Strategic Leadership Development Research Articles

A Guide for Leaders in Higher Education: Core Concepts, Competencies, and Tools

"A Guide for Leaders in Higher Education: Core Concepts, Competencies, and Tools" authored by Brent D. Ruben, Richard De Lisi, and Ralph A. Gigliotti, is a comprehensive exploration of leadership in the complex landscape of higher education. The book begins by establishing the foundational importance of leadership development and adeptly guides leaders through the dynamic challenges inherent in the ever-changing higher education environment. The authors address organizational and strategic challenges, offering practical insights derived from their extensive experiences. Notably, the book delves into the missions, purposes, and principles shaping colleges and universities, acting as a practical compass for leaders to navigate diverse stakeholder expectations. A significant portion of the book is dedicated to an in-depth examination of leadership concepts and competencies, providing practical tools and strategies for leadership development. The authors explore university cultures, communication skills, and the roles of leaders, empowering them not just to survive but thrive in their roles. The final section presents a panorama of leadership development models, offering a diverse array of approaches, characteristics, and programs. The inclusion of supplementary materials, such as communication behavior scales and leadership competency scorecards, adds a practical dimension. Beyond theoretical exploration, the book showcases real-world implications, exemplified by leadership programs from the Big Ten Academic Alliance. Tailored for higher education leaders, administrators, and educational professionals, the book serves as a companion in the challenging journey of leadership. The academic tone ensures a depth of understanding matching the complexity of the subject matter. In a higher education landscape undergoing continual transformations, this guide stands as a beacon, addressing broader themes like strategic planning, change management, communication, and leadership development. It emerges as a cornerstone in literature on higher education leadership, leaving an indelible mark by empowering leaders with the knowledge and wisdom needed to navigate complexity and foster positive change.

An empirical study on the role of leadership development program and its impact on entrepreneurial activities

Organizations support leadership development training programs to continuously improve the level of leadership competence and the supply of suitable applicants for leadership roles. One of the skills that entrepreneurs should cultivate to become “leaders” is leadership competency. In entrepreneurship, leadership has a significant role. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the role of leadership development programs that include personal development, self-assessment, team management, strategic leadership, skilled knowledge, and relationship development, to know the way they influence entrepreneurial activities. To test the hypothesis under study, this research applies the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) approach to the data being gathered from 365 employees and managers of entrepreneurial business firms in India. The obtained results show that personal development, skilled knowledge, and relationship development have a beneficial impact on entrepreneurial activities. In contrast, self-assessment, team management, and strategic leadership are found to have no beneficial impact on entrepreneurial activities. The combination of the ideas of leadership and entrepreneurship is suggested in this study, filling the gap in the previously provided cross-sectional data of the literature.

Integrating Leadership Styles with High-Performance Work Systems: Pathways to Organizational Excellence

The research article explores the nuanced relationship between leadership styles and the effectiveness of High-Performance Work Systems (HPWS) within organizations. HPWS are strategic approaches that integrate various human resource practices—such as selective hiring, comprehensive training, employee involvement, and incentive compensation—to enhance organizational performance. Leadership plays a pivotal role in the successful implementation of HPWS, influencing organizational culture, employee engagement, and the overall effectiveness of these systems. This study delves into how different leadership styles, including transformational, transactional, and servant leadership, influences the deployment and sustainability of HPWS. Through theoretical analysis and examination of empirical studies, the research identifies key challenges in aligning leadership with HPWS, such as resistance to change and cultural misalignments, and proposes strategies to overcome these obstacles. Additionally, real-world case studies illustrate the practical implications of leadership on HPWS outcomes, providing insights into how organizations can harness leadership to enhance the success of HPWS. The findings highlight the importance of strategic leadership development and the need for leaders to embody the values and behaviors that HPWS promote. This study contributes to the understanding of the critical interplay between leadership and HPWS, offering valuable perspectives for researchers, practitioners, and organizational leaders aiming to leverage HPWS for improved performance and competitive advantage.

