As noted previously, in the course of this research this project moved from being a co-operative inquiry operating as an add-on to the work of core group members, to a process more determined by the flow of work of members of the core group, and which activities the researcher could gain access to. As also previously noted, this probably means that far more data was collected, and far more work was done than was strictly necessarily for one thesis.
As a feminist and participatory action research project data analysis was both a
3-127
the transcription of audio recordings, and then the process of coding and analysis conducted in NVivo. Informally conducted as members of the core
group reflected on how individual activities had worked, or on the progress of
programmes such as the Asia-Pacific Young Women’s Leadership Development Programme.
Formally, the audio from the World Café and other key recorded meetings and conversations were transcribed, initially into word documents but learning that the transcription and coding processes could be better handled by NVivo. The process switched to NVivo. NVivo while it provides a framework for managing coding, does still rely on the researcher to do this by hand, and the researcher worked through a process of identifying first order concepts, then grouping into second order themes, followed by looking for conceptual abstractions and writing memos to myself about what was emerging from the data (Gioia et al., 2013, Kempster and Parry, 2011). Initial attempts at coding seemed to generate an ever-spiralling set of ideas and directions to pursue, but eventually through repeated engagement with the empirical material and returning to the research question helped to focus on trying to identify the various understandings that members of the YWCA had as to the meaning and practice of intergenerational-
shared leadership and then considered what structures and mechanisms might
be supporting or frustrating practices.
Many of the other materials collected in the process of this project are
contained with photos of documents from archives and materials produced for and through the events that the researcher attended. While these were all
3-128
repeatedly reviewed during the data analysis phase of the project, they are mostly included within this thesis where they spoke to particular idea that wasn’t contained with the recorded and transcribed materials.
There is almost undoubtedly more that could be drawn from the data collected, and hopefully in future publications more of the material collected and the analysis that flows from it will be shared both with practitioners and scholars. However, in the pragmatic interests of focuses this thesis the decision was made to draw primarily from the data collected through the World Café discussions, as that most directly spoke to the research questions in terms of documenting the various understandings that there are about the meaning and practice of intergenerational-shared leadership within the YWCA.
3.6 Ethics
Ethics approval for this project was granted by Lancaster University’s Research and Ethics Committee.
Consent forms were generated for each of the different meetings – world office, Stuttgart, Yangon etc. Everyone who was recorded as part of the project signed a consent form, everyone who participated in (and thus was observed) in one of the meetings signed a consent form, except at World Council where only
participants in the workshop and those with whom the researcher had
conversations focused on the research signed a consent form. In other spaces at the conference the researcher was not undertaking research.
3-129
Individuals are not identifiable whether in the fieldnotes, audio-recordings or transcripts. There might be some risk that another YWCA member could in listening to the audio-recordings identify individuals by their voice, however, these recordings have been removed from the recording devices, saved
electronically and password protected. So, access without the researcher’s agreement should not be possible.
Where individuals are identified with the text of this thesis care has been taken to ensure that names or places which might identify an individual are not included in quotes, and because national delegations at many of the meetings were quite small speakers are only identified as being an old/er or young/er
woman at that meeting.
3.7 Conclusion
This chapter has presented the ontological, epistemological, and
methodological positions adopted in this thesis. The bricolage of approaches used, does not match the dominant approaches either in my mainstream field, or in the writings on critical leadership studies. However, it is argued that the positions and practices assembled, are well suited to answering the research questions:
1. How is intergenerational-shared leadership understood within the organisation?
2. How do the literatures of women’s leadership development, and critical leadership development illuminate what might be supporting, or
3-130
limiting the development of practices of intergenerational-shared leadership?
3. What theoretical insights can exploration of the practices and limitations of intergenerational-shared leadership offer back to the theory underpinning women’s leadership development, and critical- emancipatory approaches to leader/ship development?
Critical realism melding a realist ontology, with a soft positivist epistemology has allowed me to recognise the socially constructed nature of leadership, while also acknowledging that there are material impacts that flow from who is and who is not recognised as a leader. Given my interest was both in contributing to theory and practice, this was given form through feminist and participatory
action research (Lykes and Coquillon, 2006, Maguire, 1987).
As this project has unfolded, it has followed a similar trajectory to that found within the literature and practice of women in management and leadership development programs. When the project was initiated it was believed that the research would focus on a particular young women’s leadership development project to better understand how it worked and how it could be strengthened. A position that might be described as a Frame 1: fix the [young] women
approach (Ely and Meyerson, 2000a; 2000b; Coleman and Rippin, 2000;
Meyerson and Kolb, 2000), based in an understanding that what young women needed to strengthen their leadership was to acquire additional skills and experiences. However, as the project progressed, in response to the energies and interests of the core group and the opportunities to access different kinds
3-131
of work, a broader perspective emerged, more aligned with Martin’s (2003)
Frame 5: create new organisational structures. If leader/ship development can
be understood as both individual leader development, and collective leadership development (Day, 2000), and if both leaders and followers have an active role to play in shaping organisational leadership (Uhl-Bien et al., 2014) perhaps young women’s leadership development, should be understood not just as work done with young women, but work done with every woman within the
organisation. An idea that already had language around it in the YWCA,
intergenerational-shared leadership, a concept that will be further explored in
4-132