Beyond Colleagues: Women Leaders and Work Relationships

Abstract

Framed by the Stone Center's relational-cultural theory (Fletcher, 2007), which proposes that mutual growth occurs through connection, this qualitative exploratory study examines relationships with women colleagues that contribute to the quality of women's leadership experiences in higher education. Women leaders are affected by gendered organizational culture and by stereotypes of leadership that are predominantly male. They also face contradictions concerning their relationships with each other. Women are perceived to be relationally-oriented and socially responsive, but also back-biting and competitive; expected to show relational skills, but with no acknowledgement of what their skills contribute to organizations; expected to practice solidarity but also perceived as "queen bees." In the face of these contradictions, interviews with 15 women in leadership at five U.S. universities illuminate the character and contributions of select relationships that women leaders themselves identify as contributing factors to the quality of their leadership experiences. Ten benefits, which accrue both to the women and their institutions, emerged. Two of these benefits are: (1) strategizing and problem-solving; and (2) clarity of ideas, knowledge, and perspective. The benefits loosely align with the five positive outcomes associated with the Stone Center's relational-cultural model. Results offer alternative ways to think about women leaders' work-related relationships, recasting the usually invisible skills women bring to them as skills critical to enhancing their leadership, beneficial to the organization, and a means of challenging the status quo of gendered institutional culture. Keywords: women, leadership, colleagues, relational-cultural theory, support, friendship, work relationships