Local Leadership Development Research Articles

A Semicentennial of the Development of Indigenous Leadership in the Anglican Church of Kenya (1970-2020): Challenges and Opportunities

The Anglican Church was planted in Kenya by the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in 1844, but it was not until 1970 when it became autonomous with the formation of the first province and election of Bishop Festo Olang’ as its first Archbishop. The first 5o years (1970-2020), were characterized by massive evangelization and tremendous numerical growth. There were also numerous challenges in local leadership development. While the success of any organization is dependent on its ability to develop its personnel, the ACK has faced challenges in that it has not been able develop sufficient and well-equipped clergy for its ministry. This has continued to hamper evangelization in that the few and the less-equipped clergy are not able to effectively the spiritual needs of the ACK Christians in the twenty-first century. For the success of its mission and ministry, the ACK should address the issue of training and retaining which has remained a real challenge over the last 50 years.

Kriza lokalnog liderstva - prolazni trend ili sistemski problem?

In this paper, the author will examine the influence of the electoral system at the local level and the party system with a hegemonic or (pre)dominant party on the development of local political leadership. The main point is that Serbia is going through a crisis in the development of local leadership (and local democracy) as a consequence of centralization of political decisions and merging local elections with national ones, as well as a PR electoral system with one electoral unit. This kind of electoral system, according to its inherent characteristics, produces a lack of communication between the elected representatives and the electorate, thereby losing an important step necessary in building leadership. The author analyses how the combination of high centralization in decision-making process and weak internal democracy within political parties and the electoral system in the long term encourages the negative selection of political elites at the local level. A logic incentive for local leaders and local democratic processes is to increase their political rating by communicating with voters. In practice, the reverse process takes place at the local level: politicians understand that their rating depends less on electorate and more on intra-party practices, and in Serbia, they are overwhelmingly of an undemocratic nature. The author will analyse the party leadership of the relevant political parties/organizations in Serbia, internal party elections and the mobility of local leaders in the party hierarchy. Through secondary sources and document analysis, the derogation of local leadership and democracy and their exchange (trade off) for the stability of political processes at the national level are analysed. Also, 15 case studies of successful local leaders after 2004 and the outcomes of their political careers are discussed.

Local leadership development and WASH system strengthening: insights from Cambodia

Abstract To accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal on clean water and sanitation, the focus of WASH programming in developing countries has shifted from a traditional infrastructure approach to a more systems-based approach. Greater emphasis on a systems approach has also drawn attention to the significant role played by local leadership in developing sustainable WASH systems. Building on the evidence of the effectiveness of leaders trained through the Civic Champions Program, an innovative leadership development program in Cambodia, this article examines leaders' characteristics and explores how participating in the program affected their capacity, skills, and perceptions of leadership. Crucially, it seeks to understand the extent to which participants in the Civic Champions Program differ from comparable local leaders along these dimensions. By combining survey data with qualitative analysis, the paper identifies how localization enhances the effectiveness of leaders in promoting sanitation, including working through and strengthening pre-existing institutional arrangements and adapting promotion strategies to different audiences. In this way, the article demonstrates how non-prescriptive programs that tap into the legitimizing potential of local leaders may contribute to addressing sanitation challenges and ultimately to WASH system strengthening.

Making sense of the COVID-19 disruptions in incarnational ministry using Micah 6:8 as an interpretive framework

