Confirmation of Candidature - Candidate : Kerrie-Anne Hammermeister

This proposed futures research is focused on women in leadership roles working within Australian non-government organisations (NGOs) that provide community services. Existing literature suggests the need for further research in this area. Also, significantly research has shown that despite decades of effort from organisations, business and governments women remain underrepresented in senior leadership roles globally, and in Australia in particular. This is concerning as the NGO sector is a profession that aims to ameliorate social justice inequalities. This futures research will enhance the literature by providing a model for empowering women's leadership in these unprecedented times, particularly following the global pandemic Covid-19.

Futures research as applied research aims to empower women's leadership by utilising focus groups as a data collection method, assisting women to gain in-depth understandings of their leadership experience within the NGO sector. It achieves this by employing causal layered analysis (CLA) as this methodology provides a transformative space where they can develop new, different, or alternative metaphors to fuel their leadership in fast-paced, changing times. Importantly, CLA does not predict the future, but rather shapes the future that these women can envisage by enabling women leaders to challenge their existing perceptions which are explored as metaphors. In this transformative space, women leaders can create new metaphors and also further develop their supporting narratives. 

Keywords
Causal layered analysis (CLA), Covid-19, metaphors, non-government organisations (NGOs), women's leadership, transformative space.

For more information, please email the Graduate Research School or phone 0746 31 1088.