Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25years of research and theory

The making and sustaining of leaders in health care

PURPOSE

Many nations are focussing on health care's Triple Aim (quality, overall community health and reduced cost) with only moderate success. Traditional leadership learning programmes have been based on a taught curriculum, but the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate more modern approaches through procedures and tools.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

This study evolved from grounded and activity theory foundations (using semi-structured interviews with ten senior healthcare executives and qualitative analysis) which describe obstructions to progress. The study began with the premise that quality and affordable health care are dependent upon collaborative innovation. The growth of new leaders goes from skills to procedures and tools, and from training to development.

FINDINGS

This paper makes "frugal innovation" recommendations which while not costly in a financial sense, do have practical and social implications relating to the Triple Aim. The research also revealed largely externally driven health care systems under duress suffering from leadership shortages.

RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS

The study centred primarily on one Canadian community health care services' organisation. Since healthcare provision is place-based (contextual), the findings may not be universally applicable, maybe not even to an adjacent community.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS

The paper dismisses outdated views of the synonymity of leadership and management, while encouraging clinicians to assume leadership roles.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

This paper demonstrates how health care leadership can be developed and sustained.

The teams of early-career investigators: A qualitative pilot study

Introduction: Early team experiences can influence the professional trajectories of early-career investigators profoundly, yet they remain underexplored in the team science literature, which has focused primarily on large, multisite teams led by established researchers. To better understand the unique challenges of teams led by early-career investigators, we conducted a qualitative pilot study. Methods: Interviews were conducted with the principal investigator and members of 5 teams led by KL2 and K12 scholars at the University of Pittsburgh. A code book was developed and thematic analysis was conducted. Results: Seven distinct themes emerged. Interview subjects reported a high level of trust and strong communication patterns on their teams; however, the data also suggested underlying tensions that have the potential to escalate into larger problems if unaddressed. Conclusions: This study yields a deeper understanding of teams led by early-career investigators, which can help us provide appropriately targeted training and support.

The OMERACT Emerging Leaders Program: The Good, the Bad, and the Future

OBJECTIVE

To describe the experience of the first OMERACT Emerging Leaders Program (ELP).

METHODS

A Delphi process identified positive aspects, areas for improvement, and future directions. Core items were defined as essential if they received ≥ 70% ratings.

RESULTS

Participants valued relatable/accessible mentors (100%), including an OMERACT Executive mentor (100%), and a support network of peers (90%). Key items for future development were funding support (100%) and developing knowledge about OMERACT processes (90%) and politics (80%).

CONCLUSION

The ELP has the potential to provide targeted training for early career researchers to develop relevant skills for future leadership roles within OMERACT.

BeWeDō®: A dynamic approach to leadership development for co-creation

One of the main challenges in the contemporary era is shifting beyond collaborative thinking to more relational ways of engaging co-operatively with each other. This interdisciplinary research focused on investigating how the movement practices of the Japanese martial art Aikidō facilitate leadership development and a relational perspective for co-creation. It synthesizes diverse literatures focussed on leadership development, aikidoka, and co-creative modes of practice as processes ‘in action’. These are explored in relation to collective creativity and the context of co-creation to contribute to leadership studies. The Aikidō principle of aiki was used as a theoretical framework where experiential knowing – anchored in relational processes learnt in a dōjō – focused on engaging the body and its experiences as a participatory way of knowing. This ethnography combined autoethnography, visual ethnography and 14 semi-structured interviews to identify four concepts which were synthesized into the BeWeDō® conceptual framework – a unique co-creation experience beyond the dōjō. BeWeDō® offers valuable insights into the relational dynamics of leadership as a process for structuring leadership development for co-creation.

Developing shared leadership in a public organisation: Processes, paradoxes and consequences

Much organisational decision-making is embedded in hierarchical structures and leadership, even though hierarchies are limited in how they deal with increasingly complex issues. This paper explores links between identity formation, and the subsequent development of shared leadership. It explores how a programme to develop shared leadership changed a public science organisation, from one dependent on hierarchical leadership, to one that also used shared leadership to better address the complex public context. Using Day and Harrison’s levels of leadership identity framework, this study first examines the processes of a development programme at individual, relational, and collective levels. Results reveal cascading growth in leadership identities through processes such as job crafting and contagion. Despite the resulting positive processes, inherent paradoxes of power, goals, and attitude underlying shared leadership development are also identified. Within these paradoxes, tensions between vertical hierarchy versus dispersed networks, task performance versus job crafting, fatigue versus revitalisation, and cynicism versus evangelism were found.

