This study is guided by the pivotal yet underexplored question, “How does the resilience developed through the motherhood experience, particularly within the mother/child relationship, translate into a mother’s approach to her relationships with followers in a professional context?” This study delves into the impact of resilience fostered through motherhood on leadership styles, especially in professional interactions with subordinates. Adopting the grounded theory methodology, we collected qualitative data through in-depth interviews with 28 female leaders, each a mother of at least one child. We followed a grounded theory analytic procedure to systematically organize data and examine the intricacies of maternal leadership and its process-oriented resilience development. Our research uncovers a three-stage resilience-strengthening process among maternal leaders. The three stages involve the emergence of challenges, followed by the development of transformative resilience, culminating in the significant impact on inclusive leadership styles and the evolution of leader–follower relationships. This study contributes to the academic discourse in three key ways. First, it offers unique insights into how the challenges and adversities inherent in motherhood can be transformative for leadership development. Second, by identifying and detailing a three-stage process of resilience development in maternal leaders, the research provides a nuanced understanding of how personal experiences influence professional leadership capabilities. Third, the study broadens the current discourse on inclusive leadership by incorporating the maternal perspective, a relatively underexplored area, particularly in the context of transformed leader/follower relationships.
Hsiao et al. (Tue,) studied this question.