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The impact of group coaching on 
leadership effectiveness for South 
African women managers  
 
M. Alison Reid 
 
 
 
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. 
 
Johannesburg, 2012 
September 2012 
 
 
 
 
 
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ABSTRACT 
Effective leadership is crucial for organisational survival and growth, especially in 
demanding modern business environments. It is particularly challenging for women 
leaders who may function in gendered organisations that do not necessarily support 
their development. Group coaching is more time and cost-effective than individual 
coaching, is scalable and sustainable and is appropriate for the relational context of 
leadership. It is, however, in its infancy in terms of cohesive and differentiated 
research. This study investigated the impact of group coaching on leadership 
effectiveness in South African women managers.  
Data was gathered from pre-and-post questionnaire administrations as well as 
interviews and was analysed using mixed methods in comparative t-tests and 
thematic analysis. The findings indicated that leadership effectiveness did change 
significantly over a six month leadership development programme, most notably in 
the areas of enabling self, enabling others and self-confidence. Specific impacts of 
group coaching on leadership effectiveness were by increasing awareness of self 
and values; enabling learning through external input; enabling sharing and support 
through safety and a sense of direction. These themes relate to factors inherent in a 
group context: multiple interactions to explore identity and self, multiple feedback 
inputs and collective sharing and support. The respondents reported less impact in 
the achievement of personal goals or results. It is possible that there is a trade-off in 
focus on the individual’s objectives for the learning advantages of multiple 
interactions and exchanges in group coaching. The effects of group coaching, 
however, appear to be relevant for current business realities that demand modern 
leaders to be authentic and confident in complex and hyper-connected social 
environments. Women who work in male-dominated organisations may benefit 
particularly from alternative groups that provide safe feedback, validation and a 
sense of identification with similarly positioned women. 
This study deepened understanding of how group coaching adds value in a 
leadership development context. The results add to the body of knowledge on group 
coaching and leadership effectiveness and help to inform the practice of effective 
leadership in organisations, particularly for women managers.              
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DECLARATION 
 
I, (Margaret) Alison Reid, declare that this research report is my own work except as 
indicated in the references and acknowledgements. It is submitted in partial fulfilment 
of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management in the University of the 
Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been submitted before for any degree or 
examination in this or any other university. 
 
 
------------------------------------------------------------- 
(Margaret) Alison Reid 
 
Signed at ………Sandton, South Africa, …………………………………………… 
 
On the ………20th…………………….. day of ……September…………………… 2012 
 
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DEDICATION 
This research study is dedicated to my family: they are and have always been the 
most important ‘thing’ to me.  
 
It is also dedicated to an idea: that as people we have a deep capacity to learn and 
change- more than we think we do. We have social problems to face of an 
unimagined complexity. But in productive, effective groups, we can produce (as yet) 
unimagined solutions to these challenges and reach unimaginable potentials. This is 
to the groups who change destinies and the people who work in them. 
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
 
I would like to sincerely thank the following people: 
- To my supervisor, Sunny Stout-Rostrum for her time, input, availability and 
dedication to the coaching profession and its continuous development. 
- To Natalie Cunningham, for her passionate commitment to developing a 
programme that is so relevant and valuable to the growth of human potential, 
modern leadership and organisations in modern environments. 
- To Jonathan Cook, who is a mentor to me: some people guide other’s growth just 
by being who they are. Thank-you for your role in supporting the passion I have for 
helping people learn and grow.  
- To the Gordon Institute of Business Science for supporting the collection of data in 
their programme and for their continuous dedication to the research and learning 
process.  
- To my Master of Management colleagues for making this process such a 
rewarding, fulfilling and enjoyable one. 
- To the respondents for their time, participation and cooperation. 
- To Hennie Gerber for his assistance with the statistical analysis of data.  
- To Julie Rathborne for her assistance with interview transcription. 
 
 
  
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TABLE OF CONTENTS 
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................... 2 
DECLARATION ........................................................................................ 3 
DEDICATION ............................................................................................ 4 
LIST OF TABLES ..................................................................................... 9 
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................. 10 
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .............................................................. 12 
1.1 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY................................................................................... 12 
1.2 CONTEXT OF THE STUDY ................................................................................... 12 
1.3 PROBLEM STATEMENT ...................................................................................... 13 
1.3.1 MAIN PROBLEM ......................................................................................................... 13 
1.3.2 SUB-PROBLEMS ........................................................................................................ 13 
1.3.3 RESEARCH QUESTION 1 ............................................................................................. 14 
1.3.4 RESEARCH QUESTION 2 ............................................................................................. 14 
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................ 14 
1.5 DELIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ........................................................................... 15 
1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS ...................................................................................... 15 
1.7 ASSUMPTIONS ................................................................................................. 17 
1.8 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS AND ISSUES .............................................................. 17 
2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW .......................................... 19 
2.1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 19 
2.2 PARADIGM ....................................................................................................... 19 
2.3 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ............................................................................... 20 
2.4 BACKGROUND DISCUSSION ............................................................................... 21 
2.5 LEADERSHIP AND LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS ................................................... 22 
2.5.1 THEORIES OF LEADERSHIP AND LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS ......................................... 22 
2.5.2 COMPONENTS OF LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS AND FACTORS THAT IMPACT LEADERSHIP   
EFFECTIVENESS .................................................................................................................... 24 
2.5.3 WOMEN AND LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS ................................................................... 26 
2.6 COACHING AND LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS ..................................................... 28 
2.6.1 EXECUTIVE COACHING AND LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS ............................................... 28 
2.6.2 GROUP COACHING AND LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS .................................................... 29 
2.7 CONCLUSION OF LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................ 33 
2.7.1 RESEARCH QUESTION 1: ............................................................................................ 35 
2.7.2 RESEARCH QUESTION 2 ............................................................................................. 35 
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3 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY .............................. 36 
3.1 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY/ PARADIGM .............................................................. 36 
3.2 RESEARCH DESIGN .......................................................................................... 38 
3.3 POPULATION AND SAMPLE ................................................................................. 39 
3.3.1 POPULATION ............................................................................................................. 39 
3.3.2 SAMPLE AND SAMPLING METHOD ................................................................................. 39 
3.4 THE RESEARCH INSTRUMENT ............................................................................ 41 
3.4.1 QUESTIONNAIRE ........................................................................................................ 41 
3.4.2 INTERVIEWS .............................................................................................................. 42 
3.5 PROCEDURE FOR DATA COLLECTION .................................................................. 43 
3.5.1 QUESTIONNAIRE ........................................................................................................ 43 
3.5.2 INTERVIEWS .............................................................................................................. 44 
3.6 DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION................................................................ 44 
3.7 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ............................................................................... 46 
3.8 VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY ................................................................................. 46 
3.9 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................... 47 
4 CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS ........................... 48 
4.1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 48 
4.2 DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE OF PARTICIPANTS.......................................................... 48 
4.3 QUANTITATIVE QUESTIONNAIRE FINDINGS ........................................................... 49 
4.3.1 ITEM ANALYSIS ON QUESTIONNAIRE ITEMS TO ESTABLISH RELIABILITY .............................. 49 
4.3.2 DESCRIPTIVE AND SIGNIFICANCE STATISTICS FOR QUESTIONNAIRE CONSTRUCTS .............. 55 
4.4 QUALITATIVE INTERVIEW FINDINGS ..................................................................... 61 
4.4.1 RANKING OF THE SIX COACHING SESSIONS AND COACHING PROCESSES/ TOOLS................ 62 
4.4.2 THEMATIC ANALYSIS OF DATA EXTRACTS ACROSS ENTIRE DATASET ................................. 64 
4.5 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS .................................................................................... 90 
5 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION OF RESULTS .................................. 91 
5.1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................. 91 
5.2 DISCUSSION PERTAINING TO RESEARCH QUESTION ONE....................................... 91 
5.2.1 POOR ACCURACY ON SELF-PERCEIVED CHANGES .......................................................... 92 
5.2.2 POOR RESPONSES BY ‘MANAGERS’ .............................................................................. 92 
5.2.3 LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS CHANGES ....................................................................... 93 
5.2.4 LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS CHANGES: UNDERSTANDING SELF, ENABLING SELF AND      
AUTHENTIC SELF ........................................................................................................ 94 
5.2.5 LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS CHANGES: UNDERSTANDING AND ENABLING OTHERS ........... 97 
5.2.6 LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS CHANGES: CONFIDENCE ................................................. 100 
5.2.7 LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS: OTHER CHANGES .......................................................... 101 
5.3 DISCUSSION PERTAINING TO RESEARCH QUESTION 2 ......................................... 102 
5.3.1 RAISED AWARENESS OF SELF AND WHAT MATTERS TO ME ............................................ 103 
5.3.2 LEARNING THROUGH EXTERNAL INPUT/ FEEDBACK....................................................... 104 
5.3.3 A SAFE ENVIRONMENT FOR SHARING AND SUPPORT AMONGST SIMILAR PEERS ................ 106 
5.3.4 SUPPORTING A SENSE OF DIRECTION OR GAME-PLAN ................................................... 110 
5.3.5 THEMES THAT WERE ABSENT .................................................................................... 111 
5.3.6 RESEARCHER’S LEARNINGS ...................................................................................... 113 
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5.4 WOMEN LEADERS IN ORGANISATIONS ............................................................... 114 
5.5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 115 
6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......................... 116 
6.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................... 116 
6.2 CONCLUSIONS OF THE STUDY .......................................................................... 117 
6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS ...................................................................................... 119 
6.3.1 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME DESIGN, INCLUDING GROUP COACHING
 119 
6.3.2 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ORGANISATIONS AND MANAGERS .......................................... 121 
6.3.3 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR COACHES ........................................................................... 121 
6.3.4 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR WOMEN MANAGERS ............................................................. 122 
6.4 SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH .......................................................... 122 
6.5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................. 123 
REFERENCES ...................................................................................... 124 
APPENDIX A – QUESTIONNAIRE ...................................................... 134 
APPENDIX B – INTERVIEW QUESTIONS .......................................... 138 
APPENDIX C – PARTICIPANTS’ INFORMATION LETTER............... 140 
APPENDIX D - LETTER OF CONSENT .............................................. 143 
APPENDIX E –CONSISTENCY MATRIX ............................................ 144 
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LIST OF TABLES 
 
Table 1: Profile of women participants at a leadership programme designed for 
women managers at GIBS ..................................................................................... 40 
Table 2: Cronbach’s Alpha values for each questionnaire item as well as 
overall constructs to test for internal consistency of scale responses on the 
pre-administration...................................................................................................51 
Table 3: Mean (SD) values for constructs and p-values for each pre-and-post 
paired t-test indicating significance......................................................................56 
Table 4: Code classifications for interviewees.....................................................61 
Table 5: Rank order as reported for six coaching sessions by the six interview 
participants..............................................................................................................62 
Table 6: Rank order as reported for six coaching processes/ tools by the six 
interview participants..............................................................................................63 
Table 7: Responses related to changes in perception of leadership in 
connection to ‘knowing your authentic self’.........................................................65 
Table 8: Responses related to changes in leadership in connection to 
‘understanding, engaging and influencing others positively’.............................68 
Table 9: Responses related to changes in leadership in connection to 
‘increased confidence’............................................................................................72 
Table 10: Responses related to group coaching impact in connection to 
‘awareness of self and what’s important or valuable to me’...............................74 
Table 11: Responses related to group coaching impact in connection to 
‘learning through input/feedback’..........................................................................77 
Table 12: Responses related to group coaching impact in connection to 
‘having a safe space through non-judgement, validation and similarity for 
sharing and support’...............................................................................................81 
Table 13: Responses related to group coaching impact in connection to 
keeping on track to a direction/goals/ game-plan................................................86 
Table 14: Responses related commentary about women....................................88 
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LIST OF FIGURES 
Figure 1: Diagrammatic model of conceptual framework ................................... 20 
Figure 2: Examples of items in each category of the ‘Head’, ‘Heart’, ‘Hands’ 
and ‘Impact’ 360 degree questionnaire.................................................................58 
Figure 3: Graphical representation of pre-programme and post-programme 
differences in participant ‘self’ score....................................................................59 
Figure 4: Graphical representation of pre-programme and post-programme 
differences in scores from ‘others’ (peers, subordinates, colleagues, etc) on 
research participants..............................................................................................59 
Figure 5: Graphical representation of pre-programme and post-programme 
differences in scores from ‘managers’ on research participants (non-
significant)................................................................................................................60 
Figure 6: Graphical representation of the sub-themes making up the theme on 
leadership changes: knowing authentic self........................................................65 
Figure 7: Graphical representation of the sub-themes making up the theme on 
leadership changes: understanding, engaging and influencing others............67 
Figure 8: Graphical representation of the elements of the theme on leadership 
changes: increased confidence.............................................................................71 
Figure 9: Graphical representation of the contributing elements of the theme 
on increased awareness of self and what matters (as an impact of group 
coaching)..................................................................................................................73 
Figure 10: Graphical representation of the contributing elements of the theme 
on learning about self through external input......................................................76 
Figure 11: Graphical representation of the contributing elements of the theme 
on a safe environment for sharing and support...................................................80 
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Figure 12: Graphical representation of the contributing elements to the 
discourse around women and women leaders.....................................................87 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 
1.1 Purpose of the study 
The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of group coaching on leadership 
effectiveness in South African women managers. The research process aims to 
investigate changes in women’s leadership effectiveness after attending a Business 
School leadership development programme, which included a substantial group 
coaching component. It then aims to explore what impact the group coaching 
process had on changes in the women’s leadership effectiveness. The results will 
add to the body of knowledge on group coaching and leadership effectiveness. They 
will also help to inform the practice of effective leadership in organisations, 
particularly for women managers. 
1.2 Context of the study 
After the industrial revolution, the growing size and complexity of organisations made 
it necessary to manage and influence large groups of people towards a common 
goal (Amagoh, 2009; McCallum & O'Connell, 2008). In reality, the practical 
challenges of achieving this are compounded by globalisation, high rates of change 
and demanding, competitive organisational environments (Amagoh, 2009; McCallum 
& O'Connell, 2008; Quatro, Waldman, & Galvin, 2007). Strong leadership is a 
requirement in businesses trying to survive these challenges (Amagoh, 2009) and 
the need for quality leaders is often an organisation’s number one concern (Cormier, 
2007). This is important in South Africa, where there are particularly diverse and 
challenging social contexts to leadership (Stout-Rostron, 2009; Wakahiu, 2011). It is 
also important for women managers in often male dominated organisational cultures, 
as there is an increasing need for stronger leadership in general, as well as 
leadership competencies traditionally regarded as feminine (Eagly & Carli, 2003; 
Hayward, 2005).     
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This need for strong leadership raises many questions about how to best develop 
the skills associated with it. The literature provides some answers to these 
questions. There is a gap in the literature, however, about the emerging practice of 
group coaching and its use in business education programmes. This form of 
intervention is efficient in terms of economies of scale, it incorporates some 
established one-on-one coaching techniques and offers additional benefits such as 
multiple learning partners (Cook & Viedge, 2011; Florent-Treacy, 2009; Kets-de-
Vries, 2010; Thornton, 2010; Vidmar, 2005; Ward, 2008). It is also particularly 
congruent with emerging and current theories on leadership development 
(Hernandez, Eberly, Avolio, & Johnson, 2011).  
A study of the impact of group coaching on leadership effectiveness in a business 
school learning environment will add to the literature concerning leadership and 
coaching. The results of this analysis will be valuable in guiding leadership 
development practice within organisations and for graduate education service 
providers. In post-apartheid South Africa this could support the solving of particularly 
complex social problems. The findings will specifically support the leadership 
development of women managers, which is a social and business imperative.  
1.3 Problem statement 
1.3.1 Main problem 
Assess the impact of group coaching on leadership effectiveness in South African 
women managers. 
1.3.2 Sub-problems 
The first sub-problem is to evaluate how leadership effectiveness in South African 
women managers changes pre and post a six month leadership programme.  
The second sub-problem is to assess the impact of the group coaching component 
of the leadership programme on leadership effectiveness in South African women 
managers.  
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1.3.3 Research Question 1 
How does leadership effectiveness in South African women managers change pre 
and post a six month leadership programme? 
1.3.4 Research Question 2 
How does a group coaching process impact on changes in leadership effectiveness 
in South African women managers?  
1.4 Significance of the study 
Several studies have investigated specific interventions and activities for developing 
leadership effectiveness (George, Sims, Mclean, & Mayer, 2011; Ibarra, Snook, & 
Ramo, 2010), however there is little research on group coaching approaches and the 
roles they could play in enhancing leadership effectiveness. Whilst the available 
literature does indicate that it is an effective model in learning environments, much 
more research is needed. This study fills a gap in the research literature by 
addressing group coaching and its impact on leadership effectiveness. This 
approach deserves attention for three primary reasons: it is more cost-effective than 
individual coaching, it offers similar benefits to individual coaching and it is an 
opportunity for experiential learning in socially interactive and relational group 
context (Hawkins, 2011; Thornton, 2010; Ward, 2008), which is what so much of 
modern leadership is about.  
Business schools develop leadership effectiveness in business people for application 
in the workplace to achieve organisational results. Organisations rely on effective 
leadership to perform well in the current business environment. This study provides 
guidance to education institutions which need to understand effective leadership and 
the interventions which best improve it, including professionals such as coaches and 
graduate education faculty. It also provides guidance to organisations investing in 
external leadership programmes or creating internal leadership development 
programmes for their staff. Finally, it provides guidance to women managers in 
gendered organisational cultures and support for the practice of developing authentic 
leadership in women.    
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1.5 Delimitations of the study 
This research focuses on middle-to-senior managers who attended a leadership 
programme for women at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), in 
Johannesburg, South Africa. It does not address leadership at other levels of 
management (junior management or executive and board level). It also does not 
evaluate leadership effectiveness in men. The study assesses aspects of leadership 
effectiveness that can be addressed through a 360 degree questionnaire from the 
perspectives of participants and those they work with (respondents). The research 
does not observe the application of new skills in the work environment or measure its 
impact on organisational results.  
The questionnaire used in the research has items relating to four sub-categories of 
leadership effectiveness. The first three categories are known as ‘head’ oriented 
leadership behaviours (e.g. strategic items like path-finding and culture-building), 
‘heart’ oriented leadership behaviours (e.g. inspiration factors like beliefs, feelings, 
vision and purpose) and ‘hands’ oriented leadership behaviours (e.g. capability and 
commitment) (Nicholls, 1994). An additional category was later added on ‘impact’ 
oriented leadership behaviours, referring to a leader’s ‘felt’ impact on his/ her 
followers (Cook, Muller, & Cutler, 2005).  
Finally, the research explores the subjective impact of a group coaching process on 
leadership effectiveness for the women managers through interviews. In this section 
of the study, the participants’ own perceptions are explored, but not those of people 
they work with. The group coaching process is part of a broader leadership 
programme but this study does not address the other leadership development 
activities (panel sessions, guest speakers and case studies). 
1.6 Definition of terms 
 Leadership: the use of influence to encourage subordinates’ participation in 
achieving set goals and organisational effectiveness (Amagoh, 2009; 
McCallum & O'Connell, 2008).  
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 Leadership effectiveness: the success in influencing or encouraging 
subordinates’ participation in achieving set goals (Amagoh, 2009; McCallum & 
O'Connell, 2008). 
 Leadership development: planned and systematic efforts to improve the 
effectiveness of leadership (Amagoh, 2009, p. 989).  
 Impact: A measure of the tangible and intangible effects (consequences) of 
one thing's or entity's action or influence upon another 
(BusinessDictionary.com, 2010). 
 Management: Achieving results through others (Peel, 1993). 
 Coaching: A one-on-one partnership using thought-provoking and creative 
processes and practices to support the achievement of change and results for 
clients and to develop and maximise their performance and potential (ICF, 
2011; Rock & Page, 2009; Stout-Rostron, 2006; Whitworth, Kimsey-House, & 
Sandahl, 1998). 
 Executive coaching: Links individual and organisational performance. It is 
regarded as a process of learning that is aimed at helping executives and 
business individuals to enhance their personal growth and improve their 
performance in order to improve the performance of the overall organisation 
(Chapman, 2010; Joo, 2005; Kahn, 2011; Kampa-Kokesch & Anderson, 
2001).  
 Group coaching: A small group of people meeting together in active 
participation for the purpose of learning and developing new capacities and 
skills through exchange and interaction with each other (Thornton, 2010; p. 9). 
 Business School: Educational facility that specialises in the teaching of 
material relevant to businesses or business services 
(BusinessDictionary.com, 2010). 
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1.7 Assumptions 
a. The participants and their respondents will have the time to answer 
questionnaire items and will answer them truthfully and honestly. Incomplete, 
dishonest or biased answers will affect the study’s results and therefore the 
credibility of the study.  
b. The selected participants for the interview process will have enough time and 
enough insight into the group coaching processes and into leadership 
effectiveness to be able to clearly articulate answers to the interview 
questions. Lack of understanding the context of leadership effectiveness and 
group coaching will negatively affect the quality of the study findings. 
c. The sample selected in both components of the research will generally reflect 
the population the study refers to, and their responses will reflect the general 
experiences for woman managers after a group coaching intervention. 
Responses that differ notably from the views of women managers in general 
will skew the findings and reduce the study’s external validity. 
1.8 Ethical considerations and issues 
Full participation information forms and consent forms were given to the participants 
and only those who signed consent were included in the research.  
The participants’ and their respondents’ responses on questionnaires were kept 
confidential and will not be reported in any other way aside from those associated 
with this research.  
At each interview, the participant was again reassured of confidentiality and the 
anonymity of their interview responses. 
They were asked if they were prepared to have the interview voice recorded and 
informed that they may decline if they wish. 
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All use of participant’s data was anonymous: questionnaire responses were not 
associated with participant names, and interview transcriptions were coded by 
number.  
The information was held securely and confidentially while the research was being 
collated. All notes were kept securely. Following the completion of the research all 
material collected will be shredded and destroyed. 
There are no costs to the participant or their respondents associated with this 
research. No negative consequences are expected for the participants or their 
respondents as a result of taking part in this research. Participants were offered 
summaries of the findings on request. 
All participants were informed that they retain the right to have their contributions 
withdrawn at any time prior to the submission of the research. In addition the 
contributor had the right to refuse to answer any question asked on the questionnaire 
or during the interview, or to ask to end the interview at any time. 
The researcher had input on the design process for the leadership development 
programme. The programme design, however, was created initially four years ago 
and any recent changes were finalised before this research commenced.  
  
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2 CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 
2.1 Introduction 
This chapter contains a literature review of the central themes relating to the study. It 
situates the approach to the literature review within a specific paradigm and 
conceptual framework. It then discusses the available literature with respect to the 
importance of leadership in current business realities, theories of leadership 
effectiveness and leadership development and specific leadership issues for women 
managers. Executive coaching is then discussed as one leadership development 
tool. Finally, the available literature on group coaching is examined in relation to 
leadership. The section concludes with a summary of key learnings obtained from 
the literature review and a statement of the study’s research questions. 
2.2 Paradigm  
Paradigms are belief systems that reflect and guide the decisions that researchers 
make (Armitage, 2007). In the social and behavioural sciences these have 
traditionally fallen into two camps known as positivist and constructivist. They are 
associated with quantitative and qualitative approaches respectively, although these 
relationships are not fixed (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). Positivism, in its most basic 
form, is based on the assumption that a researcher is an independent observer of 
the object of enquiry (Chia, 2002). Post-modern constructivism refers to the idea that 
social reality is constructed and the researcher is involved with and affects the 
capturing of real-world happenings (Chia, 2002). This study is based within a 
pragmatist paradigm. Pragmatists link the choice of approach directly to the purpose 
and nature of the research questions posed, which is congruent with the mixed 
approach of both quantitative and qualitative methods taken in practitioner-based 
research, such as this study (Armitage, 2007; Welman & Kruger, 2001). Leadership 
effectiveness is a key component of the study and is a socially constructed reality, in 
that what may be perceived to be effective in one context may not be perceived as 
effective in another. This study therefore lent itself to a post constructivist approach.  
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2.3 Conceptual Framework 
The conceptual framework followed in the literature review is: to introduce the area 
of practice that is of interest as a context to this study; to discuss three key areas of 
the literature that are of importance to this context and to describe the gap in the 
literature that emerges. This gap prompts a specific research question, which, if 
appropriately answered, will contribute to the literature and therefore the area of 
practice.  
The area of practice that this study is concerned with is leadership development in 
business. The literature is first explored with regard to leadership, women in 
leadership and coaching in leadership. Group coaching is identified as a gap in the 
literature and a practice that could have benefits for leadership development. It 
therefore leads to this study’s research question. The study aimed to collect the data, 
analyse it, interpret it and yield findings that help to fill this gap and thereby 
contribute theoretically and practically to leadership development in business. This is 
displayed in Figure 1 and described in more detail below. 
 