Relationship between Digital Leadership and Organizational Culture: Role of Digital Literacy

This study investigates the influence of digital literacy on leadership styles embraced by organizational leaders and its subsequent impact on organizational culture. The objective is to provide insights that can guide strategic decision-making and leadership development initiatives in the digital age. The research focuses on exploring the relationship between Digital Leadership and Organizational Cultural Changes, with a specific emphasis on the role of Digital Literacy. Primarily quantitative, the research relies on primary data for its insights. A meticulously designed questionnaire is administered to collect the necessary data. The results indicate that a Banking and Financial Services (BFS) manager, aged 31 to 40 years, earning a monthly income between INR 50,001 to INR 1,00,000, regardless of gender, marital status, and education, demonstrates a higher level of perceptions of digital leadership. Conversely, a BFS employee aged above 50 years, earning a monthly income up to INR 30,000, irrespective of gender, marital status, and education, exhibits a lower level of perceptions of digital leadership. Moderation analysis outcomes reveal that the primary connection between perceptions of digital leadership and organizational culture is significant. However, the moderation effect of digital literacy in the relationship between perceptions of digital leadership and perceptions of organizational culture is deemed insignificant. These findings contribute valuable insights for organizational decision-makers seeking to understand the intricate dynamics of digital leadership and its impact on shaping organizational culture in the contemporary business landscape.

Enablers of the successful implementation of the strategy of technological innovation in higher education

Technological innovation has emerged as a formidable challenge for higher education institutions in the contemporary landscape. The present study explores the enablers of the successful implementation of technological innovation in Saudi Arabian higher education. We based this study’s conceptual framework on a rigorous literature review like Wu et al. (2002), Kihn (2010), and Packendorff et al. (2014). The study applied quantitative methods and collected 220 valid samples from employees of higher education institutions in Saudi Arabia through personal visits and online questionnaires. Employing structural equation modeling (SEM), the results of the study found a negative effect of project leadership (PL) on the implementation effectiveness of technological innovation (IETE). Further, the results demonstrate a positive significant impact of financial resources (FR) and top management style (TMS) on IETE. The study findings would provide valuable insights and evidence-based recommendations to practitioners and scholars in innovation management and organizational leadership. This study can inform strategic decisions, resource allocation, and leadership development within organizations, ultimately enhancing their ability to adapt to technological changes and leverage innovation for sustainable success.

Research on the Current Situation and Construction Strategies of Leadership in Listed Companies

At present, more and more companies realize that the leadership-building strategy has an important impact on the company’s development, and begin to focus on how to reasonably build leadership in the company. This article studies the status quo and construction strategies of leadership in listed companies, hoping to summarize and analyze the successful experience and shortcomings of listed companies in leadership construction strategies and give suggestions and methods for improvement. It will help more companies gain more experience in leadership building. This article adopts the case analysis method and analyzes the status of leadership building in the listed society and the problems and causes in the current leadership strategy building of listed companies by analyzing the cases of different listed companies. At the same time, this paper gives solutions to the following problems in listed companies: strategic planning and leadership development, employee diversification, and brain drain. Finally, this article summarizes the experience of many companies that want to build leadership. It also provides solutions and strategies for currently listed companies to improve their leadership-building strategies and status quo.

Succession Planning: Analysis Competence, Work Motivation, Strategic Leadership Development and Assessment Employee

This study aims to find out what factors can support the success of succession planning in a corporate organization, this study uses a literature review of several articles related to dependent and independent, in this study does not use a questionnaire distribution involving respondents, the findings of this study are all variables independent variables significantly influence the dependent variable, so succession planning is successful if there is support or influence from the independent variables.

Strategic academic leadership and high-tech economic growth

Considering the context of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, higher education must play a significant role in the social-investment model of economic growth. To what extent higher education supports strategic academic leadership and high-tech economic development is still being determined. The article proposes direct actions for improving university management through higher educational and technological functions. We establish the specific directions for university management in neo-industrialization 4.0 to ensure extensive accessibility of higher education and enhance university management efficiency.

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.

Commentary Implementing a pan-European Person-centred Curriculum Framework: The need for a strategic whole systems approach

