Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Learning to deploy (in)visibility
T2 - an examination of women leaders’ lived experiences
AU - Stead, Valerie
PY - 2013
Y1 - 2013
N2 - This paper focuses on women’s learning from their lived experiences of leadership. In an examination of how six women leaders at a UK university learn to deploy (in)visibility, I draw on conceptualizations of (in)visibility more commonly found in feminist research. These include surface ideas of (in)visibility as states of exclusion or difference due to a lack of women in leadership roles, and deeper ideas of how states of visibility and invisibility are maintained through power relations (Lewis and Simpson, 2010; Simpson and Lewis, 2005 and 2007). I also refer to ideas on how (in)visibility operates and is produced and reproduced through organizational processes and practices (Lewis and Simpson, 2010). This analysis extends critical perspectives of leadership learning and development. Specifically it adds to understandings of the tacit nature of social and situated learning, through an articulation of the ways in which gender and power operate in women’s learning of leadership from experiences of (in)visibility. The paper concludes by indicating further areas for research including; more developed understandings of women’s learning to think strategically from experience, examining the role of management educators in revealing women’s leadership learning, and identifying methodologies to examine women leaders’ learning experiences.
AB - This paper focuses on women’s learning from their lived experiences of leadership. In an examination of how six women leaders at a UK university learn to deploy (in)visibility, I draw on conceptualizations of (in)visibility more commonly found in feminist research. These include surface ideas of (in)visibility as states of exclusion or difference due to a lack of women in leadership roles, and deeper ideas of how states of visibility and invisibility are maintained through power relations (Lewis and Simpson, 2010; Simpson and Lewis, 2005 and 2007). I also refer to ideas on how (in)visibility operates and is produced and reproduced through organizational processes and practices (Lewis and Simpson, 2010). This analysis extends critical perspectives of leadership learning and development. Specifically it adds to understandings of the tacit nature of social and situated learning, through an articulation of the ways in which gender and power operate in women’s learning of leadership from experiences of (in)visibility. The paper concludes by indicating further areas for research including; more developed understandings of women’s learning to think strategically from experience, examining the role of management educators in revealing women’s leadership learning, and identifying methodologies to examine women leaders’ learning experiences.
KW - Learning
KW - leadership
KW - women
KW - lived experience
KW - gender
U2 - 10.1177/1350507612470603
DO - 10.1177/1350507612470603
M3 - Journal article
VL - 44
SP - 63
EP - 79
JO - Management Learning
JF - Management Learning
SN - 1350-5076
IS - 1
ER -