Figure 1: Diagrammatic model of conceptual framework 
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The area of practice is leadership development in business environments (see point 
1 in Figure 1). Business today has a certain context that requires strong and effective 
leadership. Therefore organisations and education providers are interested in how 
best to develop effective leadership. This is important in South Africa where the 
socio-political and economic landscape makes effective leadership even more 
complex.  
The literature (see point 2 in Figure 1) is first explored with regard to theories, 
paradigms and philosophies of leadership, as well as various components of 
effective leadership (see point a in Figure 1). Practices and approaches to 
developing effective leadership are also discussed. Secondly, the literature with 
regard to women in leadership is investigated as a specific context that deserves 
attention in modern business environments (see point b in Figure 1). This area of 
literature therefore also adds to the contextual framework that underpins this 
research study. The third area of literature to be discussed is coaching in terms of its 
benefits and limitations for developing effective leaders (see point c in Figure 1). 
Following this, group coaching is highlighted as a useful leadership development 
approach that has similar benefits to individual coaching and some additional 
benefits, but is not yet well researched. Therefore it represents a gap in the literature 
that leads to this study’s research question (see point 3 in Figure 1). This research 
aims to collect the appropriate data, analyse and interpret it correctly (see point 4 in 
Figure 1) and yield findings that contribute to this gap in the literature (see point 5 in 
Figure 1) and which therefore make a significant contribution to the selected area of 
practice: leadership development in business (see point 1 in Figure 1).  
2.4 Background discussion 
There is a rich body of literature discussing the strategic and critical imperative of 
effective leadership for organisations. This literature explores effective leadership as 
crucial for competitive advantage (Day, 2001) and for organisational performance 
and growth (Amagoh, 2009): it is essential to enable organisations to both survive 
and to thrive. Effective leadership is linked to organisational innovation, 
responsiveness to change, creativity and sustained high performance (Amagoh, 
2009). The increase in recent high-profile corporate failures and the economic 
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recession has raised many questions about quality leadership, including the 
challenge of developing holistic and ethical leaders who are equipped to deal with 
the demands of today’s dynamic business environments (McCallum & O'Connell, 
2008).  
There has thus been increasing interest from education practitioners and 
organisations in actively developing leadership effectiveness. This can be seen in 
increased research output and investment into leadership programmes by 
organisations:  the annual spend in 2000 was $50 billion (Day, 2001; Hannum, 2010; 
McCallum & O'Connell, 2008). There are factors specific to the context of women 
managers and their leadership effectiveness, which are just as critical and important 
to understand in order for organisations to succeed (Cormier, 2007; Hayward, 2005; 
Stout-Rostron, 2012).    
There is a gap in the literature on group coaching as a tool to enhance leadership 
effectiveness. Whereas it seems intuitive that group coaching is cost-effective, 
scalable and well-suited to developing leaders, there is not much empirical evidence 
to support this. There is no literature that refers to group coaching as a particularly 
useful developmental tool for women managers. Some key claims about both 
leadership effectiveness and group coaching are, however, obtained from reviewing 
the literature which is described below. 
2.5 Leadership and leadership effectiveness 
2.5.1 Theories of leadership and leadership effectiveness 
Theories of leadership have evolved through several key stages, which to some 
degree parallel changes in society (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2009a). 
Initially, leadership was seen to be individualistic and non-systemic (Dalakoura, 
2009). Leadership paradigms moved from those based on trait theories in the 1930s 
to behavioural theories in the 1950s, both emphasising the attributes of the individual 
leader (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2009a). Also emerging between the 1950s 
and 1970s, cognitive approaches to leadership emphasised the processes of sense-
making and thinking related to leadership (Hernandez, et al., 2011). More recently, 
- 23 - 
leadership theories focussed on effect and the emotions involved in leadership 
(Goleman, 2003). These theories all emphasised either the mechanism by which 
leadership was theorised to be enacted or the processes by which leaders 
influenced their followers (Hernandez, et al., 2011). In this sense, leadership was 
regarded as something one was born with, or something one does.  
Contingency and situational theories arose in response to criticism that trait and 
behaviour models neglected contextual factors. Situational models describe 
leadership effectiveness as dependent on the readiness and abilities of those being 
led (Amagoh, 2009). Contingency models position leadership effectiveness as 
dependent on contexts like global, organisational and social context (Amagoh, 
2009). The 1980s saw the emergence of transformational leadership theories that 
positioned leadership as being about transforming both themselves and their 
followers, moving beyond self-interest for the good of the group, and in that process, 
defining (new) organisational realities (Amagoh, 2009; Stone, Russell, & Patterson, 
2004). Engaging and social leadership theories emerged, which emphasised the 
relational value of engaging with followers (Amagoh, 2009; Kemp, 2009b). These 
latter theories described leadership as something that emerges as a result of 
interactions between the leader, the follower, and their broader contexts. In fact, 
modern theories have extended thinking about the loci or source from which 
leadership arises, from leader, follower and context, to include leader-follower dyads, 
with the focus on the relationship, and the collective. This last loci includes theories 
that focus on the interconnected relationships of people within specific groups (e.g. 
work teams) and which see leadership as a group-level phenomenon (Hernandez, et 
al., 2011).  
Contemporary leadership theories focus on nuanced and complex themes such as 
the leaderplex - a leader’s ability to integrate and differentiate cognitively, 
behaviourally and socially, while taking context into account. These include social 
network theory (LMX), which also focuses on the relationships connecting 
individuals, and the social identity model of leadership effectiveness (SIMOL), which 
explores how leaders are perceived as being leaders within group settings 
(Hernandez, et al., 2011).  There are also more recent, emerging theories of 
leadership based on value-driven leadership; including cross-cultural leadership and 
- 24 - 
authentic leadership theory (George, et al., 2011; Ibarra, et al., 2010). Transcendent 
and spiritual leadership theories highlight interconnected orientations and meaning 
creation, self-transcendence and leadership that leads from all levels of self, others 
and organisation  (Crossan, Vera, & Nanjad, 2008; Howard, Guramatunhu-Mudiwa, 
& White, 2009; Koltko-Rivera, 2006). 
Today, leadership is regarded as a complex multifaceted form of performance 
(Mumford, 2011). Whichever paradigm is used, leadership requires enactment for it 
to have any practical meaning (Day, 2001) and needs to be viewed in an integrated 
way, including both loci (where leadership is ‘located’ or where it comes from) and 
mechanism (how is it transmitted) (Hernandez, et al., 2011). Hernandez et al (2011) 
proposed that integration across theoretical perspectives is necessary, viewing 
leadership across leaders, followers, context and collectives in a comprehensive 
leadership system. It is still most commonly defined, however, in terms of the 
exercise of interpersonal influence to encourage others to participate in achieving set 
organisational goals (Amagoh, 2009, p. 989; McCallum & O'Connell, 2008; Mumford, 
2011).  
2.5.2 Components of leadership effectiveness and factors that impact 
leadership effectiveness  
From the above discussion, leadership effectiveness can be regarded as the degree 
to which there is success in influencing people to strive willingly for group goals. 
Because this is critical to organisations (Amagoh, 2009; Day, 2001; McCallum & 
O'Connell, 2008), they need to understand how to develop successful leadership. It 
is not surprising, given the diversity in leadership theory, that there are also various 
assertions on what and how to influence leadership. Some research focuses on the 
development of the individual leader’s competencies and behaviours, whilst other 
studies emphasise the context, roles and processes of leadership, including 
interpersonal and relational processes (Connelly et al., 2000; Pearce, 2007).  
In several studies there is a suggested need to distinguish between developing 
leader effectiveness as building human capital and developing leadership 
effectiveness as building social capital (Dalakoura, 2009; Day, 2001; McCallum & 
O'Connell, 2008). In this context, human capital refers to intrapersonal competencies 
- 25 - 
such as self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-motivation. Social capital refers to 
relational aspects of leadership like social awareness (empathy, developing of 
others) and social skills (collaboration, open-systems mind-set, building internal and 
external networks and conflict management) (Day, 2001; McCallum & O'Connell, 
2008; Stout-Rostron, 2006). The distinction can be important because social capital 
(interpersonal skills) have sometimes been undervalued in developing leadership 
effectiveness in the past and are especially appropriate for the more modern 
conceptualisations of leadership as collective, relational, contextual and a group-
level phenomonon. Intra-personal and inter-personal competencies are 
complementary, interactive and mutually-reinforcing and both are required for 
effective leadership (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2009b; McCallum & 
O'Connell, 2008). Processes designed to develop leadership effectiveness should 
therefore improve both intra-personal skills and real-time follower-leader dynamics 
(Pearce, 2007). Some useful leadership development processes include 360-degree 
feedback, executive coaching, networking, mentoring, job assignment, experiential 
learning, simulations, action learning and classroom training (Dalakoura, 2009; Day, 
2001; Solansky, 2010).  
An integrated model of leadership effectiveness such as the ‘head, heart and hands’ 
model (Nicholls, 1994) is a useful way to regard leadership behaviours. This model 
presents three categories of leadership behaviours in head themes, hands themes 
and heart themes (Nicholls, 1994). 360 degree questionnaires on leadership are 
sometimes based on this model as it encompasses a fairly comprehensive set of 
leadership behaviour components (Cook, 2011). The model has also been extended 
by some practitioners to include ‘impact’ factors: how the follower experiences or is 
impacted by the leader (Cook, 2011). 
Recently, identity based leadership models describe leadership development as 
experiences which facilitate identity transitions related to the changing role of leader 
(Ibarra, 2004;  Ibarra, et al., 2010). Factors that support these transitions are a safe 
space to participate in social experiences that help individuals experiment with 
possible identities in the presence of a coach and peers (Ibarra, et al., 2010). 
Authentic leadership (AL) and the need for a genuine and values-based expression 
of effective leadership is also emphasised today, partly spurred by concerns about 
- 26 - 
ethical leadership as a result of government and corporate misconduct (Avolio & 
Gardner, 2005; Gardner, Cogliser, Davis, & Dickens, 2011). Supportive factors in 
authenticity-based leadership development are encouraging awareness and 
demonstration of personal context through, for example, one’s life story, values, 
purpose and actions to empower others (George, et al., 2011). Post-apartheid South 
Africa has diversity-related complexities, including race, gender, religion, culture, 
values, beliefs and language (language often informing worldviews). Leading in this 
multicultural and diverse context calls for particular skills in handling complexity, 
exercising empathy, perspective, restraint in judgement and open mindedness 
(Stout-Rostron, 2009). 
Finally, as leadership is defined as influencing others towards group goals, there has 
to be an interpersonal and organisational context to the application for it to be 
regarded as effective (Day, 2001). Therefore, a critical aspect of successful 
leadership development initiatives is how they encourage participants to reflect on 
what they’ve learnt and transfer that learning to others and integrate it into work 
contexts (Amagoh, 2009; Dalakoura, 2009). In general, leadership activities need to 
be integrated and applied by organisations and inside organisations to be relevant 
(Amagoh, 2009; Day, 2001; McCallum & O'Connell, 2008). This study focuses on 
developing leadership effectiveness in the context of a business school learning 
environment and does not deal specifically with organisational implementation. 
However, leadership development within the business school environment is 
designed in such a way that an underlying assumption is that the learning and 
leadership effectiveness would extend to the organisational context. 
2.5.3 Women and leadership effectiveness 
There is a context to being a woman manager in current business environments that 
deserves to be highlighted. Women still occupy fewer senior management jobs than 
men globally (Hayward, 2005; Karelaia & Guillén, 2011; Stout-Rostron, 2012) and 
the higher the level, the more men there are comparatively (Zenger & Folkman, 
2012). The gendered organisation is a term that refers to organisational cultures 
based on values and norms that are male dominated (Clark & Kleyn, 2011; Hayward, 
2005; Stout-Rostron, 2012). The glass ceiling is still a real phenomenon which for 
- 27 - 
many women is a source of career frustration and keeps them in jobs seen as less 
valued (Hannum, 2010; Stout-Rostron, 2012).  
Women can experience unfairly prejudiced assessments of their leadership abilities 
in these masculine contexts (Eagly & Carli, 2003; Schein, 2007; Schein & Davidson, 
1993). Moreover, many women feel they have to adopt a traditionally masculine style 
of leadership to be competitive rather than developing their own authentic skills 
(Hayward, 2005; Stout-Rostron, 2009). Fewer positions at senior levels means fewer 
opportunities for women to learn and grow from experience and fewer relevant role 
models and mentors to guide their growth (Noe, 1988). Women are, however, highly 
rated as leaders in studies comparing their leadership competencies to men (Zenger 
& Folkman, 2012), and yet often opt out to join entrepreneurial ventures as a result 
of relatively little structural support and the pressure to prove themselves against 
corporate gender biases (Clark & Kleyn, 2011; Mainiero & Sullivan, 2005; Stout-
Rostron, 2012; Zenger & Folkman, 2012). 
Africa also has traditional customs and norms which associate women with being 
homemakers, which makes it more difficult for them to progress to senior levels in 
business (Stout-Rostron, 2009). The development of leadership skills in women in 
developing countries like those in Sub-Saharan Africa are essential for community-
building and progress in these countries (Wakahiu, 2011). South Africa is regarded 
as one of the most progressive countries in terms of gender representation, but it is 
still a serious issue (Stout-Rostron, 2009). 
This could impact negatively on organisations. Women may be particularly effective 
in some modern work environments where traditionally feminine leadership skills are 
essential for companies to succeed (for example self-development and integrity, 
developing others, relationships and sensitivity to diverse needs) (Eagly & Carli, 
2003; Hayward, 2005). Aside from more feminine competencies however, women 
are also rated as exemplary leaders generally, including in some traditionally 
masculine competencies like taking initiative and driving for results (Zenger & 
Folkman, 2012). In an economy struggling with issues of ethics, sustainability, 
turbulence, productivity and profitability, we simply cannot afford not to leverage this 
talent. There may be specific approaches to developing leadership effectiveness that 
- 28 - 
are particularly useful for women. It is important that learning institutions focus 
attention on enabling and leveraging authentically expressed leadership in women. 
2.6 Coaching and leadership effectiveness 
2.6.1 Executive coaching and leadership effectiveness 
Individual coaching has its roots in several fields that emerged following the 
enlightenment and in (and alongside) the shift from mechanistic to systemic ways of 
thinking (Rock & Page, 2009). These include social sciences such as anthropology, 
sociology, early 20th century psychology and psychotherapy, adult learning, sports 
coaching and organisational development (Stout-Rostron, 2006). Discoveries in 
neuroscience, complex systems and quantum physics highlighted the concept of 
volition and the possibility that an individual’s observational attention could affect the 
outcome of neuronal activity. Advanced findings in neurobiology also highlighted a 
major function of the brain as enabling social participation (Rock & Page, 2009). 
These findings and theories helped to inform what coaching is today and modern 
thinking about coaching is therefore built on paradigms of wellness creation, the 
power of choice and positivity (for example in solution-centred and positive 
psychologies), emotional intelligence and learned optimism as abilities that can be 
learnt and social learning (Rock & Page, 2009).  
Executive and business coaching link individual and organisational performance and 
success: they are regarded as processes of learning that are aimed at helping 
executives and business individuals enhance their personal growth and improve their 
performance in order to improve the performance of the overall organisation 
(Chapman, 2010; Joo, 2005; Kahn, 2011; Kampa-Kokesch & Anderson, 2001). 
Executive coaching emerged as a developmental activity for leaders and managers 
specifically in the late 1980s and is intended to help executives become more 
effective leaders (Nelson & Hogan, 2009; Stout-Rostron, 2006). With the transition 
from command-control management styles of the past to an emphasis on managing 
interpersonal relationships, coaching became a strategic imperative to business and 
a crucial leadership development tool (Dalakoura, 2009; Day, 2001; Kets-de-Vries, 
2010; Solansky, 2010). Classroom teaching and coaching may form an effective 
- 29 - 
combination for leadership development; where teaching might focus on the 
‘knowing’ component of leadership, coaching is well designed to focus on the ‘doing’ 
and ‘being’ components of leadership (Cook & Viedge, 2011). 
In more modern contexts, with the global economic crash of 2008 and governance of 
some global organisations being questioned, sustainable, ethical and courageous 
leadership is being demanded (Kemp, 2009). There is now compounded pressure on 
executives to accommodate the pace of change and present-day realities while still 
achieving bottom-line targets (Kets-de-Vries, 2010). Executive coaching may identify 
dysfunctional dispositions that could result in destructive behaviours and may also 
use structured assessments and work with strengths to achieve positive, sustained 
change in behaviour for impact on the organisation (Goldsmith, 2009; Linley, 
Woolston, & Biswas-Diener, 2009; Nelson & Hogan, 2009). Its success in doing so 
seems indicated by the uptake in organisations: the coaching industry generates 
approximately $1.5 billion annually and 25%-40% of Fortune 500 companies 
regularly use executive coaches (Britton, 2010). The case for executive coaching in 
improving organisational and leadership effectiveness is certainly compelling (Wood 
& Gordon, 2009). 
2.6.2 Group coaching and leadership effectiveness 
Group coaching is a comparatively new mode of coaching with a relative lack of 
theoretical and practical guides (Brown & Grant, 2010; Thornton, 2010; Ward, 2008) 
and a measure of controversy that typically accompanies an emerging practice. It 
extracts and builds on value from three fields: individual executive coaching, learning 
facilitation, and group analysis or group process. It is defined as, “a small group of 
people meeting together in active participation on several occasions for the purpose 
of learning, including developing new capacities and skills. Participants learn through 
exchange and interaction with each other” (Thornton, 2010, p. 9). 
The fundamentals are expressed in the above definition and in its name. The 
emphasis is on the word ‘coaching’, which expresses two points: Firstly that 
coaching principles and skills (especially a focus on goals) are core and differentiate 
group coaching from group therapy. Secondly, that individual learning is the focus of 
group coaching even though this occurs through group interaction and in fact relies 
- 30 - 
on the active involvement of the group as participants (Britton, 2010; Brown & Grant, 
2010; Thornton, 2010; Woodhead, 2011). The group members become ‘assistant 
coaches’ to each other, supporting growth through trust and empathy and 
opportunities for learning can be multiplied by the number of individuals and 
relationships in the group and through collective wisdom and support (Florent-
Treacy, 2009; Thornton, 2010; Ward, 2008). Group coaching provides a space 
where interpersonal dynamics can play out, boundaries are set, roles are adopted 
and patterns of interaction are explored (Kets-de-Vries, 2010). The word ‘group’ 
indicates the distinction from individual coaching and the implied inclusion of group 
dynamics and facilitated adult group learning principles with their concomitant 
philosophical roots in adult learning and group analysis. These are discussed in 
more detail below. 
Historically theories about adult learning emerged with a focus on cognitive 
psychological functioning. These then evolved into specific ideas on active, 
experiential learning models and group facilitation as more effective ways of 
supporting adults to learn compared to traditional instructional training. Group 
facilitation theories (building on social identity theory, group analysis and therapy) 
emphasised the power of social learning (Britton, 2010; Brookfield, 2000; Rock & 
Page, 2009; Tusting & Barton, 2003). 
Group dynamics, concerned with small group behaviour, may be a unique 
differentiator in group coaching from the more traditional dyadic coaching and is a 
well-researched and documented subject. Much has been learnt about group 
dynamics from group analysis, an internationally established discipline with 70 years 
of practice-based theoretical literature and which involves intangible aspects of 
human interaction (Goldberg, 2003; Nichol, 1997; Thornton, 2010; Ward, 2008). 
Specifically, group dynamics theory and practice has supported an understanding of 
interpersonal processes such as mirroring, transference, reflection, translation, 
condenser phenomena, projection and location (Thornton, 2010; Yalom, 1995). 
Skilfully implemented, a process involving group dynamics can significantly 
accelerate  transformation (Ward, 2008). A group can also do what an individual 
coach cannot, by providing transpersonal network, that reacts and responds as an 
interacting unit (Thornton, 2010; Ward, 2008). Group coaching can use many of the 
- 31 - 
skills and approaches of coaching and can also make use of group dynamic 
processes to a greater or lesser degree. It is an elegant mix of these ways of thinking 
and is designed to support a solutions-oriented approach in a socially complex and 
hyper connected world. 
Group coaching takes place either in organisational teams or in groups formed for 
the purpose of learning (Hawkins, 2011; Thornton, 2010). Research indicates that 
60% of group coaching is designed for intact teams, referred to as team coaching, 
and 40% targets groups who come together for the purpose of learning, referred to 
as learning-group coaching (Hawkins, 2011; Thornton, 2010). In team coaching, 
members have shared goals related to their function as an intact working team. In 
learning-group coaching, members come together as relative strangers and the 
purpose is more explicitly self-directed learning of its members using the variety of 
individual goals in a cross-fertilising learning experience. For the purpose of this 
research the aim was not to see if there was a difference between team and 
learning-group coaching. There are four commonly referenced examples of learning 
groups: action learning sets, Balint groups, professional development groups and 
supervision groups (Britton, 2010; Thornton, 2010a). According to Britton, a pure 
group coaching model is one where each person also gets a certain amount of 
individual coaching time during the session, known as laser-coaching, although other 
authors differ on this point (Thornton, 2010a; Britton, 2010). Group coaching 
sessions are also increasingly popular additions to training and management 
development programmes and can focus on deepening, personalising, and making 
sense and meaning of learning material, as well as leveraging collective wisdom and 
social capital in new ways (Thornton, 2010).  
Variations in group size, length of engagement, diversity, stability, membership and 
purpose all affect how the group coach can work and what tools and techniques they 
will choose to use. A coach’s selection of tools may depend on whether they are 
coaching a group as a set of individuals, or coaching a group as an existing system. 
With the former, the recommended approach is that some design with themes is 
important as a common anchor for participants. With the latter, there may be more 
emphasis on group process, problem-solving or coaching the group towards the 
- 32 - 
group’s vision, values and goals (Britton, 2010; Kets-de-Vries, 2011; Thornton, 
2010a).  
Many of the tools are shared with individual coaching models. Examples are 360 
degree questionnaires, MAPP (Motivational Appraisal of Personal Potential), 
StrengthsFinder and the Myers Briggs Type Indicator. There are also tools that are 
particularly helpful in the context of team-coaching, either because they focus on 
team relationships or are well matched to the leadership and organisational context 
of work, for example the Leadership Practices Inventory, Team Diagnostic, Belbin 
Team Roles and systems analysis tools (Brown & Grant, 2010; Kets-de-Vries, 2011; 
Thornton, 2010). Some tools or concepts have also been developed especially for 
the context of group coaching, for example laser coaching and ORSC (Organisation 
and Relationship Systems Coaching) (Britton, 2010; Thornton, 2010). 
Group coaching may be especially useful in modern business contexts and 
management and leadership theory has in turn become more concerned with 
effective team and organisational functioning and the application of learning to 
systemic workplace results. Business schools can make use of group coaching 
processes in small group syndicates which are designed to allow half-formed 
insights to mature, provide affirmation and clarity around taught knowledge and allow 
peers to collaborate and share ideas and observations (Cook & Viedge, 2011; 
Vidmar, 2005). Globalisation has also encouraged openness to diverse perspectives 
and along with more sophisticated understanding of systems, complexity and social 
cognitive neuroscience, has allowed an elaboration of how people function and learn 
in groups. More recently, the challenging economic circumstances of 2008-2009 led 
to a softening of funds for learning and development across most industries (Britton, 
2010; Goldberg, 2003).  
Given these contexts, there is an economic, business and learning case for group 
coaching. It is more time efficient and cost-effective than individual coaching, offers 
similar benefits to individual coaching and utilises the collective wisdom of a group 
(Brown & Grant, 2010). It generates scalability and reach with respect to both 
business and learning impact. Paradoxically, it may be in groups that we can learn to 
most fully be ourselves. As we become aware that other people differ from us but are 
no better or worse than us, our differences can define our individuality (Thornton, 
- 33 - 
2010). While group coaching is becoming more popular in North America, Europe 
and Australasia (Britton, 2010; Woodhead, 2011), there is a gap in the literature 
referring to its theory and practice, and traditional dyadic coaching is still the most 
pervasive format of delivery (Brown & Grant, 2010; Thornton, 2010; Ward, 2008). A 
literature and internet search for this study yielded only a handful of peer-reviewed 
journal articles and even fewer books dealing specifically with group coaching. 
Despite this, research clearly demonstrates a link between interpersonal learning 
processes and an organisation’s ability to learn (Senge, 1996; Thornton, 2010). In 
addition, sustainable changes in leadership behaviour have been shown to 
sometimes be more likely to occur in group leadership coaching settings than 
individual coaching settings (Britton, 2010; Ibarra, et al., 2010; Kets-de-Vries, 2010; 
Mthembu, 2007; Thornton, 2010). Since effective leadership is ultimately about the 
ability to interact with and influence others, groups are an effective way to develop 
these competencies, mirroring the relational context that leadership naturally occurs 
in (Thornton, 2010; Woodhead, 2011). Some of the factors in a group coaching 
format that can support leadership growth are mutual accountability and commitment 
and the presence of assistant coaches and ‘sparring partners’ to dialogue with, 
challenge and give feedback to. Group coaching provides a space where real 
interpersonal dynamics can play out (Kets-de-Vries, 2010) and provides members 
with opportunities to identify and set goals related to a purpose larger than their 
individual selves (Kets-de-Vries, 2010; Thornton, 2010).  
Ward claims that coaching executives in groups to leverage their collective 
experience and support for each other is a powerful transformation tool for 
executives (Ward, 2008). Alternative reference groups may also be especially 
important for women who work in male dominated organisations, where existing role 
models may not be regarded as appropriate for their own development (Ibarra, et al., 
2010). 
2.7 Conclusion of literature review 
The literature review highlights the nature of leadership as a complex and 
multifaceted concept. Key concepts in the literature about leadership explore it as 
- 34 - 
being about the individual leader and also about the relationship between leader and 
follower and collective interdependent relationships. It is dependent on context and 
situation, and is about transforming people and organisational realities and achieving 
relevant results. Leadership effectiveness is doing this successfully and is critical in 
complex modern business environments. Certainly, the literature points to the 
outcome that organisations are therefore investing time and money into programmes 
designed to improve leadership effectiveness.  
These leadership effectiveness programmes vary, in part, as a result of the 
paradigms by which they are informed. Processes may focus on improving intra-
personal competencies, the authenticity of the leader, their ability to manage change, 
context and multiple relationships, their social competencies or ability to achieve 
results. These are also explored as inter-related and diverse themes in the literature. 
Leadership is usually referred to in terms of the use of influence to encourage 
participation in achieving organisational effectiveness (Amagoh, 2009; McCallum & 
O'Connell, 2008; Mumford, 2011). One contemporary model: the ‘Head, heart, 
hands’ model (Nicholls, 1994), is highlighted as useful in a teaching environment and 
incorporates a comprehensive set of effective leadership behaviours (Nicholls, 
1994). 
Business schools are learning environments in which leadership programmes are 
designed and implemented. While these institutions cannot fully incorporate the 
systemic context of each participant, they are tasked with creating programmes that 
are appropriate to organisational contexts and will have business impact. They aim 
to do this by developing relevant leadership competencies that not only focus on the 
‘knowing’, but also the ‘doing’ and ‘being’ of leadership and facilitate the transfer of 
learning onto others and into the workplace.  
Leadership effectiveness may be contextually nuanced for women managers as a 
result of there still being fewer senior women managers than men, who often 
function in male dominated organisations with pressure to adopt masculine 
leadership styles (Hayward, 2005; Stout-Rostron, 2009, 2012). This is still the norm, 
despite a global need for general leadership competence and in some cases a 
specific need for more feminine leadership qualities (Eagly & Carli, 2003; Hayward, 
- 35 - 
2005). Women need development opportunities that will help them mitigate, be 
effective and shine in these contexts.    
Specific practices have been explored as beneficial in supporting leadership 
development, including executive coaching and activities associated with coaching. 
The existing literature on group coaching suggests that it is cost-effective and 
supports leaders to become more effective in a social, relational context that informs 
so much of what organisational leadership is about today. In addition, it is suggested 
that there are several factors inherent to the design of group coaching processes 
that support leadership development. Despite the body of knowledge around 
leadership effectiveness and the connection of executive coaching to leadership 
effectiveness, there is little literature to provide evidence of the impact of group 
coaching on leadership effectiveness. There is a need to delve deeper into the 
concept of group coaching as a practice, to define it further and to clarify its value for 
specific contexts like leadership effectiveness and for specific population groups like 
women leaders.   
2.7.1 Research Question 1: 
How does leadership effectiveness in South African women managers change pre 
and post a six month leadership programme? 
2.7.2 Research Question 2 
How does a group coaching process impact on changes in leadership effectiveness 
in South African women managers?  
  
