Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
12-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Karmyn Downs
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Colleen Ramos
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Misty Resendez
Abstract
This study was conducted between March 2023 and April 2023 and measured if women leaders in the oil and gas industry could lead authentically while dealing with gender biases. Women executives encounter macro-level challenges such as recruitment, retention, maintaining a career in oil and gas, feeling a sense of belonging, and gender prejudices. Women have faced organizational obstacles and challenges such as modifying their personalities, being underrepresented in their organization, unequal compensation, discriminatory stereotypes, and scarcity of resources. However, women in the industry also confront nonorganizational deterrents such as work-life conflict, harassment, and being regarded as poor advocates for their necessities. The study was a descriptive qualitative interview study. Data were collected by interviews with 12 participants with the following criteria: Participants were women, had at least 5 years in a leadership role in an oil and gas company, and worked in the United States. The results concluded that most participants felt that the human resources department was responsible for the gender biases faced in their companies. Participants also felt that once they reached leadership status, their biases ceased. Practical application methods to lessen gender biases are included in the study.
Keywords: Authentic leadership, downstream, gender inequality, lower management, middle management, upper management.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Ballard, Michelle Ann, "Women Leaders in the Oil and Gas Industry: How They Lead With Authenticity and Deal With Underrepresentation and Gender Bias in the Macro, Meso, and Micro Levels of Society" (2023). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 702.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/702