Intrinsic motivation in women’s leadership advancement- exploring the Lesotho’s private sector

Abstract

There is a persistent gap in women's representation in leadership roles in the private sector of Lesotho, despite the level of educational attainment and demonstrated competence, which reduces leadership diversity, limiting high performance, innovation and engagement. This study explores how Self-Determination Theory (SDT), explains the influence of intrinsic motivation on women’s leadership advancement. The study adopted a qualitative interpretivist design. The data were collected from 17 purposively selected women, occupying multi-level managerial positions across six industries, via semi-structured interviews, and were analysed thematically to identify, interpret and synthesise the findings. The study found that intrinsic motivation drives women’s leadership advancement and aspirations while sustaining persistence where organisational support is limited. It further revealed how women utilise intrinsic motivation to circumvent systemic barriers, acknowledging the significant influence of organisational dynamics to its sustainability, which either supports or suppresses it. Taken together, this set of findings highlights that intrinsic motivation is a potent yet fragile resource, this means that a culture of organisation needs to promote psychological safety as a strategy to retain human talent. Theoretically, the study extends SDT by proposing the cycle of the self-determined growth model, which enhances the static existing theory with evolving organisational and interpersonal contexts.