Leadership Development Interventions Research Articles

A comprehensive bibliometric analysis of trends in higher education leadership in the Global South, 2013-2023: Contemporary perspectives and developments

Leadership in higher education institutions (HEIs) is crucial in shaping their strategic direction, performance, and overall success. Although scholarly exploration into leadership attributes in higher education (HE) has been expanding over the years, the predominant focus of these studies has been on the Global North, with a noticeable scarcity of literature addressing leadership trends in HEIs of the Global South. This systematic literature review (SLR) addresses the research gap by providing a critical examination of HE leadership trends in the Global South, reviewing literature from 2013 to 2023 based on PRISMA 2020. Following a preliminary search that identified 1653 articles and three screening phases, 32 articles were selected for analysis. Key findings highlight the unique challenges faced by HEIs in the Global South in developing HE leadership. Furthermore, the findings reveal a predominance of transformational leadership style. The findings also indicate a significant interplay between gender and leadership styles as well as the attributes of effective HE leadership in the Global South. The study offers valuable insights for stakeholders, highlighting the necessity for tailored leadership development interventions that address the unique contexts of these regions.

Leading under pressure: a contextualised development approach

PurposeThe study’s aim was to design and test a leadership development approach using blended learning, to equip leaders for strengthening their own resilience and that of their teams.Design/methodology/approachA contextualised leadership development intervention was produced and evaluated following the principles of design-based research. Participants were from three organisations that work internationally to address the impact of economic disadvantage. Initial research used the behavioural event interview technique. Online assessment incorporated measures of situational judgement, emotion recognition and attributional style. Validity measures were multi-rater feedback (criterion), and NEO-PI 3 (construct). Individual feedback and a simulation-based peer workshop were followed by a four-to-six month period of experience-driven development and a final peer workshop for consolidating and evaluating learning outcomes.FindingsThe online assessment was a valid measure of leaders’ personal resilience resources and their resilience-building capability. Overall, the intervention improved participants’ understanding of, and engagement with, the processes of strengthening individual and collective (team) resilience.Research limitations/implicationsThe target sample size for the study was relatively small, to ensure it would be practical to replicate the approach when designing similar interventions for a senior leadership population in other contexts. Significant results provided robust evidence for the validity of the assessment approach. Findings for the workshops and experience-driven development phase were more tentative, but the value of the design iterations was clearly demonstrated.Practical implicationsThe leadership development approach is suitable for application in other organisations, if similar principles are followed to produce and evaluate materials relevant to each broad sector context. Roll-out is cost-effective, with relatively few hours of blended or virtual delivery supporting experience-driven learning.Social implicationsThe impact leaders have on the wellbeing of those who report to them is well established, but less has been done to develop and formally evaluate practical, cost-effective interventions to improve this impact. The approach validated in this study can be applied more widely to benefit employee wellbeing as well as performance.Originality/valueThe study developed and evaluated a new approach to preparing leaders for the challenge of building team resilience, an aspect of leadership capability that has been given relatively little attention to date.

Leadership training and just-in-time nudges: A field experiment on the transfer of learning into action

Government agencies use leadership training programs to improve human capital and public service provision. However, existing research ignores how limited cognitive capacity and task overload in the aftermath of leadership training programs can reduce the transfer of learning into action. Integrating insights from behavioral science on choice architecture with research on leadership development, we propose a leadership development model with “just-in-time” implementation nudges. In a field experiment involving 226 Danish public managers and their 4,442 employees, we found that employees perceived their managers as exhibiting more transformational leadership behaviors following our leadership development intervention. The intervention combined classroom training with just-in-time implementation nudges that targeted goal-oriented development dialogues. We also found that these dialogues mediated the treatment effect on transformational leadership behavior. Our results highlight the need to consider choice architectural approaches in designing leadership development efforts in the public sector.

