Abstract
The Association for Savings and Investment South Africa (ASISA) Academy’s Independent Financial Advisor (IFA) internship was initiated in 2016 by four ASISA member investment firms. The internship is one of a two-pronged transformation initiative of the ASISA Enterprise and Supplier Development (ESD) initiative aimed at addressing the problem of a largely untransformed, White, male-dominated IFA sector. While another service provider was contracted to deliver a support programme for existing Black-owned IFA practices, the ASISA Academy was tasked with developing a pipeline of young Black talent into the IFA space through an internship. These two initiatives run concurrently over 12 months and their respective objectives are to bring about transformation by the inclusion and development of young Black talent in largely white-owned IFA practices around the country, and the development of Black IFA businesses, thus creating a much more inclusive sector where Black people are empowered at a leadership level, and no longer mainly serve in support roles. There are no explicit objectives with regards to race and gender targets; however, the internship has seen an average of approximately 65% Black females being selected for the internship almost every year. This study focuses solely on the IFA internship and seeks to establish in what ways Mindful Culturally Intelligent Leadership (MCQL) may contribute to transformation and inclusion in this highly successful internship. Findings would ultimately be shared with the programme sponsors and broader industry in an endeavour to inform and scale up the programme countrywide and speed up transformation in the IFA sector. Employing mixed research methodologies, qualitative data were gathered by means of nine semi-structured interviews with individuals regarded as leaders on the internship. Quantitative data were gathered by conducting online surveys with a sample of five IFA interns from the 2020 cohort and three alumni from the 2019 cohort. Participants were selected from IFA practices across different regions, where both managers and interns have reported highly positive experiences of the internship. Apart from managers and interns, other participants included two ASISA Academy programme champions (individuals responsible for leading the internships in five of six regions) and two mentors. Since all intern participants were Black, the selection of White leaders was intentional. Findings vi established that MCQL contributed to transformation and inclusion in this internship in that leaders exhibited aspects of Livermore’s (2011) four CQ capabilities – CQ drive, CQ knowledge, CQ strategy, and CQ action. While there were some feelings of exclusion based on language, a lack of social networks, and common backgrounds, interns’ responses strongly reflected feelings of acceptance and respect.
M.Ed. (Educational Leadership and Management)