In learning mode? The role of mindsets in derailing and enabling experiential leadership development

Outcomes of Art-Based Leadership Development: A Qualitative Metasummary

Art-based leadership development, grounded in experiential learning, offers a learner-centered approach to leadership training by integrating relational, aesthetic and embodied dimensions. This systematic review investigates evidence on the outcomes of art-based leadership development, addressing the critical need for empirical validation of its effectiveness. A qualitative metasummary was employed to review 31 empirical studies published between 2008 and 2023. The studies were sourced from databases including Business Source Complete, ERIC, PsycINFO, Scopus, and Web of Science. The Quality Assessment for Diverse Studies (QuADS) tool was used to assess the studies. The analysis revealed that art-based methods significantly enhance reflective and reflexive practices, higher-order cognitive skills, emotional intelligence, and interpersonal competencies. Representing leader development, art-based initiatives facilitate holistic self-discovery and transformative shifts in mindset, offering a valuable complement to conventional skill-based approaches. Despite these promising benefits, the review highlights a need for more rigorous empirical studies, particularly longitudinal and quantitative research, to substantiate the long-term effectiveness of art-based methods.

Study of mindset among learners and educators in an Indian medical school-A questionnaire-based survey

BACKGROUND

Mindset varies along a spectrum of two extremes- fixed and growth. Individuals with growth mindset embrace new challenges readily and believe that intelligence is malleable. Mindset theory has gained focus as a principal underpinning value of health professions education, as it is aligned with the goals of competency-based education. The study aims to assess the mindset of health professional educators and learners.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted in a private medical college in South India. A pre-validated modified version of Dweck's (2000) Implicit Theories of Intelligence Questionnaire was administered to the study participants. Participants responded to 10 items using a four-point Likert scale, rating the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with each statement. The quantitative data were expressed in means and percentages.

RESULTS

A total of192 students and 25 faculty participated in the study. Among students, 45.8% (n = 88) had strong growth mindset, 42.1% (n = 81) had growth mindset with some fixed ideas, 10.9% (n = 21) had fixed mindset with some growth ideas, and 1% (n = 2) had strong fixed mindset. Among faculty 4% (n = 1) had fixed mindset with growth ideas, 44% (n = 11) had growth mindset with fixed ideas, and 52% (n = 13) had strong growth mindset.

DISCUSSION

In this study, educators and learners of a medical school were found to have predominantly growth mindset. Fostering growth mindset among stakeholders of health professions education is essential for effective teaching and learning in competency-based education.

Motivation to lead in Japan: validation of a Japanese version of the motivation to lead scale

Introduction

This study aimed to develop a Japanese version of the motivation to lead (MTL) scale consisting of three factors-affective-identity MTL, non-calculative MTL, and social-normative MTL-and examine its construct validity and reliability.

Methods

The participants comprised 500 university students and 500 employees aged 20-29 years registered with a Japanese research company.

Results

Based on a confirmatory factor analysis, the three-factor model was found to be appropriate for the Japanese context. The measurement invariance analyses indicated scalar invariance between students and employees and between men and women. Finally, the correlation analysis with the Big Five personality traits conducted to examine construct validity indicated that affective-identity MTL and social-normative MTL had significant relationships with all five traits (extraversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, open-mindedness, and negative emotionality). Although non-calculative MTL was not significantly correlated, it can be interpreted in the Japanese context.

Discussion

The results indicate the adequate construct validity and reliability of the Japanese version of the MTL scale. These findings hold significant implications for leadership development and selection in Japan, highlighting the motivational factors that drive effective leadership.

Exploring teacher wellbeing in educational reforms: a Chinese perspective

Teaching is a demanding profession and maintaining teacher wellbeing is significant in ensuring educational quality. However, teacher wellbeing is easily affected by educational reforms, and systematic research on this topic is still relatively rare. In China, with the enactment of the Double Reduction Policy in 2021, the job characteristics of primary and secondary school teachers have undergone various changes. Thus, the current study examined the new job characteristics that China's Double Reduction Policy imposed on the wellbeing of school teachers and their relationships with teachers' inner world (i.e., emotional regulation and mindset). A cross-sectional study was carried out from June to October 2022 across China, employing self-reporting questionnaires for data collection and analysis. With a random sample of 902 teachers, we investigated the associations between teacher wellbeing, job characteristics, emotional regulation strategies, and mindset. The results indicated that teachers showed a lower level of wellbeing after the educational reform. Higher job resources contributed positively to predicting teacher wellbeing, while higher job demands contributed negatively. Genuinely expressing had positive impacts on teacher wellbeing while surface acting had negative impacts and deep acting none. Mindset was found to affect emotional regulation strategies and teacher wellbeing simultaneously. These findings shed light on how teachers can appropriately regulate emotions and maintain wellbeing in the wake of educational reforms.

