How to ... be a reflective practitioner.

Transformational Leadership: Industrial, Military, and Educational Impact

The aim of this paper is to review conceptual and empirical literature on the concept of distributed leadership (DL) in order to identify its origins, key arguments, and areas for further work. Consideration is given to the similarities and differences between DL and related concepts including ‘shared’, ‘collective’, ‘collaborative’, ‘emergent’, ‘co-‘ and ‘democratic’ leadership. Findings indicate that whilst there are some common theoretical bases, the relative usage of these concepts varies over time, between countries and between sectors. In particular, DL is a notion that has seen a rapid growth in interest since the year 2000 but research remains largely restricted to the field of school education and of proportionally more interest to UK than US-based academics. Several scholars are increasingly going to lengths to indicate that in order to be ‘distributed’ leadership need not necessarily be widely ‘shared’ or ‘democratic’ and in order to be effective there is a need to balance different ‘hybrid configurations’ of practice. The article highlights a number of areas for further attention, including three factors relating to the context of much work on DL (power and influence; organisational boundaries and context; and ethics and diversity), and three methodological and developmental challenges (ontology; research methods; and leadership development, reward and recognition). It is concluded that descriptive and normative perspectives that dominate the literature should be supplemented by more critical accounts that recognise the rhetorical and discursive significance of DL in (re)constructing leader-follower identities, mobilising collective engagement and challenging or reinforcing traditional forms of organisation.

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Distributed Leadership in Organizations: A Review of Theory and Research

The development of effective leaders and leadership behavior is a prominent concern in organizations of all types. We review the theoretical and empirical literature on leader and leadership development published over the past 25 years, primarily focusing on research published in The Leadership Quarterly . Compared to the relatively long history of leadership research and theory, the systematic study of leadership development (broadly defined to also include leader development) has a moderately short history. We examine intrapersonal and interpersonal issues related to the phenomena that develop during the pursuit of effective leadership, describe how development emerges with an emphasis on multi-source or 360-degree feedback processes, review longitudinal studies of leadership development, and investigate methodological and analytical issues in leader and leadership development research. Future research directions to motivate and guide the study of leader and leadership development are also discussed.

Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25 years of research and theory

This article argues that the current, widely accepted leadership ontology — leaders, followers, and shared goals — is becoming less useful for understanding leadership in contexts that are increasingly peer-like and collaborative. The further development of leadership theory calls for a corresponding development at the level of leadership ontology. Thus, an alternative leadership ontology is proposed: direction, alignment, and commitment. A theoretical framework based on such an ontology is sketched out. It is argued that such a framework can integrate emerging leadership research and ultimately stimulate the development of new leadership theory and practice.

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Direction, alignment, commitment: Toward a more integrative ontology of leadership

Constructive-developmental theory is a stage theory of adult development that focuses on the growth and elaboration of a person's ways of understanding the self and the world. In this article we review how the constructive-developmental frameworks of Kegan [Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self: Problem and process in human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press], Torbert [Torbert, W. R. (1987). Managing the corporate dream: Restructuring for long-term success. Homewood, IL: Dow Jones-Irwin.], and Kohlberg [Kohlberg, L. (1969). Stage and sequence: The cognitive developmental approach to socialization. In D. Goslin (Ed.), Handbook of socialization: Theory and research. New York: Rand McNally] have been applied in the theoretical and empirical literature on leadership and management. Although the literature has produced a number of propositions, the notion that a leader's order of development should impact his or her leadership effectiveness or managerial performance has generated the most research. We found mixed support for this proposition as well as a number of limitations in the research in general. To have a greater impact on the leadership field, constructive-developmental theory needs to generate more robust research, to link more clearly with on-going streams of leadership research, and to explore the contribution of aspects of the theory beyond individual order of development.

The use of constructive-developmental theory to advance the understanding of leadership

Leveraging the Developmental Power of Core Organizational Work

This chapter describes an approach to leadership development that focuses on enhancing an organization's capacity for “connected leadership.” The framework is based on the idea that, in the face of complex challenges, three organizational-level leadership tasks must be accomplished: (1) direction must be set not once and for all, but in a way that is recurring and iterative; (2) alignment must be created among aspects of a work flow, among people and groups, and among organizational systems and processes; and (3) commitment must be generated and maintained throughout times of change. We describe four features of our approach and illustrate using examples from an organization in the midst of significant transformation.

Patricia M.G. O'Connor

Papers

Direction, alignment, commitment: Toward a more integrative ontology of leadership

The use of constructive-developmental theory to advance the understanding of leadership

Leveraging the Developmental Power of Core Organizational Work

Chapter 3 Developing Organizational Capacity for Leadership