Exploring the Role of Resilience in the Career Advancement of Women Managers in the Energy Industry

Abstract

This study deepens the understanding of the role of resilience in women’s career advancement in the energy industry by focusing on the under-studied experiences of women in middle management. Exploring the lived-experiences of women managers to understand how they navigate career advancement barriers in a male-dominated environment is essential to understand the role of resilience in their career advancement.
Qualitative data was collected from semi-structured interviews with eighteen women who were employed in middle-management positions in a UK-based energy firm, each with line-management responsibilities. The study employed Conservation of Resources (COR) theory to explore the women managers’ resilience, in addition, the study was framed using Tabassum et al.’s antecedents of women managers’ resilience conceptual framework.
The first contribution of this study is the recognition that depending on their life and career stage, women managers may shift between utilising these two forms of resilience either by maintaining stability in their roles or by actively seeking advancement. The second contribution to knowledge is the provision of empirical evidence of the women managers’ resilience conceptual framework.
A final contribution of this study is that it adds to the scant research on women in middle management, especially in the energy industry.
This first implication for practice is that current interventions need to shift away from individualised interventions that seek to “fix” women towards systemic solutions that address structural barriers. Second, employee development programmes should be thoughtfully designed to accommodate the non-linear nature of women manager’s career paths. Third, flexible work arrangements for managers should be implemented to allow women managers have work-life balance. Finally, organisations in the energy industry should revise their financial controls and performance measures to enable leaders allocate meaningful resources to supporting the career advancement of women.
It is recommended that future research expand on this work by exploring which resilience behaviour will have a more lasting impact on breaking the glass ceiling by applying other resilience theoretical frameworks to further explore the career advancement of women into senior leadership positions.

Date of Award	24 Jun 2026
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Portsmouth
Supervisor	Liza Howe-Walsh (Supervisor) & Sarah Turnbull (Supervisor)