Management Decision

Purpose – It is important that organizations embark on leadership development programs that will enhance leadership effectiveness. The purpose of this article is to identify some leadership development initiatives.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses a review of the literature to offer some leadership development practices.

Findings – Leadership development should be comprehensive and systematically integrated into the organizational culture in order to produce leaders who can deal adequately with organizational challenges.

Practical implications – Organizations and leadership developers should use a systemic approach in order to address the current leadership crisis. This paper emphasizes a global perspective and an organizational commitment to leadership development. It is suggested that organizations should have a long-term focus towards realizing the benefits from investments in leadership development programs. The article offers a number of approaches to the selection and development of leaders at all levels of an organization.

Originality/value – All organizations face the problem of developing good leaders. This paper helps to identify some approaches to leadership development that will enhance leadership effectiveness and organizational performance.