Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Psychological Sciences / Clive J. A. Fullagar / Leader self-development is being pushed by organizations today as a practical and cost-efficient strategy to develop leadership skills. However, the research on leader self-development is still sparse and there are questions that should be answered before much stock can be placed in self-development as a viable means to increase leadership capacity. This research attempts to address these questions in several ways. First, the first study outlines a theory and process to create a scale that measures the quality of self-development activities that leaders engage in. Furthermore, a nomological network is examined with dispositional constructs that were and were not be related to the quality of leader self-development activities. The results from these scale development efforts were generally positive with the exception of the challenge dimension of quality. Second, the second study builds on previous literature by examining the interactive effect of leader self-development quality and quantity in predicting leader effectiveness and finds that quality appears to play the more important role. Finally, the second study also addresses the lack of research examining situational factors that may affect leader self-development quality. This study found that transformational leadership was related to the quality of leader self-development activities and that quality mediated the relationship between transformational leadership and effectiveness. Overall, this research addresses several gaps in the leader self-development literature and creates a foundation for future research to build on.

Leader self-development is promoted as an alternative approach to leadership development within organizations. Fast-growing organizations especially benefit from the self- development activities of leaders. The tech industry is a sector that grows rapidly and thus offers an interesting context for this study. Moreover, practical perspectives on leader self- development are lacking in the current literature. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to include a perspective on self-development activities from the leader’s standpoint and examine how the organizational setting related to these activities. The related theories were deduced from the literature and empirically examined by 11 semi-structured interviews. These interviews were conducted with managerial leaders in hierarchical organizations from the tech industry in Germany and the Netherlands. The findings showed that the “self” is limited in self-development activities. Leaders cannot practice self-development in complete isolation from the organizational setting. Instead, leaders are reliant on external factors and are intricately interconnected with their environment whereas the organization drives the intentional self-development activities of the leaders. A dynamic between the individual and the organization was revealed, as leaders are not only influenced by the supportive or hindering factors in their surroundings but also actively contribute to shaping the context. Furthermore, a distinction can be observed within the practice between experienced and less experienced leaders, with the former assuming the organizational responsibility of developing the latter. This thesis, therefore, provides a new perspective on intentional self-development activities and encourages to start a new discussion regarding self-development.

Leader self-development, as an approach to leader development, is defined as autonomous, self-regulated behaviors focused on developing one’s leadership capacities. Leader development, as a function, is purposeful engagement in the development of human capital, often in the form of formal training programs or on-the-job assignments. It has been theorized that leaders can only learn from such structured investments if they are motivated to self-develop as leaders. For this reason, self-development is a foundational element of leadership development in general. Previous research has found that certain leader characteristics such as feedback seeking, achievement seeking and mastery orientation predict an individual’s motivation for self-development. The current study examines whether matched perceived group-norms interact with leader characteristics to impact motivation to self-develop. 134 male and 33 female leaders who manage people within structured organizations completed an online self-report survey to assess participants’ leader characteristics, perceived group norms and motivation to self-develop. Results replicated previous research using a new sample, thus establishing the importance of leader characteristics of feedback seeking, achievement seeking, and mastery orientation in predicting motivation to self-development. Although results failed to support the predicted interactions between leader characteristics and matched group level norms, for the first time, group level norms of goal-setting and learning were found to have a direct effect on motivation to self-develop. Implications of increased leader self-development under specific, advantageous group norms are discussed.