Physicians as leaders: are we trying to fit square pegs into round holes?

The purpose of medical education has changed over the last 70 years. The modern doctor is expected to be a leader who will be skilled in people management, team working and patient engagement. Moreover, the burgeoning literature on the development of medical leadership competency frameworks as a way to inform curriculum development is evidence of a desire to empower physicians to be healthcare leaders. The movement towards developing medical students as leaders has to be contrasted against the fact that high school exam performance and academic achievement continues to be the primary basis for selection to medical school. Not surprisingly, the smart kids are studying medicine. Unfortunately, there is a person–job mismatch between the initial skills that allows an individual entry to medical school and what the job will actually entail. For example, higher levels of intelligence are associated with less effective leadership styles. Thus, we seem to have a conundrum concerning input and output. In the following paper, I will examine the degree to which we are attempting to remould ‘square’ physicians to fit them into a ‘round’ medical landscape. The purpose of the paper is twofold. First, to assess the degree to which we can realistically expect the ‘average’ medical student to be moulded into a leader, and second, to identify what practical steps we can take to enable medical students to take a leadership role.

The Power of Choice: A Study Protocol on How Identity Leadership Fosters Commitment Toward the Organization

Identity leadership (IL) describes that the effectiveness of a leader will depend upon his capacity to represent a given group, to make the group go forward, to create a group identity, and to make the group matter. An identity leader may increase commitment among his followers by increasing the perception of shared identity and giving more weight in the decision process to his followers. We aim to explore the mechanisms through which a leader who creates a shared group identity can increase organizational commitment. In the first study, we plan to conduct a cross-cultural correlational study where we aim to test if the relationship between IL and organizational commitment is mediated by team identification and mediated-moderated by participation in decision making (PDM) and collective efficacy. In the second study, we aim to explore the direction of the causality between IL and PDM. To test this hypothesis, we will conduct an experimental study in which (1) we will manipulate IL to test its influence on the perception of PDM and (2) we will manipulate PDM to test its influence on the perception of IL. Thus, we will be able to identify the role of IL and the perception of PDM on organizational commitment.

Do Big 5 Personality Characteristics and Narcissism Predict Engagement in Leader Development?

This study examines personality as a predictor of engagement behavior displayed during leader development programs. Leader development engagement behavior (LDEB) is measured by collecting self- and director ratings of behaviors displayed by undergraduate students during 1-year leader development programs (e.g., showing interest in a variety of topics, maintaining a positive attitude, arriving prepared for meetings, engaging with peers, and reflecting on development). Results suggest that factors of the Big 5 personality characteristics and the Narcissism Personality Inventory predict engagement behaviors in leader development. Post hoc analysis was conducted to better understand patterns of relationships between Big 5 factors and narcissism with specific LDEBs. Narcissism is negatively correlated with director ratings of reflection on development and engagement with peers. As a result of this research, leader development program directors should consider the benefits and risks of including narcissistic individuals in leader development programs.

Effective physician leaders: an appreciative inquiry into their qualities, capabilities and learning approaches

Purpose

The aim of this study was to explore the qualities and capabilities effective physician leaders attribute to their success in leading change and how they developed these.

Method

The authors interviewed 20 emerging and senior leaders using a semistructured interview guide informed by appreciative inquiry. Data were subjected to an inductive qualitative content analysis to identify themes related to qualities, capabilities and learning approaches.

Results

The qualities identified were clarity of purpose to improve care, endurance, a positive outlook and authenticity. They were considered innate or developed during participants’ upbringing. Capabilities were to ground management in medicine, engage others, catalyse systems by acting on interdependencies and employ a scientific approach to understand problems and measure progress. Capabilities were developed through cross-pollination from a diversity of work experiences, reflection, when education was integrated with practice and when their organisational environment nurtured ambition and learning.

Conclusions

This study reframes current leadership thinking by empirically identifying qualities, capabilities, and learning approaches that can contribute to effective physician leadership. Instead of merely adapting leadership development programmes from other domains, this study suggests there are capabilities unique to effective physician leadership: ground management in medicine and employ a scientific approach to problem identification and solution development. The authors outline practical implications for individuals and organisations to support leader development as a cohesive organisational strategy for learning and change.

