Women’s Authentic Leadership Development: A Case Study

• In Event: Examining Women's Leadership Educational Practice From Multiple Perspectives

Short Description

Authentic leadership can be developed by increasing self-awareness and obtaining a clearer understanding of leaders’ own values so that they can successfully manage challenging conditions that they face in their organizations (Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson, 2008). However, limited research exists that examines the ways in which authenticity is developed from a women’s leadership perspective. In this presentation, the researcher will discuss the ways in which a women’s leadership development program impacts participants in developing authentic leadership by increasing self-awareness, creating a peer-women network, and building self-confidence.

Detailed Abstract

There is an increasing number of women participation in management in the past few decades (Averianova, 2014; Seo, Huang, & Han, 2017). However, women are still underrepresented at senior leadership positions. According to the gender-diversity index of Fortune 1000 companies in 2015, only about 19% of corporate directors across all industries are women (Chakaradhar, 2017). Women executives constantly face a variety of challenges in developing their leadership career because they have to overcome gender-biased work conditions, manage male-dominant organization’s culture, and balance work and life (Adame, 2016; Ibarra, Ely, & Kolb, 2013; Seo, Huang, & Han, 2017). Women often report that they need to increase self-confidence, learn to be more assertive and persuasive, build support networks, find meaning and purpose in their professional lives, and more importantly, practice authenticity in leadership (Ely, Ibarra, & Kolb, 2011; Ibarra, Ely, & Kolb, 2013; Nakamura & Goez, 2017; Pace, 2017). How and in what ways can women find their leadership paths without losing their sense of self, in other words, being authentic self, despite such complex challenges they face?
Authentic leadership literature suggests that leaders need to have increased self-awareness, an in depth understanding of one’s own strengths and weaknesses, and consistency between values and actions for successful leadership (Christo-Baker & Wilbur, 2017; Liu, Cutcher, & Grant, 2015; Nakamura, Leuty, Hanson, Dirkx, & Shealy, 2016; Walumbwa, Avolio, Gardner, Wernsing, & Peterson, 2008). However, authentic leadership research has been gender-neutral (Hopkins & O’Neil, 2015; Liu, Cutcher, & Grant, 2015). In fact, there is limited research that examines the ways in which authenticity is developed from a women’s leadership perspective. A significant concern that research can amend is a better understanding of the ways women’s authenticity in leadership is developed.
In this exploratory case study, the researcher examinez how a women’s in-person leadership development program impact women participants in developing authenticity in leadership. More specifically, the researcher examinez the ways in which women executives are transformed through the discovery of one’s authenticity in leadership via self-awareness including weaknesses and strengths, shared experiences with regard to challenges and best practices, and the acquisition of business skills such as persuasion and networking with peers beyond their organizations. Further, the researcher examines the ways in which the aspects of individual and collective reflective practices as part of the process of facilitating the development of authentic leadership introduced in the program impact the women participants’ authentic leadership development.
This study targets executives who attend a non-degree women’s leadership development program offered by a university. Our method for gathering information includes individual interviews, field observation, and archival data. The interviews focus on particular episodes and stories of the participants’ leadership experiences in their professional life and the discoveries that formed what they stand for as a leader. The application of their core values to their leadership challenges during and after the program will serve as evidence of the impact of their learning. The researcher conducts field observations during the 2017-2018 leadership development program. These field observations help them to gain a deeper understanding of participants’ responses. Archival data reviews and analyses include program related materials and surveys used during the program such as learning assessments, and summary comments offered in the course evaluations. This data serves to clarify and confirm the information gained from individual interviews.
The findings from this study will benefit women leaders, senior human resource development professionals and senior managers who support women in leadership.

Participants

• Yoshie Tomozumi Nakamura, George Washington University

• Jennifer Goez, Columbia Business School Executive Education