- 36 - 
 
3 CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 
This chapter describes the methodological approaches used in this study. The 
literature review formed a theoretical basis for asking the research questions posed 
in the previous chapter. This section now discusses the methodology utilised to 
investigate those questions.  Literature on qualitative and quantitative methods is 
reviewed and the selected mixed methods research design is then outlined. The 
instruments used are described, followed by a discussion of the data collection, 
analysis and interpretation. Finally, a summary of the study limitations is presented 
and the issues of validity and reliability as they relate to this research are discussed. 
3.1 Research methodology/ paradigm 
This research study makes use of both qualitative and quantitative methodologies in 
a mixed methods approach, as the two methods appropriately operationalise the two 
sub-questions posed. Quantitative methods are used to investigate change in 
leadership effectiveness, while qualitative methods are used to deepen the 
perceived understanding of changes in leadership effectiveness and explore the 
impact of group coaching on leadership effectiveness. 
The purpose of quantitative research is to determine the extent of a phenomenon 
numerically and deals with the numerical analysis of data (Blumberg, Cooper, & 
Schindler, 2005; Johnson & Harris, 2003). As the first sub-question in this research 
is to measure the average extent of change in leadership effectiveness after a 
leadership programme, a quantitative approach was selected (Blumberg, et al., 
2005). Because quantitative research allows data to be collected and analysed as 
numbers it is regarded as more empirical; an advantage being that it is less 
dependent on the researcher’s interpretative skill. A disadvantage is that there is a 
danger of the researcher becoming too focused on the numbers to the exclusion of 
their meaning (Johnson & Harris, 2003). This study could have aimed to describe the 
change in leadership effectiveness experienced by the women, however it is more 
concerned with numerical averages to indicate whether, and in what direction, 
- 37 - 
change occurred. It therefore makes use of a questionnaire that gives access to an 
average measure of change, across a large sample group (62 women) and their 
respondants. 
Qualitative methods use data to provide a greater understanding of a concept rather 
than a precise measurement (Johnson & Harris, 2003). The focus is therefore not on 
numbers but on words, descriptions and interpretations to explore and clarify 
qualities associated with a situation (Blumberg, et al., 2005; Johnson & Harris, 2003; 
White, 2002). It is often used to generate theory where little concrete knowledge is 
available. It is also used in complex, causally ambiguous areas, which the field of 
business management often lends itself to (Johnson & Harris, 2003). Since the 
second sub-problem in this research is to interpret and describe the impact of group 
coaching on leadership effectiveness, a qualitative methodology was selected for 
this aspect of the study. The study could have made use of a questionnaire to 
assess a consistent measure of group coaching impact across all the women. 
However, there is relatively little known about group coaching so an interpretive 
methodology was chosen to gain deeper insights and develop some ideas about this 
area in order that they are available for future empirical testing. 
A disadvantage of qualitative methods is that there are multiple interpretations 
available in the data. The challenge is to provide the most compelling interpretation 
of the data by paying attention to transparency and trustworthiness (Johnson & 
Harris, 2003). However, qualitative approaches are also better designed to see the 
world from the view of the participant. They can be executed in a relatively 
unstructured format to answer more than the questions originally posed, allowing 
further information to emerge (Johnson & Harris, 2003). They can therefore provide 
very rich datasets.  
The Journal of Mixed Methods Research has defined mixed methods as research in 
which the researcher collects, analyses and interprets data using both qualitative 
and quantitative approaches in a single study (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). Mixed 
Methods has emerged as an alternative to the dichotomy of qualitative and 
quantitative traditions and acknowledges the value that both approaches have to 
offer in studies where this is pragmatically appropriate, such as this one (Teddlie & 
Tashakkori, 2009). 
- 38 - 
3.2 Research Design 
To assess change in leadership effectiveness, this study uses a basic comparative 
design in the form of a one-group pre-test-post-test, with the same group being pre-
tested by a questionnaire before and after the intervention (leadership development 
programme). The 62 women who completed the Leading Women programme were 
given an information sheet and a letter of consent to complete if they chose to take 
part in the study. Summated scores were calculated for each questionnaire 
administration for all the participants who gave consent (51) to take part in the 
questionnaire study. Summated scores were also calculated for the chosen 
respondents (those who work with them) who responded to the 360 degree aspect of 
the questionnaire for each participant. The proportion and degree of change was 
then statistically computed between the two questionnaire instances, which occurred 
six months apart.  
This comparison was computed for the difference in self-scores, the difference in 
manager respondent scores (the participant’s line managers), and the difference in 
‘other’ (subordinates, peers and colleagues) scores between the two instances. 
There are therefore three average scores of change calculated. Questionnaires allow 
for structured data and direct comparisons, but only collect data for the questions 
asked (Johnson & Harris, 2003). Causal associations cannot be attributed 
specifically to any one aspect of the leadership programme, as these variables are 
not controlled for in this study. However the aim of this design is to be able to 
describe how leadership effectiveness changes, not to attribute causality.  The 
design is therefore appropriate for the aim of this part of the study - to yield data that 
provided for descriptive statistical analysis, not for inferential statistical analysis.  
To answer the second research sub-question, a simple interpretive design was used 
with semi-structured interviews on a sub-sample of the participants. Twelve percent 
(six) of the women were invited to take part. The disadvantages of this include the 
potential impact of the researcher on the research, causal ambiguity and multiple 
interpretations available in the data (Johnson & Harris, 2003). Semi-structured 
interviews however, allowed for rich interpretive datasets from the perspective of the 
interviewees. 
- 39 - 
3.3 Population and sample 
3.3.1 Population 
The population frame consists of upper-middle to senior level women managers in 
business organisations in Johannesburg, South Africa.  
3.3.2 Sample and sampling method 
All 62 of the participants who completed a leadership programme called ‘Leading 
Women’ at GIBS in 2010 were invited to take part in the questionnaire part of the 
study. The criteria for selection onto the programme when it began in April 2010 
included: being upper-middle to senior level managers in organisations; at least five 
years’ experience at this level; demonstrated potential to serve in leadership 
capacities and being able to commit to one three-hour session in the late afternoon, 
once a month. The programme at the business school was also designed specifically 
for women and only women were accepted to take part. Therefore the sample is a 
convenience sample obtained in such a manner that it is regarded as representative 
of the relevant population (Johnson & Harris, 2003; White, 2002).  
The sampling procedure used in this research is non-probability sampling as the 
probability that any element from the population frame will be included cannot be 
specific (Teddlie & Tashakkori, 2009). The women were invited to take part in the 
questionnaire process for their own growth as part of the leadership programme. 
However only the data of those who gave their consent to have their responses used 
in this research (51) were analysed in the study. 
In the qualitative section of this research, a sample of six women, corresponding to 
an acceptable 12% proportion, were randomly extracted from the group of women 
attending the programme, to be interviewed. The sample was checked to ensure it 
proportionately reflected the characteristics of the broader group from which it was 
drawn (Johnson & Harris, 2003). 
 
- 40 - 
Table 1: Profile of women participants at a leadership programme designed for 
women managers at GIBS 
Company represented Number  
Adonis Events 
Anglo Platinum 
Angloplat 
Barloworld 
Being a Woman Development Practitioners 
Catholic Medical Mission Board 
Electronic Media Network 
Ernst & Young 
Eskom 
FNB 
GIBS 
Grinaker-LTA Civil Engineering 
IDC 
M-Net 
MultiChoice  
Nampak Tissue 
National Business Initiative  
Neotel 
Nestle 
NetPartnering 
Oracle Airtime Sales 
SAB 
SABMiller 
SARS 
Sasol Polymers Technology Service Centre (PTSC) 
Standard Bank 
Supersport International 
Technology Innovation Agency 
Vodacom 
1 
2 
9 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
2 
3 
1 
1 
6 
1 
6 
1 
1 
6 
1 
1 
2 
6 
3 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
1 
- 41 - 
3.4 The research instrument 
A questionnaire (administered online and by email) and a semi-structured interview 
schedule were used as instruments in this research (White, 2002).  
3.4.1 Questionnaire 
A questionnaire is a data gathering device that consists of a series of questions with 
a number of alternative answers to choose from, which generates data in a 
systematic and ordered fashion (Johnson & Harris, 2003; White, 2002). 
The questionnaire used in this study was a self-completion Likert-style questionnaire, 
and was used in both the pre-test and the post-test. It consisted of a 50-item self-
report questionnaire that has been used many times in the GIBS learning 
environment to assess leadership effectiveness. The items were originally designed 
using a ‘head, heart and hands’, model, assessing leadership behaviours that fall 
into head themes (strategic direction, path-finding and culture-building), hands 
themes (capability and commitment) and heart themes (inspiration, beliefs, feelings, 
vision and purpose) (Nicholls, 1994). The questionnaire was designed by Jonathan 
Cook (Executive Director at The Gordon Institute of Business Science) and Thornhill 
Associates. The same 50-item questionnaire was reworded, and with an additional 
12 items, was used to provide 360-degree feedback to the participants from 
colleagues that work with them. The 12 additional items were to do with impact: how 
the follower experiences the leader’s impact (Cook, 2011).   
In several questionnaire development sessions held with Jonathan Cook and a 
programme management team at GIBS, the items were tested against the 
leadership effectiveness constructs that this study aimed to investigate. The items 
included constructs on intra-personal competencies, inter-personal competencies, 
contextual intelligence, ability to transfer learning, authenticity, and capacity to 
implement changes and achieve results. The questionnaire was then adapted 
slightly for this specific study: The language was changed to refer to women only 
(‘she’ as pronouns) and certain items were adapted for use with a women-only group 
of managers. Two items that refer to authenticity were also added as they were felt 
to be missing. 
- 42 - 
In all 62 items, respondents were asked to respond on a seven-point Likert scale, the 
points being seldom effective, sometimes effective, adequately effective, effective, 
very effective, often a strength, always a strength. The questionnaire took 
approximately 15 minutes to complete. An introduction was also included to fully 
describe the purpose, objectives, instructions and contact details for the researcher. 
The items of the full 360-degree version of the 62-item questionnaire are listed in 
Appendix A. 
An advantage of questionnaires is that they are relatively inexpensive and are quick 
and easy to administer and distribute. The questionnaire development process, 
however, can require time and attention and needs to be done correctly (Remenyi, 
2011). This questionnaire is not a validated instrument but there were no leadership 
effectiveness questionnaires available that suited the research agenda, and this one 
was more suitable to yield data relevant to the research question. The questionnaire 
has been field tested many times in a business school learning environment. 
Response rates can sometimes be low on questionnaires, but this questionnaire was 
also being used in a self-development session on the leadership programmes, and it 
was expected that this incentive would improve response rates without skewing 
responses.   
3.4.2 Interviews 
In the qualitative research section of this study, semi-structured face-to-face 
individual interviews were conducted to assess perceived impact of a group 
coaching process on leadership effectiveness. This is a research technique where 
verbal data is gathered from a knowledgeable informant in order to obtain insightful 
data about the research problem (Remenyi, 2011). Nine semi-structured questions 
were asked in each interview. Seven open questions and two ranking questions 
were asked. The disadvantages of interview methods are that data depends on the 
recollections of past events (Remenyi, 2011) and could be affected by researcher 
bias. The data collected was reflected on to limit any researcher bias in the reporting 
of the interviews (Remenyi, 2011). The interviews were also written up immediately 
after each interview to minimise recall errors.  
- 43 - 
The advantages of interviews are that the participants are able to talk through issues 
and topics in their own time and explore other subjects, giving access to their 
perspectives and meanings (White, 2002). In addition, the researcher can re-word or 
re-order the questions if unexpected information emerges (White, 2002). A further 
advantage is that the researcher should be learning and improving their technique as 
the interviews progress, yielding richer data in subsequent interviews (Remenyi, 
2011). The interview questions were designed to explore the perceived impact that 
group coaching had on leadership development for the women participants and to 
assess which sessions and processes had the greatest impact. The ranking 
questions, which ask for items to be ranked numerically, also strengthened the 
descriptive data obtained (Remenyi, 2011). The questions for the semi-structured 
interview are listed in Appendix B.  
3.5 Procedure for data collection 
3.5.1 Questionnaire 
The leadership development programme at GIBS is designed as a session once a 
month over six months. Each session consists of a plenary section (case studies and 
guest speakers), followed by a structured group coaching session. At the start of the 
programme, the women managers were each invited to identify several respondents 
to complete the online 360 degree leadership effectiveness questionnaire described 
above. They were asked to include their direct manager, peers and subordinates in 
their group of respondents. They also completed the questionnaires themselves. 
Those women who chose to take part in the research study were also given an 
information sheet and consent form to sign. The same raters were approached for 
the post-test ratings, which were conducted six months after the leadership 
programme came to an end. The ratings of only those raters whose data was 
available for both administrations of the questionnaire was used. The questionnaire 
is provided in Appendix A. 
- 44 - 
3.5.2 Interviews 
After completion of the leadership programme, six women were selected using 
random number tables to take part in interviews. These women were approached 
and given an information form and a consent form and an interview was scheduled 
with each. At each interview, the participant was again reassured of confidentiality 
and anonymity and six interview questions were asked. The researcher took notes 
and voice recorded the interviews unobtrusively. The questions were also fine-tuned 
as the interviews progressed. Field notes and observations were recorded at each 
interview. The interview data was stored securely after the interviews and 
anonymised (Remenyi, 2011). The interview schedule is provided in Appendix B.  
3.6 Data analysis and interpretation 
The quantitative section of this research employed a questionnaire with ranked 
ordinal data. Survey questionnaires are the most common form of quantitative 
management research and they are often of a higher level than ordinal data. They 
cannot be considered interval and are therefore sometimes referred to as scalar data 
(Johnson & Harris, 2003).  
Hennie Gerber from Statistical Consulting Services was consulted for assistance on 
the quantitative analyses. Item analysis was conducted on the average responses of 
the pre-programme questionnaire items to assess the reliability via Cronbach’s Alpha 
values of the different dimensions or constructs (‘Head, ‘heart-enable self’, ‘heart-
enable others’,’ heart-enable group and organisation’, ‘leadership impact’) in the 
questionnaire. Reliability refers to the consistency, stability or reproducibility of 
measurement: the degree to which an instrument consistently measures what the 
designer needed to measure, the same way each time it is used under the same 
condition with the same subjects (Blumberg, et al., 2005).  
Mean and standard deviations were then computed for each construct for self-ratings 
and for respondent ratings and for both the pre-programme and post-programme 
questionnaire administration. These were then compared statistically using two t-
tests to determine if there was a difference between the means of the pre-group and 
post-group summated scores for self-perceptions and perceptions of ‘other’ 
- 45 - 
respondents (Johnson & Harris, 2003). The analysis therefore yielded two average 
mean change scores: one describing change in self-rating over the two 
administrations, and one describing change in 360 degree respondents ratings over 
the two administrations. The scores of respondents who identified themselves 
specifically as the participant’s managers were also compared over the two 
administrations. 
In the qualitative (descriptive interview) section of this research, a simple 
interpretative approach was taken and thematic analysis conducted to uncover 
repeated patterns of meaning (themes) (Johnson & Harris, 2003). Thematic analysis 
is a process of searching across a dataset to identify, analyse and report on 
repeated patterns of living and/ or behaviour within a dataset (Aronson, 2011; Braun 
& Clarke, 2006).  
Once data was collected from the six interviews a transcript was created from each 
interview. Patterns of experience and features of interest (codes) were then listed 
from the transcribed conversations and all data that related to these was identified 
across the entire dataset and all participants’ datasets (Aronson, 2011; Braun & 
Clarke, 2006). Codes refer to the raw data in the most basic segments that can be 
meaningfully assessed and that relate to the phenomenon of interest (Braun & 
Clarke, 2006). 
These codes were then combined and catalogued into sub-themes or groups that 
capture related patterns of experience and meaning (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Sub-
themes were then gathered together as themes (Aronson, 2011). A theme “captures 
something important about the data in relation to the research question and 
represents a patterned response or meaning within the dataset and across the 
participants” (Braun & Clarke, 2006, p. 10). Essentially the data was at this point 
beginning to be analysed and some level of interpretation was therefore inherent 
(Braun & Clarke, 2006). The data was then read and re-read exploring thematic 
relationships between themes and levels of themes in an on-going reflexive 
researcher dialogue (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Once a broad level of themes was 
extracted, they were checked for coherence and identifiable distinction in relation to 
the whole dataset, the research questions, and the literature dataset (Aronson, 2011; 
Braun & Clarke, 2006). 
- 46 - 
These themes were therefore not regarded as residing in the data to be uncovered 
by the researcher, but rather were extracted from the data as the researcher linked 
and tested their nature as they were understood against the dataset and the 
literature (Braun & Clarke, 2006).  This is an insightful and intuitive process which is 
both the core strength and the weakest point (Johnson & Harris, 2003) so care was 
taken to guard against the effect of interpretive biases. However researcher 
judgement is necessary to determine what a theme is (Braun & Clarke, 2006). In the 
case of theoretical thematic analysis such as in this study, analysis is guided by the 
researcher’s analytic interest in the area and is more analyst-driven, coding for quite 
a specific research question (Braun & Clarke, 2006). 
3.7 Limitations of the study 
The questionnaire that was administered was not a standardised instrument and 
internal consistency of items had not previously been established. Using a total 
summated score in the analysis does however add to the validity of the findings 
(Johnson & Harris, 2003). Further research should be conducted to establish the 
validity and internal consistency of the instrument itself. The honesty of both the 
participants and their chosen respondents was assumed, but may of course vary. 
Since participants chose their questionnaire respondents there may also have been 
biases in these responses. Using only raters that responded to both questionnaire 
administrations reduced the response numbers, but also limited the effect of any 
biases on the assessment of change across the two measurement instances.  
Finally, the qualitative aspect of the study relied on interviews and there was a 
chance of cancellation. Given the size of the overall group on the programme, every 
effort was made to ensure a large enough interview sample despite cancellations. 
Quantitative analyses should also be conducted in future on the effects of group 
coaching on leadership development to support findings empirically. 
3.8 Validity and reliability 
Validity refers to the notion that the design of the research addresses the research 
questions and reliability is concerned with consistency in the research (White, 2002). 
- 47 - 
Internal validity (whether it can be reasonably assumed that A causes B) is difficult to 
establish in most management studies, which typically use an ex-post-facto 
(retrospective) approach (Johnson & Harris, 2003). In the quantitative aspect of this 
study, internal consistency of the items in the questionnaire that are used had not 
been previously established, but was calculated as part of the research analysis in 
this study. Many questionnaire items had also been crafted, each tapping into an 
aspect of leadership effectiveness, and a summated score composed of these items 
was used to provide a more reliable and valid overall measure (Johnson & Harris, 
2003). Although external validity can never truly be established in research (Johnson 
& Harris, 2003), a thorough review of the literature was conducted to ensure content 
validity in the questionnaire items (that they do reflect aspects of leadership 
effectiveness).  
Reliability and validity change their meaning somewhat in qualitative work such as in 
the second part of this study. The data needs to be what is referred to as confirmable 
(maximise the chances that others would reach the same conclusions) and 
transparent (ensure that someone else can follow the trail of evidence) (Johnson & 
Harris, 2003). Every effort was made to do this and render this study confirmable 
and transparent, or in the language of qualitative research: trustworthy (Krefting, 
1991).  
3.9 Conclusion 
The research design, methodologies and procedures were intended to meet the 
objectives for this research. Qualitative, quantitative and mixed method designs are 
discussed in terms of their applicability for operationalising this study’s research 
questions. A questionnaire and a semi-structured interview schedule were indicated 
as the data collection instruments in this research and item analysis, statistical t-tests 
and thematic analysis were outlined as the data analysis techniques utilised.  
 
