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The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at www. Nearsightedly. Com/0025-1747. HTML Leadership development and leadership effectiveness Francis Imago Department of Public Administration, Astrakhan Institute of Management, Economics and Strategic Research, Almost, Astrakhan Abstract Purpose – It is important that organizations embark on leadership development programs that will enhance leadership effectiveness. The purpose of this article is to identify some leadership development initiatives. Design/methodology/ approach – The paper uses a review of the literature to offer some leadership placement practices.
Findings – Leadership development should be comprehensive and systematically integrated into the organizational culture in order to produce leaders who can deal adequately with organizational challenges. Practical implications – Organizations and leadership developers should use a systemic approach in order to address the current leadership crisis. This paper emphasizes a global perspective and an organizational commitment to leadership development. It is suggested that organizations should have a long-term focus towards realizing the benefits from investments in leadership development programs.
The article offers a number of approaches to the selection and development of leaders at all levels of an organization. Originality/ value – All organizations face the problem of developing good leaders. This paper helps to identify some approaches to leadership development that will enhance leadership effectiveness and organizational performance. Keynoters Leadership, Leadership development, Organizational performance Paper type Literature review Leadership development and effectiveness 989 Organizations of all sizes are engaged in a competitive environment and hence need the right kind of leadership to survive.
Organizations with effective leaders tend to innovate, respond to changes in markets and environments, creatively address challenges, and sustain high performance (Birdman et al. , 2006). While there are several definitions of leadership, in essence leadership is an act of motivating people to act by non-coercive means (Popper and Lipstick, 1993). Alas et al. (2007) view leadership in terms of individual traits, leader behavior, interaction patterns, role relationships, follower perceptions, influence over followers, influence on task goals, and influence on organizational culture.
Birdman et al. 2006) and Yuk (2006) describe leadership as a process of influence toward the accomplishment of objectives. This view of leadership generally focuses on the dyadic relationships between a leader and follower, but not on what conditions need to be in place for effective leaders to emerge or to be developed (Birdman et al. , 2006). It is important that all employees be equipped with leadership skills (McCauley and Douglas, 2004) because leadership roles and processes are critical in setting direction, creating alignment, and nurturing commitment in groups of people (Johnson, 2000).
According to Morrison et al. (2003), the essence of leadership traditionally has been the Management Decision Volvo. 47 No. 6, 2009 up. 989-999 q Emerald Group Publishing Limited 0025-1747 DOI 10. 1108/00251740910966695 MD 47,6 990 ability to first understand the theories and concepts of leadership and then to apply them in real life scenarios. The absence of effective leadership has had a significant impact on the ability of organizations to implement and sustain strategic change initiatives. Ernestine et al. 2005) suggest that leadership skills should include such elements as envisioning the future, establishing goals, communicating, rallying support for the vision, planning for its implementation and putting the plans in place. Dieseling and Carr (2004) add that leader development is built on a foundation of cognitive, socio- emotional, and behavioral skills. These skills, supported by leader attributes such as self-awareness, openness, trust, creativity, and practical, social and general intelligence, provide the basis for leadership.
Thus, it is important that organizations pay special attention to development of future leaders in order to sustain long-term effective leadership practices and high organizational performance. This paper presents some of the leadership development initiatives discussed in the literature and argues that the institutionalizing of a comprehensive leadership development program in the fabric of an organizational culture is essential to ensure leadership effectiveness and high organizational performance.
Leadership development Institutional leadership development can be defined as planned and systematic efforts to improve the quality of leadership (Groves, 2007). The widespread flattering of organizational structures and significant changes in work arrangements has required that organizations rethink how potential managers attain the accessory developmental experiences for senior leadership. The rapid changes in business, technology, political and social factors have called for the development of effective leadership skills (Copied, 1998).
Consequently, leadership development programs have become an increasing priority for business and government organizations. Highly successful organizations focus on creating a comprehensive set of assessment and leadership development practices that support the wide range of talents across the organization (Groves, 2007; Charka et al. , 2001 The key elements that contribute to a successful leadership experience include changing mindsets, a global focus, personnel development and improved business and leadership skills.