Artificial intelligence for the public sector: opportunities and challenges of cross-sector collaboration

Public sector organizations are increasingly interested in using data science and artificial intelligence capabilities to deliver policy and generate efficiencies in high-uncertainty environments. The long-term success of data science and artificial intelligence (AI) in the public sector relies on effectively embedding it into delivery solutions for policy implementation. However, governments cannot do this integration of AI into public service delivery on their own. The UK Government Industrial Strategy is clear that delivering on the AI grand challenge requires collaboration between universities and the public and private sectors. This cross-sectoral collaborative approach is the norm in applied AI centres of excellence around the world. Despite their popularity, cross-sector collaborations entail serious management challenges that hinder their success. In this article we discuss the opportunities for and challenges of AI for the public sector. Finally, we propose a series of strategies to successfully manage these cross-sectoral collaborations.This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'The growing ubiquity of algorithms in society: implications, impacts and innovations'.

Building collaborative capability between law enforcement and civil society leaders to prevent urban violence

OBJECTIVES

This research paper analyses how applying a Place-Based Leadership Development (P-BLD) programme adds value to an ongoing intersectoral Urban Violence Prevention Programme (IUVP) in Kenya building trust within collaboratives in the intersection between the historically adversarial law enforcement and civil society sectors.

METHODS

Data on participants' experience of the P-BLD programme were systematically collected through detailed pre- and post-session questionnaires which included a series of challenging but open questions. A framework analysis was undertaken to draw out the common themes.

RESULTS

By surfacing emotional, relational and structural tensions between law enforcement and civil society within the context of IUVP, the P-BLD programme has enabled leaders to become more open to and respecting others' perspectives as a first step towards a more collaborative mindset.

CONCLUSIONS

The P-BLD programme is having a positive impact, explicitly addressing the tensions and enabling leaders to share their concerns and challenges in working towards violence prevention at the intersection between law enforcement and civil society. Moreover, this approach is replicable creating new knowledge and sustainable mechanisms for violence prevention within urban areas across the world.

Self-other agreement of leadership

Purpose

A common component in leadership interventions is the provision of feedback on leadership behaviors. The assumption is that, when there is a discrepancy in this feedback between managers’ and others’ ratings of leadership, this will increase managers’ self-awareness and motivate them to close this gap. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how agreement between managers and their subordinates changes over time as a result of a leadership intervention.

Design/methodology/approach

Questionnaire data were collected from line managers (N=18) and their subordinates (N=640) at pre-intervention, post-intervention and at a six-month follow-up. The managers participated in a leadership intervention that aimed to increase their knowledge and skills related to the leadership behaviors described in the Full-Range Leadership Model. Inter-rater agreement and reliability were calculated to justify aggregating the subordinates’ ratings. The managers and their subordinates were grouped according to three agreement categories: in agreement, managers’ over-rating and managers’ under-rating based on the managers’ views of their leader behaviors in relation to their subordinates’.

Findings

Manager-subordinate agreement on the managers’ leadership increased between pre-intervention and post-intervention but then decreased at the six-month follow-up (17, 61 and 44 percent, respectively). Most managers (n=15) changed agreement categories over time, and only three managers remained in the same agreement category throughout. The subordinates’ mean leadership ratings changed more than the managers’ mean ratings.

Originality/value

This is the first study to explore how manager-subordinate agreement changes when managers participate in a leadership intervention in a health care context. It shows that an intervention that includes upward feedback, by which managers self-rating of their leadership is compared with their subordinates’ ratings, can be an effective way to increase agreement.

Putting the contradictions back into leadership development

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to outline an alternative view of leadership development that acknowledges the likelihood of unintended and contradictory outcomes in leadership work. Helping leaders to engage with contradictions is as important as developing their positive capabilities. A focus on the contradictions of leadership can help to address the emotional and political limitations that development programmes unwittingly impose on learning.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper discusses how leadership development currently falls short in helping people to lead in complex organizational environments. This argument is illustrated by examples taken from MBA teaching programme in a School of Management together with an analysis of contradictions in the National Health Service Healthcare Leadership Model. The final section gives four examples of how to put the contradictions back into leadership development.

Findings

The paper does not seek to present empirical findings. The illustrations support an argument for changes in practice. Examples are provided of a different approach to leadership development.

Originality/value

The paper critiques approaches to leadership development on the grounds of its relentless positivity regarding leadership behaviour and that focusses primarily on the development of individuals. Attention is called to the contradictions inherent in leadership work which extend to the leadership development process itself. Once acknowledged, these contradictions offer important leadership learning opportunities for both individuals and organizations.

