Leader development for adolescent girls: State of the field and a framework for moving forward

Abstract

For most leaders, their first exposure to formal leader development training occurs in adolescence, through school, extra-curricular activities, or youth leader development programs. As with many adolescent experiences, the processes and challenges of leader development are different for girls than they are for boys. With increasing calls to address gender inequity worldwide, adolescent girls' leader development has become an important cross-disciplinary research topic. Though the literature on developing adolescent girls has grown substantially, it is fragmented across disciplines, with a lack of integration and theoretical framing hindering our advancement in knowledge. Therefore, there is a critical need for a comprehensive review article to guide scholars to build an integrated knowledge of how leader development occurs for adolescent girls. We searched for literature relevant to leader and leadership development designed for adolescent girls and reviewed a total of 108 academic papers (2000–2019). We identify and critique five themes in this literature that hold important implications for the leader development of adolescent girls. To advance knowledge, we offer social cognitive theory as a theoretical frame to understand adolescent girls' leader development and provide guidance on future research. Finally, we offer insights on how the processes and practices of adolescent girls' leader development could inform adult leader development.

Introduction

Leader development, namely the changing of competencies, characteristics, and behaviors of individuals or groups in or in preparation for leadership (formal or informal), has become a multi-billion dollar industry that has quickly found its way to boardrooms and business schools (Crossan, Mazutis, Seijts, & Gandz, 2013; Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm, & McKee, 2014; Reyes et al., 2019). This emphasis on leader development during the adult years, however, fails to take into account the life-long process of acquiring the skills and mindsets that help individuals effectively take on and succeed in various leadership roles inside and outside of organizations (Liu, Venkatesh, Murphy, & Riggio, 2020; Murphy & Johnson, 2011). Research that takes a long-lens perspective to leader development has confirmed that leadership begins in childhood (Day, 2011; Gottfried et al., 2011; Liu et al., 2020; Oliver et al., 2011; Reichard et al., 2011), as most future managers experience their initial formal leader development during their adolescence (Murphy & Johnson, 2011; Reitan & Stenberg, 2019). Indeed, promoting early leader development experiences is a critical investment as today's adolescents can expect to hold several leader roles in adulthood and to face multiple, challenging demands in an uncertain and rapidly changing global society (Larson et al., 2019).

Adolescence is a critical time to examine leader development as adolescents' “identities and potential are being profoundly and rapidly influenced and shaped, including their development of a leadership identity” (Hoyt & Kennedy, 2008, p. 203). Leader development experiences in adolescence are particularly important for girls. Girls, in contrast to boys, are exposed to socialization processes and culturally entrenched values that may make them less likely to view themselves as (potential) leadership material, receive fewer signals that they are expected to become leaders, and are praised and labeled as leaders less frequently (Archard, 2012; Murphy & Johnson, 2011). We emphasize these socio-cultural influences specifically as the conceptualizations of who is a leader and what leadership looks like have been heavily rooted in the existing (adult) white, male concepts of leadership (Ayman & Korabik, 2010; Eagly & Carli, 2007). These concepts have been applied to adolescent girls with only minor adaptations that do not address the mismatch between concept and application (Dempster, Stevens, & Keeffe, 2011; MacNeil, 2006). Although societal shifts in the late 20th century have led to more inclusive conceptualizations of leadership (Dinh et al., 2014), the traditional concepts of (male) leadership endure and continue to present barriers for the leader development of adolescent girls (Archard, 2012, Archard, 2013a; McNae, 2011).

The importance of research into adolescent girls' leader development has been acknowledged across diverse research domains such as leadership, developmental psychology, education, and health. Although the cumulative knowledge on this topic has grown substantially, it remains bifurcated in silos. This division challenges scholars, practitioners, and educators on several fronts and hampers the advancement of knowledge that could enhance leader development for girls and subsequently women. First, there is no shared understanding of the current state of the literature on adolescent girls' leader development, as the research is fragmented across diverse research domains. Second, there is no integrated model of adolescent girls' leader development due to both the scarcity of research integration and a lack of theorizing on adolescent girls' leader development (Ely, Ibarra, & Kolb, 2011). Third, the lack of research integration creates follow-on effects for leader development providers as we currently do not know how adolescent girls' leader development complements or challenges our existing paradigms that inform adult leader development programs.

Research on leader development utilizes an array of theoretical lenses, with most delineating the precursors, processes, and outcomes of effective leader development (Liu et al., 2020). We draw from Day and Dragoni's (2015) conceptual work to focus our review mostly on the individual-level development factors for adolescent girls that help inform subsequent leader development activities. Day and Dragoni (2015) explain in detail how individual capabilities work with developmental experiences to produce developmental indicators such as leader identity, self-awareness, leader self-efficacy, and particular knowledge, skills and abilities. These indicators then foster opportunities for practice, which in turn produces improved individual leader capacities. We extend Day and Dragoni's (2015) framework by contextualizing leader development to adolescent girls. Specifically, we highlight the role gender may play on the experiences and interventions provided for leader development, and the support developing leaders receive. In doing so, we integrate our findings with their framework to provide a model of adolescent girls' leader development. To illuminate the process of adolescent girls' leader development, we incorporate theoretical explanations from social cognitive theory (SCT; Bandura, 1989, Bandura, 1999, Bandura, 2001; Bussey & Bandura, 1999; Wood & Bandura, 1989). Scholars have applied SCT to gender development (Bussey & Bandura, 1999) and adolescent development (Bandura, 2005), and more recently, SCT has become one of the most common perspectives applied in leader development research (O'Connell, 2014; Vogel, Reichard, Batistič, & Černe, 2020; Yeow & Martin, 2013). For research on adolescent girls' leader development, SCT offers a theoretical framework that examines: (1) the learning process in-depth, drawing on the reciprocal nature of the adolescent girl (person, behaviors) and their environment (Bandura, 1989); (2) how adolescent girls vicariously learn through the modeling process (attention, retention, behavioral, motivational; Wood & Bandura, 1989); and (3) how adolescent girls develop the self-efficacy to engage in leadership (social modeling; mastery; social persuasion; psychological and emotional state; Bandura, 1999; Bussey & Bandura, 1999). The SCT frame allows for incorporation of new thinking unique to adolescent girls, interpretation of the processes used in leader development programs, and creation of a bridge to the broader leadership development literature.

We approached our analysis of the adolescent girls' leader development literature over the past 20 years with three overarching questions in mind. We have structured our review in three sections that address each of our questions:

• What do we know about adolescent girls' leader development through existing research?

• How can social cognitive theory frame our understanding of adolescent girls' leader development and provide guidance to advance our knowledge?

• What are the implications of research on adolescent girls' leader development for adult leader development programs?