Assessing a High Performing Organization’s Leadership Selection and Development The Use of the Leadership3 Instrument as an Evaluation Tool in Organizational Leadership Development

The process of identifying and developing future leaders has traditionally revolved around the characteristics of the potential leader, but equally important is the creation of an organi

and Development: The Use of the Leadership Instrument as an Evaluation Tool in Organizational Leadership Development

Darryl L JinkersonDepartment of Management SciencesAbilene Christian UniversityACU Box 29334Abilene, TX 79699-9334Phone: (325)-674-2493Fax: (325) 674-2507Email: darryl.jinkerson@coba.acu.edu

Phillip D VardimanDepartment of Management SciencesAbilene Christian UniversityACU Box 29327 Abilene, TX 79699-9327Phone: (325) 674-2153Fax: (325) 674-2507Email: phil.vardiman@coba.acu.edu

Annual Meeting of the American Evaluation Association

San Antonio, TXNovember 2010

©J&A Consulting Group, LLC

AbstractLeadership3 is a 40 item forced-choice leadership development assessment that provides

organizations and decision makers with key insights including: (1) PERSPECTIVES - the

instrument provides both individual and organizational insights into the culture and leadership development opportunities as perceived by both leadership and the rank and file; (2)

POTENTIAL- the instrument identifies internal leadership talent and desirability within the

organizational labor pool beyond the one-sided (typical) viewpoints of making leadership

selections for development based only on top management’s perspective; and (3) PROFILES -

the instrument provides graphical presentation of the convergence and divergence of leadership development perspectives between leadership and workers The current study presents a case study of the evaluation application of this unique instrument in assessing the effectiveness of an organizational transition towards becoming a high performing organization

Keywords: leader assessment, leader selection, organizational effectiveness, leadership

development, environmental context

Assessing a High Performing Organization’s Leadership Selection and Development: The Use of the Leadership3 Instrument as an Evaluation Tool in Organizational Leadership Development

Effective leadership within an organization is often viewed as the foundation for

organizational performance and growth Organizations that lack strong leadership are likely to fail to meet performance expectations Leadership has been described as a process of influence toward the accomplishment of objectives (e.g., Bass, 1960; Katz & Kahn, 1966; Yukl, 1998) This view of leadership generally focused on the dyadic relationship between a leader and follower, but not on what conditions or opportunities need to be in place for effective leaders to emerge or be developed In order to better understand how to enhance and develop effective leaders, one must first understand what causes or facilitates leadership emergence and selection

Of particular interest are contextual factors within an organization that either foster or inhibit the transition from follower to leader Leadership theory needs to further investigate the factors that motivate organizational members to reach their full leadership potential (Bass and Avolio, 1997)

An understanding of the importance of creating an environment that recognizes each employee for their current accomplishments and future potential is critical in developing future leaders at all levels of the organization (Shipper & Manz, 1992; Tichy & Cohen, 1997)

Through a better understanding of the conditions or contextual factors that should be present to enable the development of effective leaders, organizational leaders may be better equipped to fertilize and cultivate the soil to facilitate the growth of the next crop of leaders and help facilitate the development of what has been referred to as a ‘High Performing Organization’(Vardiman and Jinkerson, 2008) Understanding the conditions that support the emergence of

leadership is critical to creating an environment that not only promotes and encourages

leadership development but also removes the roadblocks that prevent people from stepping out and taking leadership roles and an organization transforming into a high performing one

The emergence of future organizational leaders and high performing organizations may seem a simple or naturally occurring process, but in many organizations the progression from follower to leader is not encouraged or even provided and may in fact be actively discouraged bythe organization’s culture therefore preventing a high performing level of achievement The process of identifying and developing future leaders has traditionally revolved around the

characteristics of the potential leader, but equally important is the creation of an organizational environment and culture that facilitates the development of effective leaders at every

organizational level and lays the foundation for becoming high performing Organizational hierarchies and control processes tend to impose constraints on organizational members that restrict and limit self-expression (Fairholm, 1994) This phenomenon tends to create a barrier to leadership development within the organization by selecting only a few employees for

development opportunities

This paper is an extension of the model originally developed by Vardiman, Houghton andJinkerson (2006) Vardiman et.al presented a contextual model of leadership selection and effectiveness Their model examined the interactions between the level of environmental

