Personal development has been one of the popular HR trends of the 1990s, and yet has received little close scrutiny as to its application in practice. Reports on the experiences…
Abstract
Personal development has been one of the popular HR trends of the 1990s, and yet has received little close scrutiny as to its application in practice. Reports on the experiences of 14 employers using personal development plans. Finds that employers hope for different things, some want cost effectiveness, others to forge a new deal on development and others to develop a more autonomous workforce. In practice personal development plans (PDPs) are resource intensive but do seem to get individuals to own their own careers and become more autonomous. The means by which they are created can also have a significant effect. Suggests learning points for organizations considering the implementation of PDPs.
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This paper aims to explore how the characteristics of outstanding leaders promote dispersed leadership through the beliefs and experience of leaders in some of the UK's best known…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to explore how the characteristics of outstanding leaders promote dispersed leadership through the beliefs and experience of leaders in some of the UK's best known organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Drawing on in‐depth qualitative interviews with 70+ leaders, interviews with direct reports and interviews with more senior leaders carried out between 2008 and 2010, the paper contrasts the approaches to leadership that distinguish high performing leaders from their peers and how these approaches create the climate for devolved leadership.
Findings
The paper highlights the key differences that distinguish outstanding leaders and explores how these differences create climates of empowerment that enable dispersed and devolved leadership to flourish. The paper argues that devolved leadership is not a haphazard process but involves leaders in deliberately creating the right conditions.
Practical implications
The paper presents the core characteristics of outstanding leaders and how they can not only produce better performing organizations, but also create more robust organizations with more capable, autonomous and innovative employees to help identify and develop leadership populations.
Originality/value
There is a clash between a focus on the leader and a concern for dispersed leadership in organizations. They seem to be opposing views of leadership – one focused on the individual, the other the collective. This paper assimilates these two perspectives and shows how a certain style of leader embeds leadership.
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This article analyses whether UK managers are more or less capable than those from competitor nations.
Abstract
Purpose
This article analyses whether UK managers are more or less capable than those from competitor nations.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper draws on research conducted on behalf of the UK Sector Skills Development Agency (SSDA) to clarify the situation.
Findings
What emerges are different perspectives on management capability which reflect a complex interplay of national and organizational culture. There are for instance key differences in the way that organizations approach MD on a national basis with the UK performance being rather mixed.
Originality/value
With the right leadership and the right vision, all managers rise above national differences to assume the cultural mantle of their organization.
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Draws on research conducted by the Institute for Employment Studies for the DfEE. The research examined existing knowledge of the benefits of learning for both individuals and…
Abstract
Draws on research conducted by the Institute for Employment Studies for the DfEE. The research examined existing knowledge of the benefits of learning for both individuals and organizations and followed with a number of case studies of small and medium‐sized organizations. The study sought to understand better if lack of knowledge of learning benefits was a key factor in low participation. What was clear was the tendency for organizations to offer relatively brief training opportunities and the difficulties for individuals of participating in more extensive learning through their own funding. Those that need learning most and have potentially the most to gain have the greatest difficulty in accessing learning that might really make a difference to them. The report concludes that change must come through all stakeholders in the nation’s adoption of lifetime learning: the state, organizations and individuals.
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Abstract
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This paper focuses on visual representation of women leaders and how women leaders’ bodies and sexualities are rendered visible in particular ways.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper focuses on visual representation of women leaders and how women leaders’ bodies and sexualities are rendered visible in particular ways.
Design/methodology/approach
The arguments are based on a reading of the Danish television drama series, Borgen. The authors interpret the meaning of this text and consider what audiences might gain from watching it.
Findings
The analysis of Borgen highlights the role of popular culture in resisting patriarchal values and enabling women to reclaim leadership.
Originality/value
The metaphor of the spectacle enables explanation of the representation of women leaders in popular culture as passive, fetishised objects of the masculine gaze. These pervasive representational practices place considerable pressure on women leaders to manage their bodies and sexualities in particular ways. However, popular culture also provides alternative representations of women leaders as embodied and agentic. The notion of the metapicture offers a means of destabilising confining notions of female leadership within popular culture and opening up alternatives.