Women leaders, personal leadership and challenges

234 Pages·2012·2.17 MB·English

WOMEN LEADERS, PERSONAL LEADERSHIP AND
CHALLENGES

by

Marlize van Wyk

Mini-dissertation

Submitted as part of the requirements for the degree

MAGISTER PHILOSOPHIAE
in
PERSONAL, INTERPERSONAL AND PROFESSIONAL LEADERSHIP

FACULTY OF MANAGEMENT

UNIVERSITY OF JOHANNESBURG

Supervisors:
Prof Willem Schurink
Dr Mary Anne Harrop-Allin

January 2012
DEDICATION

ANDRE AND BETS PRINSLOO

Photo 1: My mother and father whom I love and respect deeply, February 2012.

“Thank you for believing in me and for your support”
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The meaning associated with the concept of tree of life varies in different contexts
such as religion, science, mythology and philosophy, etc. For me personally, this
tree resembles my life. My “roots” are anchored in God, I “branch out” to others for
wisdom and strength and the “trunk” is my mind and body that supports me in this
world. The quality of my tree is dependent on my inner state and personal
leadership in my life. When I am focused on what is good and true, my tree
flourishes, regenerates and bears abundant fruit.

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Photo 2: View from my office

My office is a room surrounded by trees
and the sound of birds. This is where I feel
connected.

Photo 3: My writing space
My research story begins and ends with the people in my life that supported me
through this journey. I see them as birds in my tree, with different virtues and
qualities, for example, my supervisors are owls that provided me with wisdom and
insight. I share with you the flock of birds that carried me through this thesis…

My Higher support: Thank you 1) God - for giving me talents and intellect to
develop myself and contribute to others; 2) My Angels - for showing me the way
forward and for providing me with inspiration at times when I wanted to give up.

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My academic support:
Thank you 3) Prof Willem Schurink (my supervisor) – who sustained me through the
initial dark forest of qualitative research methodology and helped me to see the light
at the end of the curving path; 4) Dr Mary Anne Harrop-Allin (my co-supervisor) -
who remained positive no matter what and for seeing “light and angels” even during
dark times; 5) Pharny D Chrysler-Fox - for being a catalyst in my study, by helping
me make a paradigm shift and for the creative inspiration.

My family support: Thank you 6) Andre Prinsloo (my father) - who believed in me;
who was genuinely interested in my progress during my studies during the last two
years; who supported me emotionally and financially and for entertaining the kids on
the farm during the holidays so that I could work. 7) Bets Prinsloo (my mother) - who
made me believe in myself. You are always so proud of me, so I started to believe
there must be something to be proud of. Thanks for the emotional support and for
playing “Nanny McPhee” when I needed it most! 8) Wessel van Wyk (my husband) -
who wrenched me out of my comfort zone and helped to strengthen my character;
for setting an example that nothing is impossible once you’ve broken through a
certain boundary, like you did with your iron man; for allowing me to study and
develop myself while neglecting my family and the household; for cooking such
wonderful food on nights that I needed it most; for taking the kids on fishing trips and
for loving me. We survived! 9) Elizabeth van Wyk (my daughter, 12 years) - who
taught me patience and allowed me an opportunity to practice emotional intelligence;
for teaching me to have confidence in my abilities by your example; for looking after
Ben when you saw I needed time and space to work on my thesis. 10) Wessel van
Wyk (my eldest son, 10 years) - who taught me sensitivity and love; for teaching me
respect for others’ boundaries. 11) Benjamin van Wyk (my “laatlam”, 5 years) - who
reminds me that parenthood DEMANDS full attention and lots of time without
negotiation – this taught me total commitment and unconditional love. 12) Johan and
13) Marina Stoop - Thank you Ouma and Oupa for babysitting the kids for whole
holidays so that I could work on my thesis. 14) Mariet - for helping me with photos
and the tree. 15) Hendrikus and 16) Colin - for entertaining the kids when I had to
work.

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My home support : 17) Josephine Ramashia (my housekeeper) - who made tea
when it seemed as if I needed it; for cleaning the house and taking Ben to the park
when I needed to work. 18) Gabbi & Max (my two Schnauzers) - for sitting on the
couch next to me every single hour I worked on my computer all through the night.

