Adapting a comprehensive leadership development program - Developing an inclusive leadership

Abstract

All around the world, organizations spend $170 million each year on leadership development programs, LDPs. LDPs have been part of research and organizations for many years, and it has been seen as a good investment for organizations and its managers. Previous studies have almost solely focused on LDPs tailored for managers, leaving a gap in relation to comprehensive LDPs that include the whole organization, i.e., both managers and co-workers. In this paper we label a comprehensive LDP as CLDP to point to a LDP that includes every organizational member. The purpose of this study is to investigate what consequences there are from having the kind of CLDP that involves an entire organization. We address the gap by asking: what consequences does a comprehensive leadership development program (CLDP) have? Based on interviews and observations regarding managers’ and co- workers’ experiences and interactions at a Swedish firm, we show three differences between the studied CLDP and the findings in previous research. First, the CLDP facilitated the rise of a common language about leadership practices in the organization, among both managers and co-workers. Second, co-workers, and not only managers, felt empowered in their work. Third, the involvement of co-workers regarding leadership practices increased in the whole organization. Taken together, these findings not only contribute to the LDP literature but also to the inclusive leadership literature by showing how CLDPs can act to foster inclusive leadership.