Using the method described in the previous chapter, discourses were identified for each of the three key research objectives as they emerged from the participants’ responses to the corresponding questions in the interview guide (Appendix 1). Each of the three objectives focussed on a specific component of the participants’ narrative around power and the findings are presented in the following three chapters, namely chapters 7, 8 and 9.
Chapter 7 focusses on discourses relating to the participants’ development of their awareness of power through the narration of their past (Research Objective 1)
Chapter 8 focusses on discourses relating to the way in which women leaders discuss power in relation to their current leadership role (Research Objective 2) Chapter 9 focusses on discourses relating to the way women leaders claim to sustain their power in the future (Research Objective 3)
7.1.1 Presentation of the Research Findings
Key extracts from the interviews relating to these discourses are analysed and discussed with reference to the relevant literary discourse. Through this process of discussion the data yields a more refined understanding of the discourses initially identified, as well as additional emerging discourses that may not have been obvious in the initial analysis.
This deepening of understanding of women business leaders’ discourse on power gives rise to the emerging model of power which will be presented in the concluding chapter of this thesis (Chapter 10).
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The presentation of the findings has been carefully considered in order to deal with the volume of the data, to do justice to the text and the process of discourse analysis as described in the chapter 6 on methodology, and to ensure that it is presented in a way that is accessible to the reader. As discussed in the methodology chapter, once discourses were identified through a process of analysis both within and across texts, extracts were then chosen for in-depth analysis and inclusion in the findings to highlight the discourse under discussion. A characteristic of discourse analysis is that texts are approached in their own right as the data and the extracts of text are instances of the data analysis (McMullen in Wertz et al. 2011).
In order to keep track of which narrative the extracts have come from, it is indicated whether they are taken from interview 1-10. To ensure anonymity of the interviewees, the interviews are referred to by number rather than using the interviewee’s name or a pseudonym. This is not intended to objectify the participant, but rather to respect the terms of their informed consent (Appendix 2). Names that have been used by the participants in the extracts have been changed to ensure anonymity and denoted with the marking of a *. Extracts from each interview within the chapter are also given a number so that there is a track of the number of extracts taken from each interview for each discourse. This was necessary for the research process in relating the extracts to the whole text as discussed in the section on hermeneutics in chapter 6.
Where it is relevant to highlight the participant’s race, terms are used as outlined in the demographic table (Table 1) in chapter 6. As with the numbering of participants, this is done for purposes of clarity and consistency, not as a method of social categorisation.
Where race is discussed by the participants in the extracts of their text, the analysis which follows uses the participants’ self-categorisation of ‘black’ or ‘African’ in the discussion on the effect of the text.
Since the need for probing was limited during the interviews, most of the extracts presented are the participants’ words taken from within their broader narrative accounts.
The interview questions encouraged autobiographical flow of narratives in response to the questions with limited interruption, which according to Gregg (2006) allows for the author’s self-construction, rather than conversational narrative where there is more exchange with the interviewer. While feminist research aims at avoiding rendering the
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interviewer/researcher invisible (Butler 2005; Dickerson 2013; Gavey 2011), there has not been explicit exclusion of my own interjections. Rather the ‘mini-narratives’ which are being discussed in the analysis are part of a broader flow of narrative in response to the research objectives under discussion.
7.1.2 Introduction: Research Objective One
This chapter discusses the discourses emerging in response to the first research objective on how women leaders narrated the development of their awareness of power.
The aim of this question is to understand the early experiences of these women and how their encounters with power have shaped the way in which they construct power through their discourse. Following the process used by McAdams (2001), these early encounters, both with significant people and events, provide a framework for their construction of their current experiences, both as a leader and as woman. Participants were asked to respond in the following way relating to their past (see Appendix 1 for full Interview Guide)
To describe their life as a woman ‘leader’ growing up in South Africa and the significant experiences that impacted on them
To describe a moment in life when they felt powerful To describe a moment in life when they felt disempowered
To describe and discuss significant relationships in their life that a positive influence on them
To describe and discuss significant relationships in their life that a negative influence on them
Discuss how they felt their story is shaped by being a woman
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