Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management (ETDs)

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    Accelerating the advancement of black women leaders in corporate South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2024) Letsoalo, Shamiela; Mazonde, Nomusa
    As of 2022, the disparity in corporate South Africa's top management positions were evident, with only 11% of Black women holding such roles, contrasting starkly with the 53.1% representation of white males in similar positions. Examining the progression over the preceding four years, the data from 2017 reveals that Black women occupied 14.2% of board positions, indicating a modest 6% increase during that period. This information substantiates the observation that Black women face substantial underrepresentation in high-ranking corporate roles within South Africa and that their advancement to these positions has been notably sluggish. The study's theoretical framework employed a comprehensive approach by integrating three interconnected perspectives: Intersectionality Theory, Organisational Leadership Theories, and Marxist Feminist Theory. This triangulation offered a nuanced exploration of the factors influencing the acceleration of Black women leaders to top positions. A deliberate selection process involved choosing 8 Black women leaders from 7 companies and 1 state-owned entity for participation in this study. The selected individuals participated in either face-to-face interviews or virtual open-ended question sessions through video conferencing platforms, Zoom or Microsoft Teams. During these interactions, the participants candidly discussed their career paths to executive positions, highlighted obstacles faced during their journeys, and reflected on the strategies that enabled them to overcome challenges in their pursuit of leadership roles. The participants described the challenges they encountered which in their view impeded their progress in pursuit of career advancement to senior and top management positions. The study delved into the professional journeys of these accomplished Black women leaders through semi-structured interviews. Targeting c-suite and senior-level professionals, including CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and group executives, the research explored their experiences across diverse sectors such as financial services, professional consulting, technology, government entities, and mining. All participants, who were situated in Cape Town and Johannesburg in South Africa, were deliberately selected from the researcher's professional and personal network. Purposive sampling ensured representation from various leadership roles. This qualitative exploration, rooted in the participants' lived experiences, uncovered insights into systemic barriers, and organisational initiatives affecting the accelerated progress of Black women leaders to senior and executive positions, and the strategies which supported them in their advancement to leadership roles. The study's approach provided more information on the lived experiences of the participants, urging further research and interventions to enhance and accelerate the representation of Black women in senior corporate positions in South Africa. The study addressed a pressing issue of transformation and diversity in corporate South Africa by offering practical solutions for Black women leaders and companies. It emphasised the significance of actively building and nurturing professional networks, mentorship, and continuous learning as pivotal strategies for Black women navigating corporate landscapes. Additionally, for companies aiming to foster diversity and inclusion, the study underscored the importance of clear communication of policies, effective mentorship and sponsorship programmes, and the promotion of an inclusive organisational culture. Providing flexible work arrangements to support work-life balance and addressing specific challenges faced by Black women leaders were identified as key contributors to a supportive environment. The study concludes by recognising its role as a foundational exploration, shedding light on the challenges faced by Black women leaders in corporate South Africa, offering solutions, and serving as a baseline for further in-depth investigation
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    Women’s Career Advancement in the South African Mining Sector
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Letsoalo, Jelane; Ahwireng-Obeng, Asabea
    The number of women working in South Africa’s mining industry has increased dramatically over the last 15 years or so, with women now accounting for 12% of the industry's workforce. Although mining companies have improved in general, they continue to struggle to attract, advance, and retain women at all levels of employment, more especially in core positions. Mining companies, government and several organizations in South Africa made some efforts to increase the number of women working in the mining industry with the goal of attracting more women to the mining industry and keeping those who are already there to achieve a gender inclusive industry. The efforts made yielded minimal results mainly due to insufficient data on challenges that prevent women from advancing their careers in the industry. Such efforts are guided by data, therefore a survey was conducted to understand what interventions are required from the mining companies and government to assist in advancing women careers in this sector. The survey sought to uncover the strategies that are effective and sustainable in advancing women careers in the South African mining sector within the context of support systems opportunities at individual, companies and government perspectives. The study adopted qualitative research design with open ended questionnaires administered through online platforms. The responses were analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis. A total of 23 respondents were obtained with 13 females and 10 males. Results showed that effective and sustainable strategies to advance women’s careers in the South African mining sector are categorized into personal, corporate and governmental. Themes developed are: individual initiatives, education, support systems, experience, attitude, cultural management, acceptance in workplace, policies, regulations and rewards. Furthermore, effective support systems opportunities are training, mentorship, succession planning, women representation, audits and equity strategy. To ensure that effective support systems opportunities are implemented and sustained, sub-themes that emerged are education and training. 2 The study revealed that it is a collaborative effort, amongst individual, companies and government to advance women’s careers in the South African mining sector. However, personal initiatives (self-development, qualifications and awareness) were the main strategy that worked for many women to advance their careers in the South African mining sector.
