Women’s Leadership Identity Development in the Public Sector in Azerbaijan: A Grounded Theory Study
Open AccessThe purpose of this study was to understand how women leaders working in public sector organizations in Azerbaijan develop their leadership identity. Given the increase in women aspiring to become leaders in the Azerbaijani public sector and given the lack of research on women leadership identity development in Azerbaijan or other Central Eurasian countries, this study was deemed to be significant in supporting women’s leadership identity development. The study was conducted using a constructivist grounded theory methodology proposed by Charmaz (2006). Eighteen Azerbaijani women leaders holding middle and executive leadership positions in public sector organizations in Baku were interviewed in this study. The following four major axial codes with their corresponding focused codes emerged from the study: (1) Factors impacting leadership identity development (factors inside the family; factors outside the family); (2) gender and leadership identity development in Azerbaijan (gender stereotypes; challenges when you are a woman leader; You are a professional! Forget about your gender!); (3) challenges of working in the public sector; (4) advice to future women leaders and organizations. The leadership identity development model of Azerbaijani women leaders in the public sector that emerged from the study shows the continuous and constantly evolving nature of the leadership identity development process throughout the lives of the participants. Encouraging relationships and reinforcing experiences are significant elements of the model. The encouraging relationships allowed the participants to engage in leadership experiences that reinforced and strengthened the development of their leadership knowledge and capabilities as well as the development of their self-efficacy. The socio-cultural norms of the patriarchal society of Azerbaijan where women’s role is predominantly perceived to be in running their households and the unique challenges of working in the public sector in Azerbaijan, such as nepotism, long work hours, non-supportive leaders, and lack of room for innovation and independence at work, caused barriers in women’s leadership identity development journeys. Paradoxically, the women leaders participating in the study overcame these barriers with the help of their male and female family members and sometimes their male teachers, peers, and leaders in their organizations Hopefully, with more male family members recognizing the leadership abilities of women in their surroundings, patriarchal societal norms will change in the future and more women will have opportunities to develop their leadership identities. The women’s leadership identity development model that emerged from this study could serve as a roadmap for supporting women’s leadership identity development in different stages of women’s lives.
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