Volunteers' growth mindset and continuance intention: what are the roles of nostalgia and positive emotions?

This study examined the cognitive and affective aspects of volunteering experiences by focusing on the relationships between volunteers' growth mindset, nostalgia, positive emotions, and their intention to continue volunteering. A total of 364 responses were collected from volunteers who had volunteered within the past 5 years. Results showed that the growth mindset had a positive effect on nostalgia, which in turn positively affected valenced emotions toward volunteering. Nostalgia and volunteers' positive emotions positively influenced their intention to continue volunteering. All indirect effects via nostalgia were significant. This study lays the groundwork to identify the role of nostalgia in volunteerism and contributes to extending the literature on growth mindset and mindset theory.

Examining the mediating role of team growth mindset on the relationship of individual mindsets and shared leadership

Purpose

As a cornerstone of team performance, learning depends on each member’s mindset. Drawing on implicit theories of intelligence, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationships among individual members’ mindsets and shared leadership (SL) behaviors in design teams and the mediation role of team growth mindset (TGM) on that relationship.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors analyzed survey results based on individuals who participated in an international design competition. To test the hypothesized model, the data was analyzed by using SEM using Mplus 7.

Findings

The results indicated that an individual growth mindset (IGM; but not an individual-fixed mindset) has significant and positive direct effects on a team growth mindset and SL behaviors. In addition, a TGM mediates the relationship between an IGM and SL.

Originality/value

The research discusses several theoretical and practical implications for human resource development professionals and scholars to improve understanding of a TGM and its influence on individual mindsets and SL behaviors.

The influence of socio-cognitive mindfulness and resilience on middle managers' stress and thriving during COVID-19: results from two studies

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of socio-cognitive mindfulness on resilience, stress and thriving among middle managers in higher education at two separate periods during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Study 1, the authors examined how socio-cognitive mindfulness predicted perceived stress and whether the relationship between mindfulness and perceived stress was mediated by resilience. In Study 2, the authors replicated the first study and further hypothesized that the link between mindfulness and thriving was also mediated by resilience.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted cross-sectional correlational studies to test the hypotheses using data from 163 middle managers in higher education early in the pandemic in Study 1 and 204 middle managers a year later in Study 2.

Findings

Study 1 findings showed socio-cognitive mindfulness predicted perceived stress, and that resilience fully mediated this relationship. In Study 2, socio-cognitive mindfulness did not predict perceived stress, but it did predict thriving, and that relationship was fully mediated by resilience.

Originality/value

This research is the first to address how socio-cognitive mindfulness directly impacts perceived stress and thriving and its impact through building resilience. To date, few studies have focused on stress in higher education middle managers or addressed the importance of building socio-cognitive mindfulness and resilience to thrive amid ongoing challenges. Implications of the pandemic's influence on the results are also addressed.

Coaching to build commitment for generating performance improvement

Purpose

The essay is practitioner-focused with manager-as-coach applying experiential learning to aid an employee's learning and improve performance as well as helping to build employee commitment to job and organization. Reciprocity is intended as the learning and commitment of both the employee and manager are enhanced.

Design/methodology/approach

As a conceptual, not empirical, paper, the present study aimed at guiding manager behavior the methodology aims to examine the areas of manager-as-coach, efficacy of coaching, theoretical grounding of employee commitment and experiential learning processes. Study and coordination of information in these areas provided support for a detailed action plan for practical application.

Findings

It is possible to create for manager use a research results driven practical guide/action plan. The guide incorporates manager skills and commitment theory (investment) along with an experiential learning approach aimed at improving employee growth and building commitment.

Practical implications

There is clear evidence in empirical research that finds employee commitment positively related to work performance, job engagement and job retention. This essay aims at application of investment theory to build commitment as it is based on actual inputs and efforts of the employee.

