Leadership Development Research Research Articles

Collective response capacity: Developing crisis leadership in organisations

AbstractHow can crisis leadership be developed before an organisational crisis occurs? This article addresses this important question by reviewing three individual‐level leadership perspectives (leader personality traits, leadership styles, and functional leadership) and three organisational level perspectives (leadership as contextual, leadership as collective, and leadership as dynamic), on how to develop crisis leadership with regard to recruitment, selection, and training. While crisis leadership is often perceived as something individual “leaders are born with” or as a variant of general leadership abilities, such an understanding leaves much to chance in terms of who will be effective leaders in a crisis, as well as the development of leadership capacity in organisations before a crisis actually occurs. This passive approach not only contradicts research on what constitutes effective crisis leadership but also is perceived to be unethical in terms of the potential consequences ineffective leadership can have in a crisis. This article provides an integrative overview of current and hitherto dispersed crisis leadership development research, showing how recruitment, selection and training to achieve collective crisis leadership capacity encompasses switching between organisational and individual level perspectives. We suggest implications for theory and future research as well as for practitioners responsible for developing crisis leadership in organisations.

Leadership development research and scholarship.

The term leadership development is often used in the field of education, management, and business, yet in the context of the leadership learning framework (LLF), it takes on a specific meaning as the innermost, human facets of leadership learning. In addition to the current scholarship around leadership development as a key component of leadership learning, this article will explore leadership development's evolution-from its interconnection with leader development, the use of training and education to foster it, to its growth self-awareness within group dynamics. This evolution will be considered in the contexts of both education and organizations. Finally, questions and recommendations for future scholarship in leadership are posed for both researchers and practitioners.

Assessing the success of a research leadership programme for senior nurses and midwives: A mixed methods programme evaluation.

In 2018 the National Institute of Health and Care Research, United Kingdom, launched a 3-year Senior Nurse and Midwife Research Leader Programme to support nurse and midwifery research leaders to develop research capacity and capability within NHS organisations. We report the results of a service evaluation of the programme strengths, areas for improvement and achievement of programme aims. Partially mixed, concurrent mixed methods programme evaluation, including: (a) meeting evaluation (survey), (b) annual evaluation (survey) and (c) qualitative stakeholder interviews. Survey results were quantitatively analysed using descriptive statistics. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, deductively coded using elements within the logic model and analysed using the seven-stage framework analysis method. Satisfaction with the programme was high (75%). The main perceived benefit of the programme was being part of a network. Challenges included accessing learning resources, lack of opportunity to network and lack of clarity about the programme aims. Meetings were evaluated as relevant and helpful (mean 93%), thought-provoking (92%), inspiring (91%), at the appropriate level (91%) and aligned with the programme aims (90%). All meetings were ranked as highly beneficial by attendees (92%). Stakeholder feedback on the programme success reflected the importance of leadership, the programme design and content, 'connection and community' and communication with and about the cohort. Overall, the anticipated programme aims were met, evaluating well from both the perspective of those on the programme and the wider stakeholder group. There has been a lack of investment in schemes to support research leadership development for nurses/midwives. A novel programme to support nursing/midwifery research leadership was positively evaluated. The programme is a useful model to support future capacity and capability building for nurses/midwives. The work is reported with reference to the SQUIRE 2 and SRQR checklists. No patient or public contribution.

Playing with Leadership: A Multiple Case Study of Leadership Development Larps

Learning and development solutions often contain some form of role-playing activity. Many live-action role-playing (larp) leisure events openly center their themes or story on leadership topics like conflicting visions, cooperation, or strategic decision-making. Despite this, only a few larps to date have dared label themselves as “leadership development” edu-larps. This multiple-case study utilizes a synthesized theoretical framework that combines several typologies of both the leadership development research field and the fields of role-playing game studies, edu-larp, applied drama, and simulation. Four individual leadership development larps were identified, categorized by type, compared, and evaluated. The four cases have some striking similarities, as they all make use of the same learning cycle, have observers, and focus on developing versatility as a worthwhile leadership trait. Furthermore, all four larps have relatively few visible game mechanics, the hierarchical difference between characters is low and urgency or uncertainty is used to enhance learning. The main difference between cases is the setting, where a modern business setting seems to be the default, but more fantastical settings, such as “samurai in feudal Japan” were also used. Character design also differs, from abstract roles to very-detailed personality descriptions. Framing, such as duration, varies from one 2-hour session through five sessions spread over weeks to a continuous 36-hour session. These and other identified differences and similarities highlight patterns to build upon by designers and gaps to fill with later research.

