A grounded theory study exploring the contribution of coaching to rebalancing organisational power for female leaders

Abstract

Objectives: Many studies examine female leadership and gender diversity, yet a gap exists in the literature regarding coaching female leaders. This study examines how leadership coaching influenced the development of nine women in senior leadership positions at a large NGO.Design: A qualitative approach was used, employing a grounded theory methodology informed by a critical realist epistemology and an abductive research logic.Method: Semi-structured individual interviews with a handpicked sample of nine participants, each of which operating within three levels of their CEO and having received leadership coaching within the past three years.Results: These suggest a male-dominated workplace culture, gender bias and the participants’ lack of confidence and entitlement (or ‘psychological glass ceiling’) resulted in the women feeling that they lacked legitimacy. The findings indicate that leadership coaching increases feelings of legitimacy for women in senior leadership roles, through enabling them to form their leadership identity, build confidence and be seen as leaders.Conclusions: This study concludes that coaching can be deployed to help female leaders combat feelings of a lack of legitimacy and thus even out power imbalances. Further research could assess how far these findings might be generalisable and therefore serve to inform the gender pay gap debate.Keywords:Executive coaching; leadership coaching; coaching psychology; women; female leadership; male-dominated; workplace culture; power; psychological glass ceiling.