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    Women’s Career Advancement in the South African Mining Sector
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2020) Lestoalo, Jelane; Ahwireng-Obeng , Asabea
    The number of women working in South Africa’s mining industry has increased dramatically over the last 15 years or so, with women now accounting for 12% of the industry's workforce. Although mining companies have improved in general, they continue to struggle to attract, advance, and retain women at all levels of employment, more especially in core positions. Mining companies, government and several organizations in South Africa made some efforts to increase the number of women working in the mining industry with the goal of attracting more women to the mining industry and keeping those who are already there to achieve a gender inclusive industry. The efforts made yielded minimal results mainly due to insufficient data on challenges that prevent women from advancing their careers in the industry. Such efforts are guided by data, therefore a survey was conducted to understand what interventions are required from the mining companies and government to assist in advancing women careers in this sector. The survey sought to uncover the strategies that are effective and sustainable in advancing women careers in the South African mining sector within the context of support systems opportunities at individual, companies and government perspectives. The study adopted qualitative research design with open ended questionnaires administered through online platforms. The responses were analysed qualitatively using thematic analysis. A total of 23 respondents were obtained with 13 females and 10 males. Results showed that effective and sustainable strategies to advance women’s careers in the South African mining sector are categorized into personal, corporate and governmental. Themes developed are: individual initiatives, education, support systems, experience, attitude, cultural management, acceptance in workplace, policies, regulations and rewards. Furthermore, effective support systems opportunities are training, mentorship, succession planning, women representation, audits and equity strategy. To ensure that effective support systems opportunities are implemented and sustained, sub-themes that emerged are education and training The study revealed that it is a collaborative effort, amongst individual, companies and government to advance women’s careers in the South African mining sector.However, personal initiatives (self-development, qualifications and awareness) were the main strategy that worked for many women to advance their careers in the South African mining sector.
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    The role of executive coaching in enabling social capital amongst female senior managers in Corporate Investment Banking
    (2020) Mashinini, Keitumetse (Zani)
    Organisations across the globe are looking to improve their diversity and inclusion efforts. This is in recognition that, despite many efforts such as designing women leadership development programmes to aid the advancement of women, women remain underrepresented in the corporate pipeline. It is thus of great importance to embark on a study to investigate the role that leadership development interventions such as coaching can play in enabling women to make use of social capital. Qualitative data was collected by means of interviews with senior female managers that have participated in a women’s leadership development programme that incorporated coaching and that appreciates concepts such as social capital. Patterns of meaning were identified using a thematic analysis method. The findings showed that women’s preferences and values and their abilities and behaviours limited their career advancement. Other variables emerged as contributors to the lack of or the slow advancement of women. It was only after they had attended a leadership programme that included coaching to implement the learnings, that they started to adopt behaviours associated with social capital. The study recommends that, in order to facilitate the coaching experience and outcomes pertaining to career advancement, coaches need to understand the competencies that women need to adopt to make use of social capital. Further, human resources practitioners can make use of the findings to design leadership development programmes differently. The conclusion drawn from the study is that coaching as a leadership development intervention can enable the use of social capital and make a contribution to the career advancement of women particularly at senior management level.
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    The role of executive coaching in enabling social capital amongst female senior managers in Corporate Investment Banking
    (2021) Mashinini, Keitumetse (Zani)
    Organisations across the globe are looking to improve their diversity and inclusion efforts. This is in recognition that, despite many efforts such as designing women leadership development programmes to aid the advancement of women, women remain underrepresented n the corporate pipeline. It is thus of great importance to embark on a study to investigate the role that leadership development interventions such as coaching can play in enabling women to make use of social capital. Qualitative data was collected by means of interviews with senior female managers that have participated in a women’s leadership development programme that incorporated coaching and that appreciates concepts such as social capital. Patterns of meaning were identified using athematic analysis method. The findings showed that women’s preferences and values and their abilities and behaviours limited their career advancement. Other variables emerged as contributors to the lack of or the slow advancement of women. It was only after they had attended a leadership programme that included coaching to implement the learnings, that they started to adopt behaviours associated with social capital. The study recommends that, in order to facilitate the coaching experience and outcomes pertaining to career advancement, coaches need to understand the competencies that women need to adopt to make use of social capital. Further, human resources practitioners can make use of the findings to design leadership development programmes differently. The conclusion drawn from the study is that coaching as a leadership development intervention can enable the use of social capital and make a contribution to the career advancement of women particularly at senior management level