Cultivation of professional leadership behaviors in women

Abstract

Leadership and business management practices and behaviors are historically hegemonic masculine in nature, creating environments of competition and conquests of masculinity, offering a limited perspective on the feminine experience with Professional Leadership Behaviors (PLB). This action research study investigated the strategies used to enhance the understanding of how professional women cultivate PLB within the context of a women-centered nonprofit organization by evaluating how they transition from a transactional understanding to a transformative experience of how they incorporate PLB into their lived experience. The research site was selected as nonprofits have played a historical role in developing and providing women with opportunities when traditional professional paths were unavailable. The study is rooted in the Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology and used a mixed-method approach for data collection by integrating the contextualized thick-rich data of the qualitative approach with the generalizability and valid insights that quantitative data provides. Five participants completed a multi-stepped action-step plan implemented and evaluated across four to six weeks. The three key findings that resulted were: (1) that the women's nonprofit fosters an environment of psychological safety; (2) women transition from a transactional to a transformative state when they were empowered by the community and feel they belong; and (3) transformative thinking is an intentional act supported by critical reflection, coaching, and debriefing. Professional women are navigating organizational cultures created by and for men and are being held to standards that do not align with their definitions of or experiences with PLB. This study provides insights into the feminist perspective on cultivating PLB and the traits they value in leadership. It supports organizational change efforts for how to include a women's voice and perspective in the development of leadership practices.