Leadership Development in Context

Welcome to the third in a series of research reports from Leadership South West, the regional Centre of Excellence in leadership, based at the Centre for Leadership Studies, University of Exeter. This report builds on from the last one, ‘What is leadership development: purpose and practice’, which explored the range of approaches to leadership development available to individuals and organisations and the assumptions and principles that underlie them. This is done by considering the impact of context on the appropriate content, style and format of leadership development. The report is divided into two main sections. The first looks at how different organisational and individual priorities shape the content and format of leadership development. Thus, for example, what are the sorts of things an organisation needs to pay attention to when embarking on a process of strategic change? What is distinct about development initiatives targeted at different client groups (e.g. women managers, senior executives)? And how can topics such as ethics and self-awareness be effectively conveyed within leadership development? The second section takes more of a sector/occupational focus on leadership development, looking at what tend to be the most significant factors and challenges facing organisations in these different environments. Thus, for example, what is distinct about the police or military context and what types of intervention seem best placed for organisations of this type? What are the key issues for leaders in local government and/or the education sector and how can leadership development help? And what are the main issues when dealing with people from different occupational groups and how can they best be engaged? The report concludes with a summary of themes arising from the different sections and an integrated framework for leadership development.South West Regional Skills Partnershi

Strategies for Effective HE-Employer Engagement

Report summarising the outcomes of research to support the South West Higher Level Skills Pathfinder Project.This is the third in a series of reports summarising the outcomes of research to support the South West Higher Level Skills Pathfinder Project. The first of these mapped out the higher skills and employer engagement (EE) landscape as portrayed through policy and research literature. The second summarised a series of in-depth case studies of EE initiatives in higher education (HE) to shed light on key facilitators and barriers as perceived by those people directly involved in developing and delivering projects. This final report complements these two previous publications through a series of case studies of 10 English HE institutions (HEIs) on their institutional strategies to EE. Together these reports give an overview of the field of HE-EE and how universities and other HE providers are working with employers to address higher skills needs.CIH

Trends and perspectives in management and leadership

In this article I review recent trends in management and leadership development in the UK, arguing that much of the current growth is driven by financial, political and market pressures, to the relative neglect of philosophical and pedagogical perspectives on the nature and purpose of management, leadership and education within contemporary society. Whilst there is a general shift from formalised programmes towards flexible, experiential and customised provision, it seems that insufficient attention remains directed towards individual and organisational needs and requirements. Thus, for example, the majority of provision remains focused on the development of ‘leaders’ rather than the contextually embedded and collective processes of ‘leadership’. Management and leadership are presented as distinct rather than integrated and complementary activities/processes and limited consideration is given to the impact of contextual factors on individual and organisational performance. The article concludes with a series of questions/issues for individuals and organisations to consider when investing in leadership and/or management development

Leadership, collaboration and the higher skills agenda

Article © 2009 Association of MBAsThis article considers changes in the UK higher education system and the extent to which the need to build more effective, enduring and equitable partnerships with employers may help inform our understanding of collaborative leadership and our ability to contribute in a positive way towards the development of leadership and management capability in organisations

The shadow side of leadership

Pre-print; author's draftWhilst much is written and said about the benefits of effective leadership, far less consideration is given to the possible negative impacts of a culture that promotes ‘leadership’ as the answer

What is Leadership?

Welcome to the first in a series of research reports from Leadership South West, which gives an introduction to some of the key issues in the field of leadership, including what is it, how can it be measured and what impact does it have upon performance? This report does not claim to be the definitive guide to all things leadership, but rather to present some of the most significant concepts and debates to have emerged in recent years. Leadership is currently one of the most talked about issues in business and organisation. It is hard to turn on the television, open a newspaper or attend a conference without coming across numerous references to leaders, leadership and leading. A search of the Amazon.com website in Spring 2003 revealed 11,686 results for the word ‘leadership’ alone and similar searches of the Ebsco business and management publications database reveal an exponential increase in the number of published articles on leadership, from 136 in 1970-71, to 258 in 1980-81, 1,105 in 1990-91, and a staggering 10,062 in 2001-02 (an average of 419 articles per month) (Storey, 2004). The recent focus on leadership is an international phenomenon, as is increased investment in leadership and management development. In the US, for example, Fulmer (1997) estimated an annual corporate expenditure of $45 billion in 1997 (up from$10 billion one decade before) and Sorenson (2002) identified 900 college or university leadership programmes (double that of four years earlier), over 100 specialist degrees and a wide range of related activities. Similar trends are occurring in the UK and Europe. Leadership is regarded as the key ‘enabler’ in the European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) Business Excellence Model (EFQM, 2000) and has become a central focus for numerous other public, private and voluntary sector development initiatives. Recent years have seen centres of excellence in leadership established for nearly all parts of the public sector, including health, defence, education and police. Leadership, it seems, is increasingly becoming the panacea of the 21st Century. Amidst this flurry of activity, however, a number of concerns arise. There is no widely accepted definition of leadership, no common consensus on how best to develop leadership and leaders, and remarkably little evidence of the impact of leadership or leadership development on performance and productivity. Indeed, most initiatives appear to actively avoid addressing these issues and simply opt for the feel good factor of doing something about it… whatever ‘it’ may be! Whilst action is frequently preferable to inaction, without at least some understanding of the underlying principles and assumptions about leadership and leadership development, it is likely that action may be misguided – at least reducing its possible effectiveness and at worst damaging what was there in the first place. The intention of this report, therefore, is to challenge some of the more popularist and stereotypical notions of leadership and to offer some insights into alternative ways of conceiving and addressing the issue.South West Regional Development Agenc