Facilitating action learning & virtual action learning for leadership development: experiences and insights from a UK Masters programme

ABSTRACT Action learning is one of the most effective leadership development interventions [Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm, and McKee. 2014. “Advances in Leader and Leadership Development: A Review of 25 Years of Research and Theory.” The Leadership Quarterly 25 (1): 63–82; Pauleen. 2003. “Leadership in a Global Virtual Team: An Action Learning Approach.” Leadership & Organization Development Journal 2003; Stewart. 2010. “Action Learning and Virtual Action Learning for Leadership Development.” Developing Leaders (1)], yet Virtual Action learning (VAL) has always struggled to be seen as a viable alternative, with both facilitators and participants often preferring face-to-face set meetings, and dismissing the technological options [Dickenson, Burgoyne, and Pedler. 2010. “Virtual Action Learning: Practices and Challenges.” Action Learning Journal: Research & Practice 7 (1): 59–72; Stewart. 2009. “Evaluation of an Action Learning Programme for Leadership Development of SME Leaders in the UK.” Action Learning: Research and Practice 6 (2): 131–148]. However, the onset of the Covid pandemic saw the rapid implementation of this remote technology-enabled approach, where VAL became the only option for action learning due to the restrictions on face-to-face working and travel limitations. This paper shares insights on the differences facilitating action learning and virtual action learning from a research project, based around a two-year Masters in Leadership programme in a UK business school, now delivered to over 300 experienced senior leaders, predominantly working in the UK NHS and a major UK retailer.

The craft of integrating and layering leadership theories and models for application.

To develop transformative experiences, educators must meaningfully ground leadership development interventions in theories and models that reflect how leadership is conceptualized and operationalized within a community and/or institution. Since no single framework perfectly captures the socially constructed and multifaceted nature of leadership, educators must often pull from and weave together multiple theories and models when creating leadership development programs. This article explores consideration for leadership theory application through contextual and audience alignment, as well as considerations for integration of theory that address underlying theoretical assumptions, framework gaps, and developmental readiness. Reflection prompts are provided for each consideration so educators can envision practical implications from insights surfaced.

Leadership Development Programs Today: A Guide to Effective Strategy Execution or Fads du Jour?

Leaders are answerable. Organizational performance is attained by successful strategy execution. Consequently, organizations heavily spend on leadership development to hone leaders’ competence aimed at ensuring the organization’s competitive success. However, the success of such programs is questioned because of, amongst others, (a) frequently reported strategy implementation failure, allegedly owing to the absence of a competitive advantage and (b) observations that leadership as a mandatory source of competitive advantage has declined, despite leadership development initiatives. Thus, the question arises whether organizations systematically use leadership development foundational metrics (e.g., direction-setting capacity, trust, etc.) for effective strategy implementation. As part of a larger study, this report accounts for organizational use of leadership development metrics in strategy implementation. We followed the guidance of reputable scholars in conducting the empirical study. Limited information on the topic dictated an exploratory approach to gain insights to lay the foundation for future descriptive and explanatory studies. The considerable amount of data required to answer the question necessitated an exploratory survey. We collected data from a purposely selected population with an online questionnaire, based on a literature review and pre-tested with Human Resource professionals, complying with ethical principles. The findings include: The study met norms for exploratory surveys and trustworthiness criteria. More than half of the diverse respondents (concerning demographic variables, strategies applied, and ensuing organizational performance) reported the use of leadership development metrics in strategy implementation. However, few respondents linked the metrics used to competitive advantage. The implications include that the leadership development interventions may not have been optimal in ensuring effective strategy implementation based on competitive advantage. It can be concluded that the leadership metrics the respondents’ organizations have used may have been ineffective in ensuring competitive success. The value of this paper stems from its actionable insights based on proven theory and validated by an exploratory survey. However, the main limitation of the study is its cross-sectional nature. Hence, we recommend further descriptive and explanatory research to enable broader generalizations.

