Leadership and leadership development in highly effective further education providers. Is there a relationship?

There has been a strong increase in interest in leadership development in recent years, not least in the learning and skills sector. However, little research exists on the relationship between leadership development and actual leadership behaviours in the sector. This study is an attempt to help fill this gap by looking at leadership, leadership development and the relationship between them in 10 case study organizations selected to be amongst the most effective in terms of leadership, but representative of the breadth of the sector. A mixed methods approach was used combining a survey of all staff, focus groups and individual interviews. Findings show that transformational leadership was deemed most effective and that leadership development was relatively uncommon among staff. There was a significant relationship between preferred mode of leadership development and leadership style of respondents.