ADVANCING LEADERS IN ENGINEERING: A QUANTITATIVE

CORRELATIONAL RESEARCH STUDY OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT FOR

WOMEN ENGINEERS
by
Phyllis MacIntyre
ABSTRACT
This paper explores the leadership practices of women engineers licensed in British Columbia,
Canada. The paper reports on the results of a quantitative correlational study using the
Leadership Practices Inventory to operationalize leadership and explore associations with levels
of university education, executive coaching, years of engineering practice, and the location of
practice as rural versus urban. The number of women leaders continues to increase in Canadian
corporations while the influence of women engineer leaders is not as progressive. Growth in the
fields of engineering leadership education, management education, and leadership education
offered sufficient evidence to pursue research that furthered the leadership development of
women engineers. In university engineering education inclusion of leadership education
improved, while attention to leadership development for professional women engineers remained
sparse. The participants assessed their leadership practices and a correlational analysis will
associate their leadership to levels of education programs, executive coaching, years of
professional practices, and location of practice in terms of rural or urban. The study concluded
with recommendations for program components of leadership development to advance women
leaders in engineering.

Introduction
The shortage of leaders to meet the needs of business and government
organizations was a dominant issue in Canadian organizations (Calnan & Levac, 2009;
Henein & Morissette, 2006). Henein and Morissette (2006) described Candas lack of
leadership education and developmental pathways as a national deficiency. In Canada,
women engineers sought support and direction for leadership development from
engineering associations and affiliated societies (Calnan & Levac, 2009). Leadership is a
process that takes place over a period of years and leadership development requires many
components of formal and informal education that goes beyond the traditions of a
Canadian engineers university experience and the engineer-in-training program.
One remedy to improve the supply of leaders was to provide more leadership
education to support professionals in their leadership development; professionals develop
leadership through a combination of learning. According to Ely and Rhode (2010),
leadership development for women was the combination of experiential learning with
program components for learning conceptual frameworks of leadership, practice to
integrate and apply the skills of leadership, self-discovery of ones leadership identity,
and support through coaching and mentoring to sustain the leaders growth. Henein and
Morissette (2006) stressed the importance of a community of practice that renews and
promotes leadership.
Evidence of the increase of women leaders in American organizations showed
slightly more than one half of the management and professional positions were held by
women (Catalyst, 2011c). In the engineering profession, the influence of women in
1

leadership roles was less in evidence (Calan & Levac, 2009). As stated by Lambert
(2008), engineering continues as the profession in which the number of women was
under-represented. In this research study, the subject of leadership development focused
on a population of women engineers. For women engineers, the path of leadership
development includes barriers that male engineers do not experience. Although Calnan
and Levac (2009) documented the existence of a gender balance in the environmental and
chemical engineering specializations, among licensed professional engineers in 2010,
only 10.5% were women (p. 22).
The Canadian Council of Professional Engineers (CCPE) is the national
organization of the provincial and territorial associations that license engineers. CCPE
surveyed engineers and asked the following qualitative question; What is the vision of
success you would like to see for women engineers in Canada? The intent of the survey
was to capture engineers perceptions about women leaders in their workplace situations.
The survey responders numbered 2,432 with 58.8% women and 41.2% men; they
reported that women engineers want leadership education (Calnan & Levac, 2009, p. 4).
Noteworthy in the survey was the expectation that women engineers sought guidance in
leadership within the profession. Research on university engineering education showed
the progress to include courses and activities for leadership development in
undergraduate programs (Crumpton-Young et al, 2010). For women engineers already in
practice, they looked to engineering associations and affiliated societies for leadership
education that advances their leadership in professional practice.
The Research Problem
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Kaagan (1999) defined leadership development as the process of teaching

leadership and suggested a mix of learning activities that promoted a safe, shared, adult
learning experience. He taught leadership that began with substantive learning of
leadership theory followed by applied practice through a curriculum of learning activities.
The learning activities integrated Schons (1983) model of reflection-in-action that
introduced professionals to tools for learning more disciplined thinking through reflection
and inquiry. By teaching leaders to use these skills, they learned to pause and examine
their assumptions, reflected on individual experience, shared and tested their assumptions
with others, and reconstructed an experience for future learning (Bolman & Deal, 2003;
Senge, Kleiner, Roberts, Ross, & Smith, 1994). This process of critiquing and
reexamining was a post-modernist way of learning in which the leader examined his or
her narrative of a situation and used multiple perspectives to develop different ways of
thinking about future encounters.
Leonard (2003) described the implications of postmodernism for leadership
development as a requirement to teach leaders to examine self through stories,
assumptions, and metaphors (p. 11-12). This postmodernist approach supported the
developmental nature of leadership as a process of learning that connected leaders to the
experience of leadership, moving from the metaphor of personal narrative to the reality of
connecting and relating as a leader. This way of learning represented a significant
advancement in leadership development, as individual learning combined cognitive and
emotional thinking (Goleman, Boyatis, & McKee, 2002). For example, leadership
development programs integrated postmodernist approaches when the curriculum
3

included skill development for the leader to communicate through dialogue and
conversation. Sloan (2006) defined a learning space where dialogue was critical to the
experience and one where power and authority levels were not barriers to the exchange
(p. 104). Instruction that contributed to learning these skills included executive coaching
and mentoring from senior leaders in the profession (Griffiths & Campbell, 2009; Joo,
Sushko & McLean, 2012).
For engineers whose education emphasized technical and analytical skills,
learning dialogue skills prepared them for the multi-faceted demands of professional
practice (Adams, Evangelou, Dia de Figuerrdo, Mousoulides, Pawley, Schifellite,
Stevens, Svincki, Trenor, & Wilson, 2011). Alexandrou, Swaffield & MacBeth (2013)
identified professional conversations as the mechanism for leaders to move from private
reflection, to dialogue, and to public exchange. Engineers who chose a career with
corporate or government organizations were likely to learn professional conversations in
leadership development programs that combined in-house training, executive coaching,
continuing education, or university executive management program (Hannum, Martineau
& Reinelt, 2007; Sloan, 2006).
The global economy changed business in the decade of the 1990s to an extent that
increased the competition of engineering services increased. Bonasso (2001, 2002)
foresaw the challenges that globalization presented for engineers who were perceived as
only technical problem-solvers. He argued that technology applications had broader
social and the cultural implications, and a complexity that was not present in earlier
times. He proposed that engineers communicate and lead by speaking publicly about new
4

technology, by contributing to the debates, and by visibly adapting to new value systems
on international engineering projects. Bonasso (2002) believed engineers made more than
physical contributions and that engineers had to take the lead and change perceptions of
their public role.
One response to the global competition of engineering services was an increase in
the engineers who specialized in one area of engineering. A specialization increased the
engineers technical expertise, while at the same time it narrowed the engineers focus,
rather than broadening the engineers mindset to the global context of business. During
the 1990s, engineering graduates came unprepared for the challenges of the global
economy because engineering practice required additional skills in cultural diversity,
cross-disciplinary teamwork, and leadership, topics not addressed in university
engineering education. In large technology organizations, structural changes facilitated
an individuals adaptation to the cross-disciplinary nature of work during this period
(Moss Kanter, 1997). At Texas Instruments, the organization stripped away the hierarchy
to create cross-functional teams that provided opportunities for women to advance
through developmental assignments and to strengthen cross-disciplinary action within the
organization (Foust-Cumming, Sabatini & Carter, 2008).
The general problem was that engineers regarded leadership training as a soft skill
with less value in a technical field. Specifically, the challenge for organizations or
professional association leaders was to identify the preferred strategies and techniques
needed to develop engineers as leaders or to risk using leaders without technical expertise
for strategic planning and decision-making, particularly in technology-based
5