Leadership Development Interventions, Job Satisfaction, and Leadership Effectiveness as Determinants of Organisational Performance in Saudi Transportation Sector

Leadership Development Interventions, Job Satisfaction, and Leadership Effectiveness as Determinants of Organisational Performance in Saudi Transportation Sector

Transactional Leadership Style and Job Satisfaction among Multimedia University Employees, Nairobi - Kenya

This study explores the transactional leadership styles and job satisfaction among the employees of the Multimedia University of Kenya (MMU) of Kenya. A descriptive survey research design was used. The study was guided by contingency leadership theory. Out of 386 employees of MMU, 197 supervised employees and 115 supervisor samples were drawn. This represented 83% of the total population was issued with a questionnaire. Purposive sampling was used to select the study location and the study population, while stratified random sampling was used to select the individual respondents. Two sets of structured questionnaires were used to collect data: the supervised employees’ questionnaire and the supervisors’ questionnaire. Data was analysed using Statistical Package for Social Scientists (SPSS) version 26.0. The study found that supervised staff felt that their supervisors sometimes practised transactional leadership through contingent reward and management by exception. This study recommends that leaders identify individual uniqueness, link the individuals’ current needs to the organisation’s needs, provide coaching, mentoring and growth opportunities, and implement a leadership that contains a mix of transactional and transformational leadership attributes. This will help design leadership development interventions for developing the capacity of managers to apply the leadership styles that are most likely to elicit employee job satisfaction and, therefore, contribute to its effectiveness.

Academic Leadership Development: An Exploratory Study on the Impacts at the Institutional Level Based on an Erasmus+ Capacity Building Project

While demands on academic leadership in higher education have been increasing, there has been a lack of empirical studies exploring the effectiveness and impacts of leadership development interventions. In addition, recent studies suggest a model of leadership development based on an international approach. Unfortunately, the evaluation of those programs is limited in the available literature. This study thus presents the results of the impacts of a higher education (HE) academic leadership development program at the international level which consist of 12 universities in China and Europe. The project was implemented over a 4-year period, delivered through workshops, training programs, and exchanges. Following 2 years of project implementation, the mid-term impact was assessed through surveys and semi-structured interviews. Among the participants who had joined the program for more than 12 months, 51 Chinese participants and 41 European participants voluntarily took part in the online survey; of those, 21 participants were involved in the semi-structured interviews. Ultimately, the findings indicated that the program has had positive impacts on a variety of aspects, including cross-institutional networking, collaboration, partnership, and HE-related policy development and practices. Furthermore, this study has provided empirical evidence on how an academic leadership development program contributes to assisting academic institutions in broadening their connections, networking, and partnerships in order to achieve their institutional goals of development and innovation. As such, the research findings are useful for policymakers, university administrators, and related stakeholders. Lastly, the approaches taken by the academic leadership development program utilized in the current study can be applied widely in different contexts.

Structural and Psychological Empowerment of Learners Enrolled in Continuing Nursing Leadership Education in Finland: A Quasi-Experimental Longitudinal Study.

This study was conducted to assess structural and psychological empowerment among learners enrolled in a continuing leadership education program. Although the number of nurse leadership development interventions has increased, there is little evidence on how they influence leaders' empowerment. A longitudinal study was employed, with learners (N = 85) enrolled in a continuing leadership education program as the participants. Data were collected in the beginning, at the end, and 8 months after the completion of the program using internationally validated instruments. Data were analyzed statistically. A total of 25 learners (29%) responded to the questionnaire at all three data collection points. The education significantly increased psychological and structural empowerment across all dimensions except formal power. These increased levels of empowerment were partially sustained at the 8-month follow-up time point. Continuing education seems to benefit nurse leaders, and the continuing nursing leadership education program was positively associated with learners' perceived empowerment. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2023;54(10):462-471.].

How capacity building of district health managers has been designed, delivered and evaluated in sub-Saharan Africa: a scoping review and best fit framework analysis

ObjectivesWe aimed to understand how capacity building programmes (CBPs) of district health managers (DHMs) have been designed, delivered and evaluated in sub-Saharan Africa. We focused on identifying the underlying assumptions...