Critical to the success of any leadership development process is the ability to encourage participants to reflect on learning experiences in order to promote the transfer of knowledge and skills to work contexts. The concept of a leadership development culture is similar to the idea of a learning organization (Birdman et al. , 2006; Sense, 1990). A learning organization facilitates change, empowers organizational members, encourages collaboration and sharing of information, creates opportunities for earning, and promotes leadership development.
According to Olio (2005), the primary goal of a good leader is to reinforce values and purpose, develop vision and strategy, build continuity, and initiate appropriate organizational change. Olio (2005) adds that it is important that leadership developers first establish a metric for assessing leadership effectiveness, and then design experiments that can establish a causal or statistically significant relationship between training initiatives and leadership competency.
It is also necessary to develop a better understanding of the conditions or contextual factors needed to enable the placement of effective leaders. With such an understanding, senior management can develop the conditions necessary to facilitate the growth of future leaders. Successful leadership development process also depends on the ability to encourage participants to reflect on learning experiences in order to promote transfer of knowledge and skills to work contexts.
It is essential that leaders be given opportunities to practice new skills and knowledge in real work settings (action learning). Since leadership development entails both the understanding of concepts and the ability to reactive them, it is important that business educators draw from a broad spectrum of pedagogical tools to align theory with application (Morrison et al. , 2003). In addition to covering technical job skills, such programs should focus on self-awareness, changing attitudes, building teams and improving interpersonal interactions.
These competencies are believed to be instrumental keys to organizational performance and productivity (Burke and Collins, 2005). Popper and Lipstick (1993) indicate three components to a successful leadership development program. The first is developing self-efficacy in the main of leadership. Self-efficacy is the extent to which a person believes he can perform well in a specific domain. The second is developing awareness of modes of motivating others. Different models of leadership are based on different models of motivation.
Thus, developing different types of leaders requires enhancing awareness of different modes of motivation. The third component is developing specific leadership skills. Leadership skills are skills that leaders use in their interactions with followers. They include oral and written presentation, conducting group meetings, interviewing, giving feedback, etc. Improving leadership skills tend to increase the effectiveness of the interpersonal processes between leaders and followers, and consequently increases followers’ motivation.
Some approaches to leadership development Integrated-solution approach Weiss and Nominal (2006) discussed an integrated-solution approach to leadership development, which consists of eight steps. The approach represents a strategic, synergistic and sustainable way for organizations to build the leadership capacity needed to survive in a competitive environment. It is strategic because it ensures that all development options are focused on eloping the organization gain competitive advantage.
This involves creating a comprehensive strategy for leadership development and implementing the strategy effectively. The approach is synergistic in that it strives to select and implement development options in a seamless manner that adds value to one another. Finally, the integrated-solution approach to leadership development is sustainable because it takes a long-term perspective. It takes the view that leadership development is an iterative process that needs constant attention, focus, and resources.
The eight steps in the integrated-solution approach o leadership development are: (1) develop a comprehensive strategy for integrated leadership development; (2) connect leadership development to the organization’s environmental challenges; (3) use the leadership story to set the context for development; (4) balance global enterprise-wide needs with local individual needs; (5) employ emergent design and implementation; Leadership development and effectiveness 991 (6) ensure that development options fit the culture; (7) focus on critical moments of the leadership lifestyle; and (8) apply a blended methodology (Weiss and Nominal, 2006, p. ). Experienced-based approach The experience- eased approach to leadership development was proposed by Thomas and Cheese (2005) and represents a comprehensive way that knits together on- the-job experience, life experience, and specific skill development. The goal of experience-based leadership development is to equip employees to continuously tap into their experiences for insight into what it takes to lead, what it takes to grow as a leader, and what it takes to develop as an effective leader. This approach is amenable to the developmental needs and opportunities of people at all stages of their careers.
It is also responsive to the changing needs of organizations operating in complex and uncertain environments. Experience- based leadership development consists of three major processes, namely preparing, developing, and preserving leadership skills. These processes together produce skills needed by leaders at all levels, as well as a concept of leadership practice that encourages lifelong learning. Experience-based leadership development aims to equip employees to fuse together the totality of their experiences for insight into what it takes to be a good leader.