My friends : 19) Serahni Wolmerans and 20) Nig Liesl van der Merwe (my “soul
sisters“) - who joined me on the journey of personal quests. 21) Marietjie Morris, 22)
Gerdi Bishoff, 23) Theresa Coetser, 24) Marelize Smith - for your silent support and
cheerleading from behind the scenes; for being my PA in reminding me about the
kids’ assignments and tests and for phoning from the cricket field when Wessel was
about to bat or during school assembly when prizes were about to be handed out.
25) Lize Reynecke and Ouma Yvonne; 26) Natasha Nel - for letting Ben play almost
each Saturday and many long afternoons.
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AFFIDAVIT: MASTERS STUDENT
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ABSTRACT

Orientation: Women leaders are acknowledged for their resonance-building
leadership styles, adaptive communication skills and qualities of cooperation,
mentoring and collaboration - traits that are becoming increasingly important to
leadership in contemporary organisations. If women are sufficiently competent to
serve as leaders, why have so relatively few reached the top of the ladder? Gender
based stereotypes influenced by the cultural value dimensions of society are seen as
the major barriers to women’s advancement. Despite enabling legislation in South
Africa, statistics reflect the dwindling of opportunities as women reach the upper
echelons of management. Career primary motivated women reported structural
barriers in organisations including networking, glass ceilings and glass cliffs. Societal
challenges that women face included lack of access to power in an environment that
is becoming increasingly toxic, resulting in eroding of values and ethics among
leaders in general. Personal challenges working mothers faced were finding balance
in the social construction of their life roles and creating a meandering career path,
during midlife. Personal leadership was evident in the women’s lives in their spiritual
dimensions, their mental dimensions, their physical dimensions and their emotional
dimensions.

Research purpose: The aim of this study was to describe “Who” women leaders in
South Africa are; to explore “What” challenges they face personally, in society and in
organisations; and “How” personal leadership helped them to cope and excel in their
careers and lives.

Motivation for the study: In my opinion women are equally competent to serve as
leaders, but there are barriers to their achievement of leadership positions. Living as
a woman in South African society, where gender conditioning is interwoven, I’ve
always been painfully aware of and frustrated with segregation and lack of
opportunities based on gender. The first motivation for the study was to investigate
the specific challenges career-primary motivated women face. Secondly, women
leaders seem to cope brilliantly and excel in their careers and personal lives. The
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motivation of this study was to investigate what the qualities are that females bring
to leadership and to illuminate how personal leadership assisted women leaders to
overcome personal, socio-cultural and organisational challenges to excel in their
careers through the different phases of their lives.

Research design: A modernist qualitative research methodology was employed.
The research strategy adopted was multiple case studies with some elements of
grounded theory. Purposive and snowball sampling was used to recruit a limited
number of women leaders in different fields and at different levels in organisations.
With the aid of computerised qualitative data analysis software (ATLAS.ti), thematic
analysis was inductively applied to data generated during unstructured, in-depth
interviews. A literature study was conducted to demystify conceptual elements and to
report on the status quo. The study was, because of its limited scope, in the first
place intended to obtain an understanding of women leadership and personal
leadership from the everyday experiences and perceptions of a small group of
women that may be regarded as leaders in the South African context and not to test
any hypotheses in order to formulate a theory.

Main findings: The 14 themes found and positioned within the three broad
categories of challenges of “Who?” “What?” and “How?” provide some insight into
the social world of the ten local women leaders and how they employed personal
leadership to overcome the challenges they faced. In my view, what is particularly
significant is that the insights derived from the women leaders confirmed the pyramid
of leadership (Covey, 1991, 1998) implying that it appears to be an important
construct in illuminating the experiences and views of a small group of South African
women leaders.

Significant clusters of findings are: i) women define leadership from a feminine
perspective; ii) concluding on the women in leadership debate, men and women
behave differently in leadership roles, although women are not better leaders than
men; their female leadership disadvantage has been minimised; women receive
prejudiced evaluations as leaders; and women leaders have unique strengths; ii)
there is a lack of female mentors in the leadership pipeline and structured mentor
programmes in organisations need to be promoted; iii) gender, values and power are
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the essence of women’s societal and organisational challenges; iv) working mothers
still face challenges in the social construction of their life roles and in attaining work-
life integration; v) midlife is a time of re-evaluation of priorities and achievements and
this was reflected in the women leaders’ career adjustments; vi) personal leadership
was reflected in the women leaders’ mindsets and their coping mechanisms, more
specifically, women leaders hold their anchor in their spiritual wellbeing, grow their
power in their mental wellbeing, conserve their energy in their physical wellbeing and
maintain their stability in their emotional wellbeing.

Practical/managerial implications: The identification of appropriate developmental
and supportive interventions for women leaders, tips to organisations and women
leaders of the future.

Contribution and value: Understanding leadership from a feminine perspective;
understanding the personal and corporate challenges women face in the context of
the South African socio-cultural and value dimensions; and an understanding to what
extent personal leadership will guide successful women leaders.

Key Words: women leaders, gender, power, values, work-life integration, midlife,
personal leadership, modernistic qualitative research.

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