organizations. In the US, a survey of engineering employers showed that employers

expected engineering graduates to have equal skill in technical expertise, business
knowledge, and leadership capability (Dunn, 2009). His research assumed a future in
which technical expertise became a commodity, making leadership skills even more
important in the competitive market for engineering services. Reyes and Galvez (2011)
provided an example of the increasing complexity in engineering practice. In civil
engineering projects, the complexity included integration of multiple disciplines into the
team, with leadership that enabled all team members to share knowledge, adapt to new
technologies, and practice sustainability. he curriculum advancements to add leadership
in business university education offered comparable lessons for engineering education
(Gray, 2007; Rousseau & McCarthy, 2007; Schoemaker, 2008).
Engineering Leadership Education
Engineering leadership recently emerged as a scholarly discipline, and
engineering leadership education is in a nascent stage of development (Haghighi, Smith,
Olds, Fortenbury & Bond, 2008). Farr and Brazil (2009) characterized the impact of
globalization on engineering practice as negative and disruptive and proposed that
engineers develop leadership capability through a combination of training, experience,
and career growth. University educators recognized the different demands that engineers
faced, as a result engineering curriculum expanded to include leadership development.
Since 1995, Pennsylvania State University (PSU) offered a minor in engineering
leadership development in the undergraduate degree. The curriculum objectives included
the addition of skill development in communication, project planning, management,
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organizational leadership, economics, and marketing. Learning outcomes addressed

technology management, shared leadership in teamwork, creativity, innovation, and
critical thinking. In the program, student engineers experienced the diversity of a global,
engineering team, made possible through partnerships between PSU and engineering
schools in Morocco and Hungary.
Advances in the curriculum for engineering leadership combined a mix of applied
sciences, engineering, entrepreneurship, and cultural studies that provided a virtual team
experience through the Internet technology of Skype. Crumpton-Young, McCauley-Bush,
Rabelo, Meza, Ferreras, Rodriguez, Milan, Miranda, and Kelarestani (2010) defined
engineering leadership in the context of leading a technical team. The authors conducted
surveys of engineering students and of professional engineers to document their
awareness of leadership skills and attributes. The students priorities for learning
leadership were skill development in communication and problem solving and they
showed a keen awareness of the leaders roles of setting the example and representing the
group.
Leadership Development in Canada
Although leadership courses and activities improved in American undergraduate
engineering education, little or no attention surfaced in the profession for practicing
engineers (Crumpton-Young et al, 2010). In Canada, the number of women in corporate
leadership continued to increase; the percentage of women in senior corporate positions
rose from 9.8% in 2001 to 17.7% in 2011 (Catalyst Inc, 2012). In engineering, the
influence of women in leadership roles was less in evidence (Calan & Levac, 2009).
7

Henein and Morissette (2006) claimed that Canada lagged behind in development of
leaders, and the shortcoming was noticeable on a local and international scale. The
authors proposed a national leadership strategy to do the following: make leadership
development a priority for federal and provincial governments, stress the value of capable
leaders, support investment in leadership development, and take a strategic, long-term
perspective. Leadership capability in women engineers was part of this crucial resource; a
resource that Canada needed to develop or acquire.
At the University of Toronto, Reeve (2010) stressed the urgency for engineering
leadership education. He expanded leadership capability to include social responsibility
to acknowledge the role for engineers to lead public policy debates on the impact of new
technology on Canadian society. In Canadian universities, Touchie, Pressnail, Beheeshti,
and Tzekove (2010) argued for engineering leadership that focused on sustainability and
a holistic thinking in decision-making, in contrast to the broader range of management
and leadership education in American engineering education (Schuhmann, 2010).
Leadership development takes place beyond university and requires broadening career
opportunities for engineers across the many domains the profession covers.
Numerous factors contributed to changes in the practice of engineering and
leadership capability was essential for professional engineers (Fishbein & Chan, 2010;
Schuhmann, 2009). For example, projects had implications across national and cultural
boundaries; and large-scale engineering projects raised ethical issues that questioned the
social responsibility of engineers. Reeve (2010) claimed that a bond of trust existed
between engineers and the Canadian public, a bond that might be lost without sufficient
8

engineering leadership. In addition, the increasingly, cross-disciplinary nature of

engineering and science in a new discipline such as nanoelectronics, provided compelling
reasons for engineering leadership education (Brun & Neilson, 2010). Beyond Canada,
Khattak, Ku & Goh (2012) reported on the lack of engineering leadership programs in
Australia and European universities, in contrast to advancements in American
engineering schools.
Theoretical Framework
The literature review categorized research through the multiple perspectives of
management education, leadership education, engineering leadership education, and
curriculum development. Management education defined the formal education that took
place in postgraduate education, including the Masters of Business Administration
(MBA). In the context of curriculum development, the recent history of the MBA offered
useful parallels for leadership education and for engineering leadership education where
the literature noted the facultys resistance to curriculum change to broaden the program
content.
Theories of transformational leadership, management and leadership, and
engineering leadership conceptualized the theoretical framework of this study. Adult
learning theory, experiential learning theory, cognitive learning theory, and constructivist
theory contributed to the curriculum for learning leadership. Constructivist learning
includes learning collaboration skills where role-playing is a useful instructional
technique to integrate perception, beliefs, and previous experience. The constructivist

approach represented a significant departure from the tradition of learning scientific

principles and application protocols.
Cunliffe (2009) described relational leadership as the leaders ability to develop
relationships and interact with followers.. Her inclusion of moral activity might be a
response to the history of corporate scandals and unethical behavior of the previous
decade. Her research deepened understanding of leadership and strengthened the
constructivist pedagogy for teaching and learning leadership; see Figure 1: Theoretical
Framework.