This is a case study reflecting on the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) disruptions on InnerCHANGE South Africa (ICSA hereafter), an incarnational ministry. Incarnation ministry is understood as an intentional effort to join God in the world, especially a community of poverty, live among the residents of that community, affirm their dignity and compassionately love them. This understanding is based on the values of justice activism, merciful love, and discipleship found in Micah 6:8. This article uses an interpretive framework based on the latter biblical passage to reflect on how the disruptions of COVID-19 has shaped the ICSA team. This reflection is guided by the question: how have the disruptions caused by COVID-19 challenged the relevance of incarnational ministry? This article found that in the case of ICSA, the disruptions have not only broadened its justice activism, but they have also taught it the importance of relief actions in its approach. They have also deepened its understanding of sabbath in connection with environmental care. They have exposed its local leadership development model bias against women. They have finally challenged it to adopt a hybrid model of virtual and face-to-face meetings in its discipleship efforts. The article concludes that disruptions are very challenging. However, they could be an opportunity to revisit and sharpen the existing priorities of an incarnational ministry. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: This is a missiological research that is enriched by insights from ecology, other fields of theology and journalism to imagine the relevance of an incarnational ministry in exceptional seasons.

Leading in Switzerland and Poland: A Case Study of Leadership Practices in Financial Services

Leading across national borders is a challenge, partly due to the cultural differences among employees in different locations. We investigate this dynamic for employees of a Swiss financial services company located in Switzerland and in Poland by surveying employees about their leadership expectations and experiences, as well as about their cultural values. We find that the leadership expectations of employees in these two locations do not differ significantly. However, their experience does, indicating the opportunity for further development of local Polish management practices and leadership behavior, and underlying the importance of local leadership development. In addition, we find that a few cultural dimensions have a significant impact on leadership expectations in both countries, indicating the opportunity to further refine situational leadership behavior throughout the organization independently of location. While organizations spanning across Western and Central European locations need to deal with significant differences in cultural and leadership expectation, our results suggest that they can effectively align leadership practices and thus mitigate the practical challenges arising from these differences.

Problems and Prospects of Local Judicial Committee in Nepal

Decentralization and local governance is the base of grassroot democracy, giving strong foundation of democracy at nation. Local governments are the closest unit of people. Constitution of Nepal acknowledges that executive legislative and judicial bodies may be formed at the local level. Constitution provides to consolidate socialism-oriented federal democratic republic governance right from the local level as per the principle of the rule of law and sustainable development through proportionally inclusive and just distribution of the fruits of democracy, and to make necessary provisions in relation to the operation of the local government to institutionalize the legislative, executive and judicial practice at the local level by consolidating local government through development of local leadership. This article aims at examining current provision of judicial power in local government of Nepal, its service delivery status, analyzing challenges of justice delivery. To draw the conclusion in this study descriptive analytical and content analysis method has been used and information has been taken from secondary method.

The Impact of a Cyclonic Disaster on Coastal Communities in Bangladesh: Possible Community-led Interventions Towards Sustainable Disaster Recovery

Based on extensive doctoral fieldwork, this article explored the impacts of Cyclone Aila on a coastal community in Bangladesh and subsequently proposed some community-led interventions towards sustainable disaster recovery. There has been a very limited academic investigation on the subject, and the findings of this study may generate useful lessons and tips for both academics and practitioners especially in the field of disaster recovery. The study employed a mixed method research design, where quantitative data were collected through a face-to-face structured interview schedule from 230 Aila (disaster) affected coastal household heads who had been the recipients of two government and nongovernmental organizations’ disaster recovery programs. As part of the qualitative investigation, 10 key informants’ interviews were conducted targeting subject matter specialists. Besides, two focus group discussions were arranged with the local disaster management committee. The findings revealed the extent and magnitude of the disaster’s (Aila) impact on community life from a range of socioeconomic and infrastructural perspectives. It was also observed that the recovery process was slow owing to such reasons as the short duration of the project, lack of coordination among the recovery intervention, absence of national recovery planning and framework, weak interfacing among the government extension services at the local level, failure to adapt with livelihood transformation, absence of sustainable solution on the problem, e.g., safe drinking water, housing, and employment generation, and limited participation opportunity in the recovery program. Most of the cyclone-affected people failed to recover from their losses and damages even after the last 10 years. In this context, this study argues in favor of formulating a new or revamped sustainable disaster recovery policy and associated community-led programmatic interventions underpinned by such elements as local resource mobilization, community participation, community planning, community partnership, local leadership development, and community empowerment.

