The project focuses on the challenges that Indian male managers face in the South African corporate environment in reaching senior and top managerial positions. The title of the research project is ‘Pathway to management: South African Indian male managers’ identity struggle’.

After the completion of her PhD dissertation, entitled ‘“Who am I?” – South African Indian women managers’ struggle for identity: escaping the ubiquitous cage’, that focused on how Indian women managers at senior managerial positions negotiated their gender, racio-ethnic and professional identities in striving toward top managerial positions, Dr Carrim realised there was a gap in the literature which needed to be filled. She therefore decided to focus on the challenges Indian males faced in reaching senior and top managerial positions.

While some work has been conducted on black male managers within the corporate environment, Indian males are not specifically focused on. Indian males in these studies are regarded as a sub-set of black male managers. This identified gap led to the current study.

The expected outcomes of the study will be to enrich understanding of the challenges Indian males experience in corporate South Africa related to their upward mobility, considering this has been an under-researched group. The study will also provide managers with a better understanding of the professional and racio-ethnic identities of Indian males and will hopefully result in more informed decisions in the workplace regarding minority males.

The current research will not only have an impact on diversity management issues, which is central to the study, but will also impact leadership research and findings based in sociology relating to identity scholarship.

The commended award has been bestowed by Emerald and the Africa Academy of Management (AFAM), in association with the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) and the International Academy of African Business and Development (IAABD), which support the dissemination of knowledge for the social good in Africa.