Although more South African women are progressing into managerial positions, they are doing so at a slow pace and continue to face many challenges (Paulsen, 2009; Mckinsey & Company, 2010; Molebatsi, 2009). Therefore, this research set out to investigate South African women managers’ experiences and how they might relate to their perceptions of organisational justice and perceptions of leadership self-efficacy. Perceptions of organisational justice and perceptions of leadership self-efficacy are significant because they have been individually linked to motivation, commitment, satisfaction and performance (Baldwin, 2006; Combs, 2002; Colquitt, et al., 2001; McCormick, et al., 2002; Paglis, 2010). In addition, the research aimed to explore how these two concepts might interplay. The research took a qualitative approach and conducted in-depth interviews with eight senior women managers from different organisations. A tape recorder was used to record the interviews and thematic content analysis was used to analyse the data collected. The women in the study highlighted both negative and positive work experiences in their role as women senior managers. Further, the study revealed that senior women managers are not a homogeneous group as their experiences are also influenced by factors such as their race, marital status and number and/or age their children. The study also showed that the senior women managers’ experiences were related to their perceptions of organisational justice and leadership self-efficacy. The women in this study were vibrant and positive, and reflected high levels of leadership self-efficacy. It was also clear that these women’s experiences placed more emphasis on procedural and interactional justice than on distributive justice as they placed greater emphasis on work relationships, how they were treated and the fairness of work processes. In addition, the research also found a link between perceptions of organisational and perceptions of leadership self-efficacy

Family businesses are major contributors to economies around the world. It is also recognised that family businesses are critical to entrepreneurship, socio- economic development and industrialisation around the world. Women in family business are major contributors to the success of the family business around the world. Limited research is available on the role of women in family business. The research conducted yielded similar results for South Africa. The impact of family business on entrepreneurship and the economy, with respect to socio- economic development, has placed great interest in family business studies in South Africa. This study focused on the role of women in black family business in South Africa. This research found that women in black family business focus on bringing softer skills to the business which are beneficial for people management. In their capacity as managers in the family business, women tend to take on a supportive role to the spouse; they tend to focus on ensuring a harmonious and peaceful culture in the work place. Women in family business have a dual role of ensuring business success and quality family life. They prefer to work in the shadow of their male counterparts. Challenges faced by women in black family business have been identified as the lack of inclusion in strategic decision- making, lack of decision-making career opportunities and the lack of consideration for succession within the business, a lack of business mentorship and ambiguity of roles in the business and in the family. It has been found that the role of women in black family business may be enhanced going forward. This may be done through educational programmes or workshops for management skills for women, networking opportunities and support groups, counselling on work/family management strategies, and spousal sharing of responsibilities in the work- family management relationship. A suggested area for future research is the impact of culture in family business in South Africa.

In 1998 the Department of Labour promulgated the Employment Equity Act, which aimed at ensuring that the designated groups were represented in the workplace at all levels. The designated groups that were to be given preference for appointments were women, disabled and Black people. The Department of Public Service and Administration issued a directive to all government Departments to ensure the achievement of 50/50 gender representation at Senior Management levels by 31 March 2009. However, the Provincial Treasury in the Eastern Cape did not achieve this target and is still lagging behind. There are barriers in the workplace, which pose challenges to the progression of women to management levels. These barriers are commonly referred to as ‘glass ceiling’ by some scholars.This study used a qualitative approach in gathering data. The study employed non- probability, which adopted the purposive sampling approach. Questionnaires were administered to middle management and Senior Managers were interviewed to gather empirical data. Questionnaires were administered to sixty Middle Managers, both males and female, and interviews were conducted with seven senior managers. The reason for targeting Middle Managers was that they are at a level that is next in line in the hierarchy to advance to senior management positions.The purpose of this study was to investigate factors inhibiting the advancement of women to senior management positions