiting factors.

Practice Implications

The research points toward a leadership operating model for higher education IT: clarify middle-management responsibilities, document assignment and advancement criteria, formalize sponsorship, rotate access to high-visibility work, standardize recognition, and govern AI-enabled HR tools with human review, audit trails, and periodic bias checks.

For institutions with limited promotion lanes or resource constraints, the study also highlights the need for alternative development pathways such as project-based leadership, lateral growth, and structured exposure to executive decision spaces.