Leadership Development Practices Research Articles

Talent and leadership development practices as drivers of intention to stay in Lebanese organisations: the mediating role of affective commitment

This paper examines the relationships among investment in talent and leadership development practices in Lebanese organisations and two behavioural outcomes, affective commitment and intention to stay. Affective commitment is expected to mediate the relationship between talent and leadership development practices and intention to stay. We found that both talent and leadership development practices were positively related to intention to stay and affective commitment. We also found that affective commitment partially mediated the relationship between talent development and intention to stay and fully mediated the relationship between leadership development and intention to stay. The research and practice implications of the study findings are discussed.

Preparation of Faculty Members and Students to Be Citizen Leaders and Pharmacy Advocates

To identify characteristics and quality indicators of best practices for leadership and advocacy development in pharmacy education, a national task force on leadership development in pharmacy invited colleges and schools to complete a phone survey to characterize the courses, processes, and noteworthy practices for leadership and advocacy development at their institution. The literature was consulted to corroborate survey findings and identify additional best practices. Recommendations were derived from the survey results and literature review, as well as from the experience and expertise of task force members. Fifty-four institutions provided information about lecture-based and experiential curricular and noncurricular components of leadership and advocacy development. Successful programs have a supportive institutional culture, faculty and alumni role models, administrative and/or financial support, and a cocurricular thread of activities. Leadership and advocacy development for student pharmacists is increasingly important. The recommendations and suggestions provided can facilitate leadership and advocacy development at other colleges and schools of pharmacy.

A Case Study on the Effective Implementation of Enterprise Leadership Development

Enterprise leadership development practice is focused on providing effective support to enterprise strategies through leadership development programs. This paper proposes several theoretical hypotheses of the effective implementation of enterprise leadership development programs based on the conclusions of specific literature, and verifies the hypotheses through field observation and document analysis of the evolution of a practical leadership development program. This program was organized from 2005 to 2012 by an enterprise for its entry-level R&D managers. This paper puts forward the following ideas: Effective leadership development programs, with a wider purpose not limited to individual development, are organization-oriented and support the implementation of enterprise strategies. Such programs focus on the critical stages of key strategy implementation groups and comprehensively adopt a variety of methods. The mostly used methods rely heavily on direct experience and are closely related to actual work scenarios. Through these methods, leadership development programs pass on expectations and requirements for key roles and specify key capabilities required for them to implement enterprise strategies.

The System Chief Nursing Officer: An Evolving Role

The first large wave of healthcare system and hospital consolidation occurred in the 1990s as organizations responded to the specter of managed care. As mergers occurred, there was not always a perceived immediate need to standardize operations, systems, and care processes. A number of organizations recognized the value of a system chief nursing officer (CNO) in promoting professional nursing practice, standards, and outcomes, but these initial roles typically focused on the acute inpatient care settings. Phrases such as meaningful use, accountable care organizations, and pay for performance were not part of day-to-day discussions. Fast forward to our current healthcare environment, and it is clear that the role of the system CNO is changing and rapidly evolving to meet the many challenges inherent in this era of decreasing reimbursement and healthcare reform. There are as many configurations of the system CNO role as there are healthcare systems, yet the changes sparked by the current environment highlight common themes that have emerged. The system CNO continues to focus on overall quality of care, patient safety, patient and family experience, nursing practice and standards of care, leadership development and succession planning, and fiscal responsibility. This article will focus on a few of the evolving priorities: standardization, cross-continuum care, and organizational strategy. The first large wave of healthcare system and hospital consolidation occurred in the 1990s as organizations responded to the specter of managed care. As mergers occurred, there was not always a perceived immediate need to standardize operations, systems, and care processes. A number of organizations recognized the value of a system chief nursing officer (CNO) in promoting professional nursing practice, standards, and outcomes, but these initial roles typically focused on the acute inpatient care settings. Phrases such as meaningful use, accountable care organizations, and pay for performance were not part of day-to-day discussions. Fast forward to our current healthcare environment, and it is clear that the role of the system CNO is changing and rapidly evolving to meet the many challenges inherent in this era of decreasing reimbursement and healthcare reform. There are as many configurations of the system CNO role as there are healthcare systems, yet the changes sparked by the current environment highlight common themes that have emerged. The system CNO continues to focus on overall quality of care, patient safety, patient and family experience, nursing practice and standards of care, leadership development and succession planning, and fiscal responsibility. This article will focus on a few of the evolving priorities: standardization, cross-continuum care, and organizational strategy.