We are delighted to write this commentary on the Erasmus+ project focusing on the development of a pan-European Person-centred Healthcare Curriculum Framework – a project we have had the pleasure of contributing to as Advisory Group members over the past three years. We believe person-centred practice is a complex construct that requires whole-system thinking, strategic leadership and culture development. Partnership working between healthcare organisations and higher education providers is pivotal to the delivery and anchoring of person-centredness as the bedrock of excellence. The recovery of healthcare services affected by the Covid-19 pandemic provides both opportunities and challenges for the successful implementation of a person-centred healthcare curriculum. There is no doubt that healthcare systems need to change and adapt to new situations and developments in human societies, a process the World Health Organization equates with achieving sustainability. The WHO proposes that a sustainable healthcare system is one that: ‘Improves, maintains or restores health, while minimising negative impacts on the environment and leveraging opportunities to restore and improve it, to the benefit of the health and wellbeing of current and future generations’ (WHO, 2017, p 3). This indicates that healthcare systems need to adapt to provide what is necessary, but also reflect what is wanted by the people they serve. While this presents an opportunity for real system change, a key challenge is the worldwide shortage in the nursing workforce; the WHO’s (2021) Global Strategic Directions for Nursing and Midwifery (2021–2025) puts this shortage at 5.9 million nurses. In addition, the current health and care workforce is still dealing with the impact of Covid in terms of the emotional and physical burden. To promote the emotional wellbeing of staff, organisations require a long-term plan to deliver the practical help and support needed to prevent further increases in vacancy levels. Person-centredness is predicated on each of us ‘knowing ourselves’ and the beliefs and values that shape our practice, including how we as leaders relate to and care for other people. The impact of this on the development of a pan-European Person-centred Curriculum Framework is most notable in practice, where many nurses may be working in unstable environments providing task-focused care to ‘get the work done’. Such environments can prevent clinical teams from engaging with people and their loved ones in a way that puts them at the centre of their care. This task-focused approach does not support or create the conditions for development of healthful cultures where everyone can flourish. Indeed, it may result in the future workforce not experiencing how person-centredness can be integrated into everyday practices through the learning they experience in programmes of study.

ANALISIS PERAN DAN STRATEGI KEPEMIMPINAN KOLABORATIF

Collaborative Governance involving public and private stakeholders together in a forum to generate consensus in decision making. The purpose of stakeholders’ involvement is to formulate and implement policies. This cross-sectoral role contributes higher quality of public services. Role of the leadership is needed when the decision is made, in practice every stakeholders or actor involved has a clear task regarding who is responsible, what should they do and how to do technically. The leader act as a convener, demands the power of meeting including the ability to persuade stakeholders to participate, has experience and reputation of unbiased issued in question. Strategic leadership training and development become an important factor in collaborative governance.
 
 Keywords; Collaborative Governance. Leadership, Role, Strategy

An Investigation on the Role of Coaching in Strategic Leadership Development in the Academia

The changing and challenging situation on the market place has led many academic institutions to update and upgrade their learning methodologies. This improvement aims at helping learners to maximize their potential and achieve greater performance and become more effective, competitive and relevant in the current Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) world. Coaching has been identified as a strategic intervention in leadership development. This paper investigated the role of coaching in strategic leadership development in the academia. Existing literature was reviewed and a 3-week individual coaching program implemented with an undergraduate student using GROW model. Findings indicated three themes connected with the role of coaching in strategic leadership development including goal setting, action planning and prioritization, self-confidence and determination.

Strategic Leadership Competencies: Evidence from the State of Qatar

Leading in the age of more chaotic environments with newly emerging challenges and crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, demands special strategic leadership (SL) competencies. The main purpose of this study is to identify a specific SL set of competencies that should be available to strategic leaders and verify their availability to top-level public sector managers in the State of Qatar. An empirical analysis of 120 respondents revealed strategic leadership competency gaps among Qatari top-level managers. Further, top-level managers were not fully engaged in determining their organizations’ strategic direction, did not exercise all SL behaviors, and only partially demonstrated strategic leadership characteristics, as they were more engaged in the operational activities of leadership. The study revealed that there are no statistically significant differences among respondents toward strategic leadership behaviors and characteristics attributed to their personal and occupational variables. The findings of this study will significantly contribute to enhancing and building strategic leadership competencies for top-level managers in the public sector organizations. A list of strategic leadership competencies that this research identified can serve as a frame of reference for designing strategic leadership training and development programs to enhance strategic leaders’ capacities to manage their organizations more effectively.

Leadership Development in Academic Health Science Centers: Towards a Paradigm Shift.