It links the leadership development activities an organization already has in place (such s classroom training, assessment centers, career development, succession planning, performance management) with real work assignments and innovative Uses of information and communication technology. Formal mentoring Mentoring is a development relationship between a more experienced or skilled mentor and a less experienced or skilled protege, whereby both mentor and protege benefit from the relationship (Chaos et ale, 1992; Day and Allen, 2004).
Formal mentoring is a leadership development initiative, which includes learning goal orientation, mentoring functions, and leadership competencies (Kim, 2007). Formal mentoring programs are beneficial in two ways: (1 ) they are very flexible by allowing for one-on-one mentoring, peer mentoring, or mentoring in groups, depending on the availability of mentors and the specific needs of potential leaders (McCauley and Douglas, 2004); and (2) the team-based work in formal mentoring requires an immediate response from the leaders in setting direction, and leaders’ commitment to teamwork.
Mentoring is comprised of three functions: (1 ) career support; (2) psychological support; and (3) role modeling (Scandals and Raging, 1993). It can be the outcome of mutual learning, by roving the basis for proteges and mentors to learn from each other. Mentors can develop their leadership skills by leading proteges as leaders, while proteges can develop leadership capabilities through their mentors’ encouragement or feedback and role modeling. Mentoring provides an 992 opportunity for mastery experience, vicarious experience (i. . Observing others), and verbal persuasion (encouragement and feedback) both for proteges and mentors from ‘ the mentoring relationship. Hence, proteges and mentors enhance their leadership self-efficacy as an outcome of the mentoring functions achieved or provided (Kim, 2007). The leadership life cycle Block and Manning (2007) discussed the leadership life cycle, which highlights the core elements needed to build an effective leadership development system. This approach consists of six steps.
The first step begins with a process for the identification of leadership needs. Second, education content and learning processes are designed to address identified knowledge and skill gaps. The third step is action learning, whereby opportunities are created for engagement, during which new skills and knowledge can be practiced in real work settings. Fourth, workplace purports (such as mentoring) must also be put in place to ensure that the developing leader is receiving ongoing guidance and quality feedback.
Fifth, there should be recognition strategies to acknowledge the developing leader’s commitment and contribution to the organization. Lastly, it is necessary to establish renewal processes in order to ensure that the leader’s development path is meaningful as well as aligned with the strategic goals of the organization. When these six components are integrated within an organization, they represent best practice in leadership development and act as a guidepost or realizing leadership excellence (Conger, 1993; Fuller, 1997; Copied, 1998).
Miscellaneous approaches There are a myriad of other approaches to developing leaders, including leadership development through teaching. This includes teaching classes and facilitating workshops on a series of leadership development topics. Borrowing from Conger (1 993), Allen and Hartman (2008) suggests four themes in leadership developments: (1) personal growth; (2) conceptual understanding; (3) feedback; and (4) skill building. Personal growth experiences include reflection on behaviors, personal values, and desires.
Conceptual understanding focuses on improving the individual’s knowledge through exposure to the topic of leadership. This form of development often focuses on various theories of leadership. Feedback helps the leader to learn about certain strengths and weaknesses in a number of leadership skills. Skill building demands that leadership abilities be broken down into actual mechanical processes that can be ordinarily performed. Other inexpensive ways to develop individuals include job rotation, job enrichment, job enlargement, instruments and personal developmental plans.
According to Bus (2005), best raciest in leadership development include linking leadership development to strategy, ensuring real-time feedback during a program such that learning and development professionals have the ability to act on the information, customizing action learning such that program contents are based on the Leadership development and effectiveness 993 organization’s current challenges, and giving participants the opportunity to integrate the development in their ongoing work.
Groves (2007) suggests that organizations should execute the following six leadership pipelines in order to develop effective leaders: (1) develop the organizations’ mentor network y fully engaging all managers in mentoring relationships; (2) ensure active manager participation in the organization’s method of identifying and codifying high potential employees; (3) fully engage managers at all levels in leadership development activities for high potentials; (4) ensure a flexible and fluid succession planning process by avoiding heir apparent designations, frequently updating lists of high potentials based on project-based performance, and basing succession decisions on a diverse pool of candidates; (5) establish a supportive organizational culture through active senior management participation in placement programs and performance appraisal and reward systems that reinforce managerial engagement; and (6) evaluate the effectiveness of leadership development practices through empirical studies that model program theory and assess knowledge, behavior, and results outcomes (Groves, 2007, p. 256). Leadership effectiveness A major goal of all leadership development programs is to increase leadership effectiveness in guiding organizations through periods of uncertainty and change.