in the Provincial Treasury in the Province of the Eastern Cape. The problem identified was that there were numbers of females at middle management who had the required qualifications and experience, but were not considered when appointments were made to fill in vacant senior management posts. The other problem that was identified was that often senior management positions were filled by candidates who were not from within the Department. The performance of female internal candidates is not recognised, which may be indicative of the flaws with the performance management system. It emerged from the empirical survey that preference is given to men compared to their female counterparts. The study revealed that there were factors that contributed to non-advancement of females to senior management such as the existence of stereotypes and perceptions. The stereotypical beliefs view men as hard workers than their female counterparts. It was also revealed that women suffered from low self-esteem that impacted negatively on their confidence levels. This subsequently discouraged women to apply for advertised vacancies as they doubted their own capabilities. It also emerged that the Department did not empower newly appointed persons through the mentoring and coaching programmes. This study also revealed that no training was offered to newly appointed persons.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in Business and Executive Coaching Johannesburg, 2017 / This qualitative study explored the leadership journeys of black women executives (BWEs), to understand those elements they perceived to enable and those they perceived to inhibit their career progression, as well as to establish implications for coaching. Eighteen participants were interviewed. The sample included BWEs who had been coached, those who had not, human resources managers, and line managers to create some triangulation. The BWEs were all in the top two organisational levels, as defined by the Employment Equity Act. A semi-structured interview guide was utilised for the BWEs and another for HR and line managers. Interviews were recorded, transcribed, and uploaded into ATLAS.ti analysis software. Coding was conducted inductively to identify themes that emerged. The study highlighted the importance of ensuring that all parties to the coaching intervention are fully briefed, aligned, and coaching-ready before implementation. If readiness is not ensured, the process can be negatively affected. A key finding was that a minimum of a bachelor’s degree, but preferably a postgraduate degree, enabled the career progression of BWEs. Once in the workplace BWEs need to continue with self-development. Elements that were found to enable career progression for BWEs were hard work, networking, self-development, and access to mentors. Resilience was found to be important in managing the challenges the BWEs’ experience in the workplace. Elements that inhibit BWEs’ career progression were found to be lack of implementation of employment equity (EE) or transformation in the workplace. It was also found that BWEs operate in challenging work environments where they experience marginalisation, stereotyping, and racism. Work-life integration is an issue as they are the homemakers. Another key finding was that coaching could contribute to BWEs’ career progression. It is important that all parties in the process are coaching-ready. It was also found that coaching heightened resilience for BWEs. Coaching was shown to be utilised for leadership development, including improving communication skills. Line managers were unsure of the objectives for which their BWE charges were being coached. This highlighted the importance of aligning all parties and ensuring coaching readiness before coaching implementation. This point is also important because to be successful, coaching needs the support of organisational leadership. It was encouraging to realise that the line managers viewed coaching as confidential between coach and coachee; however, they appeared to have had no input into development needs identification. This could point to a missed opportunity to align coaching with business needs. The intrapersonal skills of self-confidence and self-awareness were shown to have been developed through coaching. These skills are vital to effective leadership. The BWEs’ experiences of coaching were found to be challenging, and uncomfortable, and BWEs found that the coach did not understand or trivialised the coachee’s issues. Coaching conversations are meant to be challenging, however too much challenge can derail the process. BWEs experienced coaching as uncomfortable because the conversation delved directly into deep personal issues without preparing the coachee or building rapport and a trusting relationship. Two BWEs felt that their coaches had trivialised or misunderstood their issues. The finding that line managers were unaware of the development needs being addressed in their BWEs’ coaching, the BWEs’ experiences of discomfort in the coaching process, and coachees feeling that the coach had trivialised the coachee’s issues, highlights the important matter of coaching readiness. Coaching readiness is important to the success of any coaching engagement. Without participants being fully ready for coaching, the process might be compromised. Coaching was found to be an appropriate tool for leadership development and improving the career progression prospects of BWEs. It was also found that it is important to ensure that every party to the coaching is coaching ready. / MT2017