From entrepreneurial leadership to new product development performance: A study of the Coleman bathtub model

PurposeThis study aims to examine the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership (EL) and new product development performance (NPDP) at the firm level (level 2) of analysis and employee’s creativity (EC) at the cross level (level 1) of analysis. It also examines the serial mediations of (1) intrinsic motivation (IM)-EC and (2) creative self-efficacy (CSE)-EC on the relationship between EL and NPDP.Design/methodology/approachA systematic random sampling technique was used to collect data through self-administered surveys from leaders and employees of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan’s IT sector. Analysis was conducted on net responses from 114 leaders and 476 employees.FindingsThe results revealed significant positive associations between EL and NPDP at the firm level of analysis and EC at the cross level of analysis. The results of the cross-level serial mediations show that (1) IM and EC, and (2) CSE and EC serially mediate the relationship between EL and NPDP.Originality/valueThis study is among the few to use the Coleman bathtub model to show top-down and bottom-up relationships. The study extends and complements the multilevel perspective on leadership and new product development research by simultaneously examining the relationships between EL and NPDP at the individual and firm levels.

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.

Sustainable International Management: Research in Global Culture and Leadership Development

Organizations are directing increasing attention towards corporate sustainability due to the regulative requests, the expectations of stakeholders and the greater community, environmental pressure, and the benefits of maximizing the firms’ performance [...]

How Did They Get There? What Perspectives From the Top Tell Us About Developing Women Leaders in Academic Anesthesiology.

How Did They Get There? What Perspectives From the Top Tell Us About Developing Women Leaders in Academic Anesthesiology.

Leadership development, gender and race: Intersectional insights from South Africa

AbstractThis research explores the existence of differential group‐level experiences in a South African retail group's leadership development programme (LDP). Primary data were collected with semistructured intersectional focus groups. Findings were triangulated with secondary data from organizational document analysis. Emerging themes were identified with Thematic and Axial coding. Gender‐ and race identity shape how content, development needs, peer interactions, and support are experienced within the LDP. Additionally, certain findings also contradict existing knowledge of LDPs, such as the prevalence of mistrust between participants in a mixed‐group programme. Findings indicate a need for further research to explore the differential effects of intersectional identities on the experience of LDPs. Findings challenge psychologically and behaviourally focused conceptions of leadership development by demonstrating how multiple identities interdependently influence the experience of an LDP. Concurrently, the study challenges existing knowledge of group dynamics within mixed‐group development programmes by highlighting essentialist assumptions about gender and race in the context of leadership development. An analysis of the qualitative data also produced the counterintuitive finding that intersecting bases of privilege might actually result in negative outcomes within a learning context. Finally, the study also contributes to the body of knowledge of intersectionality by demonstrating its utility in leadership development research.

Millennial’s Leadership Development: A Systematic Literature Review

This study explores existing research and papers on the millennial leadership concept and finds a research gap in the millennial leadership development concept. This research analyzes emerging topics linked to the current study development issue in reaching the recent study's movement. This research aims to recognize the present study and the research gap in millennial leadership development. Recent research implicates whether workforce leadership development research has been conducted from the leadership perspective. In addition, this study explores the gaps in the current research, such as a lack of reflection on millennials' leadership development. The result confirms that there has not been depth research on millennials' leadership development. Besides, there is a robust suggestion that a mixed-method research approach from emerging and developing countries with various learning style perspectives has not been considered extensively in this field of study.

Critical and transformative approaches in leadership evaluation and research.

In this article, the author summarizes what critical and transformational theory is, along with its goals, and describes why such an approach is particularly relevant within the field of student leadership development. Application of a critical and transformational approach to conducting research and program evaluation efforts in leadership and community development using practical examples within postsecondary education is also shared.

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

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.

Promoting the Pipeline of Diverse Individuals Within Gastroenterology: Reflections From AGA FORWARD Program Scholars

Promoting the Pipeline of Diverse Individuals Within Gastroenterology: Reflections From AGA FORWARD Program Scholars

Being and becoming beginning military leaders: Implications for leadership learning

ABSTRACT The purpose of the study is to describe junior military officers’ leadership development experiences and to draw implications for leadership learning in their professional development. The research uses a systematic grounded theory design. Through in-depth interviews of 19 military officers, the data were coded and analyzed with a paradigm model that was developed to describe the development of military officers’ experiences as leaders. The findings show that military leadership development is a process that is defined by the experiences of establishing oneself as a vocational leader, developing confidence in leadership skills, and leading with mission clarity and genuine concern for their “subordinates.” The results reinforce the notion that leadership development is a continuous learning process beyond formal program and other transient events. Results also imply that fundamental assumptions for formal leadership development programs must be conceptualized and conceived as a process of “being, becoming, and belonging.” This non-positivist empirical study answers the call for more qualitative and interpretive approaches in leadership development research and contribute to the body of knowledge of leadership learning in military leadership development.

