Effectiveness and importance | Developingleadership

The effectiveness of leadership development in organisations

Leadership development still remains a top priority for many organisations and represents a large industry (Alimo-Metcafe & Lawler, 2001). There’s a link in organisations’ investing in leadership development between enhanced leadership capability and improved organisational performance (Burgoyne et al., 2004).

Organizations are now realizing that workplace expertise is crucial to maintaining optimal performance and adapting to change in today’s dynamic business world (Herling, 2000).

Authors recognized that a meta-analysis could serve as a useful statistical approach for making sense out of leadership development studies and to determine the effectiveness of interventions. That leadership development efforts will result in improved leadership skills appears to be taken for granted by many corporations, professional management associations, and consultants. In essence, many companies honestly assume that leadership development efforts improve organizational efforts.

Leadership Development is defined as “every form of growth or stage of development in the life cycle that promotes, encourages, and assists the expansion of knowledge and expertise required to optimize one’s leadership potential and performance” (Brungardt, 1996).

This effectiveness of leadership development in organisations is of importance in the sense that:

It improves knowledge and skills of individual employees which automatically enhances the organization’s effectiveness (Moxnes & Eilertsen, 1991).
It also helps in improving job performance in every organisation.
It also produces substantial results, especially if they offer the right development programs for the right people at the right time. For example, it is important to know whether a six-week training session is enough or the right approach to develop new competencies that change managerial behaviours, or is it individual feedback from a supervisor on a weekly basis regarding job performance that is most effective.
This also has a positive impact which leads to higher levels of employee engagement and an increase in organisational performance measures, including improvements in product and service quality/customer satisfaction and productivity.
It also shows that leadership development can be proven to positively impacting leadership capability, and demonstrating a positive impact on business and organisational performance (Dexter & Prince, 2007).

Researchers used meta-analysis to conduct and find out the overall effectiveness of leadership training and development in organisations. The meta-analysis conducted by Burke and Day (1986) is commonly regarded as the principal empirical support for the effectiveness of managerial training and leadership development programs.

Leadership development is “no longer focused on the individual learner but increasingly on shaping the worldviews and behaviours of group of managers and, even transforming entire organizations” (Conger & Benjamin, 1999). Strategic vision is now a focus of leaders because of the almost continuous restructuring activities, demographic changes in the workforce, and technological changes in a more complex and fast-paced system (Hooijberg, Hunt, & Dodge, 1997).

The importance of leadership development in organisations

Leadership development is very important in organisations. In order for organisations to grow and compete effectively amongst its rivals, it needs to strategically organize programs which will aim at the growth and further development of the organisation (Yukl, 2008).

Leadership development in organisations are important because it development helps to facilitate a joint collective understanding of the firm’s planned vision (Conger & Benjamin, 1999). It will also help organisations to speed up or accelerate large-scale change needed for the organisation to be competitive. The immediate application of useful knowledge will be ensured, and such knowledge will be put into practice in the organisation through the help of the leaders especially after undergoing appropriate trainings (Vera and Crossan, 2004). For any organisation to be successful there should be a dept to which their leaders’ talent is built with which it will be impacted on the company or organisation, therefore leadership development is important in building the depth of leadership talent in the organisation and also, it helps organisations to achieve measurable results that meets its target (Trevino et al., 1998).

According to Conger & Benjamin (1999), leadership development is important to help managers and leaders better understand their role in an organisation or society and either play a part in what their organisation is trying to achieve, or influence the aims of their organisation.

The flexible leadership theory

This is conceptualised mainly at the organisational level, and it includes four sets of variables:

1. Organisational effectiveness

2. Performance determinants

3. Situational variables

4. Leadership decisions and actions

The effectiveness of an organisation is defined as the extent to which it is able to carry on its activities, perform its mission, and maintain favourable earnings, financial resources, and asset value (Yukl, 2008).

Organisational effectiveness depends on three primary performance determinants namely;

1. Efficiency and process reliability

2. Human capital

3. Adaptation to the external environment.

The performance determinants are influenced by the decisions and actions of a firm’s leaders. The relative importance of the performance determinants and how difficult it is to influence them are affected by aspect of the situation such as the type of organisation or industry, turbulence in the external environment (resource availability, intensity of competition, economic, political, or technological change), and constraints on executive action (involving oversight by owners or government agencies, or stemming from legal restrictions).

Efficiency: This is the extent to which organisations minimizes the cost of people and resources needed to carry out important operations (Yukl, 2008).