10

Figure 1:
Theoretical Framework

11

Literature Review
The literature review revealed a strong foundation of current knowledge and
established the appropriate research method for exploring the topic of leadership
development for women engineers in British Columbia, Canada. In this study, the
variable of gender across the engineering disciplines was secondary to the research
questions on leadership development for women engineers. Women engineers acquired
technical expertise in undergraduate education and entered the workforce having
immediately applicable skills.
Not surprisingly, the culture of engineering included technical learning and
knowledge that was a normative measure of strength. Even among the engineering
disciplines, stereotypes of the harder, technical learning in electrical, mechanical, and
civil engineering persisted against the perception of easier learning in industrial
engineering (Frehill, 2007). One interpretation of the hard, technical stance was that
engineers lacked a clear line of sight between the technology in use and the human
application of the technology products (Gata & McKay, 2003). For example, an engineer
working on the turbines of a hydroelectric system or the intricacies of circuits were
distant from the social capital that results from the technology. Of relevance in this study
was the influence of stereotypes and bias on the leadership development of women
engineers (Ely & Rhode, 2010)
Management Education
Leadership and management were an intricate entanglement, even though
differences of definition and interpretation prevailed (Allio, 2011). Managers and leaders
12

both acquired and manipulated capital, human resources, intellectual capital, and the
visible assets of property, equipment, and computing power. Management focused on the
current, present arrangements, while leadership had a time horizon for decision-making
that related to the future vision (Thomas & Carnall, 2008). In the literature, seminal
works (Bennis, 1999; Mintzberg, 2004) contrasted the differences between managers and
leaders.
The curriculum in the MBA degree reflected the American values of market
economics (Shoemaker, 2008). The business school subjects of economics and finance
became the core of a common curriculum for the MBA; Brocklehurst, Sturdy,
Winstanley, and Driver (2007) claimed the outcome of the common curriculum was the
international recognition of American MBA credentials. By the late twentieth century
criticism surfaced of the MBA with criticism of its decline in influence. (Sinclair &
Hintz, 2007). Although management education and research was not limited to business
schools, the MBA received the majority of the criticism. Business schools responded to
the criticism with curriculum reviews and innovations in management teaching
(Shoemaker, 2008). Mintzberg (2004) proposed developing managers through action
learning, more reflective thinking, and development of personal competency in listening,
speaking, and collaborative thinking., Mintzberg and Gosling (2004) criticized MBA
education for graduating specialists instead of general managers with the skills to
integrate and collaborate across business units and functions.
Ackoff (2002) noted the pedagogical limitations of the MBAs instructional focus,
which left students unprepared to continue to learn after graduation. Adults learned how
13

to learn when taught methods of inquiry, use of reflective practice, and dialogue
education (Vella, 2008). When the business schools at the University of Toronto and Case
Western University introduced an integrated curriculum, the enrolment rates suffered
because the perceived measure of success remained on analytical skill, instead of a
broader managerial competency (Bennis, 1999; Pfeffer & Fong, 2004). Criticism of the
excessive analytical focus related to the tension between teaching management theory
versus management practice
Monaghan and Cervero (2006) proposed integrated and multiple layered learning
that related to all levels in the organizational context, the individual, the group, and the
organization. In business schools curriculum included the meta-abilities of selfknowledge, critical reflection, emotional resilience, and leadership (Buckley & Monks,
2004). The use of multidisciplinary integration in management education (Ducoffe,
Tromley, & Tucker, 2006) proposed learning that was multidisciplinary and integrated
problem solving approaches.
Boyatzis (2008) reviewed longitudinal studies on the impact of management
education that was limited to finance and economics and proposed a competency based
curriculum. Changes in program design of management education included teaching
methods to improve both cognitive thinking and emotional intelligence. The integration
of leadership courses into programs stressed a variety of learning activities that helped
students learn the relationship skills of emotional intelligence. Building on the concept of
multiple intelligences, his research enabled graduate management education to move to a
new level of adult learning that developed emotional, social, and cognitive abilities
14

within degrees such as the MBA and executive management programs at business
schools.
Rousseau and McCarthy (2007) proposed teaching evidence-based management
(EBM) for management learning. This promising approach provided the opportunity for
the student to practice management, described by the authors as application of learning,
reflection on the results, revision of the individuals understanding, and practice to
improve. Mintzberg (2004, 2005) reinforced the value of learning through shared
reflection, a generative type of learning. When managers returned to their organizations
the practice of shared reflection promoted learning in their organizations.
Leadership Education
The literature on leadership revealed many different perspectives, models, and
theories. Burns (1978) published seminal research on leadership that introduced a
continuum on which the leaders style evolved from a transactional style to the
transformational leadership style. As cited in Jandaghi, Matin, & Farjami (2009), Burns
first concept of transformational leadership emphasized the dual roles of leaders and
followers to move each other to a higher level of purpose. Henein and Morissette (2007)
described leadership as an invisible field of study in Canada after a comprehensive twoyear study in which the majority of participants reported no formal education in
leadership. They proposed a national strategy for leadership education, with leadership
becoming a Canadian theme in schooling, post-secondary education, and adult education.
They proposed an emphasis on a practice field through service learning and community

15

projects. Their approach suggested that leadership development started with civic
education, connecting Canadian diversity to the broader international community.
The apprenticeship model combined formal and informal education through an
experiential, adult learning scaffold with similarities to leadership learning. Guiding the
apprentices learning were artisans, mentors, and adequate practice time to refine ones
skills. While the apprentice focused on the craft, the developmental journey of a leader
began with questions of identity that required guidance from leaders, educators, and those
within the profession. Learning came from a combination of sources. In formal university
education, cognitive thinking took priority; however, learning leadership required
abstract, contextual, and conceptual thinking. Recent developments in curriculum
reflected a broader range of learning in Canadian universities, such as the integration of
problem-based learning and community services learning in the arts, business, and health
sciences (Kuruganti, Needhamm & Zundel, 2012).
Engineering Leadership Education
Engineers continued to use the MBA degree as a source of learning for
management and leadership. In previous decades, management dominated the MBA
curriculum and leadership currently takes an equal stance. Recent curriculum
developments in MBA education responded to the growing demand for leadership in
business and government. In planning for engineering education, universities faced
similar curriculum demands for leadership and global engineering skills development.
For engineering education, the added challenge was to provide leadership in the

16

application of new technology, including leadership in the public policy debates (Farr &
Brazil, 2009; Fishbein & Chan, 2010; Reeves, 2010).
Engineering leadership education was a new scholarly discipline (Haghighi,
Smith, Olds, Fortenbury & Bond, 2008). Since 1995, Pennsylvania State University
(PSU) offered a minor in engineering leadership development in the undergraduate
degree. Schuhmann (2010) reported the results of a 2005 curriculum review at PSU in
which objectives included skill development in communication, project planning,
management, organizational leadership, economics, and marketing. Learning outcomes
included technology management, shared leadership in teamwork, creativity, innovation,
and critical thinking. Learning diversity took place on virtual team projects with exposure
to the global context through partnership with an engineering school in Morocco. The
curriculum was a rich combination of applied science, engineering, social science, and
cultural studies.
In Canada, the most progressive leadership education for engineers began at the
University of Toronto in 2004. Faculty in the department of applied science and
engineering began a certificate program, known as Leaders of Tomorrow (LOT). The
LOT incorporated learning to lead teams, learning the social and psychological dynamics
of relationship building, and learning to acquire the identity of leadership. Reeve (2010)
contrasted the challenges for engineers to blend the traditional undergraduate engineering
education with leadership education.
In the applied sciences of engineering education, engineers learn to take
calculated risks. As a leader, the engineer learned to move with the uncertainty and
17

unpredictability of the technology application as presented in the individual and

organizational context. Equally important to a leadership development program was the
formation of a community of leaders that encouraged and supported continuous learning
(Alelandrou, Swaffield & MacBeth, 2013; Reeve, 2012). This community of practice
involved formal and informal learning and creation of networks that reinforced the
importance of leaders developing leaders.

