Breaking systemic barriers: The role of lived experience in building better leaders
| dc.contributor.author | Chiaramonte, Marco | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Castle, David | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-09-03T16:39:02Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-09-03T16:39:02Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2025 | |
| dc.degree.department | School of Public Administration | |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Arts MA | |
| dc.description.abstract | This research project investigates the systemic barriers preventing individuals from marginalized communities including women, Indigenous Peoples, racialized groups, persons with disabilities, and LGBTQ2S+ individuals from attaining and advancing into leadership roles. Conducted independently and without affiliation to any organization, the study explores how leadership selection processes, cultural biases, and rigid organizational structures contribute to the underrepresentation of these groups. The goal is to highlight the voices of successful marginalized leaders and human resource professionals to identify actionable solutions for building equitable leadership pathways. The research study employed a qualitative semi-structured interview approach grounded in phenomenological methodology to capture the lived experience of five successful leaders from marginalized communities and five human resource professionals. The phenomenological approach was chosen because it focuses on understanding how individuals experience leadership, decision-making and systemic barriers in their own words. Consistent interview questions were posed to all participants, with flexibility to probe deeper based on individual responses. This allowed for the identification of recurring themes, emerging issues, and unique perspectives. Data analysis focused on recognizing shared challenges, highlighting systemic patterns, and capturing participant-driven recommendations. The findings reveal that leadership pathways remain constrained by exclusionary criteria, privileging hierarchical experience, formal credentials, and dominant cultural norms over community-based leadership and lived experience. Hiring and promotion processes often perpetuate systemic bias through rigid merit standards, culturally unresponsive interview practices, and opaque advancement opportunities. Even when diversity targets are met, tokenistic approaches frequently leave marginalized leaders without genuine influence or decision-making authority. At the same time, the research underscores the transformative potential of leaders with lived experience, whose insights can address policy gaps, meet community needs, and challenge systemic inequities. However, without equitable hiring systems and structural change, these contributions remain undervalued. Expanding culturally responsive leadership development through mentorship, sponsorship, and the integration of Indigenous governance principles offers proven pathways to build inclusive decision-making and ensure meaningful representation at all levels. The research project concludes with fifteen recommendations, including: • Redefining Leadership Competencies – Recognizing lived experience, cultural knowledge, and relational leadership as assets equal to formal credentials. • Culturally Responsive Mentorship & Sponsorship – Structuring long-term, cross-cultural mentorships and sponsorships to actively advocate for marginalized leaders. • Equitable Hiring and Promotion – Conducting equity audits, implementing anti-bias training for hiring committees, and ensuring transparent advancement pathways. • Integrating Indigenous Governance and Community-Based Leadership Models – Including elders and community knowledge keepers in decision-making processes. • Embedding Inclusive Policy Frameworks – Aligning leadership recruitment and governance policies with reconciliation, equity, and principles drawn from lived experience. • Empowering Human Resources as Equity Champions – Embedding diversity, equity, and inclusion accountability into HR roles and granting authority to address biased processes. The study confirms that systemic barriers in leadership recruitment and promotion disproportionately exclude individuals with lived experience from marginalized communities. Leaders without such experience often make decisions through a narrow cultural lens, overlooking critical intersectional knowledge and perpetuating policies that fail to meet community needs. This research highlights how exclusionary norms, rigid hiring standards, and narrow definitions of success suppress diverse leadership potential. In contrast, leaders from marginalized communities bring unique insights shaped by intersectional identities and firsthand experience navigating systemic barriers that can transform policies, programs, and organizational cultures. The findings call for embedding equity into every stage of leadership development, from recruitment and mentorship to succession planning, ensuring that leadership pathways are redefined to reflect lived experience as a core competency. Moving beyond performative diversity, organizations must commit to structurally inclusive practices that empower marginalized voices to lead, influence, and create lasting, equitable change. | |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/1828/22705 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.subject | leadership | |
| dc.subject | intersectionality | |
| dc.subject | marginalized | |
| dc.subject | diversity | |
| dc.subject | equity | |
| dc.subject | inclusion | |
| dc.subject | lived experience | |
| dc.subject | systemic barriers | |
| dc.subject | gender | |
| dc.subject | Indigenous peoples | |
| dc.subject | LGBTQS+ | |
| dc.subject | people of colour | |
| dc.subject | human resources | |
| dc.subject | organizational change | |
| dc.subject | discrimination | |
| dc.subject | DEI | |
| dc.title | Breaking systemic barriers: The role of lived experience in building better leaders | |
| dc.type | project |