Enabling relational leadership in primary healthcare settings: lessons from the DIALHS collaboration

Strong management and leadership competencies have been identified as critical in enhancing health system performance. While the need for strong health system leadership has been raised, an important undertaking for health policy and systems researchers is to generate lessons about how to support leadership development (LD), particularly within the crisis-prone, resource poor contexts that are characteristic of Low- and Middle-Income health systems. As part of the broader DIALHS (District Innovation and Action Learning for Health Systems Development) collaboration, this article reflects on 5 years of action learning and engagement around leadership and LD within primary healthcare (PHC) services. Working in one sub-district in Cape Town, we co-created LD processes with managers from nine PHC facilities and with the six members of the sub-district management team. Within this article, we seek to provide insights into how leadership is currently practiced and to highlight lessons about whether and how our approach to LD enabled a strengthening of leadership within this setting. Findings suggest that the sub-district is located within a hierarchical governance context, with performance monitored through the use of multiple accountability mechanisms including standard operating procedures, facility audits and target setting processes. This context presents an important constraint to the development of a more distributed, relational leadership. While our data suggest that gains in leadership were emerging, our experience is of a system struggling to shift from a hierarchical to a more relational understanding of how to enable improvements in performance, and to implement these changes in practice.

Attaining elite leadership: career development and childhood socioeconomic status

Purpose

The existence of disadvantaged sub-populations whose talents are under-leveraged is a problem faced by developing and developed countries alike. Life history data revealed that a large proportion of elite business leaders in the Caribbean emerged from childhood poverty (families subsisting on US$1-2 a day, 40 percent). The purpose of this paper is to examine the key factors supporting the career development of elite leaders from a broad socioeconomic spectrum and both genders in order to build a model of career development for elite leadership.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected via in-depth interviews from a deliberately gender-balanced sample of 39 male and 39 female elite business leaders. Thematic analysis identified consistencies across independent interviews and resulted in a model identifying factors supporting pre-career development as key to eventual attainment of elite leadership.

Findings

Findings indicated that in childhood and youth, proactivity plus talent recognition and mentoring by adults enhanced access to early developmental opportunities. Early career mentoring guided talented youth to build personal drive, self-esteem, altruism, and integrity, which created a foundation for developing career capital through values-based action. Altogether, these findings indicate the importance of pre-career relational capital to attainment of elite career success.

Originality/value

Difficult-to-access elite leaders provided rich information emphasizing the importance of pre-career development in childhood and youth to eventual elite leadership attainment. Virtually all of the elites in the sample remember being identified as talented early in life and consider early messages about drive to achieve as well as support received from parents, teachers, and other interested adults to be critical to their success. Hence, a process of talent recognition and encouragement to excel appear to be crucial for connecting young people to important relational capital allowing them to eventually achieve elite status, particularly those individuals hailing from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Are Formal Leaders the Only Ones Benefitting From Leadership Training? A Shared Leadership Perspective

Leadership training most often involves training of formal leaders, and little is known about the potential benefits of leadership training for other members of an organization. Using theories of shared leadership, the current study examined outcomes of transformational leadership training that targets both formal and informal leaders (i.e., both vertical and shared leadership). The training was set in a Swedish paper pulp factory and involved formal and informal leaders participating in 20 days of training over a period of 16 months. Based on employee survey data collected both pre- and postintervention our analyses revealed that both formal and informal leaders significantly improved their transformational leadership behaviors. Interestingly, the improvement in transformational leadership behaviors of formal and informal leaders tended to predict employee efficiency and well-being in different ways. Improvements in formal leaders’ transformational leadership were related to employee well-being, while informal leaders’ increases in transformational leadership were associated with efficiency. The results point toward the benefit of a shared leadership perspective on leadership training and indicate that improvements in transformational leadership may affect employees differently depending on who in the organization displays them.

Why and when leadership training predicts effectiveness

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to build and test an integrative model of leader identity as an important mechanism explaining why reactions to leadership training associate with leader effectiveness. It is proposed that this mediation relationship is conditional on leadership experience (i.e. time in a formal managerial role), such that it will be weaker for more experienced leaders because they already possess complex leadership-related knowledge and skills.