Learning Leadership
Reflective Learning
Curriculum innovations in management education incorporated learning reflective
practice that proved beneficial in the 1990s, leadership development became an important
part of MBA education. Densten and Gray (2001) examined the importance of integrating
reflective practice in leadership development programs. Reflective practice was
constructivist learning linking leadership theory to the experience of the student.
Brookfield (1995) integrated reflective practice into education for new teachers and
claimed that the teachers improved their ability to facilitate student learning.
Lougham (1996) claimed teachers developed their ability to reflect when they
detached from personal feelings and viewed their assumptions of teaching through the
perspectives of others. Known as double loop learning, the process involved shared
reflection and group learning (Hughes, Ginnett & Curphy, 1999). When an individual
examined his or her assumptions and asked others to contribute a perspective on the
assumptions, a double loop of learning occurred. Through the double-loop learning,
18

leaders learned the value of relationships how to while also question personal attitudes
and beliefs.
Cunliffe (2009) went beyond reflective practice to emphasize critical thinking, in
contrast to Schons (1983) concept of a professionals reflection-in-action. She advocated
teaching leadership from a critical perspective in which leaders thought about leadership
in different ways. She proposed a philosopher metaphor that viewed leadership as three
intertwining threads of relational leadership, of moral activity, and of reflexivity.
Leadership was relational and the interaction contributes to the learning. Reflexivity was
a means of questioning accepted assumptions in business decision-making by using
critical, open dialogue in contrast to decisions moving from the top to the lower levels of
the organization.
Situated learning
Situated learning gained favor in management education, particularly for the
MBA in the United States and in Europe. Situated learning was a partnership between a
university and large industry employer to offer a degree or certificate program that
emphasizes learning the companys processes. In addition, program participants
strengthened networks between the university and the next generation of industry
managers and leaders. In engineering education the concept of the Learning Factory at
Pennsylvania State University was an example of situated learning in engineering
(Lamancusa, Zayas, Soyster, Morell & Jorgensen, 2008).
In a partnership between the university and industry employers, a new
engineering curriculum emerged, one in which the learning was active and stimulating,
19

both practical and theoretical. The Learning Factory provided a venue for practice-based
curriculum, interdisciplinary learning, and technology entrepreneurship. Some learning
factories included outreach projects to developing countries, a product of the
collaborative efforts of engineering educators, conferences, professional associations,
NGOs, and government agencies.
Another initiative in engineering education was the program known as the
Engineer for the Americas (Morell, 2008). It promoted the education of engineers in
Latin America and fostered foreign direct investment for entrepreneurial and technologybased business, encouraging a spirit of engineering leadership beyond the primacy of
market growth. Research literature was lacking in these active learning experiments for
engineering leadership education.
Thursfield (2008) used an interview approach to study an MBA developed by
university academics and senior corporate managers of a government agency. The aims of
the program were to increase collaboration and collective learning across the agency. The
situated learning included the senior agency managers in the design and teaching.
Students learned reflective practice by examining his or her individual approach to
agency problems. Consistent with an MBA education, the assessment of student
performance was individual. Thursfield (2008) argued against situated learning for an
MBA program because the organizational politics prevented successful collaboration.
Situated learning enabled the agency managers to practice individual reflection
and question individual assumptions and methods of problem solving. However, the
participants did not go beyond individual reflection and had no exchange with the senior
20

agency managers to promote their collaborative thinking. In this example, the

mechanisms to facilitate collaboration did not exist within the organization or in the
design of the educational program. One conclusion was that the MBA program was not
successful in furthering collaboration within the agency.
Experiential learning
Kolb (1984) believed that adults learn through the experience of learning by
doing. His experiential learning theory presented a cyclical model of learning with four
stages: a concrete experience initiated in a seminar, workshop, or laboratory; a stage of
reflective observation of the experience; the formation of an abstract model; and the
experimentation to apply or test the learning in a future experience. Turesky and
Gallagher (2011) reinforced the value of experiential learning as a theoretical framework
for coaching leaders; by teaching the leader awareness of learning preferences the leader
grasped a wider range of behaviors, which enhanced relationships with followers and
others.
Griffiths and Campbell (2009) compared adult learning to the process of
coaching where coach and client questioned, reflected, listened, and interacted. The
learning took place through iterations in which the client tested their learning in a work
context, then related and questioned their actions in conversation with the coach before
proceeding to the next iteration. Kolbs model of adult learning was foundational to adult
education; it enabled working adults to connect new knowledge to the reality of their
work experience.

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Executive Coaching
Joo, Sushko & McLean (2012) defined coaching as a developmental practice for
managers, particularly in organizations that moved away from vertical hierarchy to team
structures using horizontal coordination. Management of team structures required skills
in leadership including the ability to merge technical and strategic perspectives using
communication and relationship skills. Technological change made jobs more
challenging and added complexity to the work processes of a team. Globalization enabled
business to outsource work and form new global, business alliances, requiring leaders to
sustain the collaboration. In managerial coaching, coaching integrated process
improvement and employee performance and strengthened the capability of employees.
At the managerial level, use of coaching broadened the perspectives of the managers and
employees to accommodate the changing nature of work.
Executive coaching utilized instructional technique for teaching leaders goalsetting, strategic thinking, conversation skills like active, listening and feedback, and
leading transformative change (De Hann, Bertie, Day & Sills, 2010). Through the
process of coaching, the leader developed competencies that furthered a culture of
organizational learning (Cerni, Curtis & Colmar, 2010). Coaching was interdisciplinary,
a combination of adult learning, organizational development, counseling psychology, and
management education. De Haan & Duckworth (2012) defined executive coaching as a
combination of organization and leadership development focused, relevant, and specific
to the leader, using a conversational tone in a learning exchange between the coach and
the leader.
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All forms of coaching apply facilitated learning with the coach teaching through
inquiry, by skillful questioning that retains a focus on reaching a solution (Bower, 2012).
In executive coaching the learning was specifically on leadership skills and behavioral
change that formulated the identity of a leader, including a higher sense of purpose. Ely,
Ibarra & Kolb (2011) examined the leadership development of women and characterized
the process of achieving leadership as involving identity work. Identity work was the
leaders ability to reflect on her personal identity and expand the identity over time to a
collective one.
Identity work required an integration of self-understanding, leadership
experiences, developing relationships, and the pursuit of a higher purpose. In an
organizational context, the higher purpose related to the business or strategic objectives.
Executive coaching provided the leader with a practice field for this identity work, where
the leader experimented, implemented change, and used the executive coachs feedback
to assess actions and behavior. Executive coaching provided a learning process with the
coach providing a framework for the leader to develop and practice as a leader; the
structure was conversational and the learning took place in the cognitive and affective
domains.
De Hann and Duckworth (2013) summarized the outcome research on executive
coaching and cited studies where the clients of executive coaches reported productivity
gains and increased leadership effectiveness (Bowles, Cunningham, De La Rosa &
Picano, 2007; Thach, 2002; Perkins, 2009). Other studies on outcome research for
executive coaching showed increased self-efficacy in goal-setting, more belief in self,
23

increased ratings on feedback from direct reports, and the ability to ask superiors for
improvements (Bower 2012; De Hann, Duckworth, Birch & Jones, 2013).
Research on leadership and coaching was more substantive from academics in
physician and nursing education (Garcia, 2009; Foli, Braswell, Kirkpatrick & Lim,
2014), in psychology (De Haan & Duckworth, 2012), and in womens leadership
development (Ely, Ibarra & Kolb, 2011), and provided extensive literature on the
pedagogy of leadership. New ways of teaching leadership emerged as group learning
replaced individual reflective practice and pedagogy taught relational leadership
(Cunliffe, 2009; Eriksen & Cunliffe, 2010).
Innovation in pedagogy for leadership suggested new possibilities for
engineering leadership. In the organizational context and in professional practice,
executive coaching emerged as a learning process for leadership development in
business, government, education,and health. Although it became a popular learning
venue for leadership, the evidence-based literature on executive coaching was only five
years old and in this respect was similar to the discipline of engineering leadership.

