Leadership Development: Current and Emerging Models and Practices

The Problem: Leadership development (LD) is the largest expense item in the overall training and development budget of the majority of business organizations in the United States and many other countries of the world. However, industry reports and academic articles alike suggest that, in many cases, organizations are dissatisfied with the outcomes and impact of their LD efforts and are experimenting with new approaches to LD in search for better solutions. At the same time, the academic literature on LD practices struggle to keep up with the fast pace of the emergence of new trends and equally rapid changes in established practices. Therefore, there is a need for periodic updates and reviews of current and emerging trends and models in LD theory and practice. The Solution: This article provides a brief overview of current and emerging theoretical models and frameworks in leadership and further discusses emerging LD practices. The Stakeholders: This article will be of relevance to HRD academics, scholar-practitioners, and students, studying HRD and LD, and HRD practitioners in charge of LD in a variety of organizations.