- 48 - 
4 CHAPTER 4: PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS 
4.1 Introduction 
This chapter reports the findings from both the quantitative and qualitative analyses 
conducted within the context of the research question. First, the demographic profile 
of participants is described. Then the data and statistical analyses from the 
questionnaire pre-and-post programme administrations are presented. Internal 
reliabilities are reported to demonstrate internal item consistency. The means and 
standard deviations of the six leadership effectiveness constructs (‘head’, ‘heart 1: 
enabling self,’ ‘heart 2: enabling others’, ‘heart 3: enabling the group/ organisation’, 
‘hands’, and ‘leadership impact’) are then presented for both the pre-programme 
questionnaire administration and the post-programme questionnaire administration. 
Finally, the results of paired t-tests used to test for differences between pre-
programme and post-programme administrations in each of the construct categories 
are presented and significant differences reported, as well as the direction of those 
significances.  
In the qualitative findings section, the responses from the interviews are presented 
as the conceptual themes extracted from the data collected. This thematic analysis 
was conducted in two broad areas for data relating to changes in leadership 
effectiveness (‘changes in how leadership and leadership effectiveness was seen’), 
as well as for any impact of group coaching. This provided a deeper, subjective 
understanding of the experiences and perceptions of respondents on the impact of 
group coaching on their leadership effectiveness. Examples, descriptions and 
quotations extracted from the interview notes were used to illustrate the chosen 
themes in tables 7-14, and models were used to illustrate the relationships between 
sub-themes in figures 6-11, indicating the cohesiveness and differentiation of the 
themes.   
4.2 Demographic profile of participants 
This questionnaire study was conducted with one cohort of 51 delegates across a 
range of 29 companies, who attended a leadership programme called ‘Leading 
- 49 - 
Women’ at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in 2011. The delegates were 
upper-middle to senior level managers in organisations and had at least five years’ 
experience at this level. 55 of the 62 delegates fulfilled the attendance criteria for the 
programme and 51 gave consent and were therefore included in the research 
sample (they identified themselves as 44% ‘black’, 21% ‘white’, 6.5% ‘Indian’ 
respectively). 16 participants were able to complete the post-questionnaire 
administration themselves and an average of 18 participants received sufficient 
respondent input to be able to include ‘others’ (subordinates, team members, peers) 
as a response category for the participant. This corresponded to an acceptable 31% 
and 35% response rate for ‘self’ and ‘other’ categories respectively. Only three 
managers who contributed to the pre-questionnaire administration also contributed to 
the same post-questionnaire administration and the comparison analyses on this 
category of respondents were therefore excluded from this study. The sample sizes 
for each category of respondents are included in table 3. The programme at the 
business school was also designed specifically for women and only women are 
accepted to take part. The sample is therefore a convenience sample.  
In the qualitative section of this research, a sample of six women, corresponding to 
an acceptable 12% proportion, were randomly extracted from the group of women 
attending the programme to be interviewed.  
4.3 Quantitative questionnaire findings 
4.3.1 Item analysis on questionnaire items to establish reliability 
Item analysis was conducted on the average responses of the pre-programme 
questionnaire items to assess the reliability of the different dimensions or constructs 
in the questionnaire via Cronbach’s Alpha values. The constructs are ‘head, ‘heart-
enable self’, ‘heart-enable others’, ‘heart-enable group and organisation’, and 
‘leadership impact’. The questionnaire items were allocated the code classifications 
b1-b65 to identify the questions (see table 3). 
Reliability refers to the consistency of measurement or the degree to which an 
instrument is stable and measures the same way each time it is used (Blumberg, et 
- 50 - 
al., 2005). It was assumed that the questionnaire items would be understood the 
same way by the same participants in the post-questionnaire administration and 
therefore reliability tests were only conducted on the pre-questionnaire items. 
Reliability was also only conducted on the ‘self ‘and ‘manager’ responses, as only 
the consistency across single respondents to several constructs could be tested. The 
‘other’ category involved many responses from several categories of respondents 
and did not lend itself to reliability testing. The overall Cronbach’s Alpha value for 
reliability can be interpreted as follows: Cronbach’s Alpha values above 0.8 indicate 
good reliability; Cronbach’s Alpha values between 0.6 and 0.8 indicate acceptable 
reliability; and Cronbach’s Alpha values below 0.6 indicate unacceptable reliability. 
Some authors use another cut-off of 0.7 for acceptable reliability (Nunnally, 1978). 
A reliable Cronbach’s Coefficient Alpha value validates that the individual items of a 
dimension measured the same dimension (concept) in the same manner 
consistently. The individual Cronbach’s Alpha values next to the items indicate what 
the improved value of the overall Cronbach’s Alpha will be if this item is removed 
from the construct (dimension). If the individual Cronbach’s Alpha is higher (usually 
at least 2%) than the overall Cronbach’s Alpha of the entire dataset, then this 
individual item can be removed if it does not add anything substantial to the 
conceptual understanding of the construct (Nunnally, 1978).  
The reliability estimates are displayed in Table 3 and all indicate good reliability. No 
additional items were therefore removed from the questionnaire for the statistical 
analysis. Three items (B14,33,46 in the category ‘managers’) could be reconsidered, 
as the Cronbach’s Alpha values were more than 2% higher than the overall 
Cronbach’s Alpha of the entire dataset and did not add anything further to the 
understanding of the construct from a statistical point of view. However, in each case 
the item did make a distinct conceptual contribution to the construct and the decision 
was made to keep the three items for further analysis. The ‘manager’ category was 
eventually excluded from t-test comparisons as a result of inadequate response 
numbers. 
 
 
- 51 - 
Table 2: Cronbach’s Alpha values for each questionnaire item as well as 
overall constructs to test for internal consistency of scale responses on the 
pre-administration 
‘Self’ or 
‘Manager’ 
respondents  
 
Construct Cronbach’s 
Alpha values 
for overall set 
(construct) 
Cronbach’s Alpha 
values for individual 
items/ questions 
SELF HEAD 0.8618 
 
 HEART-
ENABLING SELF 
0.8183 
 
- 52 - 
 HEART-
ENABLING 
OTHERS 
0.8053 
 
 HEART-
ENABLING 
GROUPS/ 
ORGANISATIONS 
0.8066 
 
 HANDS 0.7899 
 
- 53 - 
 LEADERSHIP 
IMPACT 
0.8909 
 
MANAGER HEAD 0.8825 
 
 HEART-
ENABLING SELF 
0.7656 
 
∆ 
- 54 - 
 HEART-
ENABLING 
OTHERS 
0.7926 
 
 HEART-
ENABLING 
GROUPS/ 
ORGANISATIONS 
0.7669 
 
 HANDS 0.8328 
 
∆ 
∆ 
- 55 - 
 LEADERSHIP 
IMPACT 
0.8670 
 
 
4.3.2 Descriptive and significance statistics for questionnaire 
constructs 
Mean and standard deviations were computed for each construct in each of the 
groups (‘self’, ‘manager’, ‘other’) for both the pre-programme and post-programme 
questionnaire administration. The construct means ranged between 4.17 (±0.73) for 
the manager category and ‘heart: enable group or organisation’ construct and 5.86 
(±0,66) for the manager category and ‘leadership impact’ construct (see Table 3). 
Paired t-tests were then run on each pre-programme and post programme pair of 
means. The p-values were calculated and are reported below, with significant 
differences at the p<0.05 percent level indicated (see Table 3).  
There were no significant differences between pre-programme and post-programme 
questionnaire scores for the self- scores of research participants.  
The paired t-test results for the ‘manager’ group were excluded from analysis as the 
sample number of the managers who completed both administrations for a 
participant were too low for the statistical results to be regarded accurately with any 
confidence. 
∆ Cronbach’s Alpha values were more than 2% higher than the overall Cronbach ’s Alpha of the entire dataset 
- 56 - 
There were significant differences between all pre-programme and post-programme 
paired t-test calculations for the group ‘others’ (respondents of the participants).  
Table 3: Mean (SD) values for constructs and p-values for each pre-and-post 
paired t-test indicating significance 
GROUP (N) CONSTRUCT PRE-TEST 
MEAN (SD) 
POST-TEST 
MEAN (SD) 
P-VALUE 
SELF (16) HEAD 4.52 (0.87) 4.44 (0.97) 0.7319 
 HEART-ENABLE SELF 4.82 (0.74) 4.85 (1.09)  0.9776 
 HEART-ENABLE OTHERS 4.89 (0.70) 4.54 (1.07) 0.1110 
 HEART-ENABLE GROUPS 4.39 (0.86) 4.40 (0.95) 0.9650 
 HANDS 4.71 (0.70) 4.45 (0.78) 0.3911 
 LEADERSHIP IMPACT 4.67 (0.79) 4.60 (1.05) 0.5231 
MANAGERS (3) HEAD 4.21 (0.83) 5.66 (0.73)  
 HEART-ENABLE SELF 4.60 (0.64) 5.25 (0.97)  
 HEART-ENABLE OTHERS 4.46 (0.63) 5.58 (0.76)  
 HEART-ENABLE GROUPS 4.17 (0.73) 5.34 (0.94)  
 HANDS 4.43 (0.74) 5.55 (0.83)  
 LEADERSHIP IMPACT 4.51 (0.68) 5.86 (0.66)  
- 57 - 
OTHERS (18) HEAD 4.90 (0.68) 5.29 (0.65) 0.0140 (*) 
 HEART-ENABLE SELF 4.97 (0.68) 5.50 (0.49) 0.0025 (*) 
 HEART-ENABLE OTHERS 4.96 (0.64) 5.41 (0.57) 0.0091 (*) 
 HEART-ENABLE GROUPS 4.77 (0.67) 5.18 (0.59) 0.0060 (*) 
 HANDS 4.93 (0.65) 5.26 (0.66) 0.0115 (*) 
 LEADERSHIP IMPACT 5.08 (0.72) 5.62 (0.64) 0.0152 (*) 
(*) Significant at p< 0.05 level 
 
There were significant changes for all leadership constructs in the respondent 
category ‘other’ between the pre-programme questionnaire and the post-programme 
questionnaire. The most significant changes were for the constructs ‘enable self’, 
‘enable others and ‘enable group and organisation’.  
This study did not conduct factor-analysis, but for ease of reference, see Figure 2 for 
a graphical representation of the types of items in each questionnaire category. 
 
- 58 - 
 
Figure 2: Examples of items in each category of the ‘Head’, ‘Heart’, ‘Hands’ 
and ‘Impact’ 360 degree questionnaire  
 
See Figures 3 and 4 for a graphical representation of pre-programme and post-
programme differences in participant scores to indicate direction of significance. The 
graphs are displayed on X-axes of 0-6, representing the questionnaire’s Likert-scale 
responses of 1-7.  
 
 
 
- 59 - 
 
Figure 3: Graphical representation of pre-programme and post-programme 
differences in participant ‘self’ score (N= 16). 
 
Figure 4: Graphical representation of pre-programme and post-programme 
differences in scores from ‘others’ (peers, subordinates, colleagues, etc.) as 
respondents (N=18).  
 
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
HEAD HEART1 HEART2 HEART3 HANDS LEADERSHIP
SELF perceptions 
PRE
POST
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
HEAD HEART1 HEART2 HEART3 HANDS LEADERSHIP
OTHERS perceptions 
PRE
POST
- 60 - 
 
 
Figure 5: Graphical representation of pre-programme and post-programme 
differences in scores from managers as respondents (non-significant), (N= 3). 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
0.00
1.00
2.00
3.00
4.00
5.00
6.00
7.00
HEAD HEART1 HEART2 HEART3 HANDS LEADERSHIP
MANAGER perceptions 
PRE
POST
- 61 - 
4.4 Qualitative interview findings 
Nine semi-structured questions were asked in each interview with six women. Seven 
open-ended questions and two ranking questions were asked. The questions for the 
semi-structured interview are listed in Appendix B.  
The code classifications listed in Table 4 were used to identify the interview 
respondents in order to assign descriptions, comments and quotations to them. 
 
Table 4: Code classifications for interviewees 
Interviewee Code classification 
Interviewee 1 I-001 
Interviewee 2 I-002 
Interviewee 3 I-003 
Interviewee 4 I-004 
Interviewee 5 I-005 
Interviewee 6 I-006 
 
The interview questions were designed to explore the perceived impact that group 
coaching had on leadership development for the women and to assess which 
sessions and processes had the greatest impact. The findings are presented in two 
sections. Firstly, the questions which asked for items to be ranked numerically are 
described. Secondly, the themes extracted from thematic analysis conducted across 
- 62 - 
the entire interview dataset are presented in their thematic clusters, with data 
extracts of descriptions, comments and quotations.  Thematic analysis presents 
repeated patterns of meaning that are coherent and distinct in relation to the whole 
dataset and the research questions. It is important to note that in presenting thematic 
clusters, a level of interpretation is already evident. The impact of theoretical choices 
as well as the process undergone in the selection of themes will be fully described in 
chapter 5.  
4.4.1 Ranking of the six coaching sessions and coaching processes/ 
tools 
Each participant was asked to rank the coaching sessions from greatest impact to 
least impact. They were also asked to rank various coaching processes and tools as 
identified in the literature and used in the design of the coaching sessions. The rank 
orders for each are displayed in tables 5 and 6 below.  
Table 5: Rank order as reported for six coaching sessions by the six interview 
participants 
Group coaching session Rank order in ranking (from 
highest to lowest) 
My Leadership Impact session 
(with video) 
1 
360 degree administration 2 
My Leadership Vision session 3 
Personal Development 
objectives and planning session 
4 
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My Values session 5 
My Life story session 6 
 
 
Table 6: Rank order as reported for six coaching processes/ tools by the six 
interview participants 
Being video recorded 1 
Peer feedback 2 
Getting input from group 3 
Being coached 4 
Learning from the group 5 
Telling my stories 6 
Taking a role in the group 7 
Giving feedback/ input 8 
Being held accountable 9 
Networking 10 
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4.4.2 Thematic analysis of data extracts across entire dataset 
The themes extracted from thematic analysis across the entire interview dataset are 
presented in their thematic clusters with data extracts of descriptions, comments and 
quotations in the tables below. The process of analysis is briefly referred to in 
models that depict how sub-themes make up the themes (Braun & Clarke, 2006), as 
well as referring to specific clusters of commentary in the tables.  Thematic analysis 
was done in two parts. Firstly, themes relating to changes in leadership or leadership 
effectiveness were extracted. The second analysis was conducted in response to the 
impact (effect) of group coaching on leadership effectiveness. Several data extracts 
related to both research questions and were included in the thematic clusters for 
both if relevant. It is worth noting that in identifying and then modelling the 
relationships between sub-themes and themes, it is apparent that the researcher 
plays an active role in making judgements about patterns and themes in thematic 
research. Therefore a level of analysis is already evident in the presentation of 
findings below and the researcher’s voice is more clearly a part of the study than in 
other methodologies (Aronson, 2011; Braun & Clarke, 2006). This is appropriate for 
thematic analysis and the distinction between the presentation of results and 
discussion of results will be clear in the discussion section of this study. 
a. Leadership changes - knowing authentic self 
Five of the six respondents in this study contributed to a differentiated theme around 
changes in leadership relating to ‘knowing authentic self’. The theme cohered around 
participant responses relating to understanding and knowing or learning about 
themselves, this knowledge being a state of mind or internal quality in contrast to a 
hard set of skills, and finally, this knowledge being about their authentic, genuine, 
true selves. 
There were three sub-components to this theme which are represented as a model 
in Figure six below (with the number of interviewees who contributed commentary in 
brackets).  
 
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Figure 6: Graphical representation of the sub-themes that make up the theme: 
leadership changes- knowing authentic self 
Table 7 summarises the typical responses of the interviewees that related to their 
views on changes in leadership effectiveness in relation to knowing their authentic 
selves. The first of the sub-themes was related to knowing self and own values and 
leadership being “an inside thing”, and is expressed in the first six comment extracts 
in table 7 (with no shading). The contrasting of this ‘knowing of self’ with skills or 
numbers or results was expressed through comments four to six in table 7, and 
finally commentary on being authentic, genuine and honest is shown in the last four 
comments in table 7 (with light shading). 
Table 7: Responses related to changes in perception of leadership in 
connection to ‘knowing your authentic self’ 
 1. “So with this course I started learning and understanding myself better, and my 
values...” I-002 
2. “And I think if you understand as a leader, if you get to know who you are, then it 
is easy for you to deal with other people. So with this course I started learning and 
understanding myself better, and my values.” I-002 
3. “Yes numbers and results are important but a value driven leadership style is also 
important and it is important to integrate it into your day to day things, how you 
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conduct yourself, and not just pay lip service to it.” I-003 
4. “Before I had one idea or model of a leader, as somebody who is there in front 
with all of the answers and you look up to them to provide a vision and to drive it.  
But through the programme I also realised that actually leadership is more of a state 
of mind...” I-003 
5. “I thought the course would help me with some skills but I think it is not so much 
skills as it is very much an inside thing, this leadership. ... it <leadership> is more 
about knowing yourself and getting to know the people around you and how you 
interact with people. And a lot of that can’t really be taught, you can be guided or told 
what to look out for but ultimately you have to do, and learn from your own 
experiences.” I-005 
6. “... I initially thought that there is a set of skills and things that you need to learn 
and practice before you can lead but actually the one thing that the program taught 
me is going back inside yourself and asking ‘what do I already have that makes me 
an influential leader and how can I use what I have already got ...” I-004 
7. “...and I learned that authenticness means being true to people around you, …to 
do it in a true and honest form.” I-001 
8. “...as long as I have remained authentic to myself. I think that is what it does for 
me in a corporate environment.” I-003 
9. “It really did change, especially maybe the authenticity part of it. .... being 
authentic, being a genuine leader was the most important thing that I got from the 
course or learned from the course.”  I-002 
10. “I know people have always respected me but I didn’t realise it was because I 
was being honest, I was being genuine.” I-002 
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a. Leadership changes - understanding, engaging and 
influencing others  
All six of the interviewees contributed to a core theme around understanding, 
engaging and influencing with others. There were also three sub-components to this 
theme which are represented as a model in Figure 7 below (with the number of 
interviewees who contributed commentary in brackets). 
 
 
 
Figure 7: Graphical representation of the sub-themes that make up the theme: 
leadership changes- understanding, engaging and influencing others 
These three sub-themes overlap conceptually with each other, which is discussed 
further in this study. The sub-theme on understanding others included comments on 
listening to, being sensitive to, learning about and valuing others (see comments one 
to six, with no shading, in Table 8 below). Engaging others referred to relating to, 
supporting and involving others to participate, giving input and collaborating (see 
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comments seven to eleven, with light shading, in table 8 below). Lastly, influencing 
others included influencing to set goals and contribute, as well as growing, mentoring 
and empowering them (see comments twelve to nineteen, with darker shading, in 
Table 8 below).  
Table 8 summarises the typical responses of the interviewees that related to their 
changed views on leadership in relation to understanding, engaging and impacting 
others positively. 
 
Table 8: Responses related to changes in leadership in connection to 
‘understanding, engaging and influencing others positively’ 
1. “...one thing that stood out completely for me was not so much the fact to be 
authentic only, but it is also about listening.” I-001 
2. “... I think it has changed my outlook on how I look at my subordinates, the fact 
that you need to be sensitive to where they are coming from, what the situation is. 
.... if you have people who are happy and who you can relate to as a human 
being.” I-001 
3. “... with that <being with diverse people> you also learn in your own team that 
you must never just box people into a certain kind of thing...” I-004 
4. “..because they feel valued and they feel there is some acknowledgement for 
who they are. So that has been very key, critical to me” I-001 
5. “..and understanding that is important in being inclusive, in fostering that type of 
leadership style where you value people’s opinion.” I-003 
6. “So there the leadership comes in about knowing my style, trying to learn what 
their personality and style is so that I relate to them <team she manages> with 
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that in mind...” I-005 
7. “So as a result what I have done is I engage, the moment I see or hear that 
somebody is doing something similar to me, I immediately link up with them...So 
in a way it has spun off even more and more collaboration between myself and 
different groups I would never have thought of before.” I-003 
8. “I want the guys to come in and participate, I don’t feel I need to be the one that 
is handling everything so it is delegating and giving them freedom and 
opportunity.” I-005 
9. “... where it reminded you that your subordinates might have a different way of 
seeing things so it is important to involve them.” I-002 
10. “.. so through that you can give your input. So it is not only you getting the 
support but it is also a chance for you to give support...” I-005  
11. “.. so it has taught me how to steer the meeting, to identify when people are 
derailing … every person in that room needs to participate. But you need to 
encourage input. So you need to get their input.” I-001 
 12. “Absolutely. And so to go a little bit further, it is the ability to be able to 
influence others to be as authentic and integris as they possibly can.” I-006 
13. “.. talking directly to the question of how the programme impacted on my 
ability to influence others to set goals, ... which <setting goals on being present> 
creates a different energy within the environment.” I-006 
14. “So I must just be aware of that and allow people to grow and giving them 
chance to contribute and to be seen in the organisation as contributing...to come 
in and participate.” I-005 
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15. “And if they <those she manages> are weak and they are not growing then I 
have failed as a leader. My end goal is not for my department to look great but 
about those people winning the deals and they can be proud of who they are.” I-
001 
16. “.. what true leadership is about is mentoring. You cannot proceed as an 
authentic leader if it is all about self and how you get up the corporate ladder. 
Sure I have mentored one or two people but when you can walk away from an 
organisation and people turn around say ‘it is because of you that I am in this 
position”. I-001 
17 .“ ...I have a job to meet my own needs but it goes beyond that, that I also have 
an opportunity to change people’s lives, and so I must treat it with this utmost 
respect.” I-003 
18. “... but also you weren’t just there to absorb but also to empower other people 
and improve your own skill, which I found quite powerful, ... and being able to 
influence people on that level I found pretty cool.” I-004 
19. “But you have to give your, you have to be part of the cycle of life, if you are 
not planting seeds or you are not watering other people’s seeds, if you don’t know 
about it and how do other people grow?” I-005 
 
b. Leadership changes - increased confidence 
Four of the respondents in this study contributed comments relating to increased 
self-confidence. Confidence was described in various ways including certainty, 
confirmation, courage and awareness of (one’s own) power. In this theme, 
commentary referred also to a shift and this was described as moving from self-
doubt, “fear of getting it wrong”, low confidence and fear to increased confidence or 
reclaimed confidence. Several changes resulted, including having the courage to 
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speak out, voicing opinions more, doing what they believe in, bringing strengths 
forward and concentrating on where their passion lay. It was felt that all these 
comments referred cohesively to the theme of ‘confidence’, although they were 
inclusive of comments about a shift over time and on behaviours that resulted from 
this shift, as depicted in the model in Figure 8 below (with the number of 
interviewees who contributed commentary in brackets).  
 
 
 
Figure 8: Graphical representation of the elements of the theme on leadership 
changes: increased confidence 
 
Table 9 summarises the typical responses of the interviewees that relate to their 
changed views on leadership in relation to increased confidence. 
 
 
 
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Table 9: Responses related to changes in leadership in connection to 
‘increased confidence’ 
1. “But now there is this certainty that it in me and I can stand in front of them 
<referring to the team she manages> and say ‘I know who I am and I know 
what I am talking about.” I-004 
2. “I found I lost confidence. But after attending the course I gained my confidence 
back, re-claimed my position, I did what I believed in and if I didn’t believe in 
something I wouldn’t go ahead and do it; ... So I had lost my confidence and the 
course has allowed me to claim my confidence back...” I-002 
3. “...it has given me the confirmation I needed that I have as the leader over the 
past three years done what I needed to do with <her company> in terms of 
empowering other people, enough to be confident enough ...kind of concentrate 
on being a woman, which is where my passion lies.” I-006 
4. “I know I think one thing is that I thought of myself as a kind of a no. 2 kind of 
leader. But actually I now sit here and I am like ‘hm, I can lead.” I-004 
5. “I think how I am leading now is I am less afraid of getting it wrong, where it is 
more about… ... I can say ‘’I know these are my strengths and I am not afraid’’ 
and I am bringing them forward.” I-004 
6. “I think it has made me much more aware of my power. I think women don’t 
always have that strong belief in oneself; I think that is like a common problem 
that I have picked up – that confidence, are we good enough really – that self-
doubt. ... So I think I am more courageous, it really helped me, and I voice my 
opinions more.” I-005 
7. “...I don’t agree with then I just have to find the courage to speak out.” I-005 
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c. Group coaching impact - increased awareness of self and 
what matters 
Four of the respondents in this study contributed comments relating to increased 
awareness or learning about themselves and what matters. Increased awareness 
was described in terms of ‘learning more’, ‘delving into self’ or ‘learning about whole 
self’, ‘unlocking self’ and ‘opening my eyes’ (see comments one to three, no shading, 
in table ten below). In this theme, commentary referred also to a specific aspect of 
knowledge of self - that of values - ‘what is meaningful’ and ‘what is important to’ 
self. Comments four to six in table 10 below (with light shading) include aspects of 
both ‘learning about self’ and ‘about what is valuable’, while comments seven to nine 
are specifically about ‘what is valuable or meaningful to self’ (dark shading, table 10 
below). It was felt that all these comments still referred to the theme of ‘knowing or 
learning about oneself’ (simply with a larger overall emphasis on what is valuable to 
the individual), so were included in the same theme as depicted in the model in 
figure 9 below (with the number of interviewees who contributed commentary in 
brackets). 
 