Human Capital: This is the extent to which the members of an organisation have the skills and motivation needed to do the work effectively (Hitt and Ireland, 2002). Studies undergone in organisation management indicate that human capital is another determinant of organisational performance (Bowen and Ostroff, 2004). It includes both human resources and human relations. Human resources for an organisation include the task-relevant skills and experience of the members. Potential indicators of human resources include the level of important skills, experience, and education of employees (Grant, 1996). Most effects of human capital on organisations performance are mediated by efficiency and innovation adaptation. Employees with strong skills and who are motivated by their leaders are likely to be more productive, and will do their work faster and smarter (Yukl, 2008).

Leaders can improve the performance of an organisation by influencing the performance determinants. This can be done through the use of specific leadership behaviours such as interactions with subordinates (Yukl, 2008).

There are three types of leader behaviour with all having a different primary objective. These objectives support the three determinants of organisational effectiveness (Yukl, 2008).

The task-oriented behaviours are most useful for improving efficiency. It includes short-term planning and scheduling of work activities. It also determines resource and employment requirements, giving out tasks, explaining objectives and priorities, making known the importance of efficiency and reliability, directing and coordinating activities, supervising operations, and also dealing with day-to-day operational problems. Through this leadership behaviour, productivity within the organisation is increased and costs are reduced by eliminating unnecessary activities, wasted resources, errors and accidents (Bass, 1990).

The change-oriented behaviours which are mostly useful in improving adaptation, includes monitoring the environment to identify threats and opportunities, being able to interpret events and the major change needed, communicating an inspiring vision, taking risks to promote change and determining how to apply for a major change (Yukl, 2006). Studies on change-oriented aspects of transformational leadership such as inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation show that this type of behaviour can enhance individual and team performance (Lowe et al., 1996). Leaders can also enhance innovative adaptation by encouraging and facilitating group learning, sharing of knowledge, and the application of new ideas in the organisation (Vera & Crossan, 2004). The behaviour of a leader can influence more than one performance determinant at the same time. Some examples are; consulting with team members about actions and plans for a new project. This may increase the commitments of members (human relations), improve the use of workers and resources (efficiency), and discover innovative ways of satisfying clients (adaptation) (Yukl, 2008). Research has shown that this behaviour by leaders is related to higher job satisfaction and lower turnover (Bass, 1990). Such behaviours can reduce stress, build mutual trust and cooperation, increase collective identification with the organisation, and facilitate performance by individuals and team members (Zaccaro et al, 2001).

The relations-oriented behaviours which are useful for improving human resources and relations, includes showing support and positive consideration. It also provides recognition for achievements and contributions, coaching and mentoring, discussing and advising people about decisions that will affect then with, encouraging cooperation and teamwork, delegating and empowering subordinates, and building a network of information sources inside and outside the organisation. These three types of leadership behaviour have implications for organisational effectiveness.

The role and functions of a leader

In most journal articles, leadership is mostly discussed synonymously with management and other authorities within the organisation, like being a manager makes you equally a leader. However, specifically speaking, leadership is not the same as management (Prewitt, 2003).

The function of a leader is to set a path toward a goal and also motivate others to follow (Prewitt, 2003). This means taking people where they would not otherwise go without being influenced personally by the help of a leader. Unlike management, leadership is earned rather than appointed and depends on followers to approve it. It has also being observed that leaders cannot exist without followers.

Leaders are known for behaviours that do not necessarily conform to the formal authority of a management position. They focus on the organisation’s vision for the future, they strategize a course that will help them achieve goals, and they inspire followers and give them motivation to excel. Leaders think holistically and strategically without tactically attending to details. Thus leadership is attached to specific behaviours and not organisational positions or titles (Prewitt, 2003).

Leaders inculcate assumptions by building a shared understanding of what the organisation is about and also how it should be operated. Leaders can guide their followers in adopting their values and imitating their management styles. In the socialization process, leaders also play a dual role. They influence the socialization of those they lead, and also must be socialized to the organisation’s vision, and therefore socialize in their role to help bring the vision to success. Leaders work to achieve some basic objectives such as coming up with strategies or solutions needed to overcome organisational challenges and then try to implement those solutions effectively and efficiently (David, 2001).

Effective performance by an individual, group, or organization is assumed to depend on leadership by an individual with the skills to find the right path and motivate others to take it (Yukl, 1999). In the past, much of the empirical research on leadership styles was guided by theories of transformational and charismatic leadership (Bass, 1985). In most cases of transformational leadership theory, it is a basic assumption that an effective leader will influence followers to make self-sacrifices and exercise exceptional efforts towards the growth of the organisation. Influence is unidirectional, and it flows from the leader to the follower. When there is a connection found between transformational leadership, subordinate commitment and organisational performance, the results are interpreted as showing that the leader influenced subordinates to perform better (Yukl, 1999).

There are some competencies of effective leadership which are listed below. They are:

They provide clarity about strategic direction
They focus on delivery
They build relationships among staffs and in organisations
They ensure there is commitment among staffs
They help develop self awareness
They are sincere in all they do
They also contribute in developing people.