The Moderating Role of Job Satisfaction between Leadership Development Interventions and Organisational Performance

The Moderating Role of Job Satisfaction between Leadership Development Interventions and Organisational Performance

An antidote to what’s ailing healthcare workers: a new (old) way of relational leadership

PurposeThe purpose of the study’s mixed-methods evaluation was to examine the ways in which a relational leadership development intervention enhanced participants’ abilities to apply relationship-oriented skills on their teams.Design/methodology/approachThe authors evaluated five program cohorts from 2018–2021, involving 127 interprofessional participants. The study’s convergent mixed-method approach analyzed post-course surveys for descriptive statistics and interpreted six-month post-course interviews using qualitative conventional content analysis.FindingsAll intervention features were rated as at least moderately impactful by at least 83% of participants. The sense of community, as well as psychological safety and trust created, were rated as impactful features of the course by at least 94% of participants. At six months post-intervention, participants identified benefits of greater self-awareness, deeper understanding of others and increased confidence in supporting others, building relationships and making positive changes on their teams.Originality/valueRelational leadership interventions may support participant skills for building connections, supporting others and optimizing teamwork. The high rate of skill application at six months post-course suggests that relational leadership development can be effective and sustainable in healthcare. As the COVID-19 pandemic and systemic crises continue to impact the psychological well-being of healthcare colleagues, relational leadership holds promise to address employee burnout, turnover and isolation on interprofessional care teams.

Building Leadership Service Academies to Institutionalize a Strategic Leadership Development Focus

In this article, we propose a strategic view of leadership development, by defining a Leadership Service Academy (LSA) construct. The LSA represents a strategic approach that enables an organization and its leaders to institutionalize its own theory of leadership, narrative, models, learning methodologies, practices, and evaluation methods for determining the impact of investing in developing leadership. The LSA construct represents a shift in strategic thinking that involves moving beyond focusing on individual leader development training programs used for satisfying current role-requirements or tactical succession planning, to adopting a systemic view of leadership development aligned with the organization's strategic objectives, mission, values, and culture. Most leadership development research has focused on examining the efficacy of training methodologies linked to individual leadership models and modalities and has produced promising results. However, the narrow focus on individual leadership development has excluded the full spectrum of leadership development interventions from being explored and analyzed. Our primary goal here is to explore a comprehensive strategy for building a sustainable, multi-level leadership development system firmly anchored in both science and practice.

Evaluation of the temporal impact of a leadership development program in higher education

ABSTRACT The primary purpose of this study is to map the temporal impact of a transformational leadership development intervention on leaders’ awareness in the two public universities. Deans and heads from the two universities were involved in a six-week-long intervention. To study the short-term impact, an evaluation was conducted three months after the initial intervention with leaders of University A, and one year later, the next evaluation was conducted with leaders from University B to study the long-term impact. Semi-structured interviews and a case study method were adopted for data collection, and content analysis was carried out to identify indicators of awareness levels in leadership behaviours. Compared to the immediate post-intervention evaluation results, awareness levels decreased, but the results were still sufficiently robust compared to the baseline awareness levels measured in a control group. Implications and recommendations for future research will be discussed.

Leadership Effectiveness As A Mediator Between Leadership Development Interventions And Organisational Performance In Saudi Service Firms

Leadership Effectiveness As A Mediator Between Leadership Development Interventions And Organisational Performance In Saudi Service Firms