Figure 9: Graphical representation of the contributing elements of the theme 
on increased awareness of self and what matters (as an impact of group 
coaching) 
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Table 10 summarises the typical responses of the interviewees that related to how 
group coaching increased awareness of themselves and what matters to them. 
 
Table 10: Responses related to group coaching impact in connection to 
‘awareness of self and what’s important or valuable to me’ 
1.  “...So it really opened my eyes a lot more, ....it is important because it makes 
part of your life story.” I-002 
2. “... <the coaching> sessions were great because I got to know more and more 
about myself; the characteristics I have that I never knew I had. Every time we 
had a session I learned something new about myself, which I really, really 
enjoyed.” I-002 
3. “I think when I approached the course it was about how it would improve my 
impact in the work place, but in the end it is more really about yourself and how 
you interact as a person, as a whole, in your entire life. So that what it was for me 
– work was just part of it.” I-005 
4. “I have now unlocked that side of my persona and this is important to me; 
having an impact in society is one of the things I value.” I-004 
5. “So with this course I started learning and understanding myself better, and my 
values ....” I-002 
6. “Because that <particular coaching session> is where one had to delve into 
myself, what is important to me...” I-003 
7. “...which is < values> when I think, when I act, when I am unhappy: what is it 
based on, and looking at your values is I think one of the most critical parts before 
you start leading. Because we all lead from what our values are and how people 
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perceive us, based on their own values. I found that to be the strongest.” I-004 
8. “What I liked about that <a specific session> was it answered the ‘so what’ 
question: ... how do I take it forward for myself in a way that is meaningful for me.” 
I-003 
9. “But it is really about values and living your values. And that really underpins 
everything.” I-005 
 
 
d. Group coaching impact - learning through receiving 
external input 
Five of the respondents in this study contributed comments relating to learning 
through receiving external input. External input was defined in two primary ways: 
receiving feedback from others and seeing oneself (it is assumed that these relate 
approximately to the processes of 360 degree and verbal peer feedback and to 
seeing oneself on video respectively). This is depicted in the model in Figure 10 
below (with the number of interviewees who contributed commentary in brackets).   
Receiving feedback included commentary about ‘what peers think and feel, ‘honest 
face to face feedback’, ‘an objective view’, ‘great insight into how you’re perceived’, 
‘learning about my role in the group’, ‘feedback as a mirror of self’ and ‘hearing how 
you behave, listen etc.’. These are represented by extracts in comments one to eight 
in table eleven below (with no shading).  
Seeing oneself included commentary about ‘seeing how you interact’, ‘seeing 
demeanour, body language, gestures and use of voice’, ‘observing conduct’ and 
‘showing leadership style’, as described through comments nine to thirteen in Table 
eleven below (with light shading).  
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There was also commentary on some of the effects of this input (what learning 
occurred), which included ‘causing one to reflect on’, ‘keep at the back of their mind’, 
and ‘acknowledge’ something and also to be more actively “challenged’ and ‘set 
objectives’. These are also displayed in Figure 10 below and in the mixed comments 
(inclusive of extracts about feedback, observations and learning) in comments 
fourteen to twenty-two in table eleven below (dark shading). The received feedback, 
observation of self and learning were all felt to relate cohesively enough to ‘learning 
through external feedback’ to be included in one differentiated theme.  
 
 
Figure 10: Graphical representation of the contributing elements of the theme 
on learning about self through external input 
 
Table 11 summarises the typical responses of the interviewees that relate to how 
group coaching helped them learn through external input. 
 
 
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Table 11: Responses related to group coaching impact in connection to 
‘learning through input/ feedback’ 
 1. “And getting input from the collective knowledge of the group was a big one for 
me.” I-004 
2. “...which makes it <leadership> quite tough. ... and if you don’t have someone 
who can give you an objective view like a coach or like a mentor or someone in 
your organisation who is on your level or above your level who can help or 
evaluate or give input, then it becomes quite difficult.” I-005 
3. “Input from people: you are not as a closed book as you think you are; people 
can give you great insight into how they perceive you...” I-003 
4. “Then I ranked the getting input from the group and the peer feedback. Just 
going through every single one in my group and every single one was such a 
powerful woman and the interaction...” I-006 
5. “.. the feedback for me is just like a mirror, that is what I like about it; it mirrors 
you...” I-004 
6. “... but the feedback from the peers was ‘no, we got the point and you know, the 
gestures didn’t feel like too much...” I-004 
7. “I don’t get really feedback from my boss, almost never. So it was useful to see 
scores and also the comments...” I-005 
8. “<It’s the> first time I had a 360 done, so the results were very interesting to 
me.” I-005 
9. “It is things you can take home, because you really see yourself and how you 
interact...it is evidence on your strengths. So it is there on paper, or video and so 
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there is no doubt, and as I say, there are concrete things that you can do.” I-005 
10. “...I walk into that office and it reminds me of my attitude, my demeanour, my 
body language...” I-001 
11. “... observing how you interact and conduct yourself in a meeting.” I-001 
12. “Yes, the video, basically the way I deal with meetings, interaction with my 
colleagues and peers…” I-001 
13. “ ……or noticing how I use my hands when I speak and things like that.” I-004 
14. “I don’t know, it is hard to say. I think it just really makes me more aware when 
I am sitting in a meeting or part of a committee, how I am projecting myself, you 
know the body language, use of voice – I think that is the biggest impact. It is 
always at the back of my mind, how I am leading.” I-005 
15. “Peer feedback is very relevant because you don’t actually realise. People 
along the pathway can make or break your career and I have learned that...and 
reputation is ultimately what carries weight within the marketplace. And if you are 
not sensitised to that, and finding out where you stand, it can actually be very 
damaging to your career. So it is to be aware of your peers, what they feel, what 
they think and how you respond to them. That to me is key.” I-001 
16. “And then also people aren’t always honest face to face, so some of the 
honesty points were something I could reflect on and use in development 
objectives to get through that as well as what my new vision and mission would 
be. So that was very valuable to me.” I-001 
17. “Input: So there are certain things you didn’t even believe or consider and 
somebody saw it, and sometimes it is like a deep-seated thing that you don’t really 
want to entertain and somebody just brings it forward and suddenly you have to 
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acknowledge it...” I-003 
18. “So <I learnt that> my role in the group was I was seen as a spiritually 
grounded person and that is the role I played.” I-003 
19. “... and then they also give you insights into yourself which you don’t normally 
see, which is actually quite nice, you don’t get that very often, to be able to pick up 
on things that you know about yourself but that you have forgotten, or weren’t 
paying attention to. So it was actually quite interesting to see how accurate the 
insights were, or how they read you.”  I-005 
20. “... to see yourself and then have the group give input. That was very good.” I-
005 
“I think it <two of the sessions> showed my style of leadership which is not very 
‘out there’ or loud or domineering;  it is more of a ‘let’s hear what the group says’, 
participation...” I-005 
21. “...<the 360 degree> just affirmed how I deal with people; that you always let 
them know you see the good in them and then say ‘perhaps think of doing things 
differently’ …. So it is challenging but also enlightening in the fact that it is always 
in the back of my mind now.” I-001 
22. “Yes. You actually listen to what they say, how are you behaving, what are 
your listening skills, are you listening to them. It is key, what people think is 
important.” I-001 
 
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e. Group coaching impact - providing for sharing and 
support (through safety, validation and similarity) 
All six of the respondents in this study contributed frequent and rich commentary 
relating to a safe environment for sharing and support. Safety in this theme was 
described as empathising with others through non-judgement and validation. This 
safety allowed for sharing and support (both giving and receiving). In addition, the 
similarity of individuals also positioned them uniquely to give support and advice on 
common issues. See Figure 11 below for a model depicting these relationships (with 
the number of interviewees who contributed commentary in brackets).  
 
 
Figure 11: Graphical representation of the contributing elements of the theme 
on a safe environment for sharing and support 
Towards the end of the data analysis process, the current theme existed as three 
differentiated themes: safety (including non-judgement); validation and support. 
Further intensive analysis on the conceptual relationships between the constructs, as 
well as the links between these contributions and the literature, highlighted a 
dominant theme underlying all three: sharing and support. The analytical and 
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conceptual decisions made by the researcher are discussed in further detail in the 
discussion section of this study. 
Table 12 summarises the typical responses of the interviewees that related to how 
group coaching provided a safe space through non-judgement, validation and 
identification (or similarity) to allow for sharing and support. Commentary on safety 
describes a safe ‘outlet’, ‘environment’, ‘space’, ‘place’ or ‘room’ (between comments 
one and thirteen in table 12 below). A core aspect to this safety was non-judgement 
and not having to fear other “agendas”, “wrong impressions”, “being ‘hurt”, or 
“judged” and a space that was confidential and people were receptive without 
judgement or agenda. Commentary around non-judgement was most apparent in 
comments five to eleven in Table 12 below (with light shading). Another core aspect 
referring to safety was validation by being affirmed and valued. Comments on 
affirmation (‘acknowledgment’, ‘assurance’, ‘encouragement’), confidence (‘self-
esteem’, ‘reclaimed confidence’, ‘self-confidence’) and being valued are displayed in 
comments eighteen to twenty-four in table 12 below (with dark shading).  
Comments on similarities and commonalities between participants included 
descriptions like “same fears and dreams”, “same personality types”, “same 
challenges”, and being able to ‘relate’, ‘identify’ and ‘not be alone’ through these 
similarities. These descriptions are given in comments twenty-six to thirty-three in 
Table 12 below (light orange shading). Finally, the concept underlying the entire 
theme was of being allowed to give and receive sharing and support (through this 
safe environment). Commentary on sharing and support is distributed through–out 
the extracts in Table 12 below and appear in association with all sub-themes of 
safety (non-judgement, validation and identification).  
Table 12: Responses related to group coaching impact in connection to 
‘having a safe space through non-judgement, validation and similarity for 
sharing and support’ 
1. “I think just having the freedom to express yourself in a safe environment...” I-005 
2. “And so the biggest value that I got out of those group sessions honestly was the 
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sharing...” I-006 
3. “...because it was more intimate than a classroom, which is good – you feel like 
you are in a safe space...” I-004 
4. “As I said I don’t think I am given the support here <he organisation> and it is also 
not the type of environment where you can share. So it was good to allow my 
leadership skills to come out.” I-005 
5. “So I could just be me, without having to think what impact my words could have... 
people are receptive; they are not taking it personally, or coming with an agenda.” I-
005 
6. “I think that for me it <coaching sessions> probably is important for this course 
because it is a safe place to come. You know at work you are always hesitant to 
share with your colleagues because you never know when you are going to be 
stabbed in the back. So it is a good support factor in that regard. I think women need 
that sometimes, it is a safe place to go.” I-001 
7. “... was such a deep sharing… where nobody was afraid to say anything, ... And 
that allowed for the sharing of the collective experience and knowledge.” I-006 
8. “... and I never judged other people based on what they told us about themselves. 
.... And no answer was stupid.” I-002 
9. “I have never been in a coaching situation before so to have someone who is non-
judgemental but probing you.” I-005 
10. “... not having to watch what you say because it could come back to hurt you or 
you don’t want to give people the wrong impression.” I-005 
11. “I think they <group peers> were very supportive, they listen without judging.” I-
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001 
12. “...whatever we talked about was going to be in that room and I really 
appreciated that.” I-002 
13. “...but time, as we took off the façade and got through to the real person, you 
realised that was a safe space to be yourself and allow other women to share their 
insights and wisdoms into your issues.” I-003 
14. “...I am like very colourful and I drive sideways and I don’t drive straight. So 
somewhere within the group, being allowed to do that  ... just allowing my personality 
to be.” I-004 
15. “...because I don’t feel that I get a lot of support at work, in my work environment, 
so I needed to get that support somewhere else.” I-005 
16. “So the one thing that became clear for me during the programme is the need for 
support... I think the recognition that there are going to be lots of times when you 
need external support and the courage to call on that.” I-006 
17. “So when you are in an environment where you can, you let these things come 
out and you find you were actually spot on. It proved to me that I actually do have 
insight, something valuable to add...” I-005 
18. “So to me the 360 was enlightening because I actually realised how many 
people value what I do and my worth and my value and also how inspirational I 
am.” I-001 
19. “So I had lost my confidence and the course has allowed me to claim my 
confidence back, and also to realise my value some more.” I-002 
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20. “So it is that affirmation I would say, from the peer feedback.” I-004 
21. “Yes and also just acknowledgements you know? …., and not realise how 
much acknowledgement you actually require as a human being and who you are. 
“...results in your self-esteem being lifted and your self-confidence.” I-001 
22. “It gave me the ….‘confidence’ is the wrong word but it confirmed what I was 
doing was right...” I-006 
23. “...and she kept on assuring me that ‘you are actually on the right track and 
don’t undermine yourself.” I-002 
24. “But feeling like your opinion is valued and how the group dynamic worked it 
was not just on some level the team encourages you to talk and even if you are 
taking time to get to your point they will be patient with you and that feeling of ‘I am 
valued’….” I-004 
25. “So ja, peer networking has really helped me because I always have somebody 
I can share with, and the challenges I face, I am able to call and say ‘hey, I need 
your advice.” I-002 
26. “...you realise that they are just people with the same fears and dreams and 
insecurities ... it just makes it feel more human. And I learnt that in the space of the 
group culture.” I-004 
27. “I just think it was because we were in a way quite similar. I think some of the 
way we act, our personality types were very similar so when the others gave their 
stories most of them could really identify and I think it was because we were 
similar.” I-005 
28. “Yes. There were things you could always relate to – maybe not directly but 
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similar situations.... I think we were a group of very similar type of people, so what 
applied to one would apply to most of us. So it wasn’t only learning from the 
individual coaching but from the group coaching as well.” I-005  
29. “.. realised we are all female and are faced with challenges that are almost the 
same because we have kids and all these other things, and this has helped me 
because now when I am faced with something I am able to just BBM somebody 
and say ‘how are you doing? This is my challenge.” I-002 
30. “And the commonalities between the various members of the group and me – 
different industries, different ages, different races – but actually we have so many 
things in common... But you realise the commonalities in personality – and as 
women.” I-004 
31. “But you see someone’s fears come out from them and you are like ‘oh, but I do 
the same thing!” I-004 
32. “Because I used to do this job and I used to believe I was the only one out there 
who was really thrown in the deep end, and after meeting other people I realised 
we all face the same challenges.” I-002 
33. “...there are other women out there who you think are confident and are 
successful, but they are also having their self-doubts. So you are not alone in it 
really.” I-005 
 
f. Group coaching impact - supported staying on track to a 
direction/ goals/ game plan  
Table 13 summarises the typical responses of the interviewees that related to how 
group coaching supported setting a direction or game-plan (comments 1 and 2) and 
staying on track to that direction through ‘objectives’, ‘checking and balancing’ or 
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evaluating against these objectives to ensure continuous improvement (comments 3 
to 6). 
Table 13: Responses related to group coaching impact in connection to 
keeping on track to a direction/ goals/ game-plan 
1. “It <vision coaching session> did, because like I said you need to have a 
direction and know where you are going to go.” I-002 
2. “And then just to define it, refine it and forever work on it and even when 
encountering challenges somehow in your mind you have a framework, an 
understanding that this is game plan so to speak that I am working..... So on a day 
to day basis I always reflect on that statement and what it is that I am doing every 
day towards its obtainment.” I-003 
3. “The impact of that <vision coaching session> is to recap on the way I do 
things….check and balance – okay I am on to it, no I am not, this is unnecessary 
– it should be a re-evaluation of those.” I-001 
4. “Personal development objectives, self-introspection, things that needed 
changing, things that needed improvement. I believe life and everything you do is 
about continuous improvement...” I-001 
5. “Yes, and bring it out in my own life and find that actually was it all around you 
say you are dedicated to excellence, does this fit in with the excellence mindset?” 
I-004 
6. “<referring to the second 360 degree process> To see if you actually made a 
difference and in which areas, and new things that come up... I think it gives you 
encouragement, to see that you have improved.” I-005 
 
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g. Discourse around women. 
All six of the respondents in this study contributed comments relating to a discourse 
about what it meant to be women and women leaders in their current contexts. In 
this theme, commentary on what it meant to be women referred to “before anything 
else, I am a woman”, “trying to be everything”, and “being a mother”, while being a 
women leader included having “different leadership styles and skills”, having 
“relationship, communication and social skills”, as well as being “insecure” and “self-
absorbed” (comments one to ten, with no shading, in Table 14 below).  
Finally current work contexts were referred to as being “male dominated”, “not 
supportive”, as “not allowed to be emotional” and “not letting personal life affect 
things” (comments eleven to sixteen, with light shading, in table 15 below). The 
relationship between sub-themes in this theme are displayed in the model in Figure 
12 below (with the number of interviewees who contributed commentary in brackets).  
 
 
Figure 12: Graphical representation of the contributing elements to the 
discourse around women and women leaders 
 
Table 14 summarises the typical responses of the interviewees that related to a 
discourse around women. 
 
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Table 14: Responses related commentary about women 
 1. “... it gave me the recognition that irrespective of who we were and what each 
of our contexts was, at the end of the day most of us were mothers, almost all of 
us were mothers actually.” I-006 
2. “... before I am anything else, I am a woman; before I am black/ white, old/ 
young, rich/ poor, one thing that defines who I am is that I am a woman...one of 
my core descriptors in a space that was just women. It was just awesome.”  I-004 
3. “...and given that we were all trying to find that balance between being director 
at a corporate or owner of a business, mother, wife, sister, you know that sort of 
thing.” I-006 
4. “... And just general communication I think as women, I don’t know to say 
whether we are quite good at that, but we are aware of it, communication as a 
means of making relationships flow much easier. So we can use that to our 
advantage.” I-003 
5. “...and they <men> don’t even have … what is the word…’social’… .< 
intelligence>” I-002 
6. “What I liked about the programme is that it firstly emphasised that our time as 
women has come and we bring a different set of skills to the workplace and that 
the time where maybe women were forced to be like men, that is done, it is no 
more applicable in the time and era we live in, especially with the world changes. 
So the world is looking for a different type of leadership and we as women need to 
step up to the plate.” I-003 
7. “.. and I have found that certainly with my engagement with a lot of the women 
on the group was almost like that sense of insecurity about being there, therefore 
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kind of needing to prove why you are there.” I-006  
8. “I think it has made me much more aware of my power. I think women don’t 
always have that strong belief in oneself; I think that is like a common problem 
that I have picked up – that confidence, are we good enough really – that self-
confidence...” I-005 
9. “…because I think that as leaders and especially as women, we feel that given 
that we are in these positions it is expected from us from everybody else outside 
of our immediate environment, to kind of be everything, know everything, do 
everything 100%. I think that is unnecessary pressure that we put on ourselves as 
women leaders.” I-006 
10. “I think women don’t listen, we are self-absorbed, want to tell our own story, 
it’s a defence mechanism.” I-001 
11. “... it is great that it <the leadership programme> is focused on women but I 
really feel everyone needs this and in particular because in most companies men 
are the ones that are in charge...” I-002 
12. “I think through this programme, it has been more empowering because I don’t 
feel that I get a lot of support at work, in my work environment, so I needed to get 
that support somewhere else.”  I-005  
13. “... introspect you weren’t allowed to be emotional, okay to be a female okay 
to be authentic... I’m a very passionate person and that evokes emotion obviously 
took a backseat.” I-001 
14. “... again this field that I am in, is male dominated, and most of the ladies that 
were there I know were male dominated ...and that is the only thing that makes 
me sad, because we can’t afford to have the only woman and that is it.” I-002 
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15. “But for me personally it is more about how you handle yourself in a group of 
men.” I-005 
16. “...because we work in a male dominated environment we tend to think that 
we cannot personalise and you cannot let your personal life affect things.” I-001 
 
4.5 Summary of findings 
This chapter reported the findings from both the quantitative and qualitative analyses 
conducted within the context of the research question. The results demonstrated 
both support for the existing literature around group coaching and leadership 
effectiveness, as well as additional insights into the specific benefits of group 
coaching for the leader and their relationships with others. It also indicated insights 
into the leadership development context for women managers. In chapter five, the 
results from the research process are discussed in more detail in direct connection to 
the existing literature and to the research questions. 
  
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5 CHAPTER 5: DISCUSSION OF RESULTS 
5.1 Introduction 
This chapter discusses the findings from both the quantitative and qualitative 
analyses conducted in relation to the research question and the literature. The 
research questions were informed by the literature on leadership effectiveness, 
women leaders and group coaching. The data was gathered from a questionnaire 
pre-and-post process, as well as the interview process. The data analysis and 
coding allowed for aggregation and refinement of the data. This chapter now 
explores the relevance of the results and the literature in the context of this study. 
First, changes in leadership effectiveness are discussed. These are described in 
relation to findings from the quantitative questionnaire analyses and the qualitative 
interview analysis about changes in leadership competencies and changes in 
perceived leadership effectiveness respectively. Secondly, the impact of group 
coaching on leadership effectiveness is discussed in connection to thematic clusters 
extracted from the interview data.  
5.2 Discussion pertaining to research question one 
The first research question in this study is: How does leadership effectiveness in 
South African women managers change pre and post a six month leadership 
programme?  
The findings indicate that the six month leadership intervention did change 
leadership effectiveness as perceived by those responding on the participants’ 
questionnaires, as well as reported by the participants in the interviews. Accuracy of 
self-perceived changes reported on the questionnaires as well as response rate by 
participants’ managers was, however, was poor. These findings are explored further 
below. 
 