ProblemIn an era of increasing complexity, leadership development is an urgent need for academic health science centers (AHSCs). The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and others have described the need for a focus on organizational leadership development and more rigorous evaluation of outcomes. Although the business literature notes the importance of evaluating institutional leadership culture, there is sparse conversation in the medical literature about this vital aspect of leadership development. Defining the leadership attributes that best align with and move an AHSC forward must serve as the foundational framework for strategic leadership development.ApproachIn 2015, the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) began a systematic process to approach strategic leadership development for the organization. An interprofessional group completed an inventory of our leadership development programs and identified key drivers of a new institutional strategic plan. A strategic leadership advisory committee designed a series of leadership retreats to evaluate both individual and collective leadership development needs.OutcomesThree key drivers were identified as critical attributes for the success of our institutional strategy. Four specific areas of focus for the growth of the institution’s ideal leadership culture were identified, with specific action items or behaviors developed for our leaders to model. As a result of this foundational work, we have now launched the MUSC Leadership Institute.Next StepsKnowledge of our current leadership culture, key drivers of strategy and our desired collective leadership attributes are the basis for building our institutional leadership development strategy. This will be a longitudinal process that will start with senior leadership engagement, organizational restructuring, new programming and involve significant experimentation. Disciplined, thoughtful evaluation will be required to find the right model. In addition to individual transformation with leadership development, MUSC will measure specifically identified strategic outcomes and performance metrics for the institution.

Strategic priorities of maintaining decent life in Kuzbass

Decent life is the most important priority of civilized modern society. The authors apply to Dr. V.L. Kvint’s theory of strategy and methodology of strategizing to define global trends which affect creating of decent life in Kuzbass and determine strategic priorities for its improvement up to 2035.The major global trends are green workplaces and green economy, decent labour, digitalization, differentiation of income, non-standard forms of employment, online platforms, population aging. Strategic priorities that possess competitive advantages include centre of professional excellence, centre of the public high life quality, centre of decent labour and centre of green economy. Creation of the centre of professional excellence will include organization of centre for the educational and scientific excellence, centre for coaching and mentoring development, centre for remote development of the region, centre for lifelong advanced learning and centre for strategic leadership development. Creation of the centre of the public high life quality will include organization of centre for social services development in Kuzbass, centre for healthcare development, centre for development of the family, centre for culture development, centre for geriatric services, centre for active leisure and centre for development of sport. Creation of centre of decent labour in Kuzbass will include organization of centre for decent labour, centre for development of entrepreneurship, centre for secure and safe labour development, centre for development of new forms of employment and centre for career guidance development. Creation of centre of green economy will include organization of centre for green skills development and centre for green workplaces development in Kuzbass.

Strategic Revolving Fund Practices and Performance of Micro and Small Businesses in Wajir County, Kenya

Even though the vision 2030 framework recognizes the micro, small and medium enterprises’ sector as a key driver to achievement of middle income status in Kenya, their contribution to the achievement of this goal especially within Wajir County is dismal. In Wajir County, the 2016 Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises report showed that many of the businesses in the county were stuck at the micro level where only 14 businesses had graduated to medium scaled businesses. It was also among the counties with the lowest change in number of employees when comparing the inception period and the survey period recording a change of 1.4%. The report showed that besides lack of adequate operating funds, limited knowledge and information and poor strategic management skills were the major constraints to the performance of these enterprises. Hence, the county government of Wajir had stepped in to address this challenge by setting up the Wajir County Revolving Fund whose main mandate was to promote the development in Wajir County by providing different kinds of support to these businesses. Nevertheless, studies assessing the impact of the strategic activities/practices under the fund on the performance of the businesses in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the fund were conspicuously missing. This study therefore sought to investigate the effect of the strategic revolving fund practices on the performance of the micro and small businesses in Wajir County. The specific focus was to establish the effect of stakeholder support, strategic training, knowledge transfer and strategic leadership development on the performance of micro and small retail enterprises in Wajir County. The study was guided by the resource based view theory, the theory of constraints, the social capital or social network theory and the balanced scorecard model. The study applied a descriptive survey research design. The study targeted the 855 beneficiaries (business groups and individual businesses) who had benefitted from the fund as at 2018. The study applied stratified random sampling in selecting the sample. The study used semi-structured questionnaires which were administered to the chairpersons for the group businesses and the owners for individual businesses. In analyzing the information from the open ended questions, themes emerging from the responses given were coded and simple summaries generated. The quantitative data analysis was aided by the use of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 20. Both descriptive and inferential analyses were carried out. A multiple linear regression model was used to show the relationship between strategic revolving fund practices and the performance of micro and small retail businesses in Wajir County. The study found that stakeholder support, strategic training, knowledge transfer and strategic leadership development had positive and significant effect on the performance of the micro and small businesses. The study noted that knowledge transfer had the largest effect on the performance of these businesses. The study concluded that the county revolving fund through various strategic practices/activities under taken under the fund had transformed the performance of micro and small businesses in Wajir County. Several recommendations were made among them the Wajir County government through the department of trade and cooperatives should identify, form networks and present proposals to various parties in diverse industries/sectors whose support can tremendously transform the county revolving fund initiative. The study also recommends that this department should develop a concrete strategy for planning how stakeholders attached to the fund and beneficiary businesses interact and communicate and hold regular consultative meeting with these parties to ensure that they are actively engaged in the activities of the beneficiaries. The study also recommended that training teams attached to the fund should ensure that the concepts of business strategy and other strategic business concepts are deeply enshrined in the training sessions offered to beneficiary businesses.

