Perspectives on leadership development : does the self matter? - a systematic review

Background and Purpose: Organizations spend billions of dollars each year on leadership development initiatives in search of the competitive advantage that great leadership can produce. However, the leadership crisis seems to deepen every year. This conundrum could be solved if we could understand how leaders develop and how the effectiveness of these initiatives can be improved; yet, despite the billions of dollars invested every year, leadership development research and theory are still in their infancy. Due to the lack of theoretical development in the field, this study seeks to establish the theoretical underpinnings that have informed leadership research and practice thus far. In addition, it also investigates the role personal development and of self and identity constructs within these foundations. Methodology: This study utilizes the systematic review methodology to examine, quantitatively and qualitative, the leadership development literature. Qualitative, the data was analyzed using a modified ground-theory approach to uncover the themes and theoretical influences that are explicit in academic publications about leadership development. Quantitatively, the data was examined using basic descriptive statistics and content analysis. Findings: This review proposes a classification scheme that organizes the theoretical underpinnings of leadership development into eight distinct categories. It is suggested that by analyzing the field through the lenses of these categories – and the effects that their biases and assumptions create in our understanding of leadership development theory and practice – some integration and understanding might be possible in the future. Further, this review also advocates that self and identity constructs might constitute important concepts for the advancement of our understanding about leadership development and for interconnecting its theoretical influences.