Leadership Development in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises: Final Report

This report presents the outcomes of a two-phase programme on leadership development in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in South West England. Phase One of the programme was an independent piece of research to identify leadership challenges within SMEs. Data was collected by means of face-to-face interviews with 20 SME leaders across the Region and was supported by interviews with leadership experts/practitioners and a literature review. Finally, a half-day forum was held, to explore the outcomes of the research and how this could be used to develop an educational programme for SME leaders. The research identified four principle areas of concern for SME leaders in the South West Region: Strategic: how can SMEs respond to the increasing rate of change and competition in business? Human resources: how can the SME leader/manager best develop and utilise the capabilities of his/her workforce? Leadership: how can the SME leader/manager free him/herself up from day-to-day operational concerns to develop a strategic vision and direction for their business? Other: a range of concerns about other issues such as location, legislation, external advice, information gathering, and awards and accreditation. Phase Two of the programme used the outcomes of this research, and the discussion forum, to develop an educational programme for SME leaders. This programme comprised a number of different elements to be compared and contrasted, including: facilitated workshops, formal topic sessions, a short course on “people skills”, company consultancies, and an Internet forum. As in Phase One, the programme finished with a discussion forum to explore the outcomes and next steps. Evaluation of the educational programme revealed that there is a demand for leadership development within SMEs in the South West, particularly for peer group discussion amongst senior managers and directors. A number of lessons were identified and have been presented as recommendations for future training and development programmes with SMEs.South West Regional Development Agency; Marchmont Observatory; Department for Education and Employmen

Leadership development in SMEs: designing a customised solution

Pre-print of articleDeveloping senior leaders is necessary but insufficient for improving leadership across an organisation and restructuring alone won’t resolve all challenges. Rather, leadership development and organisational development should be regarded as complementary and integrated activities comprising the development of leaders (‘human capital’), leadership (‘social capital’) and organisational structures, systems and procedures (‘organisational capital’)

Leadership Development in SMEs

Despite the continued increase in government (and other) investment in leadership and management development, evidence indicates that the majority of this provision continues to be supply-led and fails to meet the needs of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). The current paper reports the outcomes of a two-phase investigation into leadership development in SMEs in the South West of England which attempted to address this issue by devising an educational and support programme matched specifically to the requirements of SME leaders. Phase One aimed to establish the demand for leadership development in SMEs in the Region by identifying the current challenges facing such organisations. Data was collected by means of face-to-face interviews with 20 SME leaders and was supported by interviews with leadership experts/practitioners. The research identified four principle areas of concern: strategic, human resource, leadership, and other (location, legislation, support and advice, etc.), which were explored further at a half-day forum to determine how this could be used to develop an educational programme. Phase Two used the outcomes of this research to develop a leadership development programme for SME leaders. This comprised a number of different elements to be compared and contrasted, including: facilitated workshops, formal topic sessions, a short course, company consultancies, and an Internet forum. As in Phase One, the programme finished with a discussion forum to explore the outcomes and next steps. Evaluation of the programme revealed a demand for leadership development amongst SME leaders in the Region, but that this is primarily for practical input and peer discussion in a flexible, informal environment. A number of lessons were identified and presented as recommendations for future leadership and management development initiatives, including: session content, timing, recruitment and marketing, networking, funding, delivery, and use of Internet/email. The paper will conclude with a brief overview of how this research has contributed towards the establishment of further leadership development initiatives in the Region

Leading in turbulent times: Learning to live with paradox

In the late 1990s the U.S. Army War College developed the acronym VUCA to refer to the volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous nature of political relations in the post- cold war era. It did not take long, however, for people to realize that these issues had implications for organizations well beyond the military and in 2009 Bob Johanssen, former president and CEO of the Institute for the Future, popularized the concept in his book Leaders Make the Future.In today’s interconnected world you don’t have to look far for examples of VUCA issues: the 2008 financial crash and its continuing impact on the global economy; the Arab Spring of 2010-11, subsequent rise of the jihadist so-called ‘Islamic State’, and the mass displacement of people across the Middle East and Europe; the forthcoming referendum on Britain’s membership in the European Union; even the trials and tribulations of candidates in the 2016 U.S. election campaigns. All of these highlight the speed at which apparent stability can break down and new realities emerge. They also vividly illustrate the contested and ambiguous nature of ‘truth’ – never before have we had access to so much information (apparently 90% of the world’s data was generated in the past two years), yet we seem to struggle more than ever to create and apply useful knowledge...