Leadership effectiveness refers to a leader’s success in influencing followers toward achieving organizational objectives (Birdman et al. 2006; Bodings, 2005). Leadership effectiveness is an evolutionary process of interconnected events and responses to events. Effective leadership is often viewed as the foundation for organizational performance and growth. In fact, effective leadership is a source of competitive advantage for organizations, and the foundation for organizational performance and growth (Kim, 2007). The absence of effective leadership has had a significant impact on the ability or organizations to implement and sustain strategic change initiatives.
The essential roles of effective organizational leaders include establishing and enforcing values and purpose, developing a vision and the strategies necessary to achieve the vision, building the community necessary to implement the strategies, and initiating and managing the changes necessary to assure growth and survival (Block and Manning, 2007; Bodings, 2005; Ernestine et al. , 2005). Individual leadership characteristics that may influence leadership effectiveness include intelligence, dominance, gender role, generalized self-efficacy, self- monitoring, emotional intelligence, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and extroversion (McCauley and Douglas, 2004; Kim, 2007). Additionally, self- regulatory, self-motivational, empowering, and transformational leadership skills and behaviors affect leadership effectiveness (e. G.
Conger, 1999; Mans and Sims, 2001 The level of environmental support can also influence leader selection and leadership effectiveness. A supportive environment is characterized by a culture that values and actively encourages the process of leadership development. In order to better understand how to enhance and develop effective leaders, one must first understand what causes or facilitates leadership emergence and selection. An understanding f the importance of creating an environment that recognizes each employee for their current accomplishments and future potential is critical in developing future leaders at all levels of the organization.
Through a better understanding of the conditions or contextual factors that should be present to enable the development of effective leaders, organizational leaders may be better equipped to create conditions necessary to facilitate the growth of future leaders (Birdman et al. , 2006). Leader effectiveness can also be evaluated by reference to follower attitudes, behavior, satisfaction, and followers’ acceptance of the deader. Sevenths and Wood (2005) suggest that organizational achievements can be explained by the suggestion that there is a direct relationship and correlation with the effectiveness of organizational leadership. This explanation is based on the contingency leadership model, which sees leadership effectiveness as dynamic and continuous in nature. This dynamism and continuity depends on two contextual parameters, namely contextual precision and timely precision.
Contextual precision refers to the leadership’s contextual perception in global perspective, while timely precision refers to the leadership’s timely perception n business and societal environments at a particular point in time. The contingency model may be used as a framework to examine and evaluate leadership effectiveness over time. It may also be used to identify specific events that have led to successful and/or unsuccessful organizational achievements. Chem. and Silversmiths (2005) propose a situational approach to leadership effectiveness, which allows managers to use the style of leadership that best matches the readiness, ability and willingness of subordinates.
The situational approach posits that a good match between leadership style and subordinate deadness leads to a higher level of subordinate satisfaction and performance. As the level of follower readiness increases, effective leader behavior will involve less structure (task orientation) and less socio-emotional support (relationship orientation). At the lower levels of readiness, the leader needs to provide direction. However, with higher levels of readiness, followers become responsible for task direction (Hershey et al. , 1996). Managerial implications and suggestions for future research The current study offers useful approaches for organizations to improve their leadership development capabilities and selection processes.
This implies, among other things, identifying potential leaders who possess character, creativity, compassion, a clear sense of purpose and the energy to pursue that purpose. The study provides a basis for leadership identification and selection while emphasizing the necessity for leadership development at all levels of an organization. A well-structured and integrated leadership development program can facilitate organizational capacity to deal with the demands of global change. An understanding of the various leadership development practices can offer organizations different perspectives on how to respond to diverse organizational problems.
