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The juxtaposition of agentic and communal behaviours of women leaders

Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2023

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Main Author: Pond-Ratlou, Perdita
Other Authors: Lew, Charlene
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: University of Pretoria 2024
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access_status_str Open Access
author Pond-Ratlou, Perdita
author2 Lew, Charlene
author_browse Lew, Charlene
Pond-Ratlou, Perdita
author_facet Lew, Charlene
Pond-Ratlou, Perdita
author_sort Pond-Ratlou, Perdita
collection Thesis
dc_rights_str_mv © 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria.
description Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2023
format Thesis
id oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/96416
institution University of Pretoria (South Africa)
language English
last_indexed 2026-06-10T12:39:47.699Z
license_str Other — see source repository
provenance_str_mv Harvested via OAI-PMH from UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
publishDate 2024
publishDateRange 2024
publishDateSort 2024
publisher University of Pretoria
publisherStr University of Pretoria
record_format dspace
source_str UPSpace — University of Pretoria Institutional Repository
spelling oai:repository.up.ac.za:2263/96416 The juxtaposition of agentic and communal behaviours of women leaders Pond-Ratlou, Perdita Lew, Charlene Role congruency theory Agency Communion Female leadership Qualitative research Dissertation (MPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2023 There have been significant strides made in the representation of women in the workplace globally and within South Africa, however the representation of women at senior management levels remains a concern. Role congruency theory posits that women in senior management are unfavourably judged owing to the incongruence between the communal role of women versus the agentic role of a leader. Academic literature on role congruency theory has predominantly focused on the barriers to female advancement into leadership roles. Furthermore, these studies have predominantly focused on Western societies. Thus, there is a gap in the literature in terms of exploring the behaviours that aid women leaders in their career advancement in a non-Western society, namely South Africa. Owing to the exploratory nature of this research, a qualitative narrative inquiry methodology was used. The sample is made up of 18 women leaders currently at a senior management level in a diverse set of industries and roles. Each female leader was interviewed to explore which agentic, communal, and blending of the two behaviours they used to advance to senior management. The results show that women predominantly lead with communal behaviours, however there were a few who lead with agentic behaviours. The five most commonly occurring behaviours in order were competence (agentic), empathy (communal), connection (communal), assertiveness (agentic) and care (communal). In addition, all leaders in the sample utilised a combination of agentic and communal behaviours made up as follows: balance between communal and agentic; flex between communal and agentic; communal to agentic; and agentic to communal. Critical to their career advancement were a combination of organisational and individual enablers. This research found that female leaders are indeed blending communion and agency to advance their careers. They do still articulate the gendered expectations exists; however, these are overcome with the use of organisational and individual enablers. pagibs2024 2024-06-12T07:33:09Z 2024-06-12T07:33:09Z 2024-09-11 2024-09-11 Mini Dissertation * A2024 http://hdl.handle.net/2263/96416 en © 2023 University of Pretoria. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of Pretoria. application/pdf University of Pretoria
spellingShingle Role congruency theory
Agency
Communion
Female leadership
Qualitative research
Pond-Ratlou, Perdita
The juxtaposition of agentic and communal behaviours of women leaders
title The juxtaposition of agentic and communal behaviours of women leaders
title_full The juxtaposition of agentic and communal behaviours of women leaders
title_fullStr The juxtaposition of agentic and communal behaviours of women leaders
title_full_unstemmed The juxtaposition of agentic and communal behaviours of women leaders
title_short The juxtaposition of agentic and communal behaviours of women leaders
title_sort juxtaposition of agentic and communal behaviours of women leaders
topic Role congruency theory
Agency
Communion
Female leadership
Qualitative research
url http://hdl.handle.net/2263/96416
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