Death audits and reviews for reducing maternal, perinatal and child mortality.

© 2018 The Cochrane Collaboration. This is a protocol for a Cochrane Review (Intervention). The objectives are as follows: To assess the impact and cost-effectiveness of different types of death review in reducing maternal, perinatal and child mortality.

Local Public Leadership Development through Social Learning to Face the Fourth Industrial Revolution

This research aims to give an alternative solution for leadership development in the public sector to face the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0). The development of global information technology has demanded public services to adjust to today’s technologies. The problem of this study isthe public sector leaders, who are in the majority consisting of baby boomers generation up to generation X. These generations are not too familiar with technology. Traditional training models cannot improve the competencies of leaders who are predominantly old; adult learning must be developed. They do not need competency development classes, but they need mentoring to learn directly. This is a challenge to the development of local leadership in the public sector against Industry 4.0, which is implicated in the increase of public services based on technology and network. This research uses a qualitative research approach with a case study perspective. The focus of this research is local leadership competencies in the public sector. The data aretaken from primary data by interview and secondary data from literatureanddocuments that are related to the research aims.The results of this study recommend the concept of leader-member exchange, where possible in the process of social learning, to develop public leadership in the era of Industry 4.0. Here, the challenge is the desire and ego of leaders to study with their subordinates.

The role of faith-based NGOs in social development: Invisible empowerment

This article makes an attempt to assess the process and outcomes of faith-based non-governmental organizations’ (FBNGOs) interventions toward community empowerment in social development. Data are derived from contemporary literature using a Qualitative Interpretative Meta-Synthesis (QIMS). Results show that there are very few publications that directly examine the contributions of FBNGOs toward community empowerment. There are some publications which indirectly examine the role of the components of community empowerment, such as community participation, community capacity building, local leadership development, or community resource mobilization, though these are mostly concentrated in Western and African countries. After 9/11, much literature has shown that the role of Islamic NGOs has emerged as a significant aspect in social development discourse. The findings will be of interest to policymakers, donors, and development practitioners.

Institutionalizing Community-Based Research in Indonesian Islamic Higher Education: Two Cases from the Sunan Ampel State Islamic University Surabaya and Alauddin State Islamic University Makassar

The article presents a reflective experience on the institutionalization of community-based research in Indonesian Islamic Higher Education. It comprises two case studies from two different universities, the Sunan Ampel State Islamic University Surabaya and the Alauddin State Islamic University Makassar. Both are the two selected partners within the Supporting Islamic Leadership in Indonesia (SILE)/Local Leadership Development (LLD) Project in partnership between Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs and Canadian International Development Agency. The project introduces community-based research as an approach to engage community through Tridharma (Three mandates) of Higher Education. The institutionalization covers various activities from raising awareness, building capacity, to developing institutional policy at a national level. The cases show that the different socio-historical context and political dynamic of each campuses influence the process, challenge and response to the institutionalization. However, both campuses share similar reasons for adopting community-based research from the Islamic perspective, namely that using research as a means of promoting social change is consistent with the Qur’anic principles and the Prophetic tradition.

Community leadership and engagement after the mix: The transformation of Toronto’s Regent Park

The CAD$1 billion transformation of Toronto’s Regent Park neighbourhood from Canada’s largest public housing site to a mixed income community is likely to inform the next several decades of public housing redevelopment policy both nationally and internationally. This paper focuses on the process and impacts of large-scale redevelopment, in the context of attempts to build a physically and socially inclusive neighbourhood incorporating non-market and market housing in downtown Toronto. Drawing from in-depth interviews with 32 Regent Park community leaders and other key decision makers, the paper explores how resident engagement and leadership development opportunities impact redevelopment processes in mixed income initiatives. Results focus on three key emerging areas of both strength and concern: (1) efforts to build community alongside the redevelopment as an integral, evolving and place-specific strategy; (2) the impacts and challenges of both a strong institutional environment in Regent Park and a sense of weak institutional memory; and (3) formal and informal leadership and mentorship opportunities and their contribution towards the development of engagement and cohesion in Regent Park. The opportunity for low-income housing initiatives to support knowledge building and learning, preservation of institutional memory and local leadership development is significant in the context of examining physical and social redevelopment.