Complete reliance on internal personnel for a leadership development program may create an insular mindset that limits the creativity and diversity of leadership development best practices (see Groves, 2007; Sevenths and Wood, 2005). While leaders have an understanding of their own organizations, their competencies, strengths and weaknesses, and cultural biases, they should also possess knowledge and Leadership development and effectiveness 995 996 understanding of the industry, the market, and the economy within which the organization operates. In this age of globalization, systematic and sustainable adhering development has implications for understanding how to respond to the complexities and intricacies of contemporary organizations.
This requires organizational commitment to leadership development programs, and an established framework that focuses on the sustainability components of the processes of organizational management and business practices. This study provides a basis for the sustainability of leadership effectiveness in enhancing organizational performance. The choice of a leadership development provider is also important. This is because organizational leaders have to determine if the theology of the leadership development provider fits with the organization’s current and future needs. Action learning is a vital component of most leadership development programs, and constitutes one of the core leadership development methods at best-practice organizations.
This could be enhanced through greater focus on research on action learning design principles that produce optimal leadership development outcomes. Action learning projects should involve opportunities for reflective learning, which include active and objective feedback from coaches, facilitators, and teammates (Groves, 2007). Organizations should insider the circumstances under which skills and knowledge transfer may be optimized. Relevant issues include the degree of post-course follow-up needed to reinforce skills transfer, the competence of the program to provide relevant and focused learning, and the congruence between what was learnt and the skills requirements of the work environment (Burke and Collins, 2005).
For leadership developers it is important to have a multilevel approach that incorporates feedback from managers and participants when assessing the impact of a leadership development strategy. Such assessments and feedback can offer organizational and personal perspectives on leadership development programs. Additionally, participants must recognize value in developing their leadership potential, while managers must see value to the organization in order to continue supporting their staff to participate in leadership programs (Block and Manning, 2007). Consequently, there is congruence between investment in leadership development and increased levels of job satisfaction in organizations.
Formal mentoring, an essential component of leadership development programs, offer great benefits for organizations. These benefits include the improvement f individual and organizational effectiveness. In fact, three major applications of leadership development (i. E. Career development, training and development, and organizational development) can be served through mentoring. Since it is assumed that the characteristics of high-performing mentors enhance the quality of mentoring relationships, further studies on mentor-protege relationships has implications for leadership development practices (Kim, 2007). Information from such research is vital in appropriately match mentors and proteges for more effective mentoring programs.
Further research is also deed on how participants of leadership development programs can help develop the competencies of other organizational members in order to improve organizational performance. The study calls for an integration of leadership development and succession planning processes through a supportive organizational culture. Organizations must be willing to make significant and long-term investments in building leadership capability, and should have a long-term focus on realizing the benefits from investments in leadership development. The major challenge here is finding innovative ways to demonstrate that sustainable benefits can be achieved wrought investments in leadership development activities. Finally, organizations should empirically evaluate the effectiveness of their knowledge management practices.
Studies suggest that most organizations fail to empirically assess the outcomes of their leadership development programs, and thus are deprived of the opportunity to diagnose problem areas or initiate needed programmatic changes (Birdman et al. , 2006; Groves, 2007). Conclusion The efficiency and survival of organizations is dependent on the selection and development of future leaders. It is obvious that organizations of all sizes face major challenges n preparing leaders that can handle major organizational challenges. To be successful, organizations must be willing to invest in building leadership capabilities at all levels of the organization.
The approach to leadership development should be viewed as part of the fabric of organizations in order to receive the support and attention needed to maximize effects on participants. Institutionalizing an effective leadership development culture is one of the most effective strategies for attracting and retaining talent, and ensuring competitive advantage in the long run. Organizations should take a long-term approach to adhering development and create a supportive environment in order to produce effective leaders. The long-term success of leadership development initiatives depends on an organizational culture that considers the development of future leaders as a long-term strategic priority (Block and Manning, 2007).
Leadership development is a continuous process that should not be limited to leadership training, formal instructions on professional skill, performance in developmental job functions, and participation in self-developmental programs. To be truly effective, leadership development must include a global perspective n how the dynamics of world events impact organizational effectiveness. Systematically driven leadership development initiatives usually lead to enhanced leadership capabilities and organizational performance.