Methods
The quantitative correlational study attempted to identify the leadership capacity
of women professional engineers in the province of British Columbia (BC). The
engineers assessed their leadership using the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI), a selfassessment that articulates leadership as actions and behavior. Secondly, the study
explored the association between leadership practices and the levels of university
24

education, executive coaching, the years of engineering practice, and the location as to
urban or rural.
Research Design
The choice of the research design was significant in a broad area of inquiry such
as leadership. The research design built upon transformational leadership theory;
leadership was developmental and focused on the relationship between the leader and
followers (Avolio & Bass, 1999). This study documented the leadership of women
professional engineers and explored sources of learning that contributed to their
leadership development. In Canada, research identified the need for more leadership
development (Heinin & Morissette, 2007); specifically, the literature suggested the need
for women leaders in engineering and the applied sciences (Frehill, 2007; Koehler, 2007;
Firestone, 2012).
This study used a quantitative, correlational research design to determine a
relationship between the leadership practice of women professional engineers and their
leadership development. Kouzes and Posner (2003) characterized leadership in a model
of five leadership practices and produced a self-assessment instrument known as the
Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI).
In the correlation analyses, the leadership practices represented the dependent
variables in the correlation analyses to test the association with five independent
variables: the presence of executive coaching, the highest level of university education,
years of engineering practice, and location of practice as to urban or rural. .. Spearman
correlation analysis predicted a measure to explain the association between leadership
25

and the highest level of education. Pearson correlation analysis predicted measures to
explain the relationship between leadership variables and between leadership and the
number of years of practice. Point-biserial correlation analysis tested the relationship
between leadership and executive coaching.
Population Sample
The population consisted of women professional engineers licensed in the
province of British Columbia, Canada by the Association of Professional Engineers and
Geoscientists of British Columbia (APEGBC). In March 2013, the agency had a
membership of approximately 12,000 professional engineers in which 1322 were women;
the agency was a stable source of data on the number of professional women engineers
(APEGBC, 2013). This study included an additional criterion of engineering experience;
participants had five or more years of experience as a licensed engineer, an estimate of
experience level for a professional engineer to assume leadership roles; this criterion
produced a small population to 722 .
The methodology for calculating sample size relied upon a sample size calculator
that was available on the internet. Applications of the sample size formula may reduce the
threat to external validity, that is, the margin of error between the sample size and the
target population. Determination of the sample size for this study was conducted using
G*Power (Heine, 2013) and correlations required the most stringent sample size. For a
two-tailed test, using an effect size of .30, an alpha of .05, and a power of .80, the sample
size calculated by G*Power software calculated a sample size of 82 participants.

26

According to G*Power software, a minimum sample size of 82 participants was required

to achieve empirical validity.
When the data was collected between March and May of 2014, the sample size
was 52 with responses from 38 participants. The reduction in sample size suggested that
it may be harder to find an association between the leadership practices and the
independent variables. In general, the more participants in a study, the easier it is to
interpret the effects between the variables; this makes it harder for the researcher to find
associations. In this study the results of the correlations analysis showed associations and
these associations may prove to be stronger from a larger sample size in future research.
Data Collection Tools
Demographic Data
Data collection utilized a participant questionnaire to collect relevant
demographic data. The relevant demographic data included the level of university
education, presence of executive coaching, and location of engineering practice and years
of engineering practice,. This study categorized university engineering education
according to diploma, baccalaureate, masters degree, and doctorate levels. A second
source of data on executive coaching was the numbers of hours, which is a metric for
measuring the service provided by a professional or certified coach.
Most of the participants had a Bachelors degree (21, 55%), and 15 participants
had a Masters degree (40%), and one participant (1, 3%) had a doctorate. Only 10
participants (26%) had executive coaching. Most participants had their engineering
practice in an urban location; only five participants (13%) came from a rural location.
27

The most common area of practice was civil engineering (14, 37%) followed by
environmental (7, 18%). Frequencies and percentages for participant demographics are
presented in Table 1.

Table 1
Frequencies and Percentages for Participant Demographics
Demographic
Education
Diploma
Bachelors
Masters
Doctorate
Executive Coaching
No
Yes
Did not respond
Location
Rural
Urban
Area of Practice*
Chemical

1
21
15
1

3
55
40
3

25
10
3

66
26
8

5
33

13
87

13

Civil
14
Computer science and software
2
Electrical and telecommunications
4
Environmental
7
Industrial
3
Mechanical and manufacturing
4
Mining
1
Geotechnical
1
Aerospace and defense
1
Note. Participants were able to select more than one response.

28

37
5
11
18
8
11
3
3
3

The average number of years in professional practice by participants was 20.58 years (SD
= 7.82). Of those that received coaching, the average number of hours spent in executive
coaching for participants was 94.30 (SD = 148.27). Means and standard deviations for
professional experience appear in Table 2.
Table 2
Descriptive Statistics for Years in Practice and Hours of Executive Coaching
Professional Experience
Years in professional practice
Hours of executive coaching

M
20.58
94.30

SD
7.82
148.27

Leadership Practices Inventory

The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) is an inventory of thirty statements;
rated on a Likert scale from 1 to 10, the higher the rating, the more likely the participant
applied the behavior. The statements represent the following five leadership practices or
subscales: modeling the way (MW), inspire a shared vision (ISV), challenge the process
(CP), enable others to act (EOA), and encourage the heart (EH). Kouzes and Posner
(2002, 2011) claimed that leadership was a learned behavior that developed through the
study of the five practices; and research continued to support their claims (Duygulu &
Kublay, 2010; Tourganeau & McGilton, 2004; Vito & Higgins, 2010). The total score of
the self-assessment was the sum of the subscales; and data was continuous.
In this study the LPI provided the women engineers with a language to describe
her leadership. Kouzes and Posner (2002) reported the reliability coefficients for the LPI29

