Organizational Psychology

Purpose is to study the research potential of one of the main qualitative data analysis methods in modern psychology — thematic analysis (using the research example of the representations about female leadership). Approach. The research was carried out in the framework of a qualitative methodology. Data collection method is semi-structured interview; data analysis method is thematic analysis. The purposive sample of the research is 6 women holding leadership positions in organizations whose business leadership experience ranged from 5 to 15 years. Theoretical foundations of the research: the concepts of leadership styles (K. Lewin) and leadership in a situation of radical social changes (G. Andreeva). Findings. The methodological result is that the thematic analysis is a heuristic strategy for psychological research; the empirical result consists in studying the ideas of women-leaders about leadership and formulating a hypothesis on the gender determination of the role repertoire of a leader in a situation of radical social transformations in Russian society. Implications for practice. Thematic analysis is the basic method of qualitative analysis. It is convenient in terms of studying the procedure and is universal in practical application. Thematic analysis reveals the semantic content of the data. Its procedure consists of definition of codes, topics and their interpretation; both deductive and inductive approaches to the formulation of topics are used. Value of the results. The results are formulated based on the results of an original author’s research can be used both in a purely methodology and in the continuation of an empirical psychological study of the gender determination of leadership in conditions of social change.