Horses for Courses

This article draws on insights taken from Lacanian psychoanalysis to rethink and resituate notions of the self and subjectivity within the theory and practice of experiential leadership development. Adopting an autoethnographic approach, it describes the author’s own experience as a participant in a program of equine-assisted learning or “horse whispering” and considers the consequences of human–animal interactions as a tool for self-development and improvement. Through an analysis of this human–animal interaction, the article presents and applies three Lacanian concepts of subjectivity, desire, and fantasy and considers their form and function in determining the often fractured relationship between self and other that characterizes leader–follower relations.

Ready for the future: the four principles of nomadic learning in organizations

PurposeThis essay aims to develop a new concept of learning for organizations. Change concepts are used to explore and find principles of learning that make employees and their organizations ready for the ever changing reality. Considering the rapid and unexpected changes of today it makes them ready for the future of work.Design/methodology/approachThe approach is anticipatory, utilizing a dynamic knowledge development framework, combined with action research in the organization consultancy and training practice.FindingsThe article describes theory and practice of four principles of nomadic learning. It shows the connection with change theories and future of work research.Research limitations/implicationsHow to realize nomadic learning within organizations and in that way make that organization a learning company is a recommended topic for new research. The consequences for the way of structuring and organizing within organizations should be taken into account.Practical implicationsWhen nomadic learning is applied it will change the common practice of leadership development and organizational change programs.Social ImplicationsNomadic learning has the capacity to connect people from diverse backgrounds and functions. In that way it can cope with risks of isolation and exclusion.Originality/valueThe combination of philosophic conceptualization and experienced practice makes this article special. This is simultaneously the way to “do” nomadic learning.

Identification of the Psychometric Properties of the Leadership Influence Over Professional Practice Environments Scale

This study uses the qualitatively developed Adams influence model (AIM) and concepts from the psychometrically validated revised professional practice environment scale to guide the development of the leadership influence over professional practice environments scale. Nurse executives and others can use this scale individually or in conjunction with instruments targeting staff or patient perceptions of their influence as part of health services research, leadership development, and professional practice environment enhancement strategy.

Leadership Development through Workplace Learning in Malaysia Organizations

This paper focuses on leadership development of successful leaders via informal workplace learning in several Malaysian organizations. Leadership development, which involves a life-long process of learning beginning from childhood and one’s early educational experiences, often continues with experiential learning in the workplace. Though many previous studies have explored leadership development via formal programmes in workplaces, there have been limited studies that narrate the contribution of informal learning in workplaces. Hence, we conducted in-depth interviews with five top management team members (TMT) of organizations in the Malaysian higher education, banking and service industries to understand their leadership development experiences. The results included the overarching theme that leadership development should never be separated from organizational priorities, as leaders are the ones who define an organization’s future. The three sub-themes which emerged in relation to leadership development in the context of workplace learning were: (a) the role of informal mentoring in leadership development; (b) observation and reflection during leadership development; and (c) developmental, challenging assignments in leadership development. The findings are presented along with implications for leadership development research and practices in organizations.

Leveraging Leadership Efficacy for College Students: Disaggregating Data to Examine Unique Predictors by Race

Cultivating leaders who are prepared to tackle complex social issues is positioned as a critical outcome of higher education and a tool for diversification of the workforce. Both leadership studies literature and leadership development practice, however, are negligent in the attention directed at understanding the role of social identity in framing college student leadership education, particularly as it relates to race. This contributes to a “one-size-fits all” approach derived largely from the experiences of white college students. The present study attempts to address this gap through the analysis of predictors of leadership self-efficacy conditioned by racial group. Using data from 8,510 college students the study highlights the critical importance of disaggregation in quantitative research and the emergence of unique predictors of leadership efficacy by racial group membership. Results offer insights into the importance of centering race in the study of college student leadership development to best leverage learning gains.

