Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Download

Women’s Perceptions of Women in Leadership

Tue, June 18, 10:30am to 12:00pm, 1440 Multiversity, Outlook 203

Short Description

Global participants shared their expectations, surprises, and lessons learned from women in leadership. While discrimination and masculine hegemony in organizations have gained significant attention from researchers and practitioners alike, there is little research on how women receive leadership from other women. What are our expectations of women in leadership? Do those expectations differ from our expectations of men?

Detailed Abstract

Theoretical constructs: social identity theory, implicit leadership theory
Few have examined the experience of women who work for women. Devnew and Storberg-Walker (2018) reaffirmed our commitment to honoring “‘the diversity of women and women’s perspectives across the globe… [and] exposing our differences honestly, authentically, and respectfully… dispute mindsets that suggest leadership is gender-defined.’” If we accept that leader and follower roles are social identity constructs (Hollander, 2009; Cooper & Thatcher, 2010; DeRue & Ashford, 2010) and that the roles are dynamic and shifting (Kouzes & Posner, 2010), we can identify situations in which the participants manifest the roles as if they were constant and established (Kellerman, 2008). Whether she is a supervisor, designated team lead, manager, director, or executive, her leadership has a significant impact on followers and the cultural, organizational context. In the established triadic relationship between leader, follower, and context, followers (employees, associates, colleagues, or collaborators) and the environmental context have a reciprocal triadic impact on the woman as a leader as well. However, much research is focused on the experience of the woman leader as a concept or prototype (Foti, Hansbrough, Epitropaki & Coyle, 2017). In this project, we sought to capture qualitative information about the follower’s experience, while allowing respondents to provide data about the context as well. Dillard (2018) provides a powerful overview of “narratives about women and work,” acknowledging their subjectivity and social construction while incorporating the intersectional challenges of gender and race in the workplace.
The present inquiry invites the participant to share her memory of workplace experiences (either positive or negative) and their impact on her (either positive or negative). After the initial study was presented at an international conference, we expanded our sample from a national to an international one, so that more women could share their stories of the impact women’s leadership has had on their careers. With this presentation, we share the results gathered to date.
As the literature on implicit leadership theories expands, the conceptualization of what it means to lead effectively must evolve, as we hear more and more from followers in both quantitative and qualitative formats expressing their expectations of leadership. While Slaughter (2012) claimed that women cannot have it all, and Sandberg (2013) urged women in leadership to positively exploit their gender-specific traits to excel in their roles, there is no voice for the woman in the follower role clearly stating her expectations and needs of the woman in leadership. Discrimination and masculine hegemony continue to capture our attention in the media, in academic research, and in human resources practitioner communities. Still, little attention is focused on how women receive leadership from other women, and what we need from one another. Our pilot study, and literature review, suggest that women’s implicit leadership theories regarding women in leadership differ from those regarding men.
Eagly and Carli (2007) established that women’s early training to be more nurturing or passive led to a disadvantaged position in workplace leadership, while women who display more agentic qualities (often perceived as masculine assertiveness) also receive harsh treatment. The research investigating the dynamics of women and leadership has expanded significantly in the last decade (Acker, 2011; Mancl & Pennington, 2011; Snyder, 2014; Hoyt & Murphy, 2016; Russell & Lepler, 2017). This attention on women in leadership is heartening for scholars investigating the phenomenon of women’s experience of women’s leadership. Our qualitative research approach adds to this intellectual dialogue, incorporating the voices of dozens of women from around the world as they tell of their experience-based perceptions of women in leadership. Specifically, our study is a summary of qualitative responses to open-ended survey questions delivered online and designed to gather data about women’s workplace experiences, either in the corporate or nonprofit environment. As scholar-practitioners, we rely on academic research to support our translation of theory into practice in varied organizational contexts.
Consultants in the human resources field support the expanded focus on women’s experience, with practice necessitating scholarly research to support or redirect it. In 2017, McKinsey and Company collaborated with Sheryl Sandberg’s LeanIn organization to identify means of remedying gender disparity, when women are demonstrably more highly educated than men in the United States (2017) and have been for the past three decades. Primarily, the researchers found that women lack sponsorship, effective mentoring, and strong support networks. Our pilot study supported this finding, indicating that women’s experiences included both positive and negative aspects of working with women. In the present study, we invite global perspectives and add the opportunity for women to share not only the emotional impact on them at the time, but also its current impact of the experience (Skowronski, Walker, Henderson & Bond, 2014).
The experience of working for or with a woman leader, the impact of that experience, and the surfacing of one’s expectations as a result of the experience represent the purpose and motive of this study. The offering of cogent analysis of individual self-reports that support the validity of existing theoretical constructs (fading affect bias, social cognitive theory, social identity theory, self-efficacy). We place our understanding of women’s reported experience solidly within the understanding that leadership, followership, and context are interconnected and interdependent, each acting upon the other. Within this intellectual framework, we sit and listen to the stories women tell us about their experiences, both positive and negative, of working with and for other women around the world. The opportunity to share their stories validates the woman’s perception of the experience, creates community and leads to deeper thinking about the impact we have on one another. We hope to offer additional interpretations of the datasets from different perspectives. Specifically, as we supervise the research of undergraduate women interested in this phenomenon, we create space for them to ask “what about me? What about the specific needs of younger (Millennial and Gen Z) women in the workplace?” With this research, we seek to offer clear and detailed recommendations to support effective leadership development initiatives that address the professional needs of women being led by other women.

Presenters