Erika James: The Life and Career of an Associate Professor

Abstract

Erika James had been in academe for nine years and had gotten tenure as an associate professor at the Darden School when she was asked to be the Associate Dean for Diversity, a new position at the school. She discussed the offer with her colleagues and contemplated the matter thoroughly. The position would bring with it a sizeable increase in pay, much more responsibility, and many more administrative meetings, with a continued requirement to meet her teaching responsibilities. All in all, the job would mean more work. The job would likely cut into her available consulting time in the summer, and require her to create an initiative and strategy for the office from scratch. She was not yet a full professor, but she did have tenure. She had several research projects under way and was partway through her first book manuscript. She had a husband who was a busy executive and lived two hours away during the week—and who was likely to get more promotions. She had two small children full of energy and enthusiasm. She had a full-time au pair and a personal Pilates trainer. She had always been known for her cheerful, can-do attitude. Could she bear the additional strain? This case is an undisguised description of James’s life and career and her views on several topics. A CD with video clips of interviews with James, her spouse, and several of her work associates accompanies the written case. The video clips include both pieces that could be assigned ahead of class and some that could be shown during class at the instructor's discretion. This case is intended to help management students explore the personal side of leadership and power, the nature of leadership development, how life events can shape leadership philosophies, the nature of success, how executives build and maintain business and personal relationships, and the way executives develop personal style throughout their professional careers.

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UVA-OB-0957
Rev. Jan. 26, 2009
This case was prepared by Gerry Yemen, Senior Researcher, and James G. Clawson, Johnson and Higgins Professor
of Business Administration. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or
ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright © 2008 by the University of Virginia Darden School
Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to
sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system,
used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying,
recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. Rev. 1/09. ◊
ERIKA JAMES:
THE LIFE AND CAREER OF AN ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR
People who met Erika Hayes James tended to be impressed. She was tall, slender,
vivacious, well groomed, and immaculately dressed, and she exuded energy. The more you
learned, the more she seemed like a woman who had accomplished what many, if not most, just
dream about: having her complex life‐act all together and well balanced. She was a successful
professional, a loving spouse, an adoring parent, physically fit, emotionally upbeat, socially
polished, and seemingly cool, calm, and collected. After a while, they would begin to wonder:
How does she do it all?
Erika Hayes
Erika Hayes was an only child born in Bermuda in 1969 to William and Gloria Hayes.
Both her parents worked as school music teachers. The Hayes family felt constrained and
isolated in Bermuda, so they moved to Pennsylvania in the United States in 1971, where William
Hayes continued his career as a jazz musician, music teacher, conductor, and composer. A few
years later, the Hayeses divorced. The day her dad moved out was one of Erika’s first and most
poignant memories in life.
Erika’s father remarried soon thereafter and moved to Michigan. Gloria Hayes took Erika
to St. Louis, Missouri, where she took another job teaching music. Within a year she married a
prominent psychologist with an active practice and professional influence, and the three of them
worked to create a new, biracial family. Erika believed that from the age of five or six up until
she left to go to college, she had “sort of a traditional family” in that there were both a mother
and a father in the household. Erika also maintained a long‐distance relationship with her
biological father in Michigan. She often went to visit him for the summer months.
Erika’s mother was very active and worked the whole time Erika was growing up. She
had taught music in Bermuda, but when she arrived in Missouri, in addition to teaching music,
she went back to school and earned two master’s degrees, one in education and one in education

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administration. She continued working in school administration and mental health at the high-
school and community-college levels for a number of years.
With both parents working, Erika spent a lot of time by herself. When she was young, she
would go to a babysitter’s house. When she was old enough to be alone, she would come home
from school and let herself in. Although she was a latchkey kid, Erika said she never felt lonely.
She learned to entertain herself. Eventually her mother left her career in education to work
alongside her husband. Their work together had the couple traveling around the world. Erika
described her early family model like this:
My experience growing up was seeing a working mother who managed work and
family responsibilities. One of the things that I most took from her experience,
and she was very explicit about this, was that she always carved out time for
herself. My mother would do things that would make her happy. She would travel
and do any number of things that were important to her. I think that allowed her
the space and the freedom and the joy in her own life to then do for the family.
I never felt neglected. I never asked, “Why isn’t she staying home with me?” I
grew up knowing my mother took herself seriously. She took care of herself and
that, I think, enabled her to take care of family responsibilities as well.
So I did spend time alone taking care of myself, and I think I grew up a very adult
child in some respects.
Erika’s parents moved on occasion, so that by the time she was in middle school they had
arrived in the small town of Sherman, Texas. Erika was a curious child who liked learning and
really enjoyed school, which no doubt helped her adjust to all the changes. By middle school,
though, Erika was getting annoyed with the moving, so she let her parents know she had had
enough, and they agreed to stay in Sherman until she graduated from high school. Erika
continued to do well academically. She recalled an incident that occurred when she was in
middle school:
I didn’t know what the honor roll was. I remember my mom coming home and
saying to me, “Erika I thought you were doing well in class.” And I said, “Well, I
think I am.” And she said, “Then, what’s this?” And she put this newspaper down
on my desk. I looked at it and read about something called an honor roll and my
name was there. So I said, “I don’t know what this is.”
She explained to me that this was people who were performing at a high level in
their classes so they were honored in the newspaper. I picked up on how proud
this made my mother and every semester from that point through graduation I
made the honor roll.