Double jeopardy: the paradox and promise of coaching women leaders from a critical feminist perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to interrogate the “double-jeopardy” in widely adopted women’s leadership development interventions aimed at “fixing” women, explore critical feminist coaching (CFC) perspectives and practices and offer more equitable and just alternatives for developing women leaders.Design/methodology/approachThis paper includes a literature review of post-feminist and critical feminist perspectives and a critical examination of coaching for women leaders from each perspective.FindingsPostfeminist approaches in organizations are little scrutinized because of the dominant postfeminist discourse that women's subordination and oppression have been “resolved” through neoliberal, individualistic interventions, such as postfeminist coaching programs. Infusing the message of “fixing women” through emphasizing “4 C’s” – confidence, control, courage and competition – postfeminist coaching programs have been submitting women leaders to “double jeopardy.” The authors critique this postfeminist coaching paradox from a critical feminist perspective foregrounding “4 R’s” – reflecting, reforming, raising and rebuilding – promising more equitable, just development.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first attempt to describe CFC and presentation of a conceptual and practical model of the process. The authors define postfeminist coaching as the disavowal of feminist values and failure to challenge gender hegemony in the coaching process. The authors propose a model of CFC defined as the explicit embrace of feminist values and challenge of gender hegemony in the coaching process. The authors offer alternatives for developing women leaders amid paradoxical, complex, capitalist systems, with a critical lens challenging postfeminism.

Developing Leaders Using On-Line Action Learning: An Activity Theory Analysis

The Problem. There is an urgent need for leadership development in today’s turbulent, organizational context. Methods that support leadership development in collaborative and peer settings as well as spaces and environments where leaders can develop, learn and grow through their collaborative interactions are critical. The Solution. This article explores how an online action learning set established as part of a large-scale management and leadership development intervention provides a space where leadership learning can flourish. The article draws on a theory of practice known as Cultural Historical Activity Theory to identify the micro level details of what occurs when leaders work with others in an online action learning set. The Stakeholders. Human resource development (HRD) researchers, scholars, organizational leaders, practitioners and others interested in contributing to HRD theory.

Effectiveness of donor supported leadership development interventions intended to promote women’s leadership in health in low- and middle-income countries: a scoping review

ABSTRACT Women remain underrepresented in health leadership. Promoting women’s leadership in development has resulted in the proliferation of donor-supported leadership development initiatives to address barriers to women’s participation. There is limited evidence synthesis regarding their effectiveness. This scoping review aimed to summarise evidence regarding the efficacy of donor strategies in this field. Seven of 3365 studies were identified. Findings were overwhelmingly positive however there was an overreliance on anecdotal evidence, and short evaluation periods. Overall, evidence is lacking on the effectiveness of such initiatives. More robust evaluation designs are needed to determine best practices to overcome gender inequality in leadership.

Implementation evaluation of a leadership development intervention for improved family experience in a private paediatric care hospital, Pakistan

BackgroundA study from a tertiary care center in Pakistan demonstrated that a leadership development intervention led to improved family experience of care outcomes. The objective of the current paper is to assess the implementation of this intervention and identify barriers and facilitators to inform sustainability and scalability.MethodsA working group designed the intervention using a theory-of-change model to strengthen leadership development to achieve greater employee engagement. The interventions included: i) purpose and vision through purpose-driven leadership skills trainings; ii) engaging managers via on-the-job mentorship programme for managers, iii) employee voice i.e., facilitation of upward communication to hear the employees using Facebook group and subsequently inviting them to lead quality improvement (QI) projects; and iv) demonstrating integrity by streamlining actions taken based on routine patient experience data. Implementation outcomes included acceptability, adoption, fidelity across degree & quality of execution and facilitators & barriers to the implementation. Data analyzed included project documentation records and posts on the Facebook group.Analysis indicated acceptability and adoption of the intervention by the employees as178 applications for different QI projects were received. Leadership sessions were delivered to 455 (75%) of the employees and social media communication was effective to engage employees. However, mentorship package was not rolled out nor the streamlined processes for action on patient experience data achieved the desired fidelity. Only 6 QI projects were sustained for at least a year out of the 18 approved by the working group. Facilitators included leadership involvement, real-time recognition and feedback and value-creation through participation by national and international celebrities. Challenges identified were the short length of the intervention and incentives not being institutionalized.The authors conclude that leadership development through short training sessions and on-going communications facilitated by social media were the key processes that helped achieve the outcomes. However, a long-term strategy is needed for individual managerial behaviours to sustain.