Constellations or stars?: what is being developed in leadership development?

In line with the objectives of the 'Leadership development practices research project’ funded by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL), the following working paper reviews and reflects on a selection of recently published reports concerned with the topic of leadership development within public sector organisations of the United Kingdom [UK] (see references for list). This paper provides a summary of such reports alongside reference to emerging leadership development theory with the intention of opening up avenues for consideration for both practical implementation of leadership development interventions and the continuing empirical research of this domain within the UK public sector. A particular focus for this paper is the tension that arises from developing and maintaining on the one hand an understanding of leadership as a system, or constellation of practices, actors, levels and structures (Storey, 2004), an approach which all of the reviewed reports advocate to some extent, and on the other, implementing leadership development where both methods and emerging theory repeatedly re-assert the centrality of the individual leader, such as the identification and development of star performers, reflective development of leader selves, and development for enhanced self-awareness, insight, integrity and authenticity. Drawing on recent leadership development literature I will demonstrate the ways in which some of the most up-to-date approaches to leadership development exacerbate this potentially disruptive tension through an insistence on the primacy of the individual leader within systemic notions of leadership. Finally I will critically reflect on the meaning of the re-current positioning of the individual leader to centre stage in leadership development. Rather than consider this as a repeated fault of leadership development interventions and theory, perhaps the primacy of the star leader within the leadership constellation is something from which we should take heed and develop our future approaches accordingly.

Published introduction.

In line with the objectives of the 'Leadership development practices research project’ funded by the Centre for Excellence in Leadership (CEL), the following working paper reviews and reflects on a selection of recently published reports concerned with the topic of leadership development within public sector organisations of the United Kingdom [UK] (see references for list). This paper provides a summary of such reports alongside reference to emerging leadership development theory with the intention of opening up avenues for consideration for both practical implementation ...  [+] Show more