Leadership development, gender and race: Intersectional insights from South Africa

Abstract

AbstractThis research explores the existence of differential group‐level experiences in a South African retail group's leadership development programme (LDP). Primary data were collected with semistructured intersectional focus groups. Findings were triangulated with secondary data from organizational document analysis. Emerging themes were identified with Thematic and Axial coding. Gender‐ and race identity shape how content, development needs, peer interactions, and support are experienced within the LDP. Additionally, certain findings also contradict existing knowledge of LDPs, such as the prevalence of mistrust between participants in a mixed‐group programme. Findings indicate a need for further research to explore the differential effects of intersectional identities on the experience of LDPs. Findings challenge psychologically and behaviourally focused conceptions of leadership development by demonstrating how multiple identities interdependently influence the experience of an LDP. Concurrently, the study challenges existing knowledge of group dynamics within mixed‐group development programmes by highlighting essentialist assumptions about gender and race in the context of leadership development. An analysis of the qualitative data also produced the counterintuitive finding that intersecting bases of privilege might actually result in negative outcomes within a learning context. Finally, the study also contributes to the body of knowledge of intersectionality by demonstrating its utility in leadership development research.