Title: The effects of leadership development on women's career success

Authors: Anna-Maija Lämsä; Terttu Savela

Addresses: School of Business and Economics, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35 FI-40014, Finland ' Oulu University of Applied Sciences, Teuvo Pakkalan katu 19, FI-90140 Oulu, Finland

Abstract: This study extends our knowledge of leadership development, specifically Master's in Business Administration (MBA) programs, from a gender perspective. It presents a comprehensive case, women-only development program and conducts an empirical, longitudinal, qualitative study of the effect of one of the program modules, namely, the women-only MBA, on the women's career success. The empirical study focused on self-efficacy mechanisms for explaining the women's appraisals of their changes in abilities affecting their career success during the MBA program. The participants were interviewed twice: once at the beginning of the MBA and then after completing it. A trusting atmosphere, social support, new business competencies, and the participants' ability to re-frame their mindsets concerning women's career potential were detected as significant sources of self-efficacy gained from the MBA. Encouragement from significant others, typically respected males, was also found to be a promoting factor.

Keywords: case study; career success; gender; leadership; leadership development; Master's in Business Administration; MBA; self-efficacy; woman.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHRDM.2019.097055

International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, 2019 Vol.19 No.1, pp.21 - 36

Received: 10 May 2017
Accepted: 12 Sep 2017

Published online: 17 Dec 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article