Date of Award

2026-05-22

Degree Name

PhD Leadership Studies

Dissertation Committee

Antonio Jiménez-Luque, PhD, Chair; René Molenkamp, PhD, Member; Cheryl E. Matias, PhD, Member

Keywords

Leadership, Male leaders, Masculinity, Critical leadership studies, Narrative inquiry, Qualitative research, Intersectionality, Critical consciousness, Patriarchy, Embodied leadership

Abstract

Leadership is not a neutral concept; it is shaped by overlapping systems of power, including empire, whiteness, neoliberal capitalism, and cisheteropatriarchy. These interlocking systems influence how leadership is defined, recognized, and legitimized, often privileging particular identities and forms of authority. The persistent underrepresentation of people of color, women, and queer individuals in positions of leadership reflects how dominant conceptions of leadership remain closely aligned with historically entrenched structures of power.

This critical narrative inquiry study examines how men, who disproportionately occupy positions of social and institutional authority, make meaning of masculinity, power, and leadership within these systems. Drawing on relational theories of masculinity, the study explores how queer men, men of color, and critically conscious white men interpret and negotiate leadership expectations shaped by hegemonic masculinity and dominant leadership norms. The study asks: how do critically conscious male leaders navigate and negotiate their leadership amid systems of domination.

Using a qualitative research design grounded in critical narrative inquiry, this study analyzes semi-structured interviews with nine male leaders working primarily in the educational sector, including community college leadership contexts. Through critical narrative analysis and narrative portraits, the study examines how participants construct meaning around their identities, leadership experiences, and relationships to broader systems of power.

Findings reveal that leadership legitimacy is relationally produced through embodied negotiations within a gendered and racialized organizational order. While participants describe moments of resistance and critical awareness, their narratives also illuminate the limits, tensions, and contradictions of attempting to enact liberatory and resistant leadership within institutional contexts structured by dominant systems of power.

Document Type

Dissertation: Open Access

Department

Leadership Studies

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a CC BY-NC-ND License.

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