Design/methodology/approach

Hypotheses were tested using a sample of German managers (n=196) in formal leadership positions (i.e. with direct subordinates) across a range of industries. Data were collected using online questionnaires. The proposed first-stage mediation model was tested using the structural equation approach.

Findings

Leader identity was found to mediate the relationship between reactions to leadership training and leader effectiveness. This mediation was conditional upon leadership experience, such that the indirect effect only held for less, but not for more, experienced leaders.

Research limitations/implications

The findings should be interpreted with caution because all data are self-report and cross-sectional.

Practical implications

Leadership training for senior leaders should qualitatively differ (in terms of content and length) from that for novice leaders.

Originality/value

Leadership training can substantially improve managers’ ability to lead effectively. The present study is the first to establish leader identity as a motivational mechanism that explains this relationship. This is also the first study to test for the role of leadership experience in leader development.

Explicit preferred leader behaviours across cultures

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to develop a reliable and valid field survey research instrument to assess national cultural cognitive templates of preferred leader behaviour dimensions to facilitate education, development, and training of managerial leaders operating across diverse organisations.

Design/methodology/approach

The study consists of focus group evaluations of the validity and the translations to local languages of a survey instrument assessing leader behaviour preferences in business organisations.

Findings

The studies find that the survey instrument and its translations are valid and reliable for assessing preferred leader behaviour across national cultures. The length of the survey is problematic, and a new project is underway to produce a shorter version with equivalent reliability and validity.

Research limitations/implications

As the research project is long term, at this point, a relatively long survey is available for research, with a shorter version planned for the future.

Practical implications

Practical implications include producing and validating a field survey research instrument that is reliable and valid across cultures and languages, and can be employed to improve the understanding, development, and education of managers and leaders of international business organisations.

Social implications

Management and leadership processes are employed in all aspects of life, and can be better understood and improved through this research project.

Originality/value

The majority of cross-cultural research is leader-centric studies of implicit leader characteristics; this project expands the scope of studies further into follower-centric studies of observed leader behaviour.

Women and Leadership in the United States: Are We Closing the Gender Gap?

Women in the United States are making historic progress in business leadership, with research linking women's leadership representation to positive outcomes. However, men still dominate US leadership, raising several key questions. Is the United States closing the leadership gender gap? What organizational barriers perpetuate the gap? What facilitates women's leadership? We synthesized and extended US literature to develop a multilevel organizational model of Barriers And Facilitators of Female Leader Empowerment, called the “BAFFLE” Female Leadership Model to highlight the baffling complexities and limited success in solving the US leadership gender gap. The review found that literature narrowly focuses on barriers and offers limited insights about how to facilitate female leader empowerment while simultaneously addressing systemic, entrenched organizational barriers. We also used the World Economic Forum (WEF) Global Gender Gap Index to provide global perspective on the US leadership gender gap. Finally, we summarize findings and implications for practice and scholarship.

Protean Careers at Work: Self-Direction and Values Orientation in Psychological Success

How do self-direction and personal values influence career outcomes? Such questions have been central in research on the protean career—a career process characterized by the exercise of self-direction and an intrinsic values orientation in the pursuit of psychological success. This article provides an integrative review, with a focus on three empirically supported protean processes—identity awareness, adaptability, and agency. In addition, we discuss the role of protean careers in the contemporary work environment, clarify definitional and measurement issues, recommend research directions, and provide practical implications for organizations. Our underlying assumption throughout this discussion is that the elements of a protean career orientation (PCO) are basic elements of human needs for growth and meaning. In addition, we discuss how protean careers can be beneficial for organizations. In particular, we identify the “Protean Paradox” as a phenomenon that merits further investigation. More specifically, the protean paradox is a process by which greater levels of individual self-direction and values orientation, thus serving the purpose and interests of the individual, can also have a positive influence on the groups and organizations in which they work. Our recommendations for future research and practice promote these qualities in the contemporary world of work.

Effective leadership development in information technology: building transformational and emergent leaders

Purpose

Effective leadership has been the focus of much research in recent years, but leadership development is still understudied. Information technology (IT) continues to grow in importance due to the industries IT creates, the industries IT disrupts, and the potential IT holds for all companies. Because leadership is highly context bound, the purpose of this paper is to examine leadership development in the IT context to take first steps toward establishing best practices for IT leadership development.

Design/methodology/approach

This conceptual paper reviews leadership in general before performing an integrated literature review of leadership as it has been studied in the IT context. Then the paper presents three propositions regarding effective IT leadership development.

