How critically analyse： ‘Leadership development opportunitiesshould beprovided in all organizations’？

胡羚晓

Introduction

Leadership development has been used within the organizations by many approaches， such as internal skills programs， external courses， coaching and E-learning. This essay， however， will not only discuss about the necessity of building leadership in various organizations. The aim of the essay is to explore the merits and disadvantages of developing leadership in all organizations. The intentions are both to provide suggestions for some organizations about how to better developing leadership and to discuss why for some organizations the leadership development cannot be delivered.

What are leadership and leadership development？

Leadership is not a concept which appeared as early as the word “leader”， and various definitions of leadership have been mentioned in a large amount of reports and discussions （M. Bass & R. Bass）. In this essay， leadership is defined as a process whereby one person can enlist the aid and support of a group of people to accomplish a common goal （Chemers， M）. At the same time， some activities which develop the quality of leadership of an individual or within an organization are leadership development. Therefore， leadership development refers to some actions or methods that can enhance a leadership team that will work effectively together （Day 2001）.

Why the organization should provide opportunities to leadership development？

Burns proposed that the world leaders can learn to be transformational leaders through the process of changing and transforming people， businesses， organizations， places and cultures in his latest book Transforming Leadership： A New Pursuit of Happiness （2003）. Transforming leaders focus on the collective organization， or group of people， and these exceptional and committed leaders possess unique personal values that empower followers to help the leaders to make the best of their potential. That is to say， by this approach， the leader transforms ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results. Therefore， transformational leadership is a kind of two-way relationship which bring benefits to leaders， followers and also the organizations. If the organization could provide more opportunities to develop the leadership development， both the organization and leader would improve in a positive way.

With this context， a new model of leadership-distributed leadership， which blurred the differences of leadership and followership， has emerged. Distributed leadership is an alternative model of leadership which developed a more collectively-embedded notion. This concept is on the ground of a shared sense of objective and direction at all levels in the organization， changes our focus to the processes of leadership rather than the properties of individual leaders and is becoming increasingly welcome in sectors such as education and healthcare. Different from the traditional “leader-follower” dualism， this concept stressed that leadership should be conceived as a group quality， as a set of functions， which best be implemented by all the members （both the leaders and followers） within the organization. Instead of implying a leader or a follower divide， it argues that leadership is socially built and culturally sensitive （Harris， 2003）. Such a perspective draws heavily on the relationships and interactions of multiple actors and the situations in which they find themselves （Bolden， 2007），which means this kind of leadership shapes up during the interactions of people and their conditions， instead of from an individual leaders activities （Spillane， 2004）. By contrast， it does not simply refer to making everyone as a leader， but this practice transfers the responsibility of ‘leader connecting with the situation， task and experience. Thus， the distributed leadership development could facilitate the whole organizations to a larger degree.

What leadership development cannot be delivered？

According to the points of distributed leadership， the ways of providing leadership development opportunities are especially challengeable to organizations. Since we regard distributed leadership as more inclusively over participation， likewise， we should reconsider the traditional approaches of offering chances to only senior managers on leadership development programmes， and asking others in the organization just to follow the instructions of the leaders （Bolden， 2005）. As a matter of fact， no one can create a real leader in a classroom， similarly， no one can become a competent leader without any practical managerial experience. According to Mintzbergs opinion， the appropriate way to educate managers is to inspire them to learn from their own practical experiences.

Indeed， Rodgers et al. （2003） propose that a large number of current leadership development practices still remain at the individual level， in contrast to the very a few initiatives build the leadership at the collective level. Although leadership education is a vital project for a majority of organizations， and the data showed that around $50 billion have been spent on leadership development alone every year （Raelin， 2004）， a significant question about to what extent does the current education meets the needs of companies still exists.

There are some other negative factors of leadership development practices.

According to Storey （2004）， the internal and external leadership training can be sorted out into four categories， which are learning about leadership and organizations， self/team analysis and exploration of leadership styles， experiential learning and simulation， and top level strategy courses. Because of leadership is considered as basically about “doing” instead of “thinking”， there is limit chance and time for reflective activity or strategic thinking. Although leadership coaching is becoming more and more popular among the managers， it is costly and it is hard to guarantee the high quality of coaches.

Whilst the above suggestions are valuable for large organizations in the process of developing and implementing a leadership development framework， they give only limited guide to individuals and organizations about trying to make decision which programme is better.

Thus， it is crucial for organizations to offer the applicable managerial education to drive the development of leadership. Bento and Antonacopoulou have said in 2003 that leadership cannot be taught or learned， leadership is learning. Gosling and Mintzberg（2004） have also summarized seven fundamental tenets upon how to build right leadership education. The education should be restricted to practicing managers， be concurrent， balance work and life， contain reflective thinking process， be interactive， and facilitate the process of learning. The organizations can do the following things to make sure they get the most out of leadership development. First， evaluate the recent definitions of leadership with the context of your organization， and also do substantial research about what is being done and what can be done in the future. Second， consider cautiously the development needs of not only individuals but also the organizations. Finally， we should view the leadership and organizational development in the long run.