The perceived need for more and better leadership in the United States has led to the inclusion of leadership development programs in some 800 American colleges and universities. The goal of this study was to contribute to the construction of similar programs in Canadian colleges and universities. <p>Interviews were conducted with 83 individuals: 41 students, 24 educators and 18 leaders. The researcher used the appreciative inquiry method, and the resulting data were analyzed within the grounded theory design advocated by Strauss and Corbin (1998). <p>In this study the perceptions of leaders, educators, and students were described regarding ideal leadership and ideal leadership development. The researcher found that leadership was perceived to be an interactive process between members of a team, rather than the direction of a single individual to others. It was discovered that leadership was perceived as the releasing of an individuals potential, through mentoring, for the purpose of contributing to a collaborative team that articulated and accomplished a shared vision. The development of individuals was viewed as at least equally important as the accomplishing of a goal. <p>From the perceptions of study participants, a definition of leadership development was constructed. Leadership development was the intentional fostering of individuals toward their maximum leadership capacity through personal development, experiential leadership opportunities, leadership education, and the development of leadership skills. These developments were based on personal awareness and readiness within a mentoring environment. <p>Based on a synthesis of the literature review, a survey of leadership development programs, and the findings of these interviews, the researcher constructed a four level model of leadership development. This model provides for programmatic component areas that might profitably be included in leadership development programs. The model also suggests consideration of the conceptual issues that need to be addressed by educators in formulating programs of leadership development for colleges and universities. The levels of the model are as follows: (a) articulate inherent understandings regarding students, teaching, and the role of universities; (b) complete educator tasks that assess individuals in the program as well as define leadership and articulate an understanding of skill development; (c) construct three program categories of leader development, leadership education, and leadership training together with a philosophy of leadership development; and (d) decide on the program components that will fulfill program objectives within the three categories of leader development, leadership education, and leadership training.<p>Implications for theory, research, and colleges and universities are outlined. The study is to assist in the construction and further enhancement of leadership development initiatives and programs in colleges and universities.

The study aim was to investigate the perceptions of senior leaders within the sector to determine their views of the key challenges in contemporary academic leadership and to inform practice for the future. Academic leadership is a key component of the success or otherwise of an academic institution. There is significant literature around the issue of academic leadership the emphasis of which is based around the perceptions of academic staff and how they would wish to be led. The work was undertaken from an interpretivist perspective using a phenomenological research design to elicit an understanding of the views of senior managers through conducting semi-structured interviews and a focus group with senior university leaders. The interview process afforded the respondents the opportunity to recount their own experiences in their own terms with their own emphasis on what was important to them within the broad structure of the four core categories drawn from the literature: definitions of leadership; leadership in an HEI; academic leadership and leadership development. The findings from this study provides a contribution through considering senior leaders perceptions on how best to lead the academic staff to maximise their contribution to the institution and ultimately to better serve the needs of students. Practice implications include the forwarding of a framework for the consideration of the development of academic leaders within the Higher Education context.

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The purpose of this study was to identify the leadership skills students believe they learned in co-curricular activities, to determine how those skills are used in the classroom, and to discover whether those skills enhance the academic experience for students. The results of this study provide information which can aid student affairs practitioners who are seeking ways to help students make the connection between the co-curricular and curricular leadership experiences. This study used a combination of qualitative research techniques including document analysis and group interviews. The qualitative nature of this study was guided by the need to allow the subjects explore their own perceptions, beliefs, observations, and understanding about their behavior and learning. Thirty-one student leaders from programs and organizations sponsored by the Division of Student Affairs (DSA) at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) were interviewed over a period of one semester. Two cadres of three groups participated in four rounds each A round consisted of an e-journal, sent and responded to individually by the participants, followed by a group interview. E-journals and interviews were analyzed using a conceptually clustered matrix. This process produced a series of matrices correlating the various perspectives of the participants with either leadership practices, research questions, demographic data, or all three. The results of the study reveal that training programs for these student leaders tended to focus on three primary leadership practices and that the student leaders exhibited these same practices in their curricular experience. Reflection both during and after the study had a profound impact on the students' perceptions of whether or not they perceived their own behavior as leadership either in or out of the classroom. Additional results showed that the physical design of a classroom could have an impact on how leadership practices occur during class. It was also shown that while all the participants in this study were in DSA sponsored programs, there was no central leadership theory or comprehensive approach to leadership development to guide Division programs. Findings from this study provide evidence of the value of co-curricular leadership training and its impact on curricular experience. The study also adds to the body of research on student leadership, research on the impact of co-curricular activities on students, and the relationship between curricular and co-curricular learning, particularly as it relates to group assignments and the leadership of those projects. / Ph. D.