support for leadership development and the level of individual leadership characteristics Based

on these interrelations, the model suggested certain predictable outcomes relative to the potential for leadership selection and effectiveness Finally, based on these predictable outcomes we will advance research propositions that may guide future empirical research in this area as presented

in Figure 1

Insert Figure 1 About Here -

-As demonstrated in Figure 1, the model suggests that two primary factors influence leader selection and effectiveness: individual leadership characteristics and environmental support As outlined above, individual leadership characteristics that may influence leadership emergence, selection and effectiveness include intelligence, dominance, gender role, generalized self-efficacy, self-monitoring, emotional intelligence, conscientiousness, emotional stability, and extraversion Individual leadership characteristics may also include self-regulatory, self-

motivational, empowering, and transformational leadership skills and behaviors (e.g., Conger, 1999; Day, 2001; Manz & Sims, 2001) Although these individual characteristics play a large role in influencing leader selection and effectiveness within an organization, the model suggests that individual characteristics alone provide an incomplete picture and in fact only about half of the true picture is understood The model suggests that the level of environmental support will also influence leader selection and leadership effectiveness in

As further shown in Figure 1, the two dimensions of individual leadership characteristics and environmental support combine to form four distinct quadrants with predictable outcomes relative to leadership selection and effectiveness Quadrant I represents a situation in which environmental support for leadership development is high and in which the individual possesses high levels of essential individual leadership characteristics This quadrant represents the ease with which a person can step into a leadership position because of the supportive environmental culture and high levels of key individual leadership characteristics Individuals in this quadrant

are easily promoted into leadership positions because of their high individual leadership skills and their ability to match the criteria for selection They also relish the opportunity to lead and find it easier to be selected to leadership positions The individual fits the organizational

stereotype of a good leader Organizations routinely succeed in identifying and promoting these individuals as leaders because they are easy to recognize Individuals in this quadrant

understand the importance of learning, they are self-directed, and have an internal motivation to succeed The organizational culture is helpful in creating an environment that is supportive and enables them to develop as leaders Because the organizational culture is focused on effective leadership development and because individuals high in key leadership characteristics fit general leadership stereotypes, individuals in this quadrant will tend to emerge and be recognized and selected as leaders by their peers and superiors more than individuals in less supportive

environments or those with fewer visible leadership characteristics In addition, because of their high levels of leadership skills and characteristics, individuals in this quadrant are likely to be more effective leaders than individuals with less leadership talent who need additional leadershipdevelopment support

Quadrant II represents a situation in which environmental support for leadership

development is high but the individual possesses relatively low levels of key individual

leadership characteristics and skills This quadrant illustrates the difficulties a person may experience when they are in a culture characterized by highly integrated leadership development processes and a tendency to recognize individuals for high productivity achievement, but they lack the ability and the characteristics necessary to lead effectively They are encouraged and nurtured toward becoming an effective leader These individuals do consistently perform well intheir specific subject matter role but do not possess the necessary leadership characteristics to be

successful As noted, individuals in this quadrant are pushed into leadership positions by the organizational culture Because of the lack of individual leadership skill development, people in

this quadrant tend to resist the leadership opportunity Furthermore, these individuals tend to

lack the internal motivation for developing additional leadership skills Because environmental support for leadership development is high and the contextual barriers to leadership emergence are low, individuals in this quadrant will be pushed toward selection for leadership roles, often because they possess technical expertise or demonstrate high productivity However, because of their relatively low levels of leadership skills and characteristics, individuals in this quadrant are less likely to become effective leaders if forced into a leadership role than individuals with higher leadership skills and characteristics

Quadrant III represents a situation in which environmental support for leadership

development is low and the individual possesses relatively low levels of important individual leadership characteristics and skills This quadrant identifies the continuity employees within an organization These are the employees who follow direction with little question while routinelyperforming their tasks day in and day out They are not always happy about their work but they don’t want to make waves They lack key leadership characteristics and therefore are not

perceived as leader or as a person who might develop into a leader In this quadrant, the

organization tends to take a very passive view toward potential leaders and if an opportunity is presented, these individuals may refuse it because of their lack of desire and relevant individual leadership skills Stability and security are very important to these individuals and it allows them

to be satisfied with the status quo and remain comfortable Because environmental support for leadership development is low, individuals in this quadrant are not encouraged to undertake a leadership role Due in part to this lack of encouragement and in part to their lack of leadership

characteristics, individuals in this quadrant tend not to seek leadership opportunities Given the lack of both organizational support for leadership development and the lack of important

individual leadership characteristics, individuals in this quadrant will resist selection to

leadership roles Likewise, individuals in this quadrant are less likely to become effective leaders than individuals with higher leadership skills and characteristics because of the noted lack of leadership skill

