Leadership development and
leadership effectiveness
Francis Amagoh
Department of Public Administration, Kazakhstan Institute of Management,
Economics and Strategic Research, Almaty, Kazakhstan
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 development 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.
Keywords Leadership, Leadership development, Organizational performance
Paper type Literature review
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 (Vardiman 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 Lipshitz, 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. Vardiman et al. (2006) and Yukl (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 (Vardiman 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
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0025-1747.htm
Leadership
development and
effectiveness
989
Management Decision
Vol. 47 No. 6, 2009
pp. 989-999
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
0025-1747
DOI 10.1108/00251740910966695
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. Reinertsen 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. Degeling 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
institutionalization 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 necessary developmental
experiences for senior leadership. The rapid changes in business, technology, political
and social factors have called for the development of effective leadership skills
(Cacioppe, 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; Charan 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 (Vardiman et al., 2006; Senge, 1990). A learning organization
facilitates change, empowers organizational members, encourages collaboration and
sharing of information, creates opportunities for learning, and promotes leadership
development. According to Allio (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. Allio (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 development of effective leaders. With such an understanding,
MD
47,6
990
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 practice 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 Lipshitz (1993) indicate three components to a successful leadership
development program. The first is developing self-efficacy in the domain 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 Molinaro (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 helping 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 to 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 lifecycle; and
(8) apply a blended methodology (Weiss and Molinaro, 2006, p. 7).
Experienced-based approach
The experience-based 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 as classroom
training, assessment centers, career development, succession planning, performance
MD
47,6
992