Self assessment in the range from 0.75 to 0.87 and for the LPI-Observer assessment to
range from 0.88 to 0.92 (p. 6). The authors claimed the variation in reliability coefficients
was not detrimental to the LPI with the justification that reliability remained consistent
for demographic variables of gender, marital status, educational levels, countries, and
without re-testing differences (p.7-8). Posners (2010) data analysis supported the earlier
claims of Kouzes and Posner (2002) with respect to demographic variables. Comparison
of the reliability of the LPI included review of studies with similar purpose of identifying
leadership capability in professional groups, such as nursing and post-secondary teaching
(Clavelle, Drunkard, Tullai-McGuinnes & Fitzpatrick, 2012). As cited in Brown and
Fields (2011), the exploratory and confirmation analysis of the LPI supported the
psychometric properties of the LPI (Fields & Herold, 1997). Factors that influenced
instrument sensitivity were the time of day, weather, individual personality, political or
social events, and the activity within the participants organization (Kouzes & Posner,
2003, pp. 201-203).
Kouzes and Posner (2002) identified face validity of the LPI as accounting for
most of the validity, due to the subjective evaluation of the LPI by leaders who
participated previously in the authors research. The authors reported that participants
identified with the language of leadership used in the thirty statements; the language
described their own or another leaders personal best experience; thus, it was concluded
that the LPI had face validity (p. 14). Other measures of the validity of the LPI included
the statistical measure of factor analysis to support the discriminatory validity of the LPI
(Field & Herold, 1997; Carless, 2001; Herold & Fields, 2004).
30

Vito and Higgins (2009) used factor analysis to test the construct validity of the
LPI for use by a specific group of police managers. They found the LPI was valid for
police leadership performance and a valid construct for assessing the leadership
capabilities in law enforcement agencies (p. 317). Also, the LPI had proven reliability
and validity in similar studies for professionals in nursing and in higher education
(Clavelle, Drunkard, Tullai-Mcguiness & Fitzpatrick, 2012; Herbst & Conradie, 2011;
Tourangeau & McGilton, 2004).
In this study Cronbach alpha reliability was conducted on each of the five
subscales. Acceptable reliability ( > .70) was found for inspire a shared vision, enabling
others to act, and encouraging the heart. Challenge the process had questionable
reliability ( > .60) while unacceptable reliability ( < .60) was found for modeling the
way (George & Malley, 2010). Also, there were no values considered as outliers, which
were assessed within each of the subscales of the LPI. Values that were greater than 3.29
standard deviations from the mean were considered outliers (Stevens, 2009). Normality
for each of the scales was assessed with Kolmogorov Smirnov (KS) tests. The results of
the tests showed significance for enable others to act (p = .020). The interpretation of this
finding merits caution as it was the only subscale with significance. Table 3 presents the
Cronbach Alpha reliability and descriptive statistics for the five LPI subscales of the
Leadership Practices Inventory.

31

Table 3
Means and Standard Deviations and Subscales of Leadership Practices Inventory
Scale

No. of items

SD

MW
ISV
CP
EOA
EH

6
6
6
6
6

.44
.89
.63
.75
.79

7.49
6.07
6.93
7.84
7.09

0.75
1.59
1.12
1.00
1.13

.200
.200
.200
.020
.200

Examination of the descriptive statistics for the items from the Leadership
Practices Inventory (LPI) provided insight to the choice of leader behaviors of the women
engineers. Descriptive statistics for the 30 statements of leader behavior, listed according
to the five subscales of leadership practices appear in Table 4.

Table 4
Mean and Standard Deviation and Statements of Leadership Practice Inventory
Leadership Practice

SDSM

SD

Leader behavior
Challenge the process
3. seek out challenging opportunities that test my own skills and

7.39

1.69

abilities
8. challenge people to try out new and innovative approaches to

6.55

1.84

their work
13. search outside the formal boundaries of my organization for

6.21

2.03

innovative ways to improve what we do

18. ask what we can learn when things do not go as expected
23. make certain that we set achievable goals, make concrete plan,

7.89
7.68

1.52
1.60

and establish measurable milestones for the projects and

programs that we work on
32

Leadership Practice

SDSM

SD

Leader behavior
28. experiment and take risks even when there is a chance of

6.13

2.16

failure
Inspire a shared vision
2. talk about future trends that will influence how our work gets

6.24

1.88

done
7. describe a compelling image of what our future could be like
12. appeal to others to share an exciting dream of the future
17. show others how their long-term interests can be realized by

5.32
5.55
5.18

1.99
2.11
2.13

enlisting in a common vision

22. paint the "big picture" of what we aspire to accomplish.
27. speak with genuine conviction about the higher meaning and

6.89
7.32

1.93
1.90

8.53
8.00
9.03
7.58
7.79

1.06
1.09
0.94
1.59
1.77

how to do their work

29. ensure that people grow in their jobs by learning new skills

7.97

1.38

and developing themselves

Modeling the way
1. set a personal example of what I expect from others
6. spend time and energy on making certain that the people I work

8.39
6.34

1.05
1.74

with adhere to the principals and standards we have agreed on

11. follow through on the promises and commitments that I make
16. ask for feedback on how my actions affect other people's

9.05
5.50

1.05
1.84

performance
21. build consensus around a common set of values for running

6.63

2.02

6.95

2.29

7.79
7.16

1.49
1.42

6.42

1.87

purpose of our work

Enable others to act
4. develop cooperative relationships among people I work with
9. actively listen to diverse points of view
14. treat others with dignity and respect
19. support the decisions that people make the own
24. give people a great deal of freedom and choice in deciding

our organization
26. am clear about my philosophy of leadership
Encourage the heart
5. praise people for a job well done
10. make it a point to let people know about my confidence in
their abilities
15. make sure that people are creatively rewarded for their
33

Leadership Practice

SDSM

SD

Leader behavior
contributions to the success of our projects
20. publicly recognize people who exemplify a commitment to

6.92

1.88

shared values
25. find ways to celebrate accomplishments
30. give the members of the team my coworkers lots of

6.63
7.63

1.50
1.46

appreciation and support for their contributions

34

Data Analysis
The data analysis plan addressed five research questions and used correlation
analysis to measure the degree of association between variables that influenced the
participants leadership development The data analyses included Spearman correlations,
descriptive statistics, a repeated measures ANOVA, a between measures MANOVA, and
Pearson correlations. .
Data collected was transferred into SPSS version 21.0 for Windows by use of
Excel worksheets. Data analysis included descriptive statistics to determine the sample
characteristics in terms of university education, executive coaching, and location of
practice; and summarizes professional experience in terms of area of practice, years of
practice, and hours of executive coaching. Analysis of the data collected from the LPI
described the profile of the participants leadership; calculation included the mean and
standard deviation for the five subscales of the LPI. Throughout the data analysis the
scores from the five subscales of the LPI were treated as continuous level data.
Correlation coefficients between .10 and .29 represented a small relationship;
coefficients between .30 and .49 represented a medium relationship; and coefficients .50
and above represented a large relationship. An alpha of .05 was used for the data analysis.
Prior to analysis, the assumptions of Spearman correlation analysis were assessed; the
assumptions included that data must be at least ordinal, and scores on one variable must
be monotonically related to the other variable. Also, the assumption was assessed with
the examination of scatter plots (Morgan, Leech, Gloekner, & Barrett, 2007).
Results
35

Five Subscales of the Leadership Practices Inventory

To assess the association between the five subscales of the Leadership Practices
Inventory Pearson correlations were conducted between scores on all five of the
subscales. Scatterplots between each of the variables were examined to assess for
linearity and homoscedasticity; see Figure 1: Scatterplot between Subscales of
Leadership Practices Inventory. The scatterplots showed no strong deviation from a
linear relationship found, and all plots showed no signs of heteroscedasticity. Therefore
the assumptions were met. Inspire a shared vision scores were shown to have a
significant positive relationship with both challenge the process scores, r = .74, p < .001,
as well as encourage the heart scores, r = .39, p < .01. Lastly, encourage the heart scores
were shown to have a positive relationship with both challenge the process scores, r = .
37, p < .01, as well as enable others to act scores, r = .53, p < .001. No other
relationships were statistically significant. Results of the correlations appear in Table 5.