Connecting the dots: How parental and current socioeconomic status shape individuals’ transformational leadership

Leadership development has been characterized as an ongoing process that continues throughout a lifetime. From a long-lens perspective, this study aims to investigate how leaders’ early family socioeconomic environment influences their later transformational leadership. According to the social cognitive theory of social class, we propose that parental socioeconomic status (SES) promotes transformational leader behaviors via a positive psychological state. In the current study with 171 leaders and 684 matched subordinates, results indicated that high parental SES boosted leaders’ transformational behaviors by increasing their psychological capital, but this relationship was assuaged for leaders with high current SES. These findings contribute to the literature on transformational leadership, emphasize the importance of early life factors in leader emergence and development, and have implications for leadership development and future research.

Conceptualisations of Leadership and Relevance to Health and Human Service Workforce Development: A Scoping Review.

PurposeThis scoping review was undertaken to determine leadership definitions and approaches relevant to health and human service (H&HS) workforce development. This review provides a preliminary analysis of the potential size and scope of available research literature to inform ongoing research with the ultimate aim to inform a future systematic review in relation to leadership development interventions.MethodsFollowing the methodology proposed by Arksey and O’Malley and using PRISMA-ScR, a systematic search was conducted using seven databases (PubMed, Health Business Elite, Medline, CINAHL, Ovid, Scopus, and Web of Science). Articles were screened and assessed for eligibility. From eligible studies, data were extracted to summarize, collate, and make a narrative account of the findings.ResultsEmploying pre-selected criteria, a total of 424 records were identified and 171 full-text articles were assessed. The majority of the papers were studies undertaken by researchers based in North America. Leadership in the H&HS sector was addressed in 35% of the articles. The narrow disciplinary or workforce fields of the nursing and medical professions in hospitals and acute care settings dominated the literature.ConclusionThe findings suggest that while leadership has been studied extensively in the health system, there is a paucity of leadership development research specific to the broader H&HS sector. This review emphasises the need for further research, including a more critical examination of leadership development interventions and their application to the H&HS sector.

In this October issue

Intubation is arguably the most important intervention done in an ED. We publish papers that discuss it in some detail. (a) A group from Melbourne conclude that structured and targeted debriefing after intubating children in the ED is feasible and contributes to measurable and qualitative improvements in patient safety. (b) A group from NSW describe current airway management practices after a failed intubation attempt in Australian and NZ EDs as well as factors associated with second attempt success. (c) A group from Queensland report that implementation of an evidence-based care bundle and audit of practice has created a safe environment for trainees to learn the core critical care skill of rapid sequence intubation in the ED. In an editorial linked to the above paper from Melbourne, Victoria Brazil and her colleagues highlight the importance of hot debriefing in the ED. Staff are enthusiastic about team conversations after clinical encounters – to defuse high emotion, promote learning and reflect on ways to improve future care. They argue that clinical event debriefing should be a cornerstone of healthcare team reflexivity but can only result in change if embedded within a larger ‘improvement ecosystem’ that synthesises, analyses and reacts to the data from the coal face. The topic of debriefing is also discussed in detail in the Trainee Focus section. Every year 25 000 Australians experience a cardiac arrest in the community, but only 12% survive. The faster CPR and defibrillation starts, the greater the chance of survival. Currently, only half of Australian adults are trained in Basic Life Support (BLS). The Australian Resuscitation Council and key stakeholder organisations believe the best way to ensure all Australians know how to save a life is by mandating BLS education and training in schools. We publish an ‘Aussie KIDS SAVE LIVES’ Position Statement outlining a strategy to help facilitate the introduction of a programme of regular BLS training into the Australian school curriculum. The August issue profiled this paper on its front cover. In doing so we inadvertently used an acronym for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples that is disrespectful and does not embrace cultural diversity. Once we realised the problem, the acronym was changed immediately online; unfortunately, it was too late to change the cover of the print edition. No disrespect or offence was intended. We apologise unreservedly. A group from South Australia give us a retrospective analysis assessing whether the introduction of point of care Rotational Thromboelastometry (ROTEM) influenced blood product transfusion and coagulation management in an Australian level 1 trauma centre. The authors conclude that ROTEM introduced in the ED, altered blood product transfusion practices for major trauma patients with an ISS >12, leading to a potentially safer transfusion strategy and cost savings for key blood products. Another paper from South Australia reports the incidence of Acute Traumatic Coagulopathy (ATC) in trauma patients presenting to the Royal Adelaide Hospital. The conclusion is that prehospital blood transfusions are given to the most severely injured trauma patients and the incidence of ATC in this group is more than 80%. There is an association with prehospital blood transfusion and increased ATC in part related to patient selection and severity of trauma, with the contribution of red cell transfusions to ATC unclear. This association should allow earlier identification of patients at increased risk of ATC to ensure rapid correction of coagulopathy to decrease the morbidity and mortality of trauma. Since 2018, the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine has collaborated with Swinburne University of Technology on a research project to understand and enhance the leadership capacity of emergency physicians, beginning with Australasian Directors of Emergency Medicine (DEMs). This research has revealed the complexity of leadership in emergency medicine, illuminating the strengths and limitations of extant research and suggesting promising new directions for emergency medicine leadership and leadership development research. This program has also shed new light on the knowledge, skills and abilities that DEMs need to develop to catalyse change in the systems where they work. The authors argue that an approach to leadership development that reflects the complexity of leadership in emergency medicine will go a long way to enhancing the sophistication, effectiveness and impact of leadership in emergency medicine.