Findings

IT leadership development should involve formal mentoring, robust feedback that is integrated into the development plan, and should be treated as a core process for long-term success. Emergent and transformational leadership are important for IT.

Practical implications

It behooves IT departments to implement the leadership development programs proposed here because leadership has been identified as one of the most difficult skills to find in IT employees. The findings can inform training professionals exploring ways to improve the leadership capacity and leadership development in the IT units of their organizations.

Originality/value

The paper’s literature review uncovered no quantitative peer-reviewed research on leadership development in the IT context, suggesting an area of need for further empirical studies. Researchers and practitioners alike will benefit from a greater understanding of leadership development in IT.

Leadership Succession: Future-proofing Pipelines

The challenges in deaf education illustrate the requirement and importance of leadership in this specialized field. The significant and impending talent depletion unfolding as baby-boomers retire, positions leadership succession planning as a strategic issue. This mixed methods study is the first of its kind in New Zealand. The aim is to understand leadership demographics and assumptions to determine the need for strategic succession planning to identify and address leaky pipelines. The findings from 82% of the deaf education workforce through a questionnaire and interviews with seven senior leaders reveal that senior leaders do not appear aware of four key areas that dissuade and shrink the pool of potential leadership aspirants. The four areas are prioritizing family; safeguarding health; concerns about bureaucracy, paperwork, and workload; and, a reluctance to move away from teaching. Aspirant identification appears informal, as there is no formal succession plan in place, which suggests a leadership crisis is imminent in New Zealand deaf education provision. Recommendations are provided that may help address this situation in New Zealand and other first-world nations if sufficient leaders are in place to deal with the challenges facing deaf education today and in the future.

The importance of confidence in leadership role

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the influence of leadership programmes on leaders and co-workers, as well as which mechanisms are involved in the process.

Design/methodology/approach

An analysis was done into 431 free-text answers to questionnaires given to 120 participants in two different leadership programmes and their co-workers six months after their participation, using a grounded theory inspired approach.

Findings

The result is a model, linking internal psychological and external behavioural aspects, with the central outcome that leaders gained more confidence in their leadership role through theoretical models learned, and reflection.

Research limitations/implications

The course participants as well as the co-workers seemed to experience a positive leadership development indicating a value of participating in the courses.

Practical implications

Confidence in leadership role seems important for having positive outcomes of leadership. Although this needs further research, it is something organisations should consider when working with leadership questions.

Social implications

The co-workers perceived their leaders to be calmer, more open for discussions, and willing both to give and receive feedback post training. There appears to be an increase in trust both in the leader and reciprocally from the leader in the co-workers.

Originality/value

Until now there has not been any systematic research into the effects on participants and co-workers following the programmes, despite the fact that over 100,000 have participated in the courses.

Intentional Design of Student Organizations to Optimize Leadership Development

This chapter addresses how a group's organizational structure can promote or hinder the leadership capacity of its members. The information in this chapter provides insight into structuring student organizations in a way to maximize all members' leadership development.

A Social Identity Approach to Leadership Development

Abstract. Social identity research shows that leadership is a process of group identity development but has not examined how leaders can manage group identities in the workplace. The 5R leadership development program addresses this issue. This takes leaders through a five-stage process of (1) Readying: explaining the importance of social identity processes for leadership; (2) Reflecting: identifying important workplace social identities; (3) Representing: clarifying goals and aspirations associated with different subgroup identities; (4) Realizing: identifying superordinate goals and developing strategies to achieve both them and subgroup goals; and (5) Reporting: assessing progress toward goals. Results of a longitudinal study indicate that 5R is a useful framework for leadership development that translates insights from social identity theorizing into structured intervention.

Leadership Development of Rehabilitation Professionals in a Low-Resource Country: A Transformational Leadership, Project-Based Model

BACKGROUND AND RATIONALE

This paper presents an overview of the activities and outcomes of the Leadership Institute (LI), a short-term leadership development professional development course offered to physiotherapists in a low-resource country. Previous studies have provided examples of the benefits of such programs in medicine and nursing, but this has yet to be documented in the rehabilitation literature. The prototype of leadership development presented may provide guidance for similar trainings in other low-resource countries and offer the rehabilitation community an opportunity to build on the model to construct a research agenda around rehabilitation leadership development.