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5.2.1 Poor accuracy on self-perceived changes 
There were no significant differences in leadership effectiveness identified by the 
participants for themselves between the pre and post questionnaire administrations, 
which contrasted with significant changes perceived by the participant’s observers. 
In fact, in most cases, self-perception of post questionnaire competency was lower 
(although not significantly) than in the pre questionnaire. While the literature is clear 
that leadership development requires self-assessment and the development of self-
insight (Eva, Cunnington, Reiter, Keane, & Norman, 2004), there are also numerous 
studies showing that the accuracy of self-assessment of behaviour and learning is 
relatively poor (both over and under estimated) and poorly correlated with other 
performance measures (Bell & Federman, 2010; Cook, et al., 2005; Eva, et al., 2004; 
Hooijberg & Choi, 2000; Kolb, 1995; Ward, Gruppen, & Regehr, 2002). One study 
found that high performers, specifically, underestimate their performance, while 
under-performers tend to overestimate theirs (Kruger & Dunning, 1999).  
Self-concept seems resistant to change and self-assessments seem to reflect inner 
images (concepts of self) and internal affective factors like motivation and 
satisfaction, rather than outer observations or actual change, in contrast to 
observer’s ratings (Cook, et al., 2005; Sitzmann, Ely, Brown, & Bauer, 2010). This 
has implications for leaders who want to develop themselves and function in 
increasingly responsible leadership domains. Assessing oneself is important for 
improving leadership effectiveness and the responsibility lies with the individual 
leader, making leadership primarily a self-developmental exercise (Parry, 1998). The 
difficulty of accurately measuring these changes in self suggests that feedback and 
input from others are likely to be critical aspects to leadership development.  
5.2.2 Poor responses by ‘managers’ 
It was interesting to note that the numbers of ‘managers’ who completed both 
questionnaire administrations for participants in this study were too low for the 
statistical results to be included in the t-test analysis. Possible explanations are that 
the participant’s managers were not engaged enough in their learning and 
development, or that an unusual number of the participant’s line managers changed 
over the six months. Another possibility is that organisations develop cultures over 
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time that is not encouraging of feedback. Some managers do not tolerate failure and 
respond negatively to requests for feedback, causing those individuals to stop asking 
for feedback or to avoid performance discussions (Fleet, Peterson, & Fleet, 2005; 
Moss & Sanchez, 2004; Porr & Fields, 2006). Some employees avoid feedback 
because of the potential risk of being seen as incompetent. Employee and manager 
behaviours can mutually reinforce each another, ultimately creating an entrenched 
culture of feedback avoidance (Moss & Sanchez, 2004). A qualitative theme 
extracted in this study and also discussed later certainly indicates that the women 
participants felt that their organisations and managers did not provide much 
feedback.  
While it is uncertain what the specific reasons were behind the low response rate of 
the participants’ managers in this study, it is claimed that when done correctly, 
feedback can be one of the most impactful development experiences for executives 
(Goldsmith & Underhill, 2001; Seifert, McDinald, & Yukl, 2003). It is likely to be 
especially important for senior women leaders to receive relevant feedback, as 
women are under-represented at senior levels globally (Hayward, 2005; Karelaia & 
Guillén, 2011; Stout-Rostron, 2012) and generally have fewer relevant role models, 
and therefore tend to take proffered feedback more to heart (Mainiero & Sullivan, 
2005; Zenger & Folkman, 2012).  
5.2.3 Leadership effectiveness changes  
It was noteworthy that according to the participants’ subjective interviews, there were 
indications of self-perceived changes in leadership effectiveness over the six month 
programme. This was despite the lack of significant quantitative change in the ‘self’ 
category on the leadership effectiveness questionnaire and this tension in results is 
an interesting one. It is possible that self-concept in general is resistant to change as 
indicated by the literature (Cook, et al., 2005; Sitzmann, et al., 2010), but that given 
the time and the opportunity to focus on personal experiences as the participants did 
in their interviews, deeper changes that were experienced  could be surfaced and 
articulated. This is one of the advantages widely associated with qualitative 
techniques such as interviews; they allow for greater understanding of a concept with 
an emphasis on words, descriptions and interpretations to allow an exploration of 
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qualities associated with a situation (Blumberg, et al., 2005; Johnson & Harris, 2003; 
White, 2002). The finding that high performers can underestimate their performance 
(Kruger & Dunning, 1999), combined with the possibility of lower confidence in 
women relative to men (Ibarra, et al., 2010; Ely, Ibarra, & Kilm, 2011; Kolb, 1995), 
may point to a possible explanation of the discrepancy in the findings above - high-
performing women (as were selected for the programme used in this study) may 
under-rate changes in their effectiveness initially, but when probed about their 
detailed experiences they have an opportunity to surface thoughts and feelings 
associated with events and are able to identify and reflect more deeply held (more 
unconscious) experiences.  
The respondents of the participants in the ‘other’ category (subordinates, colleagues 
and peers) on the quantitative pre-and-post leadership effectiveness questionnaires 
reported significant positive changes in all leadership competencies for the 
participants over the six month programme. The most significant changes were for 
the ‘heart’ competency areas of ‘enable self’, ‘enable others’ and ‘enable group and 
organisation’. These categories included items on self-awareness, openness to 
feedback, personal energy, self-control, confidence and authenticity (for ‘enabling 
self’); listening, respecting, celebrating, supporting, actively building and coaching 
(for ‘enabling others’) and finally acting and thinking in terms of the team with respect 
to conflict, debate, power dynamics, networking, being influential and earning loyalty 
(for ‘enabling groups and the organisation’).  
The qualitative themes extracted from the interview data tended to refer to three 
perceived changes in leadership: ‘understanding authentic self’,’ ‘understanding and 
impacting others’ and ‘confidence and certainty’. The first two themes, particularly, 
are consistent with, and add to, the quantitative differences in leadership 
effectiveness in the questionnaire analyses: enabling self, others and the group/ 
organisation. All three qualitative themes are discussed in further detail below. 
5.2.4 Leadership effectiveness changes: understanding self, enabling 
self and authentic self  
Five of the six respondents in this study contributed to a differentiated theme around 
changes in leadership relating to ‘knowing authentic self’. The theme cohered around 
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participant responses to learning about themselves, this knowledge being an internal 
quality and about their authentic, genuine, true selves. These were three sub themes 
relating to this theme which are worth describing, but they were not felt to be 
differentiated enough to exist as three separate themes. The first of the sub-themes 
is related to knowing self and own values and leadership being ‘an inside thing’.  
Commentary from the participants referred to learning and understanding 
themselves, getting to know themselves better, learning about their values, learning 
from their own experiences and using what they already had inside themselves in 
order to lead. It was captured well by one participant who stated it is “a state of 
mind”.  
The literature supports the notion that learning, as in a leadership development 
programme, is inherently self-oriented. As one author describes it, the leader needs 
to demonstrate an ability to transform from within themselves (Parry, 1998). This 
also needs to be supported through appropriate leadership interventions that enable 
self in addition to the harder leadership skills (Mirvis, 2008), which was well 
represented as commentary in this study. The ‘self-knowledge’ which participants 
referred to was also contrasted with leadership as not being about a “model”, as 
something that can’t be taught, not a skill that is just learnt and practised and that a 
leader does not just have all the answers, numbers or results.  
This sub-theme was mentioned by half of the participants but was an important 
element in contrasting what the participants were saying about leadership as being 
about ‘internal self-knowledge’, and therefore served to highlight that they felt it was 
not simply a matter of taught skills. In essence, it was felt to be referring to the same 
concept of leadership (as an internal state of mind and form of self-knowledge, 
instead of a ‘hard’ skill). The development of leaders therefore needs to focus on the 
leader’s identity as a core part of the person’s self-concept, enhance self-knowledge 
(including clarity about values and purpose) and support the development of goals 
and behaviours that are concordant with this self-concept (Shamir & Eilam, 2005). 
Supportive factors are encouraging awareness and expression of personal context 
through narrative, values, purpose and actions to empower others (George, et al., 
2011). The literature on authentic leadership in particular supports the notion that 
leadership development is essentially about self-enabling and not necessarily only 
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about the ‘harder’ or taught skills of leadership (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Gardner, et 
al., 2011). This is consistent with the last sub-theme referred to in this study, which 
was about being authentic, genuine, true and honest. This again, was a slightly 
different component of the theme, emphasising a consistency to a true, genuine self 
or honesty about that self. Again, half the participants mentioned this sub-theme but 
it provided a valuable perspective to the theme on ‘self’ in connecting the concept of 
‘self’ to a ‘real’ or ‘genuine’ self. It also seems that some knowledge of the perceived 
true self may be logically necessary to enable an honest adherence to that ‘genuine 
self’ which was felt to link the two sub-themes. 
Authenticity, which originates in Greek philosophy, and captured in the aphorism: 
‘know thyself’ (Gardner, et al., 2011), is described as owning one’s personal 
experiences (being self-aware), then acting in accordance with one’s core self and 
discovering and constructing this core sense of self (Gardner, et al., 2011). 
Authenticity is linked to characteristics such as awareness of one’s fundamental 
values, context, knowledge, strength and purpose, positive self-regulation, positive 
self-development, confidence, hopefulness, optimism, resilience and high moral 
character (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Avolio, Gardner, Walumbwa, Luthans, & May, 
2004; Dolny, 2009; Gardner, et al., 2011; Sparrowe, 2005; Toor & Ofari, 2008).  
Several participants in this study mentioned learning about their values as a 
particularly important part of their self-knowledge. The assumption of authentic 
leadership theory is that people must lead effectively by using their values, beliefs, 
strengths and weaknesses in a way that expresses their unique identity (Avolio & 
Gardner, 2005; Avolio, et al., 2004; Gardner, et al., 2011).  
The underlying thematic essence of all three sub-themes was therefore felt to be 
about knowledge of self (in some cases the ‘genuine’ self) as critical to leadership 
instead of just the ‘skills’ or ‘models’. The literature on leadership, especially that on 
transformational, authentic and identity-based leadership, therefore has relevance to 
this study’s findings. The participants appear to be reflecting the well-known 
aphorisms ‘know thyself’ mentioned above, as well as ‘be true to thyself’ in their 
comments, and also reflect a need for self-development in addition to the harder 
leadership skills, which is similarly claimed by some authors as essential for truly 
effective leadership development (Mirvis, 2008). 
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5.2.5 Leadership effectiveness changes: understanding and enabling 
others 
Leadership is almost always a relationship between leader and followers and is, 
therefore, social and relational at its core (Goleman & Boyatzis, 2008; Shamir & 
Eilam, 2005). In fact, modern neurobiology and neuroscience findings indicate that 
the brain is designed to enable social participation (Rock & Page, 2009), so it is 
unsurprising that modern leadership theory is also focussing on relational processes. 
Several authors therefore argue that development of social capital and relationships 
should be emphasised in leadership development (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Goleman 
& Boyatzis, 2008; Shamir & Eilam, 2005). This is consistent with the significant 
changes found in this study in ‘enabling others’ and ‘enabling groups and the 
organisation’ in the quantitative analysis, as well as the second qualitative theme 
extracted - ‘understanding, engaging and influencing others positively’.  
All six of the interviewees contributed to a core theme around understanding and 
engaging with others, as well as actively influencing them. This theme was also 
composed of three sub-themes, which overlap conceptually with each other, namely, 
understanding others, engaging with others and influencing others. The sub-theme 
on understanding others included comments on listening to, being sensitive to, 
learning about and valuing others. The comments also referred to how subordinates’ 
personalities and styles can be different to the leader’s own, and understanding 
others is about “not boxing people” and about being inclusive and learning from 
‘opposites’. Authors in the authentic leadership literature argue that the emphasis on 
authenticity as being true to ‘thine own self’ should also be complemented with 
having regard for and being true to others (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Sparrowe, 2005, 
p.420). It is similarly claimed by another author that executive development 
programmes need to create experiences that raise both self-awareness and 
understanding of others (Mirvis, 2008). 
Engaging others was a second sub-theme extracted in this study that also involved 
an element of understanding and valuing others, but was more about the dynamic of 
engaging others specifically, through “relating to”, “linking to”, supporting and 
involving them to participate, giving input and collaborating. The literature refers 
extensively to relational and social leadership qualities, especially in more recent 
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studies and texts such as authentic leadership theory, engaging leadership theory, 
SIMOL and leadership theories on emotional intelligence. Authentic leadership refers 
to the involvement of others not only in affirming authenticity and ideas on self for the 
leader, but also in the follower’s reality being key to the leadership process. The 
literature describes how authentic leadership is not just ‘expressing one's true self’, it 
is by embodying that ‘true self’ through self-exposure, relating and making good 
leadership choices that leaders are perceived by others as authentic or not (Ladkin & 
Taylor, 2010).  
As social creatures, we assign meaning to the self that is partly affected by the 
opinions of others (Sparrowe, 2005) and the self-influences, and is influenced by 
social exchanges with others (Avolio & Gardner, 2005). In addition, the relational 
aspect of leadership plays out in the experience of leadership on the part of 
followers. It is therefore important to examine the congruence between leaders and 
followers, rather than the personality of either party alone (Zhang, Wang, & Shi, 
2012).  
The theoretical concept of authentic leadership is therefore multi-dimensional and 
includes traits, states, behaviours and contexts, as well as leader-follower dynamics 
and social relationships (Alban-Metcalfe & Alimo-Metcalfe, 2009a; Amagoh, 2009; 
Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Avolio, et al., 2004; Dalakoura, 2009; George, et al., 2011; 
Ibarra, et al., 2010; Kemp, 2009a; Mumford, 2011). The second sub-theme in this 
study contains commentary that refers to these relationships and dynamics of 
exchange between leaders and followers, using descriptions such as; “it’s not only 
getting support but giving support”, “to empower other people and improve your own 
skills”, “I immediately link up with them and it’s spun off (even more) collaboration 
between myself and different groups (than) I would have thought of before”, “they 
might have a different way of seeing things so it’s important to involve them”, and “if 
you have people who are happy and can relate to you as a whole human being”.  
These social exchanges and dynamics are also elegantly articulated in the African 
philosophy known as ‘seriti’ (Sotho) or ‘isithunzi (Nguni), which describe that the self 
must be regarded in relation to all other life (the self exists only in interaction with the 
community) and these interdependent interactions reflect one’s moral weight or 
influence (Boon, 2008). It is noteworthy, given the population group of this study, that 
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leadership skills that at times have been traditionally regarded as feminine (such as 
communication, team and relationship building, intuitive decision-making, multi-
tasking and sensitivity to diverse needs) are especially consistent with the social, 
relational leadership skills discussed above (Eagly & Carli, 2003; Hayward, 2005).  
The last sub-theme in this study referred to influencing others. This cluster of 
comments also included an element of engaging others, but was an extended 
concept to one of actively influencing others to set goals, contribute and be 
responsible for their actions, as well as growing, mentoring and empowering them 
(specific mentions were to influence others to set goals and take responsibility, to 
change people’s lives, and “if they are not growing then I have failed as a leader”).  
The literature on leadership promotes the idea that a leader’s primary role is to value 
human talent and unlock potential (Gardner, et al., 2011) supporting the 
achievement of common organisational goals (Amagoh, 2009; Hernandez, et al., 
2011; McCallum & O'Connell, 2008; Mumford, 2011). The behaviours of growing, 
fostering, mentoring, and empowering others are known to influence followers’ work 
engagement, motivation, employee satisfaction, sharing of information, commitment 
and reduced intent to leave, which are linked to organisational performance (Atwater 
& Brett, 2006; Hernandez, et al., 2011; Sparrowe, 2005; Walumbwa, Christensen, & 
Hailey, 2011; Walumbwa, Wang, Wang, Schaubroeck, & Avolio, 2010). It is 
interesting that one study has found that being able to facilitate relationships and 
growth as described above is valued by subordinates, but not necessarily by 
managers themselves (Hooijberg & Choi, 2000).  
The theme underlying all three sub-themes in this study was about the leader 
enabling/ influencing others, although this was through different processes such as 
understanding them, through relationship exchanges between leader and follower 
and lastly through more actively developing them. Inter-personal skills are mentioned 
in a range of leadership theories (such as engaging leadership, SIMOL and EQ 
leadership literature) as the behaviours that promote positive relationships, namely 
transparency, trust and confidence, listening, consideration, positive emotional 
contagion, social exchanges and enabling the growth of followers (Parry, 1998; Toor 
& Ofari, 2008; Walumbwa, et al., 2011). It appears that learning institutions should 
focus attention on processes that enable the authentic expression of social and 
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relational leadership, especially as this may be particularly pertinent in diverse and 
hyper-connected modern business realities. 
5.2.6 Leadership effectiveness changes: confidence 
The last theme that was extracted in the qualitative analysis about changes in 
leadership was in connection to increased confidence. Four of the respondents in 
this study contributed comments relating to this theme. Confidence was described in 
various ways including certainty, confirmation, courage and awareness of (one’s 
own) power. In this theme, commentary also referred to a shift, which was described 
as moving from self-doubt, “fear of getting it wrong”, low confidence and fear to 
increased confidence or reclaimed confidence. Several changed behaviours were 
described including having the courage to speak out, voicing opinions more, doing 
what they believe in, bringing strengths forward and concentrating on where their 
passion lies. The literature describes confidence in similar terms of tending to believe 
in the personal difference one can make, believing in one’s own personal 
competence (Carless, Mann, & Wearing, 1996 in; Parry, 1998) and self-judgment 
that one believes they can do something (Gist & Mitchell, 1992; Hollenbeck & Hall, 
2004).  
It was felt that all the relevant comments in this study referred cohesively to the 
theme of ‘confidence’, although they were inclusive of comments on a shift over time, 
and on behaviours that resulted from this shift. One participant had a strong 
emphasis on the outcomes of increased confidence and contributed most of the 
commentary on ‘know what I talk about’, ‘knowing I can lead’, ‘knowing my strengths 
and bringing them forward’. Although there was an implicit intensity about this 
particular participant’s input, there were other contributions from at least two other 
participants for each subtheme of the theme, including the shifts on confidence over 
time and the resulting behaviour change from these shifts.   
Self-confidence is linked to leadership performance in the literature, in that leaders 
who are confident welcome challenges and set difficult goals, take risks in working 
towards their objectives, may excel interpersonally and inspire followers to work 
toward the leader's objectives (Luthans, Luthans, Hodgetts, & Luthans, 2001; 
Luthans & Peterson, 2002; Shipman & Mumford, 2011). Confidence is also claimed 
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to be an important part of self-development (Avolio & Gardner, 2005; Hannah, 
Avolio, Luthans, & Harms, 2008; Mahsud, Yukl, & Prussia, 2009; Mumford, 2011).  
Certainly, the participants referred to behaviours that would support leadership, such 
as ‘bringing their strengths forward, voicing opinions, being courageous’ and “giving 
me confirmation  ...in terms of empowering other people”. Most of the commentary 
also expressed a self-development component which was discussed in detail in the 
previous section in relation to leadership effectiveness.  Confidence is therefore 
related both to the theme of ‘self-awareness’ and the theme of ‘empowering others’, 
but is differentiated enough to consider it as conceptually separate. 
It is worth noting that self-confidence in the workplace may be a dynamic of 
particular importance for women. According to some studies, women may be more 
modest, neutral and uncertain in an effort to avoid disapproval (Ibarra, et al., 2010; 
Ely, Ibarra, & Kilm, 2011; Kolb, 1995). This may also be exacerbated by cultures that 
are conflicted about their authority (Schein & Davidson, 1993; Sitzmann, et al., 2010) 
and in which they are subject to greater scrutiny because of the scarcity of women 
leaders at executive level (Ely, et al., 2011). The literature on leaders in general, 
however, especially in contemporary leadership theories such as transformational 
leadership, is rich with studies confirming that good leaders exhibit self-confidence 
and competence, have inner strength and an internal compass to support and guide 
them (Bass, 1985, 1990; Howell & Avolio, 1993; Ross & Offermann, 1997; Shamir & 
Eilam, 2005).  
With the global economic crash and recent issues around ethical corporate 
governance, sustainable, courageous leadership is being increasingly sought (Kemp, 
2009a) and this inner sense of strength is probably more important now than ever. In 
this sense, self-confidence and resilience may be more than a nice-to-have, but most 
likely is essential as an anchor in the modern leadership conditions of change and 
uncertainty. 
5.2.7 Leadership effectiveness: other changes 
It was notable that the competencies relating to enabling of self and people were 
perceived by others to change the most across the pre and post questionnaire 
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administration, compared to competencies relating to an ability to set direction and 
vision, the impact felt by others and ability to execute (although these also changed 
significantly). Certainly all measured leadership effectiveness behaviours did 
change. However, it is possible that setting and achieving ‘direction/ vision’ and 
‘execution’ are both competencies that relate to a slightly longer-term application of 
behaviours to achieve observable results. The items in these sections of the 
questionnaire specifically referred to ‘big picture’, effective solutions for business 
problems’, ‘high standards of performance and delivery’, setting up of systems and 
processes’ and ‘ensuring that staff receives training’. Perhaps these changes would 
be even more evident to others after the participants had more time to apply their 
learnt competencies in the varied contexts of their organisations and tangible results 
were more visible. 
Similarly, ‘leadership impact’ items refer to the leaders behaviours as experienced by 
their followers. It is suggested that it might take longer for individuals to absorb the 
impact of a leader’s behaviour on them than to observe a change in the leader’s 
behaviour. This is consistent with the findings described earlier in this study, that 
inner images and experiences are more resistant to change than the observation of 
changes in others’ behaviour (Cook, et al., 2005). All the ‘impact’ items in the 
questionnaire refer to the followers’ feelings in response to the leader’s behaviours. 
Perhaps followers would be more aware of changes in their ‘felt’ experiences after 
more time was available to adjust their perceptions, or if there was an opportunity to 
more deeply unpack their experiences in an interview. These are relative differences 
however, and the significant changes in all leadership behaviours on the 
questionnaire allowed for this research to confidently continue with exploring the 
impact of group coaching on leadership effectiveness changes.  
 
