A hunt for the missing 50 cents: one piece of the leadership development puzzle

Citation

Allen, S.J. (2008), "A hunt for the missing 50 cents: one piece of the leadership development puzzle", Development and Learning in Organizations, Vol. 22 No. 4. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo.2008.08122dad.006

A hunt for the missing 50 cents: one piece of the leadership development puzzle

Article Type: Abstracts From: Development and Learning in Organizations, Volume 22, Issue 4

Allen S. J.Organization Development Journal, Spring 2008, Vol. 26 No. 1, Start page: 19, No. of pages: 11

Purpose - To explain how to maximize returns from leadership development programmes. Design/methodology/approach - opens with a statement from an anonymous executive: “probably at least half of every training dollar is wasted, but we don’t know which half”, cites a prior survey that found that US firms spend $6-7.5K per employee on leadership development, asserts that some of the missing investment is due to dis-connect between leadership development programmes and human resource (HR) systems, and quotes prior papers in arguing that leadership development should be integrated with other HR programmes. Discusses use of technology, e.g. collaborative software, for leadership development, recommends Higson and Wilson’s three-part model for personal development planning, underlines the need to track how individuals have developed, and emphasizes that desired leadership behaviours should be rewarded. Covers immediate manager/supervisor support and succession planning, advocates clarifying organizational culture and values to potential employees at the recruitment interview, and advises aligning competency models, performance objectives and people. Replicates, from a book The Leadership Development Pipeline, six passages that individuals move through before becoming an enterprise manager, distinguishes between career development and leadership development, sees career development as locating individuals with particular skill sets to appropriate tasks, and repeats that leadership development must be aligned with career development and performance management. Originality/value - stresses the need for integrated HR policies/strategies. ISSN: 0889-6402 Reference: 37AF034

Keywords: Career development, Human resource management, Leadership, Management development, Organizational development, Return on investment, Succession planning