Evidence-Based Leadership Development: Do We ‘Walk the Talk’ and How Can We Get Better at Doing That

Abstract

Academic institutions are guided by science, with scholars and educators seeking ways to extend knowledge in different domains and establish their work on evidence. Yet, despite the fact that leadership development is at the core of many business schools’ mission statements, leadership development programs (LDPs) are not as evidence based as one might expect. Research shows that a variety of reasons is behind this inconsistency, such as relative scarcity and availability of leadership development research, low accessibility of existing work, challenges of conducting research to examine the effects of LDPs, and conflicting priorities in business schools themselves. This panel symposium will examine the main challenges academics and practitioners face in their efforts to make leadership development programs more evidence-based. It will further explore ways in which we can all work together to overcome these challenges and create more evidence-based LDPs that are crucial to equip leaders of today and tomorrow with the knowledge, tools, competencies, and abilities to effectively lead organizations and society as a whole.