Thesis (MBA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / Although several women's leadership studies globally have identified a number of issues that women grapple with in their upward mobility in building a career, including gender differences as these relates to styles of leadership, and the behaviour of senior women toward other women in organisations, there has however not been a South African study documenting the existence of the Queen Bee syndrome within Multi-National Corporates, as a barrier to professional women's career growth. The "queen bee syndrome" is a term that has been used to describe women managers who find themselves within a predominantly male environment and have alienated other women by their behaviour, and are therefore perceived to be a barrier to the advancement of other women coming through the ranks. These women fail to assist other women in their aspirations to advance and do not work towards the advancement and empowerment of other women within the corporate sector. The queen bees are normally very protective of their powerbase and attempt to surround themselves with men. They do not believe in female solidarity behaviour and do not actively seek to mentor or coach other women. The aim of the present study is to investigate the existence of the queen bee syndrome in South African retail banks. The following aspects, as they relate to the queen bee syndrome, are examined: • The establishment of the existence of the queen bee syndrome. • The reason for the existence of queen bees. • The possible implication of the existence of queen bee behaviour for the organisations. A total of 25 women in executive and senior management positions, from South Africa's 5 retail banks, were interviewed for the present study. These women were asked to relate their unique personal experiences and perceptions of queen bee behaviour. The method of Content analysis was used to analyse the responses received through the interviews. The findings of the present study clearly indicated that women still face barriers to advancement within corporate organisations, and that organisations need to make adjustments to their internal cultures, structure and strategy to accommodate the growing workforce of females who are rapidly joining the management ranks. The blame for women's lack of progress into senior positions cannot be generally attributed to males only, as women also need to work at growing, developing, educating and empowering themselves in order to facilitate their own advancement, besides helping, supporting and guiding other women in their career progressions. The present study also found that senior women managers and women executives work actively towards being coaches and mentors to women coming through the ranks and assist them in their development towards management roles. The present study's findings indicated that senior women executives and managers currently support women development agendas within their organisations, and also that the presence of the queen bees did not serve as a stumbling block to the advancement of the sample of women who took part in this study. The study was limited to 5 retail banks of South Africa only. Future studies can investigate other sectors and work at providing tools that will assist women in combating the behaviour of the queen bee. It might also be useful to determine whether women are more supportive or less supportive of other women, and women's issues and programs.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study presents an empirical investigation that was conducted on why the number of women on executive and board levels in companies is not consistent with the number of women in the workforce. The barriers which women face in career progression were explored by focusing on three main themes, namely internal, societal and organisational barriers. The research method used to evaluate previous and current research was content analysis which provides a definitive correlation between current challenges that women face and how they have progressed over the past 20 years. The research further provides insight in what changes companies and government can incorporate to ensure that the gender gap is closed over time. Analysis shows that although the number of women on executive and board level has improved during the past ten to 15 years, it remains disconcertingly low. The type of barriers which hindered women from reaching the upper management positions some time ago, are still the same reasons that keep them in the lower ranks in the business. Findings have indicated that the strongest internal barrier is that women struggle to balance family obligations with the severe requirements of top positions in business. It was also found that some women do not perceive the male-dominated structures and discrimination in companies as a threat but rather see it as a challenge which strong women can overcome if they believe in and equip themselves. Although some companies have made progress in supporting women and invite women onto their boards and executive teams, the attempt is still not enough to close the gender gap. The present study concludes with recommendations on what women, male colleagues, companies and government bodies can do to increase the number of women on upper levels in the organisations.