The use of multi-rater feedback as a way to analyze perceptions within the context of job performance and leadership in the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) was examined. Research in this domain is notable as this type of evaluation is now being done with regularity in the private sector and is starting to be utilized more extensively in the public sector, but is still being used to a limited extent in law enforcement. The path of this research examined differences between self-assessments and assessments of others (peers and subordinates) in dimensions of leadership as measured by the same multi-rater instrument at two points in time. This research effort made use of a multi-rater survey instrument called the "Leadership Commitments and Credibility Inventory System (LCCIS)," designed by Keilty, Goldsmith, and Company, which is used in multiple industries and was expanded to capture characteristics considered important to FBI leaders. Results showed high ratings on a five point Likert scale as indicated by mean averages of self and others. Additionally, Z scores, t tests and ANCOVA indicated that FBI supervisors did not overestimate their leadership, as indicated by (1) an overall leadership measure at time two compared to time one, (2) a greater perceptual agreement between others and self existing on second multi-rater assessments than on the initial assessments, and (3) any statistical differences of means in all measured categories at time two versus time one. Various subcategories of the assessment showed a mixture of non-statistically significant results and that subordinates and peers perceived leaders differently. Further, analysis of two unique dimensions of the LCCIS, "Manage Diversity" and "Build Public Trust" showed exceptionally high results. The implications of the present research are that leadership in the FBI, as measured by different dimensions, is strong. Yet, there is no evidence that leaders or others in this organization change their perceptions over time. These findings may point to the need for multi-rater instruments to be used in concert with personal development plans in order to improve the perception of leadership. / Ph. D.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study was inspired by the quest of a South African public utility confronted with complex challenges which necessitated requisite leadership behaviour change, to understand what differentiated executive-level leaders who chose to engage in executive coaching from those who did not. Executive coaching was offered as a support mechanism to accelerate the absorption and application of learning for behaviour change during an executive-level leadership development programme. For the duration of the programme though, requests for executive coaching remained relatively low for the total executive-level leadership population. The study’s research question was: Is level of self-awareness in executive-level leaders a differentiator for openness to engage in executive coaching? This was delineated from the broad definition of self-awareness as the extent to which individuals see themselves as others see them. To answer the research question, three hypotheses were tested based on the three secondary objectives of this study in order to determine: 1) Differences in self-awareness from an emotional perspective for leaders who engaged in executive coaching versus those who did not; 2) differences in self-awareness from a developmental perspective for leaders who engaged in executive coaching versus those who did not; and 3) differences between leader self-awareness from and emotional perspective versus a developmental perspective. An exploration of existing literature on the focal topics of this study suggested that openness to both learning and behaviour change is positively associated with leadership self-awareness. The researcher postulated that an informed interpretation of such association could present worthwhile information to be employed towards the optimisation of executive coaching as a support mechanism to leadership development programmes. This study was conducted from a post-positivist paradigm. This allowed for researching a complex aspect such as openness to deep personal change and growth, through a quantitative exploration of associations between variables as well as the offering of possible explanations for those. Secondary data was analysed through the application of descriptive and inferential statistics. The study did not find statistically significant evidence to support the three research hypotheses postulated regarding a possible association between leadership self-awareness and openness to engage in executive coaching. However, at a descriptive statistical level, the study did reveal a general trend of a positive association between well-developed emotional-capacity on constructs commonly related to pro-change behaviour (adaptability, flexibility, impulse control and stress management) and a high level of self-awareness from a developmental perspective. Due to the inability of this study to find statistically significant evidence in support of the hypotheses postulated, the researcher had to conduct a further exploration of findings and conclusions from studies related to the current study, in an effort to interpret the current study’s findings. A comparison of the current study’s findings at a descriptive statistical level with other related studies generated a number of additional questions and recommendations for further research. It also brought to light support for executive coaching as a primary mechanism available to organisations to cultivate leadership self-awareness and adaptability to change. This study indeed produced more questions than answers, and the researcher is of the opinion that the value of this research lies in the reflections, further questions and recommendations for further research produced during the struggle to overcome the limitations of the study.

