This thematic paper would not have been completed as it is without his encouragement, support and guidance. I would like to thank my CMMU friends especially MM colleagues who always shared useful tips, cheered me up and gave me the encouragement to complete this thematic paper. The purpose of this thematic paper is to learn about challenges faced by female leaders in organizations and to learn what motivational factors they used to overcome those challenges.
The result of this research shows that challenges and motivations in each female manager are different. Because motivations that women managers use to overcome the challenges depend on their career goals. In this thematic paper, we will focus on knowing about challenges that women leaders in the organization have faced and learn what motivational factors they used to overcome these challenges.
We will concentrate on female managers who have experience in management positions for more than five years with different organizational backgrounds. This research aimed to find out "what are the challenges and motivations of being an effective female leader in the organization".
LITTERATURE REVIEW
- Definition of keywords
- Effective leadership
- Theoretical foundation
- Maslow’s theory of motivation
- Related studies
- Challenging Organizational Contexts
- Work- Life Integration
- Life and Career Stages
- Research framework
In the previous research it was found that there are three main factors that have an impact on the Development of Women's Leadership, namely challenging organizational contexts, juxtaposition between work and life, and life and career phases. Structural and attitudinal barriers are factors that women face in leadership positions in the organization. Women in leadership positions try to balance their work and life responsibilities.
Therefore, the 50s can be an optimal time for women to develop their career path, because others. In the early career stages, knowledge, skills and abilities are the main focus points for women. Finally, seeking opportunities to contribute value to the organization and continue to develop, improve and be productive are key focuses for women in later career stages.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
- Data collection
- Data analysis
- Interview questions
- Selected participants
Since all the data we obtain from the interviewee is non-numerical information, we create codes to organize and organize similarly coded data because they share certain ideas and use intuitive senses to group similar data. All interview transcripts and field notes have been translated into English and the group includes similar content that aligns with the research framework and literature review. We then precoded by retaining key quotes from participants so that they could be retrieved later and serve as evidence supporting any findings (Booth et al., 2003; Erick son, 1986; Lofland et al., 2006 ), and we used this as a reference. examples in this theme document.
The first column is the widest and contains the raw data consisting of interview transcripts and field notes. The second column is less space and contains created preliminary code to link between raw data and final codes. According to the in-depth interview technique, the open-ended questions are created to obtain the information from the participants and allow them to freely answer the questions and respond in their opinions.
Questions were created based on motivational theories: Maslow's hierarchy of needs and women's leadership development framework. Furthermore, the probing questions will also be used to get the answers specifically for the primary question in order to fully analyze our research question "What are the challenges and motivations to be an effective female leadership in the organization".
RESEARCH FINDINGS
Challenges
- Organizational context
- Career goal and age limitation
- Skills and Experiences
On the other hand, in general organizations where the ratio of male and female employees was balanced, they had more chances to reach the top of the organization. The attitude of the management team, including women themselves, was another challenge factor, especially in companies where "never had experience with a female leader" at the top level, "within 20 years from now, CEO should be male". Although, in this research it has been shown that in both private and government companies there is "no gender barrier" to reach the top level of the organization and "Company has never closed an opportunity for women who are qualified to reach the top of organization" but no female leader in this research aimed to be in the top position.
They had a model of "effective leadership" in their minds, such as intensive skills and knowledge, emotional stability, people development and team focus, so they tried to develop themselves to reach the full potential. In the first 2 to 3 years of working in the organization, challenges for employees were focused on how to learn technical skills, adapt themselves to fit with organization. All interviewees set their age to reach the first step under 30 years of age and aimed to reach the final career goal between 40 and 50 years of age.
It was interesting that no interviewee aspired to the highest position in the organization, although this opened an opportunity and she believed she qualified for it. They encountered challenges to being an effective leader with their skills and experiences and were pressured by the management team. 34;There was pressure to be an intermediary balancing the needs of both sides", this challenge occurred at the second level of management or higher.
Many female managers who worked in a large organization had a greater chance to gain more skills and experience. Therefore, when they were promoted, they faced less challenge in technical skills and could build relationships with other departments. Unlike a small company, the main challenges were "organizational structure", which had a boundary position, and "skills and experiences" they acquired were not enough to seek a chance outside the company.
However, skills and experiences were not a specific challenge for the female leader, but influenced all employees who wanted to become leaders.
Motivations
- Career goal
Meanwhile, they focused on individual development in their roles and responsibilities to secure themselves in this position until retirement. They were passionate about "developing and contributing to others", including team development, organization, society and family, although they knew that they had to face great challenges. They were able to "develop and contribute to others" when they felt proud of building potential teamwork, saw growth in the career path of team members, or were happy to see their quality of life improve.
In addition, a well-structured career path development could move an employee's motivation from "surviving in the organization" and "fundamental fulfillment" to "developing and contributing to others." They were willing to contribute to the organization, teammates, family and society even though they had enough money saved to last them a lifetime.
CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATIONS
Conclusion
Limitations
Recommendations
APPENDICES
Appendix A: Interview Questions
Appendix B: Coding details
My organization prefers upper level men because they required engineering skills along with management skills. In the public sector there are few in leadership positions, so I have to work hard and prove that I have the skills to be a leader. I prefer being a business owner because I can manage work and life better than being an employee.
Women have to put in more effort to be a good leader compared to men because female have soft voice, less strength and smaller body size. I dedicate myself to working overtime on weekdays and weekends in the first 2-3 years of manager position to catch up work quickly. I move my career quite fast because organization gives me a chance, so it is a big challenge to prove myself in the position that I never had experience about managing people.
So it is possible that someone becomes successful very early or very late in the organization. In the first 2 or 3 years I aim to learn technical skills, as this is very important for my job characteristic, and then try to gain an understanding of organizational management. I try to do my best for my roles and responsibilities and I never think about the position because I want to be happy at my work by getting the cooperation of team members.
I am interested in a managerial career rather than a technical one, so I am developing my skills step by step to be ready for the managerial position. One of my colleagues who joined the company in the same period as me is my motivation because she was promoted since she was young, so I am improving my skills to get promotion in the organization. Now my work life is better balance than the previous position and I believe it will be best if I reach the higher level.
Gender does not affect the effectiveness of a leader in the general organization, but in specific jobs, e.g.
I wish to be a role model for future babies and make them proud to have a mother like me. Family is not a challenge, but it is my motivation especially to learn health care knowledge and gain it as much as possible to take care of my family. I wish to have enough money to take care of my family and my skills are useful to others including my company.
I am still working because I want to be part of society and I believe that I can contribute to society and the organization with my knowledge and experience. It would be great if I could share my knowledge and help anyone who needs it, and I always like to do that. Too many details, so I have to edit my work very often, but I learned from a different angle.
Achieve results as a team, not for individual input, and you need to develop people to their full potential. Strong in people management skills, having good relationships and building good team relationships. A leader should have the courage to give both positive and negative feedback to subordinates and be strict with policy and control the team without an aggressive style.
