Term Paper on "Corporate Leadership Programs"

Term Paper 7 pages (1896 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

leadership development programs are sparse. The most authentic and widely cited research, done by Burke and Day (1986) is quite dated considering the changes that have emerged both in the definition of leadership and its ever widening scope. The results of studies available on a variety of leadership development programs do not offer a clear view on the effectiveness of these programs.

Organizations however are increasingly investing in their managers and other key employees to develop leadership skills. It appears that organizations are concerned about the lack of leadership qualities and skills and are investing heavily in training and education of their employees. Gibler, Carter, and Goldsmith (2000) maintain that investment in leadership development will continue to increase as organizations "recognize the shortage of talented managers, the importance of developing bench strength, and the need to widen perspectives in order to compete globally" (p. xii). It is found that leadership programs are is "no longer focused on the individual learner but increasingly on shaping the worldviews and behaviors of cohorts of managers and,... transforming even entire organizations" (Conger & Benjamin, 1999, p. xii). The interesting thing that has emerged from close study of literature is that while companies are investing in leadership programs, they are not seriously assessing the effectiveness of these programs in terms of performance outcome. Sogunro, (1997) indicates that the reason for sparseness of literature on the subject of effectiveness stems from the belief that such programs will definitely lead to improvement. It is usually taken for granted and hence no concrete assessment available. Effectiveness in terms of outcomes is not measured in most cases even though it has become increasingly important in the global age with dual structures (Friedman, 2000).

For the purpose of analysis and research, an outcome is defined as "a measurement of effectiveness or efficiency (of the organization) relative to core outputs of the system, subsystem, process, or individual" (Holton, 1999, p. 33). And 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, p. 83).

While research on the subject suggests that leadership skills are considered important (Bass, 1990; Burke & Day, 1986), there is minuscule information available on the impact of leadership programs since the concept of outcome measurement is not understood properly. Improvement in performance is not considered an indicator of effectiveness and doesn't form a part of assessment tool in any research on leadership development programs (Lynham, 2000). Despite heavy investment in leadership programs, there is no substantial evidence available from literature indicating a link between these programs and better leadership skills (McCauley, Moxley, & Van Velsor, 1998). Klenke (1993) maintains that leadership programs are still lagging compared with the demand for the same.

There are more than one opinion on organizations' lack of measurement and assessment of the impact of Leadership programs. Collins, Lowe, & Arnett, 2000 attribute this to the existence of complex and overlapping nature of competencies of leadership. In the global age, organizations have become very complex and leaders need to come up with a variety of skills to tackle various problems (Sogunro, 1997). Peter Vaill (1990) uses the phrase "permanent white water" to highlight the highly chaotic and uncertain nature of corporate leadership today.

Leadership programs including education and training can be costly and must be justified in terms of goals and outcomes. This means that every leadership program must be backed by organizational objectives as Swanson and Holton (1999) suggest, "every (leadership development) intervention should lead to a system outcome at some point" (p. 69). The investment being made in leadership program attests to the fact that organizations understand the significance of effective leadership. It is pointed out "that people are the only assets with the creativity and adaptive power to sustain an organization's success in today's dynamic business world" (Krohn, 2000, p. 63). Torraco and Swanson (1995) further argue that investment in "employee education and training increasingly funds the development of an infrastructure to support the sustainable competitive advantage that a highly-trained workforce provides" (p. 13). For this reason, "it is the development of workplace expertise that is becoming vital for organizations to adapt to change and maintain optimal organizational performance" (Herling, 2000, p. 9).

Leadership programs are no longer what they used to be. New concepts have introduced new content in leadership training: "At the same time, the world of executive and management education has been undergoing an equally radical shift in learning approaches and program design" (Conger & Benjamin, 1999, p. xiv) and "there has been greater emphasis placed on groups of managers" (p. 20).

Leadership development has thus changed a great deal since the days of Burke and Day (1986) and so has the programs. New practices, concepts and theories have changed the content of leadership education and training. It is argued that every leadership intervention today "must be anchored in and driven by business strategy" (McCall, 1998, p. 17). Friedman (2000) believes that, "management always matters, but in this more complex and fast paced system, management and strategic vision matter a lot more" (p. 231). For this reason, organizations now try to integrate the goals and objectives of a firm with its leadership development programs.

Another reason why leadership programs have changed is because organizations are beginning to differentiate between managerial roles and leadership roles. The distinction between leadership and management has transformed the nature and content of leadership programs as Yukl (1989) notes, "Nobody has proposed that managing and leading are equivalent, but the degree of overlap is a point of sharp disagreement (p. 253)." Focusing on the new form of leadership in leadership education and training, Sourcie (1994) points out, "managerial leadership is indeed a subtle mixture of formal authority, skills, knowledge, information, intelligence, courage, tenacity, instinct and hard work" (p. 3).