The thesis contributes to the emerging critical perspective on global management education and leadership development in a multi-faceted world. It takes a critical look at leadership, particularly with respect to how this is conceptualised and understood, and also, what are the implications for such epistemological leanings. This is in light of recent criticisms of global management education, and other salient questions of knowledge imperialism and ethnocentrism that arise with respect to how knowledge is created and represented. Furthermore, there are even more pertinent questions of universality and contextual applicability, given the relevant issue of cultural diversity and what many researchers increasingly suggest is the socially constructed nature of leadership. To this end, it has been suggested that there might be a possibility of contextual dissonance between mainstream leadership paradigms and the lived socio-cultural reality of many non-western societies. This is in view of the fact that there are as many definitions of leadership as those who have tried to define it (Stodgill, 1970), such that there is now no one universal ‘truth’ about leadership (Billsberry, 2007) because leadership is a process of reality construction that is grounded in the management of meaning (Smircich and Morgan, 1982), so that it means ‘different things to different people’ (Gill, 2006; p.7). This thesis therefore investigates the contemporary practice of leadership development/leadership education and in particular, questions its application as a management learning intervention in the contexts within which it is deployed. It explores the pertinent question of contextual dissonance and in this, critically examines leadership development as a catalyst for organisational change within the context of a global non-profit organisation, and again, as a tool for management development in the context of a non-western society. Findings indicate the presence of a strong community orientation that is seemingly consistent with the philosophical underpinnings of indigenous community practices in Africa and that reflect a noticeable degree of contextual dissonance between mainstream paradigms of leadership and the lived experiential reality of programme participants in the context understudied i.e. Nigeria. Subsequently, this thesis proposes a model of leadership development that may begin to address this contextual gap; one that although acknowledges the conceptual importance of the mainstream, is fundamentally accommodating of the local knowledge frameworks within which it is deployed. Overall, the research contributes to understandings of Leadership Development in that it uncovers how ‘knowledge’ about leadership is conceptualised within the studied context and it generates new insight into how leadership development as a contemporary practice is constructed within this environment; in particular, how this is negotiated and engaged with relative to that society. Secondly, it advances a model through which contemporary management education interventions may account for the lived socio-cultural reality of the contexts within which they are applied.

Thesis advisor: Judith A. Clair / Building from existing theory and research on gender and work and leader identity development, this dissertation informs our understanding of professional women's experiences with coming to see themselves as leaders as they move along the leadership path in organizations. Given limited work that considers variation among women at a similar point in their development, I introduce the construct of a gender-leadership frame to capture the various ways in which women construct their gender as relevant to their leadership. I consider how these constructions are both shaped by the organizational context and have implications for leader identity development. I conducted a qualitative, inductive field study of women developing as leaders (n=55) in a large, global bank to explore these ideas. I found that women hold different constructions of gender and leadership (gender-leadership frames) and that various elements of the organizational context prompt women to shift their frames, feel conflicted in their frames, or remain within one reinforcing frame. Further, I found that these different frame experiences orient women toward certain types of self-questioning and enactment of their leader identities. Together, these findings demonstrate that different ways of thinking about one's gender in relation to one's leadership may help explain women's different choices, aspirations, and development on the leadership path. Coming to see oneself as a leader does not happen in a vacuum, but rather is a complex process in which non-work identities (here, gender) play a role in one's understanding of who she is and can be as a leader. Not only does gender play a role in women's self-views as leaders, but scholars and organizations must appreciate women's different experiences and perspectives which have tangible implications for their motivations to pursue leadership opportunities and growth within their organizations. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Management and Organization.

This research aims to identify core elements of leadership development in children and adolescents. Initial focus groups with student leaders in elementary and high schools suggested key differences in students’ implicit theories of leadership and their identities as leaders. A follow-up survey was constructed to measure these differences. Findings suggest age-based distinctions in students’ implicit understanding of leadership, what constitutes leadership behaviour, who has the capacity to lead, and what kinds of leadership they would like to take on. These distinctions form the basis for a conceptual model illustrating four phases or “stories” of leadership identified by children and adolescents: the task-oriented “helper,” the responsibility-oriented “deputy,” the role-oriented “agent” and the identity-oriented “ambassador.”

This research aims to identify core elements of leadership development in children and adolescents. Initial focus groups with student leaders in elementary and high schools suggested key differences in students’ implicit theories of leadership and their identities as leaders. A follow-up survey was constructed to measure these differences. Findings suggest age-based distinctions in students’ implicit understanding of leadership, what constitutes leadership behaviour, who has the capacity to lead, and what kinds of leadership they would like to take on. These distinctions form the basis for a conceptual model illustrating four phases or “stories” of leadership identified by children and adolescents: the task-oriented “helper,” the responsibility-oriented “deputy,” the role-oriented “agent” and the identity-oriented “ambassador.”