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What courage is required for an emerging leader to run for office as an independent candidate in a contested election? What changes when that leader is a young woman, challenging the status quo in a male-dominated political field? And finally, how does courage intersect leadership, what is required, learned, and tested when running for office means risking one’s life? This is the story of an emerging leader, Linda K. Sibanyoni, a candidate for political office from Zimbabwe, who is leading change in her community and who is willing to exercise the courage required to do so in new, different, and unexpected ways. Her lived experience is underpinned by the intersection of gender, power, and politics. From this story of trial, courage, and risk comes discussion around the leadership practices required for change in uncertain and unstable systems.

This study aims to examine how public accounting firms can use developmental mentoring to increase knowledge sharing (KS) among employees directly and indirectly through affective organizational commitment.

This study uses a survey of public accounting professionals to elicit participants’ demographics and their perceptions of KS, mentoring relationships and organizational commitment in their workplace.

The findings support that two categories of challenges found in developmental mentoring, demonstrating dedication and resilience and career goal and risk orientation, are directly associated with increased KS and they, along with a third, measuring up to mentor’s standards, indirectly influence KS through their positive effect on organizational commitment. Applying social exchange theory, these challenges contribute to a reciprocal relationship between the protégé and mentor, which builds the relationship between the protégé and organization.

This study provides information about developmental mentoring that human resource professionals and managers in public accounting firms can use to address two persistent challenges facing them: increasing employees’ organizational commitment and encouraging employees to share their knowledge with others at work.

This study examines the concept of developmental mentoring, adopting three categories of mentoring challenges and applying them in the context of public accounting to examine their effect on KS.

This qualitative study explores the past experiences of six post-secondary students who self-identified as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and/or Queer (LGBQ) and held leadership roles in student organizations at one large public institution. The purpose of this exploration was to better understand the impact of friendship on the development of a leadership identity. Utilizing Komives et al.’s (2005) Leadership Identity Development (LID) model as a framework, data were obtained from a series of three in-depth interviews with each participant and analyzed through a grounded theory approach. The significance of friendship was noted across all stages of the LID model. Based upon my findings and the suggestions put forth by the participants, a number of recommendations are made for higher education research and practice.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the expectations women have of their women managers and/or women employees and to suggest personal and organizational strategies to strengthen those relationships.

Building on a first phase of research using narrative inquiry into the lived experiences of women managing and/or being managed by women, workshops were held with 13 participants to explore their relationship expectations of women managers and/or employees.

While the participants initially believed they expected the same things of a manager or employee irrespective of gender, a closer examination revealed gender-based expectations. Women expect a higher degree of emotional understanding and support from a woman manager, than they would from a man. They also expect a woman manager to see them as an equal, take a holistic view of them as people, understand the complexities of their lives and provide flexibility to accommodate those complexities.

This is an exploratory study in an under-researched area. Extensive further research is warranted.

Understanding the expectations women have of their women managers enables the development of both personal and organizational strategies aimed at strengthening those relationships.

These findings begin a dialogue on the often-unspoken and unrecognized gender-based expectations women have of their relationships with women managers and/or women employees. Although considerable research exists on gender stereotypes in the workplace, little research exists on these gender-based relational expectations.