Quadrant IV represents a situation in which environmental support for leadership

development is low but the individual possesses relatively high levels of key individual

leadership characteristics and skills This is a very interesting quadrant Although this situation represents an excellent source of leadership talent, the organization fails to remove the barriers that allow individuals to emerge as effective leaders These individuals possess leadership talent but find it difficult to be recognized as a leader or move into leadership roles because the

organization is not actively seeking to identify leadership potential and develop leadership talent.The organization culture of resisting leadership development support will often prevent these individuals from leadership opportunities even though they request and desire the opportunity.

Due to the lack of organizational fit, individuals in this quadrant may be viewed as

troublemakers or even identified as poor performers because their leadership capabilities cause them to push for changes and to exert significant influence Lacking an organizational culture that values and supports leadership development, these efforts to exert influence may be viewed

as disruptive or problematic by supervisors concerned more with short-term continuity and success than with long-term leadership development Rather than developing this latent

leadership potential, supervisors often reprimand would-be leaders causing them to seek

leadership roles elsewhere In extreme instances, individuals with high levels of leadership

potential may actually be terminated for attempting to exert influence that is viewed as overly disruptive to short-term organizational objectives Although individuals in this quadrant possess high levels of essential leadership characteristics, a limiting and non-supportive organizational environment will tend to inhibit the natural leadership emergence of these individuals In this quadrant individuals may decide to leave or jump from the organization to other opportunities Those individuals who do gain leadership positions in other organizations or even departments are likely to be effective due to their high levels of vital leadership characteristics and untapped leadership potential.

Leadership 3

Leadership3 is a 40 item forced-choice leadership development assessment that was developed specifically to measure and validate the model developed by Vardiman et al (2006) The items were worded to reflect specific behaviors and attitudes consistent with each of the fourquadrants In completing the instrument, respondents first indicate their respective role in the company (i.e., assigned leadership position or non-assigned leadership position) and then select their level of agreement (Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree, Strongly Agree) to each of the 40 statements Each level of agreement is “linked” to a specific quadrant For example, if a

respondent indicated that they “strongly disagreed” with question one (Your company’s culture encourages everyone to become leaders), that would be linked to Quadrant 4 Likewise,

disagreeing would be linked to Quadrant 3; agreeing to Quadrant 2; and strongly disagreeing to Quadrant 1 The linking is balanced across the 40 items such that each quadrant has the same possibility of being selected based on the respondent’s level of agreement

Test-Retest Reliability

The reliability of this instrument was established via test-retest procedure The

instrument was administered to 30 professionals employed at a non-profit including both the

Executive Team and all levels of employees They were told that the instrument was in stage of development and that it would be used in helping to later develop a strategic approach to

leadership development Respondents completed the instrument anonymously with the

exception of supplying the last four digits of their Social Security Number and their mother’s maiden name for matching purposes The same group of individuals completed the same

instrument four weeks later A test-retest correlation coefficient of 81 was obtained between thematched responses of 28 of the 30 original respondents

Instrument Validity

Three different Executive Directors and/or Plant Managers were interviewed regarding the process and success of their respective leadership selection and development within their organization In all cases, the executives indicated select issues or concerns The executives were then shown results of the Leadership3 instrument for their respective organization along with the appropriate interpretation and in all cases, the three strongly agreed that the instrument accurately assessed their situation and provided significant insights into how they might move their organization forward in this arena

Instrument Patterns

As additional organizations have utilized Leadership3, specific organizational patterns have emerged The patterns are displayed in Figures 2 – 6

Insert Figures 2 - 6 About Here -The respective patterns of each respondent group (Leader, Worker) when considered both

-individually and taken together generate the three main deliverables from the instrument: