Glass Cliff or Invisible Bridge? How Intersectional Invisibility Allows Executive Black Women to Turn Risk into Opportunity

Keywords: race, risk-taking, intersectionality

Abstract: We investigate how intersecting minority identities shape leadership. Specifically, our work focuses on a sample of high-ranking Black female executives who use Glass Cliff and other risky assignments to examine “identity-related processes that help leaders to seize and retain power.” In our research, we center Black women executives’ intersectional experiences as they navigate risky roles, and thereby, extend existing research on the “glass cliff” phenonmeon. Through an inductive, longitudinal study in which we interviewed high-level Black women leaders, we explore how the paradox of intersectional invisibility plays a role in their leadership identity as well as their perceptions of risk and reward in career choices. Specifically, we posit that Black women make sense of career risks by reframing the precariousness of glass cliffs as strategic opportunities that may remove them from obscurity and allow them to seize prime visibility to unmask their true potential. We believe our contribution helps move the field forward towards an understanding about the strategic opportunities that may be offered by glass cliff assignments as well as the nuanced experiences and unique challenges of senior-level executives with intersecting identities.