The Leadership Knowing-Doing Gap: A Phenomenological Exploration

Abstract

Despite the rising interest in leadership development, building knowledge about leadership more often than not remains an end in itself, and little is known about how the transfer of leadership learning into leadership enactment is experienced by managers. This research phenomenologically explores the leadership knowing-doing gap, using semi-structured critical incident interviews with 22 managers in leadership roles across various industries and organizational levels in the United Kingdom. Findings offer a comprehensive understanding presenting the leadership knowing-doing gap as a multifaceted and dynamic experience involving cognitive, affective, and behavioral elements that interplay within the processes of creating or widening the gap on the one hand, or preventing or closing the gap on the other hand. Our proposed framework provides a conceptualization of the leadership knowing-doing gap experience that enhances the potential of identifying and operationalizing such an experience for future theory building and empirical research in both management learning and leadership development. We end with practical insights to address the leadership knowing-doing gap and highlight the importance of evaluating leadership development to evidence effective learning transfer and leadership enactment in organizations.