Model of complexity leadership development

Leadership development has traditionally encapsulated an individualistic focus in organizations more properly construed as leader rather than leadership development. Over more recent years, advances in leadership theory have moved towards seeing leadership from more relational and systemic perspectives that have implications for leadership development practice. This article builds on this literature in putting forward a model of leadership development drawing upon ideas and concepts from complexity science. Complexity leadership development is suggested to incorporate a focus on four key dimensions that recognize the interrelatedness and systemicity of leadership in organizations. Here the behaviours of individuals interact with wider organizational processes and contexts that together are considered to produce overall leadership effects. Four dimensions are put forward in the complexity leadership development model comprising (1) network conditions, (2) shared leadership, (3) organizational learning and (4) leader skills and knowledge. The implications of the model for future research in HRD and challenges for practice in the field are discussed.

Best Coaching Practices for Developing Team Captains

To gain an in depth understanding of the youth leadership development process in sport, qualitative interviews were conducted with high school coaches (6 males; 4 females) known for cultivating leadership in their captains. Hierarchical content analyses revealed that all of the coaches reported proactive approaches toward teaching leadership through sport. However, based on the principles noted in the positive youth development literature, these coaches could do more to enhance their leadership development practices (e.g., empowering captains by more often involving them in important decision-making). Leadership philosophies, specific leadership training strategies, as well as the biggest challenges and mistakes when working with their captains are reported. Directions for future research and structuring captain training programs are discussed.

Identity undoing and power relations in leadership development

Leadership development theory and practice is increasingly turning its gaze on identity as a primary focus for development efforts. Most of this literature focuses on how the identities of participants are strengthened, repaired and evolved. This article focuses on identity work practices that are underdeveloped in the literature: the deconstruction, unravelling and letting go that can be experienced when working upon one’s self. We group these experiences, among others, under the conceptual term ‘identity undoing’ and, based on findings from an 18-month ethnographic study of a leadership development program, we offer five manifestations of how it can be experienced. Through foregrounding the undoing of identity, we are able to look more closely at how power relations shape the leadership development experience. In order to raise questions and propositions for leadership and its development we use a micro-sociological and interactionist approach to explore the interplay between identity and power.

Planning and Developing Leadership within the Organization

This exploratory study aims to analyze how organizations and their leaders are developing leadership internally, trying to understand which variables influence the adoption of practices of leadership development in organizations. The dimensions considered in the investigation are divided into three groups which are: i) Type of Organization (TO)-formed by the variables related to the characterization of the organization, ii) the profile of the leader (PFL)-consists of the variables related to the characterization of the leader, and iii) the leadership style perceived by the Leader (EL)-includes the variables of transformational leadership model of Bass and Avolio and used in the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), including the transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership. The existence of practices of leadership development is associated to the dimension of organizations, their level of importance, the existence of leaders succession planning and the use of coaching as a process to equip people with knowledge and tools to self develop and to become more effective. Leaders who promote the practice of leadership development prefer leaders that come from within the organization. The leadership style perceived by the leaders that promotes leadership development practices is the transformational leadership style.

The Leadership Development Interface

The Problem Leadership Development research and practice has consistently focused on specific methods and interventions to the degree that our understanding of what good leadership development looks like is much clearer. The problem however, with current thinking on leadership development and the evaluation of leadership development is that we are not exploring the extent to which the individual leader and the organization they work for are connected and aligned. For evaluators of leadership development this exploration is a key aspect in measuring the systemic nature of leadership development and not merely the intervention. How do individual leaders navigate their personal leadership development journey and how do the organizations for which they work interface with them to provide effective development opportunities and practice? The Solution This article makes the case that we need to evaluate and articulate the leadership development process differently; to move away from isolated methods and toward an interconnected process of personal and organizational discovery and learning. When leaders and organizations activate the interconnectedness of leadership development, learning may become more reciprocal and aligned which could drive better development outcomes and value. The Leadership Development Interface Model, developed through research and literature data, provides an interconnected perspective of leadership development and explores a “whole system” view so both leaders and organizations can engage, plan, and evaluate their development effort in an aligned and supported way. The Stakeholders Leaders and their direct managers in organizations, HR and development specialists

Capturing sociality in the movement between frames: An illustration from leadership development

In this article we offer a dynamic relational perspective in which frames and framing work together in the practice of leadership development. Mead’s (1932) notion of sociality is introduced as a way of engaging with movements within and between frames, where it is these framing movements that we argue hold the potentiality of emergent practice. The article responds to a growing interest in the delineation, conceptualization and practice of leadership as opposed to leader development, where we understand leadership development in terms of the creation of social capital, relational capacity and collaboration. However, there is little, if any, research into how these dimensions may be developed intentionally in practice. Using online forum data from an 18-month-long leadership development programme, we demonstrate three different sociality movements, which we have labelled kindling, stretching and spanning. Our analysis positions sociality at the core of leadership development interventions, and practice more generally.

