I analysed individual perceptions of successful leadership, from a feminist intersectional persepctive. The study is based on previous research undertaken by Chamorro-Premuzic (2019), where successful leadership has been argued to be based on embodying the characteristics of ‘confidence’, ‘competence’, and ‘emotional intelligence’. This study also investigated whether comprehensions of successful leadership are gendered, and, if so, if the gendered perceptions may be related to the social organisation of care. Furthermore, as gender is always racialised and race is always gendered, this study takes an intersectional approach, analysing perceptions of successful leadership as both racialised and gendered. Based on this, I undertook a case study analysing the words of 11 women in the United States, in order to compare the perspectives of what successful leadership entails for certain individuals in particular, to general perceptions on successful leadership, as well across identity locations. By emphasising individual perspectives on successful leadership, this study allowed for an investigation into gendered and racialised notions regarding successful leadership.

After breaking through the glass ceiling, women often obtain precarious or risky leadership positions in crisis-ridden organizations (the glass cliff; Ryan & Haslam, 2005). Due to women’s minority status, their appointment in a crisis can signal important changes to organizational stakeholders indicating the use of new strategies for overcoming the crisis (signaling theory; Spence, 1973). Our study examines whether the media visibility of organizations moderates these signaling effects in ways that either strengthen or weaken glass cliffs. We augmented the archival dataset used by Haslam et al. (2010) in which the glass cliff phenomenon was discovered by including data on the media coverage that the Financial Times Stock Exchange index 100 companies received between 2001 and 2005. Our analysis shows that glass cliffs were more pronounced in companies with low media visibility. This suggests that the media visibility of organizations can contribute to increased accountability regarding their personnel decisions in ways that expose women leaders to less discrimination. / Nachdem sie die gläserne Decke durchbrechen, erreichen Frauen oft unsichere und riskante Führungspositionen in krisengeschüttelten Organisationen (gläserne Klippe oder Glass Cliffs; Ryan & Haslam, 2005). Nach der Signaltheorie (Signaling Theory; Spence, 1973) kann die Ernennung von Frauen in Krisenzeiten aufgrund ihrer Seltenheit Stakeholdern grundlegende Veränderungen bezüglich kritischer Probleme ankündigen. Wir untersuchen die Möglickeit, dass die mediale Sichtbarkeit von Organisationen Glass Cliffs moderiert – also verstärkt oder abschwächt. Können medial sichtbare Unternehmen wirksamere Signale senden oder stehen sie stärker unter Beobachtung? Hierfür wurde der Archivdatensatz von Haslam et al. (2010) um die Medienberichterstattung erweitert, die FTSE100-Unternehmen zwischen den Jahren 2001 und 2005 erhielten. Unsere Analyse zeigt, dass Glass Cliffs bei Unternehmen mit geringer medialer Sichtbarkeit stärker ausgeprägt waren. Dieser Befund zeigt, dass die medialer Sichtbarkeit von Organisationen zu einer höheren Verantwortlichkeit bei Personalentscheidungen beitragen kann, so dass weibliche Führungskräfte weniger diskriminiert werden.