Sandra L. Shullman, Ph.D., named as 2020 president of the American Psychological Association

The American Psychological Association (APA) has named Sandra L. Shullman, Ph.D., a consulting psychologist internationally known in leadership assessment and development, as 2020 president of the APA, officials announced Nov. 8. Shullman, who is a partner in the Columbus, Ohio, office of the Executive Development Group, manages large, long‐term global organizational client engagements, focusing on executive education and coaching, strategic leadership development and organizational diversity initiatives. She is a senior lecturer for the HEC School of Business in Paris, Shanghai, Beijing and Qatar, and part of the Duke University Global Learning Network faculty. Shullman has served two terms on the APA board of directors and seven years on the board of the American Psychological Foundation. She is past president of the Ohio Psychological Association.

From the President of RUSA: Thoughts on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in Reference and User Services

As is often the case with publication timelines, I’m writing my last RUSQ President’s Column in February but it won’t be published until June. My columns this year have focused on opportunities and challenges for RUSA and this column is no exception. At the 2017 ALA Midwinter Meeting in Atlanta, ALA Council accepted a proposal to add a fourth strategic direction to ALA’s Strategic Plan. Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is now the fourth strategic direction, joining advocacy, information policy, and professional and leadership development.

Does strategic leadership development feature in managers’ responses to future HRM challenges?

PurposeRecent academic discussion depicts leadership development (LD) as an important tool for supporting the implementation of an organization’s strategy, maintaining ongoing development of the organization, and building capabilities that are essential for the future. However, the role of LD in reality depends to a considerable extent on how human resource (HR) managers and other top managers perceive LD and its importance. In this study, the purpose of this paper is to examine how LD manifests in HR managers’ and other top managers’ views on the future challenges of HRM. Accordingly, the authors reason what the findings indicate concerning the strategic role of LD in managers’ minds.Design/methodology/approachThe topic was approached inductively. The qualitative data were collected from 473 Finnish HR managers and 276 other top managers, using a web-based brainstorming tool that adopted ideas from social media platforms. All of the informants are part of the top management team. The material was analysed using content analysis.FindingsThe findings were a cause for concern. They show that top managers do not very actively consider either leadership or LD when asked to consider the HR challenges of the future. In addition, when they did so, the ideas of LD were mostly traditional and individual-centred. Only a few of the informants connected LD to business needs. The comments mainly reflected ideas of heroic leadership and training.Originality/valueThe study advances the understanding of the perceptions of LD decision makers in organizations, but also suggests that more research on the topic is needed. In addition, the study shows that more discussion would be required between academics and managers to deepen the common view of the content, potential, and reality of LD.

Leadership development in governments of the United Arab Emirates

Developing the next generation of leaders in government is seen as a strategic challenge of national importance in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). This article examines the wicked nature of the UAE’s leadership development challenge, identifying patterns of complexity, uncertainty, and divergence in the strategic intentions underlying current leadership development efforts. It then explores the potential impact of re-framing leadership development programmes for government employees using the concept of ‘public leadership’. Responding to calls in the literature for situated and context-sensitive explorations of leadership, it draws upon recent empirical research and literature to conceptualise public leadership for the UAE before identifying three potential contributions: an orientation towards collective, public values; a connection into needed skills frameworks; and access to innovations in the design of public leadership development interventions. The article concludes that the re-framing of ‘public leadership’ has the potential to help make substantial progress on the UAE’s strategic leadership development challenge, but is not a silver bullet. Further research on both the concept, and its impact if adopted for leadership development programmes, will be required.