Originality/value

There is very little research currently available that directly addresses manager-as-coach deliberately working to increase or build employee commitment to job, organization or the manager her/himself. This essay aims directly at how commitment may be enhanced.

A Transparadox Process of Decision Making

Decision makers inevitably face a variety of tensions when managing strategic change. Research from organization and strategy perspectives, such as paradox and organizational learning, has offered useful but limited insight into the systematic mindset and thinking processes involved in decision making. We draw on theoretical and philosophical foundations of the transparadox perspective and related theories to build a dynamic process cycle of transparadoxical decision making. Three interrelated dimensions make up our model: (1) Transparadox Information Navigation, which includes embracing oppositional tendencies, syncretic focus, and creative transcendence; (2) Transparadox Contextual Consideration, characterized by prudent precision and recognizing the flux of temporality and spatiality; and (3) Transparadox Integration, which comprises design-type integration and exploration-type integration. We then present propositions on the interdependent and reinforcing mechanism among the three dimensions. Our work expands the paradox literature with specific mindset dimensions and constituent elements, connecting paradox research with the cognitive perspective by adding dynamic, cyclical processes to paradox cognition study.

Manager-as-coach: stimulating engagement via learning orientation

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to use recent empirical research and theory to help explain how a manager may assume a coaching role to assist employee learning and growth. In the coaching role, performance appraisal and other information may be carefully used as feedback to reinforce growth mindset learning in the service of employee development and engagement in work tasks and in the organization.

Design/methodology/approach

Aided by search devices (Psych Articles, Google Scholar, etc.), this study explored several distinct areas of information to include: manager-as-coach, performance management/appraisal, engagement with work, mindsets – fixed and growth, feedback and self-regulation of learning. Across these domains, this study searched for linkages useful in guiding managers to assist employees to learn and change.

Findings

Coaching employees to embrace a growth mindset and one’s self-regulation of learning has been expressed as a means to improve performance, resiliency, persistence, ability to cope with change and motivation.

Practical implications

Explicit, grounded recommendations are offered to assist managers to guide employees to embrace a growth mindset and take charge of their own learning and development.

Originality/value

Through examination and coordination of streams of research and theory, the study are able to make reasonably clear some avenues for a manager to attempt to positively influence employee confidence, learning, success and growth.

Coach Mindset: Preparing Leaders to Create a Climate of Trust and Value

Health care, like other industries, is faced with increased competition from both traditional and nontraditional players. A top challenge facing organizations is the ability to effectively develop leaders to lead in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment. Organizations with effective leaders have been shown to outperform their peers. Transforming leadership to include the adoption of a coach mindset that creates a climate of trust, enables improved engagement and performance of nurses (employees) and teams, while also accelerating the creation of value and outcome improvements for patients, is a pursuit worthy of leadership attention. The purpose of this article is to describe a conceptual framework, define a coach mindset, and describe the mediating antecedents and consequences that result when leaders adopt a coach mindset as a leadership competency. This work can be applied as a part of leadership development implementation and adoption-related activities and used in future research.

The state-of-play in physician health systems leadership research

Purpose

This paper aims to review a decade of evidence on physician participation in health system leadership with the view to better understand the current state of scholarship on physician leadership activity in health systems. This includes examining the available evidence on both physicians’ experiences of health systems leadership (HSL) and the impact of physician leadership on health system reform.

Design/methodology/approach

A state-of-the-art review of studies (between 2007 and 2017); 51 papers were identified, analyzed thematically and synthesized narratively.

Findings

Six main themes were identified in the literature as follows: (De)motivation for leadership, leadership readiness and career development, work demands and rewards, identity matters: acceptance of self (and other) as leader, leadership processes and relationships across health systems and leadership in relation to health system outcomes. There were seemingly contradictory findings across some studies, pointing to the influence of regional and cultural contextual variation on leadership practices as well entrenched paradoxical tensions in health system organizations.

Research limitations/implications

Future research should examine the influence of varying structural and psychological empowerment on physician leadership practices. Empirical attention to paradoxical tensions (e.g. between empowerment and control) in HSL is needed, with specific attention to questions on how such tensions influence leaders’ decision-making about system reform.

