The role of the officers’ mess in inclusive military leader social identity construction

Leadership is fundamentally a social phenomenon, and a leader’s legitimacy in personal and social terms is determined partly by how effectively they incorporate the prototypical leader identity. Using the historical British officers’ mess as a case study, this article presents a conceptual examination of the function place can perform in the construction of collective leader identities and the interconnected influence shared history, materiality and social interaction can have in encouraging inclusivity in leadership. Leadership identity is an integral feature of military life which has historically drawn on complex cultural and legal traditions to underwrite the individual’s right to command. This article will argue that social places such as the officers’ mess have been utilised as a means of cultivating cohesion in the past and that they may have an application in furthering inclusive collective leader identities in the future.

Leading as boundary crossing: How teacher leaders lead across a professional learning network in Shanghai China

This paper explores how teacher leaders enact leadership practice across a regional learning network, Master Teacher Studios, an officially initiated teacher learning program in Shanghai. It investigates the leadership strategies that are employed for cross-boundary endeavors in the network. The concepts of boundary and boundary crossing, as expounded by Wenger and others, are used to guide an examination of the process of teacher leadership enactment across a network, which is elucidated as interpreting the boundaries, selecting/designing boundary objects, and participating in communities of practice. The paper fosters an understanding of teacher leadership practice as boundary work in a network context, and delineates a process of teacher leadership enactment, as well as the importance of teacher leader identity in the process.

Investigating the Impact of Leadership Development on the Formation of Public Sector Leader Identities.

<p><b>This dissertation examines the role of leadership development in forming a leader identity in public sector leaders. It investigates the perceived impacts on public sector leaders attending a leadership development program resulting in identity work practices. The main focus of this case study was the leadership development experiences and interpretations of public sector leaders. A leadership development program called Leadership in Practice delivered by New Zealand's Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission to senior public sector leaders was used as a background and context for grounding my investigations. Research participants comprised 16 senior leaders from across the New Zealand public sector. This research was conducted using semi-structured interviews as the qualitative research method. The research data was collected, coded, analysed and thematically grouped using interpretive interactionism. By taking an interpretive approach, I give voice to the experiences and interpretations of these research participants. </b></p> <p>Leadership development and its various forms of interpretations in organisational studies continue to command attention about senior officials' leadership performance outcomes in leadership roles across both the public and private sectors. However, empirical research exploring the perceived impacts of this organizationally driven socialisation process on leaders remains sparse across mainstream leadership research, particularly within public sector leadership research. </p> <p>This study follows the tradition of organisation studies which theorise identity formation as a continuous process of becoming rather than being. It presents a view of leader identity formation as a self-regulated process undertaken by public sector leaders over an extended period. It argues that undertaking leadership development training is vital for public sector leaders; however, it becomes more relevant during specific critical periods throughout their career trajectory across the public sector. I contribute to leadership development and broader leadership research by proposing a new framework called 'leader identity formation framework' comprising four distinct phases – Inception, Initiation, Recognition and Rebellion. In conclusion, I offer a range of theoretical and practical implications for leadership development and leader identity research, which could help inform future research in public sector leadership.</p>

Investigating the Impact of Leadership Development on the Formation of Public Sector Leader Identities.

<p><b>This dissertation examines the role of leadership development in forming a leader identity in public sector leaders. It investigates the perceived impacts on public sector leaders attending a leadership development program resulting in identity work practices. The main focus of this case study was the leadership development experiences and interpretations of public sector leaders. A leadership development program called Leadership in Practice delivered by New Zealand's Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission to senior public sector leaders was used as a background and context for grounding my investigations. Research participants comprised 16 senior leaders from across the New Zealand public sector. This research was conducted using semi-structured interviews as the qualitative research method. The research data was collected, coded, analysed and thematically grouped using interpretive interactionism. By taking an interpretive approach, I give voice to the experiences and interpretations of these research participants. </b></p> <p>Leadership development and its various forms of interpretations in organisational studies continue to command attention about senior officials' leadership performance outcomes in leadership roles across both the public and private sectors. However, empirical research exploring the perceived impacts of this organizationally driven socialisation process on leaders remains sparse across mainstream leadership research, particularly within public sector leadership research. </p> <p>This study follows the tradition of organisation studies which theorise identity formation as a continuous process of becoming rather than being. It presents a view of leader identity formation as a self-regulated process undertaken by public sector leaders over an extended period. It argues that undertaking leadership development training is vital for public sector leaders; however, it becomes more relevant during specific critical periods throughout their career trajectory across the public sector. I contribute to leadership development and broader leadership research by proposing a new framework called 'leader identity formation framework' comprising four distinct phases – Inception, Initiation, Recognition and Rebellion. In conclusion, I offer a range of theoretical and practical implications for leadership development and leader identity research, which could help inform future research in public sector leadership.</p>

Holistic Leader(ship) Development: An Integrative Process Model of Leader and Leadership Development

The question of how to efficiently, holistically, and successfully develop leaders has been the focus of scholars and practitioners for several decades. Embedding the process of leader development in organizational contexts allows participants to develop and apply leadership knowledge, skills, and identity awareness. Embeddedness facilitates the holistic integration of the interactive processes of leader development (which focuses on increasing the leadership capacity of an individual) and leadership development (which focuses on increasing the leadership capacity of an organization), which is referred to in this article as leader(ship) development (LD). Two sub-processes involved in LD (i.e., general and situational identity development and knowledge/skill/social capital development) and four mechanisms of embeddedness that facilitate holistic LD (i.e., leader identity integration, opportunities to learn and develop in the organization, organizational support and feedback, and helping relationships) will be described. A discussion on the ways by which management education pedagogy can integrate and facilitate embeddedness and provide guidance for future research will follow.

Being a Leader and Doing Leadership: The Cross-domain Impact of Family and Friends on Leader Identity and Leader Behaviors at Work

This research presents a cross-domain exploration of leader identity. Drawing from theory about multidomain leader development and leader identity social processes, we examine how endorsement as a leader by those internal and external to work can impact an individual's own self-internalized sense of identity as a leader at work. Specifically, we examine how the collective endorsement of one's leader identity by family and friends in addition to work colleagues (managers, peers, and direct reports) influences the individual’s own self-internalized sense of identity as a leader at work. We also examine the relationship of the individual’s self-internalized sense of identity as a leader at work to enacted transformational leadership and contingent reward behaviors as rated by colleagues in the work domain. Data from a multisource and multidomain 360° evaluation of 256 leaders by 3,255 raters in the United States and Ireland provide support for the hypothesized relationships. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.