The leader today is supposed to possess high performance leadership skills. This is what sets him apart from a manager. A leader is no longer just a manager. Holton and Naquin's (2000) define high performance leadership as "leading and managing people and organizational systems to achieve and sustain high levels of effectiveness by optimizing goals, design and management at the individual, process and organizational levels" (p. 1).

Most of the organizations have used the Kirkpatrick's evaluation model (1998) to assess the impact of a leadership program but this model is not without its flaws. Holton (1996) notes that, "a shortcoming of the Kirkpatrick model is that it does not fully identify all constructs underlying the phenomena of interest, thus making evaluation impossible (p. 6). Clement (1982) also found that some essential evaluative elements were missing in Kirkpatrick's model, "The missing elements and relationships prohibit making accurate statements about system states, developing propositions, and hypotheses, and making predictions" (Holton, 1996, p. 7). Results Assessment System (Swanson & Holton, 1999) is found to be a much better evaluative model. This model allows practitioners to assess the impact on a program in three areas: performance, learning, and perception. These results can either be system or financial results. System results are defined as "the units of mission-related outputs in the form of goods and/or services having value to the customer and that are related to the core organizational, work processes, and group or individual contributors in the organization" (p. 14). Financial results on the other hand are defined "the conversion of the output units of goods and/or services attributable to the intervention into money and financial interpretation" (p. 16) (Literature review reveals that leadership development programs and their impact are usually taken for granted. It is widely assumed that if a program is implemented, it would produce certain benefits. The assessment of impact has also suffered due to lack of evaluative models or the presence of defective ones. Each year billions of dollars are spent on leadership development programs both in the government and private sector. Gibler, Carter, & Goldsmith, 2000). Organizations are usually seeking results in the form of cost reduction and performance enhancement (Dionne, 1996). The firms are usually concerned about the impact of the program on the "bottom-line" of the organization (Holton, 1995). But despite all this knowledge, there is a clear dearth of systematic evaluation of leadership programs in organizations especially in terms of its impact on performance (Collins, 2001; Sogunro, 1997). The effectiveness of these programs in terms of financial changes has also suffered from some problems. Most organizations do not hold individuals responsible for financial growth in exchange for training because they feel that one person cannot affect financial health of the company. Organizations are however beginning to expect changes in behavior as an indicator of program's effectiveness. Shipper and Neck (1990) feel that subordinates are in a better position to point out areas that need to be worked upon. This can help in developing leadership programs that would target those specific areas. In final evaluation, subordinates can determine if the program had… READ MORE

How to Reference "Corporate Leadership Programs" Term Paper in a Bibliography

Related Term Papers:

GE's Leadership Program Essay

GE's Leadership Program

When most people think of General Electric (GE), they will often have ideas surrounding the various products and services that they are selling to consumers. This is… read more

Essay 2 pages (716 words) Sources: 1 Topic: Leadership / Mentoring

---

Effective Leadership Essay

Leadership: In theory and in practice

The 20th century saw an explosion of leadership theories that attempted to explain why certain individuals seemed to excel in affording more capable leadership… read more

Essay 6 pages (2223 words) Sources: 8 Style: APA Topic: Leadership / Mentoring

---

Leadership in Organizations Organizational Leadership Thoughts Capstone Project

Leadership in Organizations

Organizational Leadership

Thoughts on Leadership (Opening statement)

Management verses Leadership

What is management?

Similarities

Differences

The overlap ion management and leadership

What do leaders do?

Comparing personal… read more

Capstone Project 40 pages (12322 words) Sources: 25 Topic: Leadership / Mentoring

---

Leadership Lessons Learned From Herb Kelleher Research Paper

Leadership Lessons Learned From Herb Kelleher

A leader is who one is, and a manager is what one does (Bennis, 2009). The innate strengths and abilities, perception and insight, bias… read more

Research Paper 8 pages (2661 words) Sources: 8 Topic: Leadership / Mentoring

---

Leadership Theory Has Undergone Significant Evolution Essay

Leadership theory has undergone significant evolution in the past hundred years. Taylor and Fayol provided basic descriptions of leadership function in for-profit enterprises. The leadership they described was perhaps more… read more

Essay 8 pages (2315 words) Sources: 2 Topic: Leadership / Mentoring

---

View 100+ more related papers  >>