Applied statistical training to strengthen analysis and health research capacity in Rwanda.

BackgroundTo guide efficient investment of limited health resources in sub-Saharan Africa, local researchers need to be involved in, and guide, health system and policy research. While extensive survey and census data are available to health researchers and program officers in resource-limited countries, local involvement and leadership in research is limited due to inadequate experience, lack of dedicated research time and weak interagency connections, among other challenges. Many research-strengthening initiatives host prolonged fellowships out-of-country, yet their approaches have not been evaluated for effectiveness in involvement and development of local leadership in research.MethodsWe developed, implemented and evaluated a multi-month, deliverable-driven, survey analysis training based in Rwanda to strengthen skills of five local research leaders, 15 statisticians, and a PhD candidate. Research leaders applied with a specific research question relevant to country challenges and committed to leading an analysis to publication. Statisticians with prerequisite statistical training and experience with a statistical software applied to participate in class-based trainings and complete an assigned analysis. Both statisticians and research leaders were provided ongoing in-country mentoring for analysis and manuscript writing.ResultsParticipants reported a high level of skill, knowledge and collaborator development from class-based trainings and out-of-class mentorship that were sustained 1 year later. Five of six manuscripts were authored by multi-institution teams and submitted to international peer-reviewed scientific journals, and three-quarters of the participants mentored others in survey data analysis or conducted an additional survey analysis in the year following the training.ConclusionsOur model was effective in utilizing existing survey data and strengthening skills among full-time working professionals without disrupting ongoing work commitments and using few resources. Critical to our success were a transparent, robust application process and time limited training supplemented by ongoing, in-country mentoring toward manuscript deliverables that were led by Rwanda’s health research leaders.

Mobilizing leadership in cities and regions

Increasing attention has been given to the role of leadership as an important determinant of growth at the regional or local scale (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), [2010]. Regions matter. Paris: OECD, [2012]. Growth in all regions. Paris: OECD). Scholarship on the leadership of places, however, remains an under-developed field, with much research either overly reliant upon perspectives drawn from management disciplines or limited to case study analysis of ‘success’ stories. While there have been significant exceptions (Stimson, Stough, with Salazar, [2009]. Leadership and institutions in regional endogenous development. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar), too little attention has been paid to developing a systematic approach to understanding place leadership. This paper reviews the literature on the leadership of places and argues there is now a sufficient body of scholarship to enable the development of more analytically rigorous approaches. It also posits that effective leadership is now more important for the success of places than in the past and that contemporary growth dynamics are likely to raise its significance further. The paper argues that governments and communities alike can encourage the development of local leadership and that the steps needed to achieve this objective are already well known.

Occupy Public Education: A Community's Struggle for Educational Resources in the Era of Privatization

This case study investigates globalization and its growing impact on public school services to disenfranchised urban communities. Using a combination of periodicals, internal documents, and observations from the author, the research provides a narrative analysis of relations between community leaders of a low-income, Mexican immigrant community and the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) during an act of civil disobedience that brought attention to social justice and public education. The research results stress the importance for social justice advocates to support local leadership development and grassroots activism in marginalized communities. U.S. public educational policy has been guided by corporate interests that have divested from community public schools in favor of opening semi-private, charter schools. For seven years, parents advocated for an expansion of space and resources at a local public school. The failure to reach a compromise between parents and Chicago Public Schools representatives led to the occupation of a field house by the parents to preserve it from district plans to demolish it and to construct an athletic field for a private high school. The research suggests that it is imperative for community members in economically disenfranchised urban communities that are predominantly African American and Latino to organize and advocate for social justice, including the ability to contest public school policy.

