Leading ladies : the power of passion : a study into women's career development in corporate organisations in the Australian financial services industry

Abstract

Women in executive positions in the Australian corporate organisation appear to be a novelty. There is however a small number of women, who, against the odds, do take up the challenge to lead and hold executive positions in corporate organisations. What can be learned from these women? This reflective inquiry begins by exploring an indicative and eclectic array of historical events, and critically reviews the pertinent literature, to see what significant influences have contributed to and shaped the overall emergence of women's participation and taking of executive positions. The inquiry contributes by bringing together a diverse range of theoretical perspectives on women's involvement in organisations with empirically rich examples, drawn from a Complexity informed qualitative interpretative project gathering women's own stories, women who hold and have held executive positions within the financial services industry. My experiential reflection permeates and directs the overall approach as well as the way in which I made sense of and interpreted the inquiry. The result is the construction of a rich picture that informs current practice and experience while illuminating emergent implications for the broader corporate system. Focusing on the organisation and the factors that shape women's career development I determine that institutional changes aimed at improving women's representation in executive positions have not led to significant change and suggest that Complexity provides a new understanding that goes beyond the prevailing views of stereotypical and cultural barriers obstructing women's career advancement. In the empirical work, I present a Complexity informed inquiry with Complexity providing the overarching logic, methodological approach, technique, and primary metaphors through which the findings are articulated and elaborated. Coherent conversations exploring how twelve women in executive positions make sense of and construct their every day experience in corporate organisations were used to generate narratives that were analysed and synthesised (through fractal and attractor analysis) to identify patterns of similarity. I have identified major themes and four attractor sets from which I make inference about what has guided and shaped these women's behaviours and attitudes towards their corporate career and experience within the corporate organisation. The inquiry provides a new analysis represented by key themes, which are shown to have driven the actions of the women as they self-organised their corporate careers. Firstly, initial conditions influenced and shaped how these women constructed and thought about their career. Secondly, it was found that their career narratives were strongly entwined with other contexts (society, family and the personal domain). Thirdly, the findings indicate that as these women shift seamlessly from one role to another they constructed temporary identities (professional, mother, wife) as they followed their life cycle passions. Fourthly the career journeys of the women were shown to be non-linear and characterised as unpredictable and almost serendipitous as they changed course to make what I have termed 'passion leaps', at various times in their career. These leaps required risk-taking and foresight and an unbridled enthusiasm for an uncertain future and a not-so-certain landing. What emerged were women who were passionate about their positions and comfortable with leadership and taking executive positions: they just did it differently to men. I propose that the underrepresentation of women in leadership will only change when women's difference is fully supported and the corporate career model changes in a way that supports a critical mass of women to take executive positions within the organisation.

Date of Award	2011
Original language	English