Leadership development in human services: Variations in agency training, organizational investment, participant satisfaction, and succession planning

Non-profit leadership learning : a narrative research study exploring the transformation of experience into leadership learning

“…The American nonprofit workforce is currently at a critical turning point: research has delineated a nationwide executive leadership crisis (Froelich et al, 2011;Gothard & Austin, 2013;Landles-Cobb et al, 2015;Vito, 2018). Because the need for leadership learning and leadership development is high, researchers have called for an increased focus on nonprofit leadership development (Deaton et al, 2013;Gothard & Austin, 2013;Landles-Cobb et al, 2015).…”

“…As noted by Kezar and Lester (2010) and Vito (2018), context is an important element within leadership learning: and even more so within nonprofit leadership. Within this study, context was seen in two ways.…”

“…However, limitations to these programs included their generalizability and scalability to other individuals, and thus other nonprofit organizations (Deaton et al, 2013). Along these same lines, while Vito (2018) found support for leadership training programs, she also stressed the importance of organizational alignment to ensure participants could apply learned skills.…”

“…Unfortunately, researchers have discovered, not all organizations have heeded this call; many do not view leadership learning as an essential component of their organization's strategic vision (Bozer et al, 2015;Vito, 2018). Landles-Cobb et al (2015) found that more than half of their study participants reported that staff development and leadership learning was not an organizational priority.…”

“…The United States nonprofit workforce is currently at a critical turning point with research delineating a nationwide executive leadership crisis (Froelich, McKee, & Rathge, 2011;Gothard & Austin, 2013;Landles-Cobb, Kramer, & Smith Milway, 2015;Vito, 2018). This crisis has been attributed to a number of factors including the retirement of the baby boomer generation (Landles-Cobb et al, 2015;Tierney, 2006), lack of skilled replacement leaders (Austin, Regan, Samples, Schwartz, & Carnochan, 2011;Deaton et al, 2013;Froelich et al, 2011), a projected 18% increase in need for social and community service managers between and 2026(U.S. Department of Labor, 2016, and the overall changing nature of nonprofit organizations resulting in more workers needing to develop more advanced leadership skills (Brungardt, 2011;Vito, 2018). As a result, the need for leadership learning and leadership development is high, and researchers have called for increased focus on nonprofit leadership development (Deaton et al, 2013;Gothard & Austin, 2013;Landles-Cobb et al, 2015).…”