A positive leadership identity formation framework for women leaders towards overcoming barriers of intersectionality

Abstract

Intersectionality seems to be a barrier to the career progression of women leaders. Gender differences and work-life balance in leadership and career advancement remain more challenging for women compared to men. Despite a wealth of research and decades of implementing various equality regulations and work-life balance initiatives, the number of women progressing to leadership positions in organisations seems to remain low. The study aimed to explore the lived experiences of women leaders and how they overcame the challenges throughout their careers to progress as leaders. The primary objective was to develop a leadership framework for women leaders to support them in overcoming barriers of intersectionality and work-life conflict. The study adopted a phenomenological interpretivist approach with a two-phased sequential qualitative research design. Phase 1 comprised 12 in-depth interviews with female leaders at management and executive levels from both private and public sectors. Thematic content analysis was conducted and in total, 18 themes within 5 categories emerged from the data. The themes describe the dynamics and the impact of family background and society's perceptions of career women, especially relating to intersectionality. Themes such as Self-leadership, Hope, Positive self-esteem, Resilience, and Positive work ethics describe the behaviour of women leader to overcome the barriers of intersectionality. Phase 2 comprised a mini focus group with 5 female subject matter experts in organisational psychology. This phase explored the emerging themes from Phase 1 to co-construct a final leadership framework. The themes were integrated into the final framework with 3 main concepts namely Intrapersonal Capital, Interpersonal Capital, and Institutional Capital. Collectively, the positive interaction between the 3C’s may lead to Positive Leadership Identity Formation (PLIF). The framework can be used as a consulting instrument to coach and develop women leaders towards career progression. Future research could include the development of a measuring instrument in a quantitative research design based on the PLIF framework.