Thesis submitted in compliance with the requirements fo the Doctoral Degree in Technology: Education (Management), Durban Institute of Technology, 2004. / This study focused on women in Technikons who hold status positions as Dean or higher in the academic management hierarchy and aimed at uncovering those attributes which contributed to their success in breaking the 'glass ceiling'. The gender imbalance in their career paths highlighted the need to identify those attributes so that ways could be found to increase the representation of professional women in leadership and management position. The experiences and struggles of women in Third World Countries, such as South Africa, unfold in a very different context from those of women in First World Countries. As this research is about women for women and gives 'voice' to those women who participated in this project, attention must be paid to the knowledge and theory that incorporates women's experience and perspectives. It is therefore appropriate to view the marginalisation of women and hence their struggle for equality of opportunity in Technikon management from a feminist viewpoint. Narrative enquiry using primarily semi-structured in-depth interviews provided the data which was processed in terms of a categorical-content perspective. The relevant themes identified were interpreted by the researcher and used to formulate grounded theory. The results of this research study drew attention to the importance of the possession of emotional competencies and attributes, that is, the importance of emotional intelligence as an empowering attribute for women managers in academe. This is of special significance in that these attributes can be learned. It is imperative that women in management be provided with opportunities to develop these qualities and / M

A report on a research study presented to The Department of Social Work School of Human and Community Development Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand In partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Masters of Arts in Occupational Social Work by Coursework and Research Report May, 2016 / In spite of the government’s aim to promote gender equality in the workplace, women are still underrepresented in management positions. Women still face many challenges, such as discrimination, gender stereotypes, the ‘glass ceiling’ and work/family conflict. This study sought to explore how women in management positions balance work and their family responsibilities. The study adopted the qualitative research approach and used multiple case studies to study the experiences of women in management positions. The study population consisted of women in management positions at Nkangala District in Mpumalanga. Purposive sampling was adopted to select eight participants for the study. A semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data from the participants. To analyse the data, the researcher adopted thematic content analysis. The study revealed that women in management positions face conflict between their work role and family responsibilities. Participants also indicated that they managed the conflict through careful structuring and planning of their activities, prioritizing their responsibilities and delegating some of their duties. Participants also indicated that they needed support from spouses, families, employers, supervisors and colleagues in order to cope with their multiple roles. It is recommended that organizations (employers) develop policies that enable women in management positions to achieve work-life balance. Such policies may include career breaks, job sharing, flexible working arrangements and childcare policies. The study has the potential to contribute to a growing body of knowledge on how women in management positions balance their work and family responsibilities. Furthermore, the study could help managers and understand the experiences of women managers in the workplace, and thereby enable them to respond more effectively to the challenges that these women face. The study might be useful to other women in management positions, as the findings will help to create awareness of the challenges women in management face in balancing work and family responsibilities

Research report submitted to the Wits School of Arts University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in the field of Drama Therapy, August 2017 / This research aimed to explore problem-saturated narratives about self-efficacy in leadership amongst a group of women leaders from corporate organisations in Johannesburg, and the effectiveness of narradrama (Dunne, 2009) a drama therapy method, in enriching these narratives. Analysis points to the pervasiveness of gendered notions of men and women in society and how this plays out in the contexts of corporate organisations. The rationale for this study was that if corporate leadership is an historically socio-culturally male-dominated and gender-stereotyped domain from which women have been excluded, and in which traits stereotypically associated with women were undervalued, then dominant narratives embedded in this domain could be that women are not effective leaders, and that they do not belong. This could negatively affect perceived self-efficacy in leadership among women, and indirectly, efforts to address gender disparity in the context of corporate leadership. Sociocultural development theory (Vygotsky, 1978), and empowerment theory (Rappaport, 1987, Zimmerman, 2000), both of which assert the primacy of the sociocultural context in learning and development, theoretically informed the research. Thematic analysis was used to identify key themes. The research showed that problem-saturated narratives about leadership self-efficacy did exist and that narradrama proved effective in fostering enriched narrative possibilities amongst participants. / XL2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management specialising in Entrepreneurship and New Venture Creation Johannesburg, 2016 / Very little information seems to exist on the role of women in South African family owned businesses. Women in family businesses need to be recognized in order to highlight the constraints they may be facing and their contributions to the economy. The purpose of the study is to determine how human and social capital variables can empower women in family businesses to enhance their success or address their challenges. This research study follows a positivistic paradigm and a questionnaire was developed to assess the research objectives. The questionnaire was sent out to a sample of 200 females involved in family owned businesses from South Africa and 150 responses were received. The findings revealed that at lower levels of education, females were the key decision makers for business expenditure, borrowing and investment decisions. With regards to experience inside and outside of the family business, decision making was shared between males and females with the exception of business expenditure decision making at 0-5 years experience inside the family business. Furthermore, decision making was generally shared between males and females for most of the social capital variables, with the exception of using or relying on partnerships where females did not play apparent decision making roles. Practical recommendations from the findings for women in family owned businesses include shifting from operational to more strategic decision making; gaining experience outside of family owned business to strengthen decision making capabilities; which in turn, would empower them to tackle riskier elements of social capital, like relying on partnerships and conducting business on trust. / MT2017