Emotional Intelligence and Leadership Development

This paper reviews the current literature on the concept of emotional intelligence and makes recommendations for incorporating emotional intelligence into leadership development programs. The paper is divided into four sections: the first section identifies the two most cited models of emotional intelligence. Section two reviews research on the relationship between leadership and emotional intelligence. The third section provides a synopsis of the arguments for and against emotional intelligence. The fourth and final section illuminates how the components of emotional intelligence integrate with contemporary leadership development practices and suggests some methods for developing emotional intelligence competencies among managers and leaders.

Leadership Development in Organizations: Multiple Discourses and Diverse Practice

Research on leadership development in organizations is abundant, as are the resources invested in developing their leaders. Although rarely made explicit, much of this writing and activity is driven by functionalist assumptions, with a primary concern for good design and enhanced corporate performance. Given the politically sensitive, culturally complex and institutionally embedded nature of leadership, as well as controversy over the way leadership itself is best defined and developed, the author argues that this reliance on a single perspective is potentially limiting. The aim of this paper is to enhance leadership development practice in organizations by proposing a fresh and theoretically informed approach for exploring the multiple meanings of leadership development. This is done, first, by clarifying the discursive assumptions underlying studies in this field and revealing the distinctive insights that arise from functionalist, interpretive, dialogic and critical discourses of leadership development; and second, by exploring how each of these discourses, or ‘readings’, might promote quite different approaches to leadership development in organizations.

MILITARY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT: A MODEL FOR THE SA NATIONAL DEFENCE FORCE

The result of this article is an alternative model for leadership character development in the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). The SANDF reflects the racial and cultural diversity of South Africa as a nation. The need for a unifying leadership related mechanism, which will provide for the military milieu in which humane leadership development will flourish, is evident. This statement is based on the premise that no evidence was found that any previous efforts by the SANDF to instil a leadership philosophy or policy as a way of military life was successful. The model also addresses further shortcomings in the current SANDF leadership development model as the selection process of officer candidates needs improvement because political guidance and participation in the development of military leaders are absent. Officer formative training consequently reflects emaciated attention to the development of the character side of leaders, and the SANDF has no military leadership institution to ensure that its leadership development policies and practices are based on sound academic research.

The Role of Self-Reflection, Emotional Management of Feedback, and Self-Regulation Processes in Self-Directed Leadership Development

This article presents and explores a framework of self-directed leadership development (SDLD) to advance conceptual understanding and practical applications for self-development approaches to development of leaders in organizations. Drawing on a diversified literature associated with experiential learning, emotion research, and social cognitive theories of change, the nature of self-development is explored. It is argued that underpinning effective self-development is the integrated operation of three metaskills—skills that are required for the development of other skills—relating to one’s ability to manage emotional reactions to feedback, to carry out effectively the practice of self-reflection, and to enact self-regulatory processes for development. The SDLD framework extends formal organization-based leadership-development practices and integrates multiple processes to aid leaders and human resource development (HRD) practitioners in the promotion and enactment of leadership self-development. The framework also provides guidance for HRD research on self-development and a number of research implications are presented.

Clinical leadership development requires system-wide interventions, not just courses

This is the third article in a series on clinical leadership and medical education. In the first two articles in this series we looked at the nature of leadership and examined professional outcomes, standards and competency frameworks from around the world that describe what it is we are trying to instil in medical students and doctors in postgraduate training. In this article we explore current trends in leadership development and describe broad approaches to clinical leadership development, highlighting those strategies that are likely to be more (or less) successful. Narrative review and discussion. Key trends and principles for best practice in leadership development are identified. Recommendations for the design of leadership development programmes are made alongside suggestions for system-wide interventions. Leadership development should be both drawn from and embedded in work-based activities, and as far as possible linked to the development of the organisation as a whole. Intervening at the level of the individual may not be enough. System-wide interventions are required that actively engage students and trainees in the practices of management and leadership, and involve them early.