Table 5
Pearson Correlations between Five LPI Subscales
LPI subscales
MW
ISV
CP
MW
ISV
.17
CP
.17
.74***
EOA
-.00
.13
.29
EH
.21
.39*
.37*
Note. * p < .05. * p < .01, *** p < .001 Otherwise p > .05.

Figure 2:
36

EOA

.53***

EH

Scatterplot between Subscales of Leadership Practices Inventory.

37

Years of Practice
To examine the association between LPI subscale scores and number of years in
practice Pearson correlations were conducted. . Inspire shared vision scores were shown
to be significantly positively correlated with the number of years the participant had spent
in practice, r = .35, p < .05. No other correlations were statistically significant (p > .050).
Results of the correlations are presented in Table 6.
Table 6
Pearson Correlations between Five LPI Subscales and Years in Practice
LPI subscales

Number of years in practice

MW
ISV
CP
EOA
EH
. Note. * p < .05. Otherwise p > .05.

.26
.35*
.27
-.01
.17

p
.123
.033
.108
.961
.304

Level of Education
To examine the association between the five subscales of the LPI and the highest
level of university Spearman correlation analyses were conducted. No correlations were
statistically significant. Therefore the finding showed no association between LPI
subscale scores and the highest level of university education. Results of the correlations
are presented in Table 7.

38

Table 7
Spearman Correlations between Five LPI Subscales and Level of Education
LPI subscales
MW
ISV
CP
EOA
EH

-.11
.15
.13
-.18
-.14

.516
.361
.427
.271
.387

Executive Coaching
To examine the association between LPI subscale scores and the hours of
executive coaching point-biserial correlations were conducted. Because there were so few
participants that had received executive coaching, the presence of executive coaching was
used in place of the number of hours. No correlations were statistically significant; as a
result the finding showed no association between LPI subscale scores and the presence of
executive coaching. The correlation analysis resulted in the findings in Table 8.

Table 8
Point-Biserial Correlations between Five LPI Subscales and Executive Coaching
Scores for LPI subscales

Executive coaching received

r

MW
ISV
CP
EOA
EH

.14
-.04
.17
.00
.04
39

p
.422
.835
.323
.980
.819

Additionally, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to

assess if there were differences in the five LPI subscales by executive coaching received.
Due to the smaller sample size, only a few participants had received executive coaching
and the presence of an executive coach (Yes vs. No) was used in place of hours. Prior to
analysis, equality of variance was assessed with five Levenes tests. Results of the
Levenes tests did not show significance for any LPI scale (p > .050 for all), and thus the
assumption was met. Results of the MANOVA did not show significant differences by
the presence of an executive coach, F (5, 29) = 0.73, p = .610, partial 2 = .11. Since the
MANOVA was not significant, the individual ANOVAs were not interpreted. Results of
the MANOVA are presented in Table 9.

Table 9
MANOVA and ANOVA for LPI Subscales by Executive Coaching
MANOVA
Source
Executive

F(5, 29)
0.73

MW

ISV

0.66

0.04**

ANOVA F(1, 33)

CP
EOA
1.01

Coaching
Note. * p < .05. ** p < .01. Otherwise p > .05.

Location of Practice

40

0.00

EH
0.05*

To examine the association between LPI subscales and the location of the
engineering practice, point-biserial correlations were conducted to assess the influence of
locations as urban or a rural. The assumption with respect to location related to
accessibility to services like executive coaching in an urban location, with urban defined
as a city with a population greater than 70,000 and with a university where executive
coaching may be offered through management education. No correlations were
statistically significant and no association can be inferred between the five LPI subscale
scores and the location of the engineering practice as to urban versus rural. Results of the
correlations are presented in Table 10.

41

Table 10
Point-Biserial Correlations between Five LPI Subscales and Location
Scores for LPI subscales
MW
ISV
CP
EOA
EH
Note. * p < .05. Otherwise p > .05.

Location

.14
.19
-.01
.04
.13

.406
.248
.980
.799
.455

Additionally, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was conducted to

assess if there were differences in the five LPI subscales by location. Prior to analysis,
equality of variance was assessed with five Levenes tests. Results of the Levenes tests
only showed significance for encouraging the heart (p = .043), and thus a more stringent
alpha level of .025 will be used when assessing the encouraging the heart ANOVA.
Results of the MANOVA did not show significant differences by location, F (5, 32) =
0.84, p = .535, partial 2 = .12. Since the MANOVA was not significant, the individual
ANOVAs were not interpreted. Results of the MANOVA are presented in Table 11

42

Table 11
MANOVA and ANOVA for LPI Subscales by Location
MANOVA
Source

F(5, 32)

Location

0.84

MW

ISV

0.71

1.38

ANOVA F(1, 36)

CP
EOA
0.01

0.07

EH
0.57

Discussion and Conclusion

This study was important to enable the target population of women professional to
describe their leadership and attempt to identify influences to their development as
leaders. The results of the assessment using the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)
indicated that enable others to act (7.84) was the dominant leadership practice. Enable
others to act describes leaders with a collaborative style of interaction and engagement;
specific leader behaviors included building trusting relationships with followers, actively
listening to and responding to diverse points of view, supporting decisions made by
followers, and promoting the followers growth as a leader (Kouzes & Posner, 2011,
2013). The leader behaviors in enable others reflect transformational leadership and the
leaders comfort level to strengthen her followers capability and including their
aspirations for leadership (Jandaghi, Matin & Farjami, 2009).
Examination of the leader behaviors with the highest mean scores revealed the
highest was follow through on the promises and commitments the leader makes (9.05)
and the second highest was treat others with dignity and respect (9.03). These results

