Current and Future Leadership Education in Finland

Abstract

This research focuses on the leadership and leadership development discourses used in educational institutes. Educational institutes have a central role in socializing leaders and managers in their leadership roles. However, it is not known what kind of views persons developing leadership have adopted of leadership and leadership development. The philosophical standpoint of this study is hermeneutics and social constructionism, which emphasizes the view that leadership, as well as leadership development, are produced in social interaction. Accordingly, it is not possible to find one best way of leadership. Instead, leadership, as well as leadership development, need to be seen from a contextual point of view. This research is a qualitative, multiple case study. The data of the study was collected by interviewing 27 leaders and development specialists who are working in educational institutes. Preliminary materials were gathered from all the 37 major educational institutes operating in the field of management and leadership development. 25 institutes agreed to participate in the study. 8 of these institutes were universities and 17 other educational institutes. Through content analysis, using, in particular, the Gioia-method, it was found that most educational institutes use interactional leadership views in leadership development. However, quite many educational institutes still use traditional leadership discourses in their leadership development. Contextual leadership discourses are often mentioned in a favorable tone but are still not used very often. It was also found that many educational institutes use traditional, class-room-based training methods in leadership education. None of the educational institutes which participated in the study has been able to transfer its leadership education to the workplace. So, none of the educational institutes are using truly contextual leadership development methods in their work. When comparing educational institutes, it was found that those educational institutes that have adopted traditional leadership views also use traditional leadership development methods and those educational institutes that have adopted new leadership views also use new leadership development methods.