Standing on the shoulders of giantesses: how women technology founders use single and mixed gender networks for success and change

PurposeBuilding on research about entrepreneurship and social capital, the purpose of this paper is to explore how women founders of technology-based ventures in Canada access and use formal external entrepreneurial networks to build their companies.Design/methodology/approachThe study draws on 25 semi-structured interviews with women founders of technology firms and leaders of formal networks.FindingsThe authors demonstrate the positive impact of women only networks (WON) for founders including increasing entrepreneurial diversity, access to financing, and founder credibility and sponsorship. The authors show how women founders use mixed gender and WON to build their businesses and conclude that membership in WON can be a vital step.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample size is small and most participants reside in highly urban areas, which may limit generalizability. Findings may not generalize beyond Canada due to cultural and structural differences.Practical implicationsThe research suggests that external WON should be encouraged as important resources for founder identity work which may enable positive change.Social implicationsThis research can assist in designing initiatives that support women entrepreneurs and promote gender parity.Originality/valueThe authors draw on research in women's leadership development to explain how WONs for entrepreneurs help founders create overlapping strategic networks – a unique form of social capital – and serve as identity workspaces for the identity work women founders must complete. The authors argue that the identity work in WONs can be a mechanism by which gender structures are challenged and eventually changed.

Advancing leadership in Australasian emergency medicine: Taking stock and looking ahead.

Since 2018, the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine has collaborated with the Swinburne University of Technology on a research project to understand and enhance the leadership capacity of emergency physicians, beginning with Australasian Directors of Emergency Medicine (DEMs). Over the last 3 years, this research programme has revealed the complexity of leadership in emergency medicine, illuminating the strengths and limitations of extant research and suggesting promising new directions for emergency medicine leadership and leadership development research. This programme has also shed new light on the knowledge, skills and abilities that DEMs need to develop to catalyse change in the systems where DEMs practice both medicine and leadership. We propose that an approach to leadership development that reflects the diversity of DEMs' leadership challenges and the complexity of leadership in emergency medicine would go a long way to enhancing the sophistication, effectiveness and impact of the leadership in emergency medicine.

Leadership development process maturity: An Afrocentric versus Eurocentric perspective

Orientation: Organisations continuously find it a challenge to focus on the right areas that would result in successful and effective leadership development. This article reports on a comprehensive study to identify the leadership development process maturity areas fit for Southern Africa. Research purpose: This article aims to identify and report on Eurocentric and Afrocentric leadership development process maturity areas and assess how these are similar or different. Motivation for the study: This study was conducted to help enhance the understanding of which Eurocentric and Afrocentric leadership development areas, organisations, especially in Southern Africa, need to focus on in support of a mature leadership development process. Research approach: A qualitative, deductive approach was adopted, which included an extensive, in-depth literature review, followed by in-depth, semi-structured interviews with Southern African leadership development expert panel members. Main findings: A complementary, inclusive and comprehensive list of 125 leadership development process maturity areas was developed within the Southern African context, which could be used by leadership development practitioners as a guide to focus their resources and leadership development efforts. It also functions as a new foundation for future leadership development research. Practical implications: Southern African organisations should focus more on what works in this geographical context to ensure that focused leadership development interventions are implemented, resulting in a higher return on leadership development investment. Contribution and value-added: This article contributes to the leadership development body of knowledge, specifically relating to the maturity of this process within the Southern African context.