43

indicate that the leaders valued the importance of creating relationships across cultures,
disciplines, and the many domains that engineering touches.
The leader behaviors with the least mean scores included show others how their
long term interests can be realized by enlisting in a common vision (5.18) and describe a
compelling vision of what our future could look like (5.32). These leader behaviors
describe the leadership practice for inspire a shared vision, which had the lowest mean
score of the five subscales (6.07). The findings implied that women engineer leaders do
not view their leadership beyond the future possibilities of a specific technology or
project. Inspire shared vision requires conducting a shred visioning process is
characteristic of transformational leadership and an essential part of the identity work
proposed for womens leadership development (Ely, Ibarra & Kolb, 2011).
Although the second highest mean scores were for the subscale of modeling the
way (7.49), the lower reliability on this subscale suggested the participants did not
interpret the leader behaviors consistently and similarly for challenge the process, with
lowest Cronbach Alpha Reliabilities (0.44 and 0.63), respectively. One leader behavior
under challenge the process was to experiment and take risk (6.13). This is noteworthy
with respect to the perception of risk, which differs substantially between engineering and
business. For the professional engineer the highest purpose is safety and security of the
technology application, given that engineering standards and protocols minimize risk.
Although anecdotal, a note from one woman engineer reinforced this difference when she
wrote that no risk was taken in engineering while plenty of risk was common in her
business.
44

For women engineers to model these leadership distinctions to future engineers,

they require a coordinated program of leadership development that draws upon the
pathways already defined in engineering leadership education, management education,
and leadership education. Canadian engineers emphasized the value of sustainability in
education and professional practice (Reyes & Galvez, 2011). Sustainability is a theme
that extends to all realms, including succession of women leaders in the engineering
profession. Only through leadership development that is grounded in Canadian
engineering and education values will women engineers create a legacy within the
profession (Alexandrou, Swaffield, & MacBeth, 2014).
Dinpolfo, Silva & Carter (2012) reinforced the proactive responsibilities of senior
leaders to develop future women leaders by investing time to sponsor and promote
inclusive leadership development. This study suggested that the ways of integrating
engineering and leadership are complex and the learning process is complex. Like the
intricacy of management education and leadership education, leadership development
requires a combination of reflective learning, situated learning, experiential learning, and
executive coaching. A leadership development program that embraces these many ways
of learning will provide women engineer leaders with a program model of learning and
development.
As noted by Garcia (2009), the leaders thinking is incomplete unless it
incorporates dialogue and reflection with others. Leaders require a practice field for
shared reflection, experience, and deliberate learning. In the organizational context,
Garcias (2009) approach suggested a practice field for the woman engineer leader that
45

expands critical thinking to a wider range of issues related to the organizations culture
and its social responsibility. These critical skills can be learned through coaching and
mentoring, which generate the professional conversations on her leadership.
Executive coaching is a facilitated process for learning leadership; it integrates
self-understanding, experience of leader identity, and the pursuit of a higher purpose (Ely,
Ibarra & Kolb, 2011). In the organizational context, the higher purpose relates to the
strategic vision for the business, where technology change and innovation are the
business drivers. For women engineers in professional practice, clarity of her identity as a
leader will help to integrate leadership, engineering, and business. In this study,
executive coaching was not associated with the leadership of the participants.
Neverthhless, ; it provides a practice field for the leader to learn professional
conversation techniques as well as facilitated learning of leadership skills (Ander, Cerni,
Curtis & Colmar, 2010; De Hann, Bertie, Day & Sills, 2010; Levenson, 2009).
Although the findings of this study were inconclusive, the outcome research on
executive coaching substantiated its value for increased leadership effectiveness and
productivity gains (Bowles, Cunningham, De La Rosa, Picano, 2007; De Hann &
Duckworth, 2013; Thach, 2002; Perkins, 2009). Other studies on outcome research for
executive coaching showed increased self-efficacy in goal-setting, more belief in self,
increased ratings on feedback from direct reports, and the ability to ask superiors for
improvements (Evers, Brouwers & Tomic, 2006; De Hann, Duckworth, Brich & Jones,
2013).

46

In this study, the only independent variable shown to influence the leadership
variable was years of engineering practice. Years of practice are an inadequate measure to
guide current and future leaders in the profession. In the next section, recommendations
suggest a program model to support learning and development for women engineer
leaders.
Recommendations
The evidence from this research described the leadership of a sample of women
engineers as collaborative, relationship oriented leaders whose influence may be
strengthened through a coordinated effort within the profession. The recommendation
includes a program model designed around three components: leadership education, a
community of practice for women engineer leaders, and the practice fields for leadership
learning, see Figure 2, Program Components for Leadership Development
The theoretical framework for this study encompassed formal education and the
literature review identified the improvements to programs for engineering leadership,
management and leadership. Advancements in the application of learning and curriculum
improvements combine to provide ways of learning leadership that accelerate leadership
development. In this component of the program, sources of formal education that
contribute to the theory and practice of leadership will consider existing management and
leadership programs that provide appropriate context for the woman engineer leader. The
missing elements of leadership education for women engineers are access to facilitated
learning of executive coaching and the group learning that will enhance relationship
building, particularly with senior engineer leaders.
47

New ways of learning leadership necessitates fields of practice that stimulate the
professional conversations, integrate engineering and leader identity, and encourage
relationship building. A community of engineer leaders comprises organizational leaders
from engineering firms, key employers, and university engineering faculty, leaders of the
professional engineering associations and affiliated societies. The purpose of this
community is to create a culture of leadership and generate pathways for articulating,
sharing, and generating leadership development for women engineers. Through a
community of leaders, women engineers will further define the contexts for their
leadership development.
For example, one context for a women engineer leader is leading a diverse group
of stakeholders around technology with public policy implications. When engineers lead
public policy discussion the stakeholders confront them for explanations that translate
technical standards into relevance to their lived experience. Here the leadership
development requires focus on leader identity and a vison of the technologys role in
society (Bonasso, 2001, 2002; Reeves, 2010).

48

Figure 2: Program Components for Leadership Development

Engineering Deans and Faculty

APEGBC
Engineering Societies

Advance
Leaders

Inter
Disciplinary

Relevant
Organizational
Leaders

Women Engineers

Resources

49

A program model would coordinate the group learning with other engineer leaders and
the formal education that teaches relational leadership across interdisciplinary
boundaries. Innovation in pedagogy for leadership education suggested new possibilities
that will benefit women engineer leaders (Cunliffe, 2009; Eriksen & Cunliffe, 2010).
Suggestions for Further Research
This study could be expanded to a larger sample of women engineers practicing in
Canada. In this study the limitations of the small sample size made testing the
associations between variables less certain. With a larger sample size, the interpretation
of the results of the correlation analysis may prove stronger associations than evidenced
in this study. Given the top leadership practices of women engineer leaders are enabling
others, it is important to explore the sources of leadership development reveal for women
and male engineers. The infrastructure for leadership development of women engineers is
lacking in Canada. This study described the leadership strengths of women engineers and
the requirements for learning leadership that will foster women engineer leaders. A
coordinated effort involving professional engineering associations and affiliated societies
together with engineering firms and university engineering faculty offers the way forward
for creating the community of leadership practice for current and future women
engineers. This is a feasible educational endeavor that will enhance leadership in the
engineering profession.
The results of this study were inconclusive. The reliability of the Leadership
Practices Inventory was questionable in contrast to earlier research. In the literature
executive coaching emerged as a learning process for leadership development in
50

business, government, and health. Although new as evidence-based disciplines, womens

leadership development, engineering leadership education, and executive coaching are
established and growing fields of study. Engineering firms, corporations and government
that employee engineers will benefit from a program of leadership development for
women engineers.

51

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