The MBA programmes at Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University are taking personal leadership development to new heights this fall. On 20 September 2011, 15 candidates from 11 countries begin a new all-female leadership elective - climbing Africa’s highest mountain, Kilimanjaro, to advance the leadership competencies women offer each other.
RSM is the first business school to offer such a challenge to its female MBA candidates and the business world was clearly ready for this groundbreaking initiative. The project has attracted key research partners and corporate support.
Rebecca Stephens will be leading this first expedition of MBA women up the Kilimanjaro and is the first British woman to climb Everest and the world’s top 7 summits. Using the climb as a metaphor for business, the candidates will work closely and lead each other through difficult terrain, pushing past significant physical and mental barriers over 7 days as they ascend the 5, 895m summit.
The RSM MBA Kilimanjaro Leadership Project was initiated in 2010 by Dr. Dianne Bevelander, Associate Dean, MBA Programmes. The course is designed to address the challenges faced by women when climbing the corporate ladder, but not the challenges we usually read about.
“By climbing one of the highest mountains in the world this leadership elective will help the participants break through their own perceptions of their limitations, be it physical or psychological, to realize they do not have a glass ceiling” said Dr. Bevelander.
In a recent study looking into why women have yet to achieve the equal status of men at the top level of organizational hierarchies, Bevelander found that women themselves may play a role in holding back progress. The way women network might disadvantage not only their own careers, but put other women at a disadvantage as well.
“While women like to and support each other on an emotional or task-orientated level, the picture changes when risk is involved” found Bevelander, “when there is perceived risk, women tend to drop each other and choose men”.
The aim of the elective course is to enable women to work with each other better and surpass these bounds to reach a potential the business world has not yet seen. The candidates are expected to reach the peak of the summit in the early hours of September 27.
The candidates will blog progress of their journey before and after the climb at: www.rsm.nl/kili
About the candidates
About Rotterdam School of Management
Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University is consistently ranked amongst the top 10 business schools in Europe. It is located in the international port city of Rotterdam where core Dutch values of openness, flexibility and acceptance of diversity have attracted businesses on a global scale. Our emphasis is on groundbreaking research and practices relevant to business; our primary focus is on developing business leaders who carry their innovative ideas into a sustainable future. Our portfolio includes a broad array of bachelor, master, doctoral, MBA and executive education programmes.
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