PEDAGOGY

The course used a constructivist approach to integrate participants' experiences, background, beliefs, and prior knowledge into the content. Transformational leadership development theory was emphasized with the generation of active learning projects, a key component of the training.

OUTCOMES

Positive changes after the course included an increase in the number of community outreach activities completed by participants and increased involvement with their professional organization. Thirteen leadership projects were proposed and presented.

DISCUSSION

The LI provided present and future leaders throughout Rwanda with exposure to transformative leadership concepts and offered them the opportunity to work together on projects that enhanced their profession and met the needs of underserved communities.

CONSTRAINTS AND CHALLENGES

Challenges included limited funding for physiotherapy positions allocated to hospitals in Rwanda, particularly in the rural areas. Participants experienced difficulties in carrying out leadership projects without additional funding to support them.

LESSONS LEARNED

While the emphasis on group projects to foster local advocacy and community education is highly recommended, the projects would benefit from a strong long-term mentorship program and further budgeting considerations.

CONCLUSION

The LI can serve as a model to develop leadership skills and spur professional growth in low-resource settings. Leadership development is necessary to address worldwide inequities in health care. The LI model presents a method to cultivate transformational leadership and work toward improvements in health care and delivery of service.

Reward and threat in the adolescent brain: implications for leadership development

Purpose

In the last 10 to 15 years, research studies have focused on the effects of differences across generations that result in differences in cultural expectations within the workplace (e.g. Arsenault, 2004). Different generations create shared attitudes to work and preferences for types of work which result in differences in their perception of, for instance, what makes a good leader or even the value of leadership within an organisation. While these generational differences are real, these analyses do not take into account differences that might result from the age, and therefore developmental stage, of the populations being assessed. The neuroscience literature clearly shows that there are maturational differences in the brain which are not complete until late teens to early 20s. It is therefore possible that some of the generational differences result from differences in processing ability resulting from structural immaturities in the brain. In particular, there are differences in the rate of maturation of areas of the brain related to reward sensitivity, threat sensitivity and regulation of behaviour which result in substantial differences in behaviour from adolescence through into adulthood. The purpose of this paper is to consider the effect of maturational changes in the brain on behaviours related to leadership and to outline ways in which these changes can be addressed in order to encourage young people to develop as leaders. This will include providing suitable experiences of leadership to encourage the faster development of the neural structures which underlie these capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

Recent advances in neural imaging have resulted in a substantial increase in research investigating the development of the brain during adolescence. A literature review was conducted to find adolescent research that investigated decision making and risk taking. The data obtained were integrated and implications for leadership were drawn from an analysis of the resulting theoretical framework.

Findings

The research into decision-making processes in adolescents and younger adults points to a number of ways in which these differ from mature decision making. Younger people: (find it harder to inhibit behaviours) are more responsive to immediate reward; are more optimistic about the outcome of risky decisions; and are more responsive to social rewards (Jones et al., 2014). They also lack the experiences that adults use to distil the gist of a situation and therefore are more dependent on conscious, cost-benefit analysis of the outcome of decisions.

Practical implications

An understanding of the differences between adult and adolescent decision making points to the role of experience as a key factor in mature decision making. If adolescents are to make mature decisions, they have to be offered suitable challenges in safe environments from which they can gain expertise in leadership decision making. These can be designed to account for differences in sensitivity to reward and punishment in this group. In addition, young adults would benefit from learning the gist interpretations that have been extracted from situations by experienced leaders. This suggests that adolescents and adults would benefit from simulated leadership experiences and leadership mentoring.

Social implications

The Baby Boomer generation who currently hold many of the leadership positions in organisations are coming close to requirement. They will have to be replaced by members of Generation X and the Millennial Generation resulting in potentially younger leaders. In addition, flatter organisational structures that are currently being implemented in many organisations will require leadership at many more levels. Thus, we need to be able to develop leadership skills in a more diverse and younger section of society. Understanding how the brain develops can help us to design appropriate leadership experiences and training for this upcoming generation of young leaders.

Originality/value

Recent advances in neuroscience of adolescence provide a unique opportunity to bring new evidence to bear on our understanding of decision making in young adults. This provides practical implications for how to develop leadership within this group and to support them as they gain experience in this domain. The evidence also points to a benefit for the increased risk taking seen in adolescence since this leads to greater motivation to try new, and potentially risky, ventures. Through a better understanding of the differences in decision making, we can both help adolescents to develop more mature decision making faster while benefitting from the optimism of youth.