The Quest for a General Theory of Leadership Development

Leadership Development

Introduction

The Quest for a General Theory of Leadership (GTOL) involves a story about process, and another about product. The story begins with James MacGregor Burns who began thinking more generally about the phenomenon of leadership.

Every year organizations invest considerably in developing their leaders. Annual estimates range from $16.5 billion to over $45 billion for leadership development programs and other supporting management/executive education activities in the United States alone.

One emerging development in the field is that recent global survey data collected by researchers at Developmental Dimensions International suggest that leaders are increasingly dissatisfied with their organization’s development offerings. In addition, developmental programs are seen poorly executed and confidence in leaders continues to decline steadily. Given the considerable financial investment that organizations appear to make in leadership development initiatives, this apparent state of affairs is especially distressing.

One possible explanation for this critical assessment of the leadership development field on the part of survey respondents is that expectations have risen as developmental initiatives have become more widely used. There is still the erroneous belief that leadership develops mainly in leadership development programs. In evaluating this limited and limiting belief about where and how development occurs, several facets of leadership development will be examined, including recent theory, empirically based research on the topic, practice-based advancements, as well as future directions in this field.

Theoretical perspectives and leadership development

A basic distinction has been drawn between leader development and leadership development, focusing on the development of individuals as compared to the development of social structures and processes. They are not synonymous, but are often treated and discussed that way. Leader development is the expansion of the person’s capacity to be effective in leadership roles and processes.

What is thought to develop in leader development includes individual self-management capabilities, social capabilities, and work facilitation capabilities. This type of personal leader development is characterized by several features, including that it unfolds over time; is maximized by a variety of experiences that provide feedback, challenge, and support, and is also contingent on an individual’s ability and willingness to learn from experience.

The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) perspective maintains that the most effective leader development initiatives are those that integrate various experiences and embed them in the organization’s context. In this manner, the CCL approach acknowledges that unless leader development can be made part of the everyday business of an organization it will fall short for optimal effectiveness. One context in which leadership and leader development is critically important is the military.

In an attempt to develop more rigorous theory on the topic, Lord and Hall (2005) proposed a model of leadership skill development based on research relating leadership to social identity and values as well as the acquisition of domain-specific expertise. At the core of their theoretical approach is that skill development involves changes in a leader’s information processing activities, moving from micro-level skill into higher levels of organization that guides behavior, knowledge, and social perceptions. Important to the development of the leadership capacity from novice to immediate to expert levels are individuals. One implication of this approach to leader development is that it is thought to occur over an extended time period.