5.3 Discussion pertaining to research question 2 
This study’s second research question is: How does a group coaching process 
impact on changes in leadership effectiveness in South African women managers? 
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In the six interviews conducted and subsequent thematic analysis, five core themes 
were extracted related to this question. These themes showed that in reference to 
changes in leadership effectiveness (as prompted by the interview questions), the 
main impacts of group coaching were an increased awareness of self (and what 
matters to self); learning through external input and feedback; sharing and support 
(through safety, empathy and identification); and a sense of direction or ‘game-plan’. 
A sixth theme was extracted that referred to a core discourse on women and women 
leaders. 
5.3.1 Raised awareness of self and what matters to me 
The first differentiated theme extracted across the interview dataset about group 
coaching was in relation to increased awareness or learning about self and what 
matters to self. Four of the six respondents made references to issues that cohered 
around knowing, learning, delving into, “unlocking” and “opening their eyes to” 
themselves and what is valuable, meaningful or important to them.  
These findings are consistent with the findings and literature discussed above about 
leadership being self-oriented and about authenticity and self-knowledge (Parry, 
1998; Mirvis, 2008). However, they relate more specifically to how group coaching 
supports insights about the self. The literature indicates that group coaching is about 
individual learning and deepening insights (Thornton, 2010; Britton, 2010; Brown & 
Grant, 2010; Woodhead, 2011; Cook & Viedge, 2011; Vidmar, 2005). This learning is 
often about defining individuality, self-development and self-transformation, although 
often in relation to others (Thornton, 2010; Ward, 2008; Ibarra, et al., 2010).  
Group coaching can provide a highly appropriate setting to experiment safely with 
multiple identities (Florent-Treacy, 2009), where interpersonal dynamics can played 
out and patterns of interaction can be explored (Kets-de-Vries, 2010). It therefore 
helps to capture a constancy and unity of self amidst dynamic and variable lived 
events (Sparrowe, 2005). This is often referred to as a re-finding, re-discovery, 
revisiting or a reinforcing of things one thought one was aware of in oneself, but 
actually wasn’t (Griffiths & Campbell, 2009). The participants in this study provided 
commentary about both learning more about self (“learning more”, “delving into self” 
or “learning about whole self”)’ as well as learning new or presumably previously 
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unknown aspects of self (“unlocking self”, “opening my eyes” and “…the 
characteristics I had that I never knew I had...”). 
In addition, it appears that one of the most important components of knowing oneself 
is about what is deeply meaningful and valuable to self (what matters). Authentic 
leaders need to develop insight into their values and lead from this value system 
(Offermann, Hanges, & Day, 2001). These claims are consistent with a strong 
contributing sub-theme about self-knowledge in this study, referring to the 
participants’ experiences on “what is important to me” and learning about themselves 
“in a way that’s meaningful to me”. Group coaching therefore appears to not only 
support opportunities for insight about the self, but also about different personal 
meanings (Florent-Treacy, 2009).  
5.3.2 Learning through external input/ feedback  
The second differentiated theme on group coaching impact was related to learning 
about self from external input. All six respondents contributed to a theme that 
cohered around learning (and raised awareness) from input outside of self. This was 
a particularly strong theme, consisting of several (22) repeated comments across the 
participants, indicating that input and feedback may be a particularly noteworthy 
aspect of group coaching. These were also ranked number 1 and 2 as coaching 
sessions (in Table 5) and number 1, 2 and 3 (being video recorded, peer feedback 
and ‘getting input from the group respectively) as experiential processes (in Table 6). 
External input was defined in two core ways: receiving feedback from others and 
seeing oneself (it is assumed that these primarily related to feedback and to seeing 
oneself on video respectively). Receiving feedback included commentary about 
“collective knowledge”, “what peers think and feel, “honest face to face feedback”, 
“an objective view”, “great insight into how you’re perceived”, “learning about my role 
in the group”, “feedback as a mirror of self” and “hearing how you behave, listen 
etc.”.  
The available literature describes the advantages of group coaching as the learning 
enhancement that occurs through factors such as input from role models and 
amplified learning due to reflection and feedback from multiple learning partners 
(Cook & Viedge, 2011; Thornton, 2010; Vidmar, 2005; Woodhead, 2011). 
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Participants learn through exchange, input and the collective wisdom of the group 
(Britton, 2010; Stelter, Nielsen, & Wikman, 2011; Thornton, 2010; Woodhead, 2011). 
A group can provide alternative solutions or strategies and individuals can challenge 
each other, making suggestions for improvement and change (Ward, 2008).  
Participants are also exposed to many different perspectives about their own 
behaviour which can help them to recognise where and how they can become more 
effective (Kets-de-Vries, 2010). This lends support for the commentary in this study 
about learning not only through collective knowledge and what peers think and feel, 
but also for the most frequent and repeated set of extracts which were about 
receiving feedback relating to how one is perceived and the impact of this on others.  
There was also commentary in this research on the effects of this input (what 
learning occurred), including ‘causing one to reflect on’, ‘keep at the back of their 
mind’, ‘acknowledge’ something and more actively, to “be challenged”, “set 
objectives”, and relating feedback to “where you stand in your career”. The literature 
referred to above also supports the notion that feedback and exposure to 
perspectives results in reflection as well as being challenged to change (Cook & 
Viedge, 2011; Thornton, 2010; Vidmar, 2005; Woodhead, 2011; Ward, 2008; Kets-
de-Vries, 2010) as this study’s participants expressed. 
While commentary in this study was not explicitly about differences in others, the 
literature does indicate that individuals can learn through the diversity of the group 
itself (strengths, learning types and personalities) and through social comparisons 
with these different perspectives (Britton, 2010; Stelter, et al., 2011; Thornton, 2010; 
Woodhead, 2011; Yalom, 1995). The participants did not unpack the reasons for 
feedback being different from what they may have originally thought, but one logical 
reason for this is simply the difference in people’s opinions and perspectives that 
allow them to offer new and ‘honest’, ‘objective’ or ‘challenging but enlightening’ 
feedback. This can develop flexibility and resilience through exposure to alternative 
perspectives (Britton, 2010; Stelter, et al., 2011; Thornton, 2010; Woodhead, 2011; 
Yalom, 1995) and suggests an advantage in multiple sources of input and 
‘challenging feedback’ rather than one (Kets-de-Vries, 2010; Steyn & Mynhardt). 
The second sub-theme in external input referred to in this research was ‘seeing 
oneself’ and included commentary about ‘seeing how you interact’, ‘seeing 
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demeanour, body language, gestures and use of voice’, ‘observing conduct’ and 
‘showing leadership style’. Although only half of the participants explicitly 
distinguished ‘seeing oneself’ from ‘getting input’, it was felt to add an important 
context to this theme. In addition, several comments may have been referring to 
either visual or peer feedback or both, for example, “I learnt that my role in the group 
was I was seen as a spiritually grounded person”.  
Since the accuracy of self-assessment of behaviour is relatively poor and poorly 
correlated with performance measures (Bell & Federman, 2010; Cook, et al., 2005; 
Eva, et al., 2004; Hooijberg & Choi, 2000; Kolb, 1995; M. Ward, Gruppen, & Regehr, 
2002), seeing oneself from outside of oneself (for example in video feedback form)  
could be a useful form of self-development feedback. If self-assessment tends to 
reflect inner concepts of self rather than outer observations or actual change (Cook, 
et al., 2005; Sitzmann, Ely, Brown, & Bauer, 2010), then providing another version of 
‘outer observation’ such as through video may be an additional support in calibrating 
views of self. In the leadership programme in this study, peer feedback was 
encouraged while the video was being viewed and the additional versions of 
‘external input’ may well have been cumulative.  
Some environments may not always feel safe for individuals to receive feedback and 
to learn in. If organisations do not provide both challenge and support, a leader is 
unlikely to seek feedback and other forms of external input that help them learn.  
Safety and support is discussed in the next section. 
5.3.3 A safe environment for sharing and support amongst similar 
peers 
The third core theme extracted from the dataset is one containing commentary from 
all six respondents around a safe environment for sharing and support through non-
judgement, validation and identification. This theme was a complex one that 
contained several sub-themes and frequent or intense commentary. The inter-
relationship between sub-themes are depicted in Figure 10. Safety in this theme was 
described as non-judgement and validation and being able to identify with similar 
others. This safety enabled sharing and support. In addition, the similarity of 
individuals uniquely positioned them to give support and advice on common issues. 
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The meanings around ‘safety’ appeared to cohere around an outlet or safe 
environment that was confidential, intimate and supportive, and where people were 
receptive without judgement or agenda. This safe environment allowed participants 
to ‘show themselves’, have the “freedom to express”, share and just be themselves 
in terms of allowing their ‘self’, personality and leadership skills ‘out’. A core aspect 
to this safety was non-judgement and not having to fear other agendas, “wrong 
impressions”, “being ‘hurt”, or “judged”. Although only three participants explicitly 
mentioned ‘non-judgement’ in their commentary, there were also mixed comments 
that can be assumed to relate to a concept of non-judgement (e.g. “...space to be 
yourself...” and “...being allowed to do that...just allowing my personality to be”). 
Although these comments were not counted in this sub-theme, feeling that they 
could be themselves may well have been related to the participants feeling accepted 
(not judged), as well as being encouraged or validated for being themselves. 
Another core aspect referring to the safety to share was affirmation and validation by 
being valued. Affirmation (acknowledgment, assurance, encouragement) and 
confidence (self-esteem, reclaimed confidence, self-confidence) were provided by an 
environment in the group coaching that valued both the participants themselves and 
their opinions, ‘actions (‘what they do’) and insights. Some of the subjective 
commentary also referred to a contrasting environment at work where “you know at 
work you are hesitant to share because you never know when you are going to be 
stabbed in the back”, “I don’t feel that I get a lot of support at work...” and ‘’it 
<referring to her organisation> is not the type of environment where you can share.” 
If individuals feel anxious and are apprehensive of having their weaknesses exposed 
for judgement, it can make learning difficult (Kets-de-Vries, 2011; Thornton, 2010; G. 
Ward, 2008). Empathy increases participants’ willingness to talk openly, take risks 
and be vulnerable without fear of misunderstanding and judgement (Ibarra, et al., 
2010). It is possible therefore that participants in learning groups can become 
emotional anchors for each other’s learning (Higgins & Kram, 2001; Kram & 
Cherniss, 2001), creating an empowering, safe atmosphere as well as acceptance 
and support to provide the motivation for learning and change (Griffiths & Campbell, 
2009; Kets-de-Vries, 2011; Petriglieri, 2011; Ward, 2008).  
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The commentary extracted in this theme in the research was not specifically about 
learning. However, in the previous theme it was discussed in detail how participants 
learnt through feedback and input, therefore sharing and giving and receiving of 
input was the key vehicle for learning in this study. Safety is widely cited in the 
literature as a necessary learning condition because it is easier to learn when one 
feel essentially safe and valued (Thornton, 2010; Edmondson, 1999; Kets-de-Vries, 
2011; Siegel, 1999; Yalom, 1995).  
In order to learn, one needs to encounter something new (for example feedback or 
new information) and compare it for a fit or re-modelling of one’s world to 
accommodate it (Argyris & Schon, 1978). Therefore learning happens through a 
balancing of security and risk and establishing a sense of safety and validation 
allows a person to take in and learn from new experiences, such as feedback (Stout-
Rostron, 2012; Thornton, 2010). In this study, the safe and validating group coaching 
environment seemed to reduce uncomfortable affect associated with learning, and 
not only allowed participants to support each other, but also to share feedback with 
each other (Ward, 2008). 
Support was also facilitated for the research participants by identifying with and 
learning from others specifically because they were similar. While only half of the 
participants provided explicit commentary about the sub-theme of similarity, all three 
provided detailed accounts and were intense (repetitive) about their commentary. 
Identification (“relating to”, “feeling human about”) and receiving support (e.g. “asking 
for advice”) was made possible because the research participants felt they were 
similar or had similar personalities/ commonalities, dreams, fears, insecurities, 
challenges, situations and issues. The similarity of individuals allows for support and 
advice on common issues as a result of a sense of identification and belonging in a 
“sentient community” (Petriglieri & Petriglieri, 2010, p.44). In fact, the particular 
advantages of group coaching include the possibility of identification with others 
(Thornton, 2010a; Woodhead, 2011).  Participants provided examples of similar 
workplace issues, forming alliances and networks, providing solutions and coping 
strategies, and recognising their own unhelpful patterns and behaviours in the 
mirroring and similar stories of others (Kets-de-Vries, 2011; Stout-Rostron, 2012; 
Ward, 2008).  
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The literature on psychology and psychotherapy offers another source of support for 
this perspective on safety and learning in groups, as the coaching profession was 
built on foundations from psychology, amongst others (Rock & Page, 2009; Stout-
Rostron, 2006). It is well known in psychology and psychotherapy practice that 
safety and being valued through inter-personal interaction are critical elements to the 
psychotherapeutic process (Ivey, Ivey, & Simek-Morgan, 1997; Yalom, 1995). 
Attunement and connection with each other’s interpersonal experiences are 
important for developing resilience and emotional wellbeing (Siegel, 1999). This 
attunement occurs through contingent, collaborative communication through shared 
interactions that amplify positive feelings and create security (Siegel, 1999). Humans 
develop through and with relationships and group-systems like their communities. 
Groups therefore provide multiple opportunities for empathic interpersonal 
relationships, identification and belonging, and therefore sharing in a group as a 
social microcosm (Thornton, 2010; Yalom, 1995). 
Women tend to have less access to sponsors and role models or mentors and also 
fewer advantages associated with network positions and relationships compared to 
men (Cormier, 2007; Ibarra, 1997; Ibarra, et al., 2010; Karelaia & Guillén, 2011; 
Stout-Rostron, 2012). It is perhaps even more important for women to experience a 
sense of belonging and identification in environments in which they can get feedback 
from similarly positioned women (Debebe, 2011; Higgins & Kram, 2001; Holmes, 
2005; Kram & Cherniss, 2001). There was a comment by a participant in this study 
about not being able to learn from others who were more junior to her. This comment 
was not included in this theme as it related more to a concept of hierarchy or 
seniority and was not repeated by others, but it does offer some reflection on the 
current theme: perhaps if a participant herself is perceived as too ‘different’ for 
another participant to relate to, the exchange may not be viewed as valuable (is not 
identified with). If structured appropriately, however, these learning groups may 
provide a rare opportunity to spend time with women peers who are able to identify 
with each other and are therefore given the support and validation that is frequently 
needed (Debebe, 2011; Karelaia & Guillén, 2011). This was certainly expressed by 
the majority of the women in this study.  
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In the previous qualitative theme this study explored how learning occurs through 
new and different perspectives. The paradox in this current theme is that learning 
from difference (enabled by sharing) also requires some similarity to provide a sense 
of safety.  Learning and change is most likely to happen through both safety and 
stretch and a combination of group challenge or pressure and group support. 
It is worth noting that towards the end of the data analysis process, the current 
theme existed as three differentiated themes: safety (inclusive of non-judgement); 
validation; and support. Through an intensive process analysing the conceptual 
relationships between the constructs and the commonalities between interviewee 
contributions and the literature, it was decided that there was a dominant theme 
underlying all three: that of sharing and support. In addition, the researcher decided 
to focus on the ‘outcome’ inherent in the theme, which was more closely related to 
the research question of ‘impact of group coaching’. In this sense, safety (through 
validation and non-judgement), identification and similarity are inter-related concepts 
that collectively allow for supporting each other and for the sharing that enables 
learning (as discussed in the previous theme). This was a theoretical and conceptual 
decision taken and it is acknowledged that safety, validation and support could be 
separate constructs if analysed against a different research question or conceptual 
orientation.  
5.3.4 Supporting a sense of direction or game-plan 
The last core theme identified in this study around the effects of group coaching 
referred to commentary on how group coaching supported a sense of direction 
(described also as a ‘framework’ or ‘game-plan’) which was used to re-evaluate, 
‘check and balance’, and ‘assess’ in order to continuously improve and achieve 
objectives. Although there was not as much commentary in this theme as in others, 
five of the six participants referred to the theme in some way and the commentary 
was differentiated as a fairly cohesive ‘group coaching effect’ more than other 
interview content (other than that already discussed).  
Coaching is known to focus on achieving goals (Rock & Page, 2009; Goldsmith, 
2009; Linley, Woolston, & Biswas-Diener, 2009; Nelson & Hogan, 2009). Group 
coaching can, like individual coaching, be useful in creating a sense of a ‘game plan’ 
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or objective within which insights and positive learning and change occurs (Britton, 
2010; Thornton, 2010).  
Where this can be enhanced in group settings is the use of multiple inputs 
contributing to a sense of vision. Group coaching is also known to  provide members 
with opportunities to identify and set goals and the opportunities for being held 
accountable by multiple peers who all bear witness to these objectives or vision can 
be an advantage (Kets-de-Vries, 2010; Thornton, 2010; Woodhead, 2011). Group 
settings can also allow for the framing of a purpose larger than individual selves and 
for individuals to feel part of a larger endeavour (Kets-de-Vries, 2010; Thornton, 
2010; Woodhead, 2011).  
In the context of leadership specifically, connecting leaders to their purpose is seen 
as critical in supporting the development of a leadership role (George, 2007; George, 
George, & Sims, 2007). The participants in this study certainly commented on the 
need to have a direction and the need to constantly “re-evaluate it” for “continuous 
improvement” and to “check” that they were on track. One participant summed up 
the elements of this theme well when she said: “...in your mind you have a 
framework.....a game-plan, so to speak that I am working to, ...so on a day to day 
basis I reflect on that statement and what it is that I am doing every day towards it’s 
obtainment.”  
A focus on leadership purpose can be particularly helpful to women who may be at 
risk of turning their attention comparatively inwards to deal with conflicting messages 
around leadership behaviour and stereotypically masculine leadership approaches 
(Ibarra, 2011). Anchoring on a larger leadership purpose can help women leaders in 
developing and enacting identities that advance their values and purposes (Ely, et 
al., 2011). In this way, a broader purpose, direction or ‘game-plan’ is closely related 
to learning about personal values (explored in the first qualitative theme) in that they 
may inform one’s direction, purpose or ‘game-plan’.  
5.3.5 Themes that were absent 
It was surprising that there was not a stronger theme on networking, given that the 
programme provided for this, and that women tend to have less access to sponsors 
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and relevant networks than men (Cormier, 2007; Ibarra, 1997; Ibarra, et al., 2010; 
Karelaia & Guillén, 2011; Stout-Rostron, 2012). The strong theme around the value 
of support from similar others indicates however that  it is possible that the 
participants in this study found value in the process of the support and exchange 
element of networking without labelling it as ‘networking’.  
It was also surprising that there wasn’t a stronger theme around action, performance, 
accountability and achievement of results in this study. Coaching is a powerful tool 
for both insight and action or improved performance (Thornton, 2010; Whitworth, et 
al., 1998). There were not many contributions from the interviewees on the 
application of performance resulting from the group coaching. Perhaps this is less 
surprising given the process also does not focus on one individual’s context to the 
exclusion of others and may not explore personal application or follow through of 
performance to the degree that individual coaching may (Thornton, 2010).  
In addition, team coaching and action learning set coaching lend themselves more 
easily to transferred, applied and measured results than learning–oriented group 
coaching does (Hawkins, 2011; Thornton, 2010). Coaching groups of relative 
strangers that come together for the purpose of learning can reference and align to 
application but may focus more on the learning and insight processes from dynamics 
and input present in the group (Thornton, 2010; Vidmar, 2005). This study did not 
measure follow-up application into work contexts which would be valuable research 
to undertake.  
Lastly, the themes extracted from the interviewees’ contributions probably reflect in 
part the design and conceptual orientation of the coaching process itself. This 
provides opportunity for reflection on what processes and techniques in group 
coaching could be used to support enhanced action and application in future 
programme design. In general, an important aspect of successful leadership 
development initiatives is how they encourage participants to think about what 
they’ve learnt and apply that learning to work contexts (Amagoh, 2009; Dalakoura, 
2009). The researcher was particularly intrigued with the possibility of designing 
group coaching processes that not only provide for self-awareness, insight and 
feedback processes, but also accountability for action, measurable progress and 
support for transfer of learning into the workplace.  
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5.3.6 Researcher’s learnings 
The researcher learnt a great deal through the process of conducting this study. 
Most of this learning was emergent and evolved through the process of reading, 
conducting the research, and then continuously relating the findings to the literature 
in a way that evolved and built an understanding of the topics. One of the ways that 
learning is most apparent is when paradigms shift in relation to surprising findings. 
The absence of expected findings discussed above is one area that supported 
learning: the researcher was compelled to integrate and compare models of group 
and individual coaching in several instances to intellectually differentiate them in 
relation to the theory and the findings as they emerged. Group coaching assumes 
that some individual coaching mechanisms are present, but these findings highlight 
that there may be a trade-off in focus on individual dynamics for focus on group 
dynamics.  
The researcher also found underlying trends in the historical and contemporary 
development of fields such as leadership, coaching, research and learning through 
reading. This could be captured very generally as a shift from mechanistic (cause 
and effect), simplistic, linear thinking (e.g. a focus on behavioural or cognitive 
elements of theories in isolation to others) to more systemic, complex and inclusive 
ways of thinking over time (Hernandez, et al., 2011; Remenyi, 2011; Rock & Page, 
2009; Stout-Rostron, 2006). This allowed for recognition of some of the philosophical 
assumptions underpinning the theoretical orientations in leadership, coaching, 
gender research and learning (and a context of the time in which the theory was 
developed). Locating literature (and theories) as well as the current study in a 
theoretical and practical context lends awareness and relevance to the discussion.  
Finally, the researcher focussed the study on women managers because they were 
a group that lent itself to observation. However, a powerful discourse around women 
and their leadership circumstances, development and intra-personal factors like 
confidence emerged, which changed one area of thematic focus in the study, as 
described further below. 
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5.4 Women leaders in organisations 
The last theme is from contributions around a discourse on women. This theme is 
different from those discussed above in that it is not explicitly about leadership 
effectiveness or group coaching. However, although the question was never asked 
and ‘women’ or ‘women in business’ was not alluded to in the interview questions, a 
strong theme around what it means to be a women leader did emerge from the 
interview data. It was felt that while this theme does not refer to either of the 
research questions in this study, it does deepen understanding about women as 
leaders, which was the population group and therefore the context for this study.  
All six of the interview participants contributed to the theme on women, which 
included comments on identification as women (‘we are all mothers’, ‘before anything 
else, I am a woman’) and the value of being able to share common issues as 
women. Leadership in women was also described in terms of having particular skills 
(‘good communication as a means of making relationships flow’ and ‘social 
intelligence’) and having a “different set of skills as leaders” to men. Finally, a 
discourse on current leadership contexts for women was described in terms of 
organisations being ‘male-dominated’; ‘not supportive’ and of “emotionality” and 
“personalising things” not being allowed. One participant summed up her comments 
on women leaders and their environments, saying: “...we must step up”.  
Numerous studies support the finding that women occupy fewer senior management 
jobs than men (78% men at top management level in one study) (Zenger & Folkman, 
2012) and therefore have to function in predominantly male organisational cultures 
with a relative scarcity of relevant role models (Cormier, 2007; Noe, 1988; Schein, 
2001, 2007; Schein & Davidson, 1993; Stout-Rostron, 2012). As a result, women 
may feel a need to adopt masculine leadership styles and behaviours to be 
successful rather than developing their own authentic skills (Hayward, 2005; Stout-
Rostron, 2009).  
Paradoxically, some studies suggest that more ‘feminine qualities’ may be especially 
important in organisations today, for example women might be better than men at 
managing their own and other’s emotions. (Eagly & Carli, 2003; Hayward, 2005). 
While there are studies that conclude that there are no differences between men and 
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women on those leadership dimensions (Eagly & Johnson, 1990), other researchers 
have found women to be more transformational than men (Carless, 1998). More 
research is needed to clarify this, but the implications are that if women are better at 
elements of emotional intelligence than men and if emotional intelligence is 
considered a critical transformational leadership ability in times of change, then 
women may have a uniquely valuable leadership quality. Certainly in this study, the 
participants felt that ‘relationships’, ‘communication’ and ‘social intelligence’ were 
particular skills that women had. This commentary was not prolific and the study did 
not focus on comparing skills in men and women. However it is interesting that the 
strongest themes that emerged in this research were on the emotional and social 
intelligence skills of enabling self and others (in both quantitative and qualitative 
sections). It would be interesting to repeat this study comparing the results of men 
and women leaders to see if the strength of the themes are the same for men.  
Women leaders may also lack self-confidence relative to men (Ibarra, et al., 2010; 
Ely, et al., 2011; Kolb, 1995; Sitzmann, et al., 2010) and effective leadership is 
associated with self-confidence (Bass, 1985, 1990; Howell & Avolio, 1993; Luthans & 
Peterson, 2002; Ross & Offermann, 1997; Shamir & Eilam, 2005; Shipman & 
Mumford, 2011). There were comments in this research that were consistent with 
these studies, which described women leaders as being insecure, lacking in 
confidence and self-belief, and placing unnecessary pressure on themselves. There 
was also a theme in the qualitative analysis about self-confidence as a leadership 
development change (but this was not compared in this study to men).  
Leadership development programmes could use leadership development and 
coaching interventions that cultivate collective self-esteem and address these 
components of a women’s gender identity as well as enhancing functional leadership 
skills (Karelaia & Guillén, 2011). 
5.5 Conclusion 
This chapter discussed the study’s findings in relation to the research question and 
in relation to the literature. The findings indicated that the six month leadership 
intervention did change leadership effectiveness as perceived by those responding 
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on the participants questionnaires, as well as reported by the participants in the 
interviews. Accuracy of self-perceived changes reported on the questionnaires was 
however, poor, as was the response rate by participant’s managers, which suggests 
there is value in eliciting feedback from alternative learning partners. Specifically, 
understanding one’s authentic self, understanding and enabling others and self-
confidence, changed in the leaders. These are all important leadership skills that are 
well reviewed in the literature and some are highlighted by this study as particularly 
important for women managers in current leadership contexts. 
The core impacts of group coaching were an increased awareness of self (and what 
matters to self); learning through external input and feedback; sharing and support 
through safety (non-judgement, validation and identification); and a sense of 
direction or ‘game-plan’. These benefits are consistent with the discussions in the 
existing literature on group coaching. This study added additional insights also. It 
deepened the understanding of which group coaching factors are especially valuable 
and how these factors add value in a leadership context.  
A discourse on women in leadership was explored in relation to participant’s 
comments. This chapter also discussed themes that were absent from the findings. 
Group coaching seems to be appropriate for learning in a social context and for 
leadership in complex social business conditions.  
The research objectives as defined in the research questions in chapter 2 have 
therefore been met and contribute to the existing body of knowledge, specifically on 
group coaching and in leadership development contexts for women managers. 
6 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 
6.1 Introduction 
This chapter concludes this study. It summarises the contributions of this research 
against the research questions and the literature and makes specific 
recommendations for groups of people within relevant areas of practice. It also 
makes suggestions for further research. 
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6.2 Conclusions of the study 
The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of group coaching on leadership 
effectiveness in South African women managers. It aimed to investigate changes in 
women’s leadership effectiveness after attending a business school leadership 
development programme, which included a group coaching component. It 
subsequently aimed to explore what impact the group coaching process had on 
changes in the women’s leadership effectiveness. The findings indicate that 
leadership effectiveness did change significantly over a six month leadership 
development programme, most notably in the areas of enabling self and others. 
Group coaching also specifically impacted leadership effectiveness. The described 
benefits of group coaching are particularly appropriate for modern social and 
relational leadership contexts and may be especially beneficial for women leaders.   
Group coaching is in essence about the input and collective knowledge of several 
participants who help each other and collaborate in learning, in the presence of an 
experienced coach. It is about the dynamics in a group and about a matrix of social 
interactions. But it is also about coaching and highlights forward-movement, change 
and a focus on goals. The results of this study show that the effects of group 
coaching were an increased understanding of self and meaning, which group 
coaching can facilitate by enabling experimentation with multiple identities through 
multiple interactions. It also showed that group coaching allowed for input from the 
group’s collective knowledge which can support new ideas, challenge existing ideas 
and allow for alternative perspectives. These forms of alternative and external inputs 
challenge existing mind-sets which results in learning. Learning is made possible 
and is easier when the learning space is safe, and participants reported that group 
coaching created safety and enabled sharing and support from multiple others as a 
result of non-judgemental, validating interactions. Lastly, group coaching allowed for 
the creation of game-plans and accountability for sticking to those game-plans.  
Group coaching in this study was impactful in terms of factors inherent in its group 
nature: multiple interactions, multiple inputs and collective sharing and support. The 
implications are that group coaches may need a skillset that enables them to coach, 
yet also to manage group processes. There was less emphasis in this study on 
achieving personal goals, accountability and organisational outcomes as result of the 
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group coaching. It is possible that there is a trade-off in benefits offered by multiple 
interactions in group coaching for individually-focussed change which results from 
individual coaching. Designers of leadership development programmes should bear 
this in mind as they assess areas of focus and select coaches for their programmes. 
Further research should also directly compare the impact of individual and group 
coaching in similar conditions to clarify this potential trade-off.    
Findings also indicated that leadership effectiveness changed significantly in all 
areas assessed in the questionnaire, especially in competencies related to self-
development and empowerment of others. Group coaching sessions specifically 
affected leadership in the areas of raised levels of insight, understanding (of self and 
others) and increased confidence. Modern notions of leadership indicate that it is 
implicitly about the self and about enabling and unlocking the human potential of 
others in high performance contexts. Self-confidence and inner strength is also 
critical to leadership effectiveness and performance, especially in the turbulent 
financial and ethical circumstances of current business realities. Thus the findings 
provide insight into the study’s research question on changes in leadership 
effectiveness, which is also consistent with the literature. Feedback was rated as 
important by the participants but the response rate of participant’s managers was 
poor, suggesting that feedback from alternative groups as in group coaching may be 
important. Participant’s self-assessments in this study were also not consistent with 
how others assessed them, which adds weight to the value of alternative and 
multiple viewpoints in developing one’s leadership effectiveness. 
The study indicates that women who work in gendered organisations may benefit 
particularly from alternative groups that provide safe feedback, supportive validation 
and a sense of identification with similarly positioned women. This study supports the 
literature that claims that self-confidence may be especially important to women who 
may deal with conflicting messages about stereotypical leadership approaches. It is 
also consistent with claims that women may benefit particularly from contexts that 
also support traditionally ‘feminine’ leadership skills.   
In conclusion, this study’s findings add to the body of knowledge on group coaching 
and leadership effectiveness in women managers. They are consistent with the 
espoused benefits of group coaching as being about multiple feedback and 
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exchange interactions. They indicate additionally that group coaching is a particularly 
beneficial approach to enhancing leadership capabilities in relational contexts and for 
women managers. It is especially effective at doing this by providing a safe and 
validating space to learn from multiple partners, gain support from similar others and 
anchor to a vision aligned to personal values.  
6.3 Recommendations  
This section recommends areas of focus for professionals in coaching and 
leadership programme design, as well as for organisations and women managers 
themselves. It also suggests areas for further research.  
6.3.1 Recommendations for leadership programme design, including 
group coaching 
The recommendations for leadership development programmes identified by the 
researcher from this study relates to four areas, namely: self-development of 
leaders, the necessity of feedback in development, the benefits of group coaching in 
leadership development and development of women leaders. These are discussed 
further below.   
- The findings in this study indicate that leadership development is as much about 
the self (and self in relation to others) as it is about the ‘harder skills’ of leadership 
that can be taught in more traditional training programmes. The participants in this 
study felt that enabling self (insight, knowledge, meaning, confidence, direction) and 
others (understand, engage, influence, share, advise) were important to their 
leadership effectiveness. It was also the more indirective and ‘process-oriented’ 
aspects of the programme that are usually ‘discovered’ rather than taught (e.g. 
sharing, giving and receiving of input, context of safety, feedback and validation) that 
enabled this learning. It is recommended that leadership development programmes 
focus as much on these ‘self-development’ and ‘process-oriented’ skills in leadership 
development as they do on functional and directive (taught) skills.  
- This study found that feedback is an important part of a leader’s growth and 
development. Feedback from organisations and managers was scarce and yet 
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challenge, validation, social comparison and alternative perspectives were important 
in supporting learning. It is recommended that leadership development programmes 
provide supportive structures for feedback and also encourage feedback in 
organisations.  
- This research found that group coaching can be an effective way of developing 
leadership competencies that require multiple interactions, multiple inputs and 
collective sharing and support. The particular competencies that group coaching 
facilitated were self-insight, enabling of others, feedback, sharing, continuous 
improvement and confidence. Multiple dynamics and interactions are implicit in 
complex relational and globally connected leadership conditions. It is therefore 
recommended that group coaching formats are considered for leadership 
development initiatives that aim to develop these competencies in these contexts.  
This study’s participants also indicated in their commentary that groups should be 
kept small (five or six individuals), the duration should be long enough to explore the 
aspects mentioned above, and that coaches are experienced and able to manage 
both coaching and group dynamics. It is recommended that adequate attention is 
paid to how group coaching processes are designed and how group coaches are 
trained, in creating impactful leadership development processes.  
- Finally, findings emerged from this study about the context of women leaders. 
These indicated that organisational environments may not be supportive of women 
leaders, that women may lack reference groups or mentorship from which to learn 
and that women may have different leadership skills than men. It is recommended 
that attention is paid to the unique challenges and opportunities in developing 
leadership effectiveness in women leaders. Specifically, programmes should focus 
on developing leadership confidence, play to women’s strengths in leadership skills, 
provide alternative reference groups for feedback and identification and provide 
challenges and solutions for managing organisation’s gender biases.  
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6.3.2 Recommendations for organisations and managers 
Many of the recommendations above also apply to organisations that design or play 
a role in designing their own leadership development programmes. There are some 
additional recommendations also: 
- This study’s findings indicated that while feedback is critical to leadership 
development, it may be scarce in organisations and from line managers. It is 
recommended that managers are encouraged to be more engaged in the leadership 
development of their direct reports. It is also recommended that organisations build 
feedback processes into their systems and cultures, in addition designing them for 
learning interventions.  
- This study found that organisations are still felt to be male-dominated and have 
subtle cultural and organisational biases towards masculine approaches to 
leadership. The recommendations for organisations and managers are to pay 
attention to developing their women leaders as a business prerogative and to 
leverage the unique leadership competencies in women. It is recommended that the 
cultural and systemic constraints that limit the promotion and development of women 
in organisations be challenged.  
6.3.3 Recommendations for coaches 
This study indicated that there is a need for the kind of learning that occurs in group 
coaching contexts. The literature also indicates that group coaching is particularly 
appropriate for certain current leadership contexts and economic realities. It is 
apparent from the participant’s commentary and from the literature that group 
coaches may need to complement their traditional coaching skills with skills and 
experience in group process, group dynamics and with group coaching tools. It is 
recommended that coaches who want to practice group coaching develop 
themselves in these ways and in so doing, also raise the practice standards and 
professionalism of group coaching. 
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6.3.4 Recommendations for women managers 
Given that this study found evidence for the challenges experienced by women in 
organisations as well as specific development needs for women leaders, it is 
recommended that women take responsibility for developing themselves in relevant 
and appropriate ways. It is recommended that women leaders proactively seek out 
peers and environments that can provide alternative reference points for social 
comparison, emotional anchoring, validation and learning opportunities. It is also 
recommended that women seek out feedback both inside and outside of their 
organisations. Finally, it is recommended that women pay attention to some of the 
ways in which they may be limiting their own leadership development by, for 
example, displaying a lack of confidence in their own abilities.   
6.4 Suggestions for further research 
This study focussed on middle-to-senior managers attending a business school 
leadership programme for women in South Africa. The study also explored the 
subjective impact of a group coaching process for the women managers through 
interviews. It recommends that further research: 
- Replicates this study in empirical settings, including quantitatively measurable 
effects of group coaching processes on leadership effectiveness, as well as the 
specific relationships between processes, techniques and coach qualities in group 
coaching and leadership effectiveness.  
- Replicates this study, focussing on the qualitative aspects of the research with a 
larger number of interviews. 
- Establishes the validity of these findings in other settings such as leadership at 
other levels of management, leadership effectiveness in men and the application of 
leadership skills outside of a business school context and in work environments. 
- Compares the effects of group coaching impact between men and women leaders.  
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- Investigates the perceptions of people that leaders work with in addition to the 
perceptions of leaders themselves. Importantly, this should ensure substantial 
engagement and feedback from the leader’s direct line managers.  
- Investigates the impact of group coaching on leadership development in longer 
time frames and the impact of group coaching for specific organisational results. 
- Explores the effects of other forms of group coaching, such as team coaching and 
action leaning sets, as well as comparing the effects of group coaching with other 
aspects of leadership development programmes (e.g. classroom teaching, 
workshops, debates and case studies) on leadership effectiveness.   
- Explores the relationship between group coaching and leadership effectiveness in 
other organisational and social-cultural contexts outside of South Africa.  
 