Meeting the global imperative of local leadership talent development in Hong Kong, Singapore, and India

AbstractAs companies continue to expand abroad, there remains a paramount challenge of ensuring strategic control to meet company standards and goals and to coordinate global operations. Traditionally, such control has been maintained by sending tried and true managers from company headquarters as expatriates to head up foreign operations. But in the face of this costly traditional approach for leadership staffing in foreign operations, there is increased awareness among multinational firms that their potential leadership talent is not restricted by their headquarters' national boundaries. MNCs are increasingly looking to their employees worldwide as a viable source of future talent for leadership staffing throughout their global operations. The results of field interviews with local leaders of American firm subsidiaries located in Singapore, India, and Hong Kong revealed four key local leadership development approaches: reinforcing a company culture of leadership development, identifying and codifying leadership talent, enhancing high potentials' visibility, and developing pervasive mentoring relationships. The cases examined here show that talent identification and development are essential elements of an effective long‐term talent management strategy that should be ingrained within a company's deep cultural values and priorities, as well as reinforced by performance evaluation and reward systems. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Emerging Leadership in the Pauline Mission: A Social Identity Perspective on Local Leadership Development in Corinth and Ephesus. By JackBarentsen. Princeton Theological Monograph Series 168. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2011. Pp. xviii + 378. Paper, $44.00.

Emerging Leadership in the Pauline Mission: A Social Identity Perspective on Local Leadership Development in Corinth and Ephesus. By JackBarentsen. Princeton Theological Monograph Series 168. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2011. Pp. xviii + 378. Paper, $44.00.

Emerging Leadership in the Pauline Mission: A Social Identity Perspective on Local Leadership Development in Corinth and Ephesus. By JACK BARENTSEN.

This monograph aims to offer new insights into the nature of early Christian leadership through a fresh application of social identity theory: a method which starts from the observation that leadership is shaped by social and psychological processes within a group. By first examining group dynamics and local leadership patterns in Pauline congregations, Barentsen then analyses Paul’s strategy for dealing with local leadership. Paul sets an example for believers—encouraging, exhorting, and strengthening congregations through his letters. Meanwhile, he engages existing structures, sometimes affirming, sometimes correcting, but always attempting to shape local leadership to his ideal of Christ-like service. The thesis of the monograph is that a study of the Corinthian and Ephesian churches reveals a clear pattern in Paul’s strategy, as he attempts to equip leaders to be ‘entrepreneurs’ of Christian identity. In the Preface, Barentsen notes that he has produced this monograph after a career of church planting and ministry; the application of social identity theory is thus the link which joins his experiences of church leadership with the academic enterprise of finding new insights into Paul’s letters.

International Emergency Medicine

International Emergency Medicine

Challenges to achieving sustainable community health development within a donor aid business model

This paper explores the paradox of donor aid being delivered through a business model through a case study in Papua New Guinea. A retrospective review of project implementation and an outcome evaluation provided an opportunity to examine the long-term results and sustainability of a large project. Analysis was informed by data collected from 175 interviews (national, provincial, district and village), 93 community discussions and observations across 10 provinces. Problems with the business model of delivering aid were evident from implementation data and in an evaluation conducted two years after project completion (2006). Compounding the business model effect were challenges of over-ambitious project goals with limited flexibility to adapt to changing circumstances, a donor payment system requiring short-term productivity and excessive reporting requirements. An overly ambitious project design, donor dominance within the business model and limited local counterpart capacity created problems in the community initiatives component of the project. Contractual pressures can negatively influence long-term outcomes that require development of local leadership and capacity. Future planning for donor project designs needs to be flexible, smaller in scope and have a longer timeframe of seven to 10 years. Donor-funded projects need to be sufficiently flexible to apply proven principles of community development, build local ownership and allow adequate time to build counterpart knowledge and skills.