Originality/value

This review provides a broad synthesis of diverse papers about physician participation in health system leadership. Thus, it offers a comprehensive empirical synthesis of contemporary concerns and identifies important avenues for future research.

Defining the Socially Responsible Leader: Revisiting Issues in Responsible Leadership

We renew an exchange of letters from 2008 regarding the meaning of responsible leadership, which applies to senior executives of firms as they attempt to engage in corporate social responsibility. An interesting aspect to this discussion is that, depending on one’s theoretical perspective, responsible leadership can be defined in multiple, somewhat disparate ways. We use the terms strategist versus integrator to characterize the most common delineation of responsible leader orientations. While the strategist orientation implies the planning and use of corporate social responsibility initiatives for the direct targeting of return on investment, the integrator orientation involves senior leaders’ use of corporate social responsibility to serve the interests of a range of corporate stakeholders. Although a divergence of opinion is expressed in our letters, we concur in our conclusion that more research is necessary to better understand these diverse orientations and their effects on organizations.

Is postgraduate leadership education a match for the wicked problems of health systems leadership? A critical systematic review

PURPOSE

There have been a growing number of leadership education programs for physicians. However, debates about the value and efficacy of leadership education in medicine persist, and there are calls for systematic and critical perspectives on medical leadership development. Here, we review evidence on postgraduate leadership education and discuss findings in relation to contemporary evidence on leadership education and practice.

METHOD

We searched multiple databases for papers on postgraduate leadership development programs, published in English between 2007 and 2017. We identified 4,691 papers; 31 papers met the full inclusion criteria. Data regarding curricular content and design, learner demographics, instructional methods, and learning outcomes were abstracted and synthesized.

RESULTS

There was modest evidence for effectiveness of programs in influencing knowledge and skills gains in select domains. However, the conceptual underpinnings of the 'leadership' training delivered were often unclear. Contemporary theory and evidence on leadership practice was not widely incorporated in program design. Programs were almost exclusively uni-professional, focused on discrete skill development, and did not address systems-level leadership issues. Broader leadership capacity building strategies were underutilized. A new wave of longitudinal, integrated clinical and leadership programming is observed.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings raise questions about persistent preparation-practice gaps in leadership education in medicine. Leadership education needs to evolve to incorporate broader collective capacity building, as well as evidence-informed strategies for leadership development. Barriers to educational reform need to be identified and addressed as educators work to re-orientate education programs to better prepare budding physician leaders for the challenges of health system leadership.

Experiences that develop leadership capabilities

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to answer the research question: what recent experiences – other than undertaking training and development programmes – do mature managers and professionals regard as important for their development as leaders?

Design/methodology/approach

A survey was issued to mature managers and professionals, asking them to rate the contribution of certain experiences to their recent development of leadership capabilities, and to provide qualitative data on the most important experiences.

Findings

The experience that was rated most highly in developing leadership capabilities was “tackling a significant challenge or challenges”, followed by “taking, or contributing to, major decisions”, and then by “taking on new responsibilities”. Controlled interventions such as coaching/mentoring, appraisal feedback, and temporary new responsibilities were awarded relatively low ratings.

Research limitations/implications

The sample was drawn from graduates of an executive master’s degree, who are likely to have positive attitudes to self-development and to learning from experience.

Practical implications

The findings can be used to help mature leaders, and those who facilitate leadership development, to identify and use experiences that may develop leadership capabilities.

Originality/value

There are few recent studies on the kinds of experiences that are perceived to develop leadership capabilities of mature managers and professionals.

Mind the mindset! The interaction of proactive personality, transformational leadership and growth mindset for engagement at work

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to analyze whether and how employees’ proactive personality is related to work engagement. Drawing on job demands-resources theory, the study proposes that this relationship is moderated by a three-way interaction between proactive personality × transformational leadership × growth mindset.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on survey data from 259 employees of an internationally operating high-tech organization in the Netherlands.

Findings

In line with prior studies, support is found for positive significant relationships of proactive personality and transformational leadership with engagement. Additionally, transformational leadership is found to moderate the relationship between proactive personality and work engagement, but only when employees have a growth mindset.

Originality/value

The study advances the literature that investigates the proactive personality-engagement relationship. Specifically, this study is the first to examine a possible three-way interaction that may deepen the insights for how proactive personality, transformational leadership and growth mindset interact in their contribution to work engagement.