6.5 Conclusion 
Effective leadership is critical for organisational performance and growth, especially 
in demanding modern business environments. Group coaching is more time and 
cost-effective than individual coaching, is scalable and sustainable, and is 
appropriate to complex relational and systemic leadership contexts. It does, 
however, need rigorous theoretical and practical development. This study aimed to 
investigate the impact on group coaching for leadership effectiveness and has added 
to the body of knowledge on leadership effectiveness, extending this to women 
managers in South Africa. It has also contributed to the academic dialogue on group 
coaching processes and its value for modern leadership development and modern 
leadership challenges.  
 
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APPENDIX A – QUESTIONNAIRE  
LEADING WOMEN 360o FEEDBACK QUESTIONNAIRE   © 1 April 2011    
Dear (Participant’s name),  
As you know, you have been selected to participate in the Leading Women 
Programme at GIBS, 2011 and a research study for which you’ve given consent.  
This email contains the instructions for how to access the questionnaire on-line. 
Please complete the questionnaire yourself and forward this email to those 
colleagues you would like to give you feedback. Select people whose views 
represent a range of experiences with you, and whose views you would value as you 
identify your strengths and development areas. You may select as many as you like, 
but select only those who know you well enough to provide informed feedback.  We 
recommend that if possible you include your manager and at least four people who 
report to you, and at least four others who work with you at the same level.  The 
report is able to distinguish between these groups of respondents provided there are 
at least three from each group. 
The questionnaire should take about fifteen minutes to complete. 
To complete the questionnaire now, click on:  
https://www.thornhill.co.za  (unique URL)  
 If it does not work as a click-through, please cut and paste it into the address line of 
your browser. At times connections do break up, so if you are not successful the first 
time, please try again a little later. If that does not work, please contact Thornhill 
Associates to check the connection. Note that this is a secure personalised address 
for feedback to you only and cannot be used to give feedback to any other 
participant. Your respondents will be asked to indicate their names (for record 
purposes only; their feedback to you will not be identified) and position relative to 
you. If your respondents have any questions about the programme, they are 
welcome to contact me using the details below.  
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If you have any technical questions you may consult Thornhill Associates’ FAQs by 
clicking on http://www.thornhill.co.za/thornhill/faq.html or you can send Thornhill 
Associates a message by replying to this email. 
Your respondents' kind contribution to the programme is greatly appreciated.  
Kind regards,  
Alison Reid 
Tel: + 771 4219 
Email: reida@gibs.co.za 
The questionnaire was created by the Thornhill 360-degree feedback system 
www.thornhill.co.za, and this email was generated automatically from the server of 
Thornhill Associates. For technical information about the on-line administration of the 
questionnaire, please contact admin@thornhill.co.za. 
 
Questionnaire Items                                                 
HEAD: CREATING DIRECTION 
 
1. Identifies the “big picture” strategic context of problems and opportunities 
2. Communicates a clear, compelling and attractive vision for the future of the 
organisation 
3. Contributes a very thorough understanding of how business works 
4. Demonstrates insight when faced with complexity 
5. Comes up with effective solutions to business problems 
6. Is open and receptive to the new ideas of others and different ways of doing 
things 
7. Introduces her own creative and innovative thinking 
8. Challenges existing ways of doing things 
9. Takes tough decisions when necessary, even when they are unpopular 
10. Encourages realism in decisions by finding and facing the truth, even when it is 
unpleasant 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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HEART 1:  ENABLING OTHERS 
 
11. Listens attentively and accurately 
12. Treats all people with respect, regardless of race, gender, or other diversity 
13. Actively builds on the benefits of diversity to draw the best out of all people 
14. Coaches and develops staff 
15. Contributes supportively and expertly to the success of peers and superiors 
16. Demonstrates a set of values that subordinates respect and buy into 
17. Supports others’ decisions 
18. Celebrates others’ successes and achievements  
19. Expresses confidence in the ability of others 
20. Inspires support and enthusiasm in others for a shared vision and mission 
 
HEART 2: ENABLING SELF 
 
21. Recognises her own emotions and how they impact on others 
22. Is aware of her strengths and weaknesses and is not afraid to disclose them 
23. Obtains and attends to feedback from other people without defensiveness 
24. Comes across as confidently optimistic, even when others are discouraged 
25. Maintains a high level of personal energy and determination  
26. Maintains composure and self-control under difficult circumstances 
27. Steps forward to take the initiative unprompted 
28. Her values, words and actions come across as consistent 
29. Is dependable in all situations 
30. Keeps going with resilience in the face of difficulties or opposition. 
31. Comes across as leading naturally rather than acting a part 
32. Clearly demonstrates what contribution she wants to make 
 
 
HEART 3:  ENABLING GROUPS AND THE ORGANISATION 
 
33. Sums up and puts what the team is thinking into words or action steps 
34. Spots potential conflict, brings disagreements into the open and deals with them 
promptly 
35. Comes across as confident 
36. Encourages constructive debate and open discussion 
37. Is influential  
38. Reads the organisation’s power dynamics so well she can deal with politics 
effectively 
39. Builds consensus and support for initiatives, especially among key decision 
makers 
40. Forms strong networks with people across the organisation 
41. Attracts and retains talented staff  
42. Gains unusual loyalty from staff to the extent that they go the extra mile for her. 
 
HANDS:  EXECUTING 
 
43. Insists on high standards of performance and service to clients/ customers/ 
colleagues 
44. Can be counted on personally to deliver on time and up to standard 
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45. Clearly states what is required, from whom, by when, how and why 
46. Meets with direct reports often to confirm direction and monitor progress 
47. Gives accurate, insightful and fair feedback on performance 
48. Has the courage to implement tough consequences for poor performance 
49. Sets up and/ or improves systems, processes and structures to achieve optimal 
results 
50. Takes active steps immediately to ensure the team obtains the resources needed 
to do the job 
51. Ensures that staff receive training or coaching to equip them for specific 
requirements. 
52. Empowers others to take initiative, make decisions and work effectively on their 
own. 
LEADERSHIP IMPACT ITEMS 
53.  When I am with her I feel understood 
54.  When I am with her I feel respected 
55.  When I am with her I feel stretched to go beyond my comfort zone 
56.  When I am with her I feel that I want to do things right all the time 
57.  When I am with her I feel confident in my own abilities 
58.  When I am with her I feel appreciated and recognised 
59.  When I am with her I feel energised 
60.  When I am with her I feel the urgency of what we need to do 
61.  When I am with her I feel that work is fun 
62.  When I am with her I feel that we have a future in this organisation 
63.  When I am with her I feel motivated to give my very best all the time 
64.  When I am with her I feel proud to be part of a winning team 
65.  When I am with her I feel that I can trust her 
Comments (these open questions will not be used in the research) 
What strengths would you like her to use more? 
What could she change to become even more effective? 
Do you have any other messages for her? 
 
 
 
 
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APPENDIX B – INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 
‘LEADING WOMEN’ GROUP COACHING INTERVIEW QUESTIONS: 
 
We are using the following definition to describe ‘leadership effectiveness’:  
Leadership effectiveness: the success in influencing or encouraging other’s 
participation in achieving set goals (Amagoh, 2009; McCallum & O'Connell, 
2008). 
1. How have you changed your thinking around what it means to be a leader/ 
leadership effectiveness? 
2. How has the Leading Women programme impacted on your ability to 
influence others to a set goal? 
3. What role has group coaching played in this process? 
4. Which of the sessions had the greatest impact on your leadership 
effectiveness (ability to influence others to a set goal), e.g. strengths and 
weaknesses, life-stories, values, leadership impact, setting personal 
development objectives, your vision?  
5. Can you describe in further detail (e.g. tell me a story about this impact)? 
6. Please rank the coaching sessions in order of  greatest to least impact on 
your leadership effectiveness: 
 Session one: Life story 
 Session two: Values 
 Session three 360 degree: strengths and development areas 
 Session four: Impact (video). 
 Session five: Personal Development objectives 
 Session six: Vision/ mission 
 
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7. Which group coaching tools had the greatest impact on your leadership 
effectiveness (ability to influence to a set goal), E.g. video-reflection, 
coaching, peer feedback, being held accountable for a goal, telling your story/ 
stories, getting input from the groups collective knowledge/ experience, 
learning from the group dynamic, learning from taking in a role in the group, 
peer networking, other?  
8. Can you describe in further detail (e.g. tell me a story about this impact)? 
9. Please rank the group coaching tools in order from most to least effective. 
Tool one: video-reflection 
Tool two: coaching 
Tool three: peer feedback 
Tool four: being held accountable for a goal 
Tool five: telling your story/ stories 
Tool six: getting input from the groups collective knowledge/ experience 
Tool seven: learning from the group dynamic 
Tool eight: learning from taking in a role in the group 
Tool nine: peer networking 
Tool ten: other (this was later adapted to ‘giving input as participants indicated 
that it was important).  
 
 
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APPENDIX C – PARTICIPANTS’ INFORMATION LETTER 
Research Participants’ information document 
 Issue  
1 Name of researcher 
Contact details 
Employers name 
Alison Reid 
+27 72 992 9457 
GIBS, 26 Melville Rd, Illovo 
2 Title of research project The impact of group coaching on 
leadership effectiveness for South 
African women managers 
3 Purpose of study The purpose of this study is to assess 
the impact of group coaching on 
leadership effectiveness in South 
African women managers. This 
research aims to investigate changes 
in women’s leadership effectiveness 
after attending a business school 
leadership development programme, 
which includes a group coaching 
component. It subsequently aims to 
explore what impact the group 
coaching process had on changes in 
the women’s leadership effectiveness. 
4 Description of study The research will take the form of a 
questionnaire and interviews 
5 Duration of the research 10 months 
6 What is involved and how long 
will it take? 
Questionnaire participants:  
 
Contributors will be asked to complete 
a short questionnaire which will take 
approximately 15 minutes.  
 
Contributors are also asked to forward 
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the questionnaire to at least three 
people who work for them.  
 
Interview participants:  
Contributors will be asked to take part 
in a one-to-one interview. You will 
asked if you are prepared to have this 
interview voice recorded, and you may 
decline if you so wish. 
 
The time required for the interview is 
approximately 60 minutes. 
7 Why you have been asked to 
participate? 
You have been asked to take part in 
this research due to your being a 
participant on the GIBS ‘Leading 
Women’ leadership programme, and 
therefore due to your experience as a 
manager in South Africa, your 
experience on this programme and 
experience with the group coaching 
process. 
8 What will happen to the 
information which will be given 
for the study? 
The information will be held securely 
and confidentially while the research is 
being collated. All notes will be kept 
under lock and key.  
 
Following the completion of the 
research all material collected will be 
shredded and destroyed.  
9 What will be done with the results 
of the study? 
The results of the questionnaire and 
interviews will be reported in the 
findings section of the research work. 
This will be done anonymously. The 
study will be published as a Masters 
dissertation at the Wits University. 
- 142 - 
10 What are the possible 
disadvantages?  
There are no costs to you associated 
with this research.  
 
No negative consequences are 
expected to you as a result of taking 
part in this research. 
11 In what way will the study be 
beneficial and to whom?  
The results will add to the body of 
knowledge on group coaching and 
leadership effectiveness. It will help to 
inform the practice of effective 
leadership in organisations, especially 
for women managers; and to inform 
the practice of leadership development 
programmes in education service 
providers. 
 
12 Who has reviewed this study to 
ensure that it complies with all 
the requirements and ethical 
standards of the university? 
The Human Research Ethics 
Committee (HREC Non-Medical) at 
the University of Witwatersrand have 
approved this research proposal and 
granted permission for the research to 
commence. 
13 Can permission be withdrawn 
having previously been granted?  
Yes, all contributors shall retain the 
right to have their contributions 
withdrawn at any time prior to the 
submission of the document. In 
addition the contributor has the right to 
refuse to answer any question asked 
during the interview or ask to end the 
interview at any time.  
14 Can you refuse to answer any 
question? 
Yes. The contributor has the right to 
refuse to answer any question on 
either the questionnaire or any part of 
the interview.  
- 143 - 
 
 
APPENDIX D - LETTER OF CONSENT 
 
 
I, person X, agree voluntarily to take part in the research project being conducted by 
Alison Reid as part of the requirements for her Master’s Degree at the University of 
Witwatersrand. I have read the Research Participants Information Document and I 
understand the contents thereof. Any questions I have asked have been answered to 
my satisfaction.  
 
I understand that the information I will supply is confidential and that it will be 
anonymised and will only be used in the findings of the research.   
 
I understand that I do not have to answer all the questions that have been put to me. 
The information that I will provide will be held securely until the research has been 
completed (published) after which it will be destroyed.  
 
The information that I will provide will not be used for any other purpose. I 
understand that I am entitled to ask for a debriefing session or a copy of the research 
at the end of the project.   
 
I have been informed that I may withdraw from this study at any time and that any 
information which I have supplied will not be used for this research and any records 
held relating to my contribution will be destroyed.  
 
Signed: _______________________________ 
 
Date: _________________________________ 
 
 
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APPENDIX E –CONSISTENCY MATRIX 
 
Assess the impact of a group coaching process on leadership development in South 
African women leaders. 
Sub-
problem 
Literature Review 
(primary 
resources) 
Hypotheses 
or 
Propositions 
or Research 
questions 
Source of data Type 
of data 
Analysis 
The first sub-
problem is to 
evaluate 
how 
leadership 
effectiveness 
in South 
African 
women 
managers 
changes pre 
and post a 
six month 
leadership 
programme.  
 
Amagoh, 2009  
Kemp, 2009 
Avolio & Gardner, 
2005 
Ibarra, Snook et al. 
2010 
Ibarra, 1997, 2004 
Day, 2001 
Mumford, 2011 
Pearce, 2007 
Gardner et al. 2011  
Goleman, 2003, 
2008 
Ely et al. 2011 
Stout-Rostron 
2006, 2009, 2011 
Nicholls, 1994 
Cook, 2011 
Hernandez et al. 
2011 
Hayward, 2005 
Cormier, 2007  
Hannum, 2010. 
Eagly and Carli, 
2003 
How does 
leadership 
effectiveness 
in South 
African women 
managers 
change pre 
and post a six 
month 
leadership 
programme? 
 
An online 
questionnaire 
Likert-style 
questionnaire 
consisting of 62-
behaviour items 
developed for this 
study to assess 
leadership 
effectiveness in 
women 
managers. 
Ordinal, 
Scalar 
Statistical 
compariso
n between 
pre and 
post 
summated 
scores on 
‘self’ 
questionn
aires. 
Statistical 
compariso
n between 
pre and 
post 
summated 
scores on 
‘responde
nts’ 
questionn
aires.  
- 145 - 
Assess the impact of a group coaching process on leadership development in South 
African women leaders. 
Sub-
problem 
Literature Review 
(primary 
resources) 
Hypotheses 
or 
Propositions 
or Research 
questions 
Source of data Type 
of data 
Analysis 
The second 
sub-problem 
is to assess 
the impact of 
the group 
coaching 
component 
of the 
leadership 
programme, 
on 
leadership 
effectiveness 
in South 
African 
women 
managers. 
Rock & Page, 2009 
Chapman, 2010 
Stout-Rostron, 
2006, 2009, 2011 
Britton, 2010 
Kemp, 2009  
Vries, 2010, 2011 
Schein, 2001, 2007 
Steltar, 2011 
Yalom, 1995 
Ward, 2008 
Goldsmith, 2009 
Linley et al. 2009 
Hawkins, 2011 
Cook & Viedge, 
2011 
Thornton, 2010 
Ibarra, Snook et al. 
2010 
Florent-Treacy, 
2009 
Mthembu, 2007 
How does a 
group 
coaching 
process impact 
on changes in 
leadership 
effectiveness 
in South 
African women 
managers? 
A qualitative 
semi-structured 
interview, 
consisting of two 
open questions to 
assess perceived 
impact of a group 
coaching process 
on change in 
leadership 
effectiveness. 
Descrip
tive 
Simple 
interpretiv
e thematic 
analysis