Chapter one presents an introduction that outlines the study’s focus, main argument, and the theoretical stance and South African context it is situated within. Chapter two explores the literature relevant to the focus of the study. It begins with the discussion on the contested terrain and loci of leadership; that is, the theoretical contestations on defining, locating and conceptualising leadership.
This helps to contextualise the theme of alignment within organisations. It begins with the discussion on the predominance of the competency approach to leadership and leadership development within organisations; and how it informs how these organisations define, manage and attempt to align the leadership development and human resource functions and processes. It then discusses the
role of leadership in an organisation’s strategic alignment; that is, drawing dyadic and triadic relations between ‘culture’, ‘leadership’ and ‘performance’ as operationalised and measurable variables. This is followed by an exploration of how leadership development is aligned with, and located in relation to and within, the institutionalised practices of management and executive development; and, relatedly, the debate on the differentiation of management and leadership. The chapter closes with the question of integration and the examples of integrative frameworks available in the literature.
Chapter three presents the research design of the study and discusses the methodology, case study method and the nature of the sample from the retail banking sector. Thereafter chapters four, five, six and seven present the case study on leadership development. The chapters help to locate, contextualise, unfold and explore leadership development and the different levels of journeys within the retail banking sector. Chapter four provides an overview of the post-Apartheid South African context and (1) the national and sector skills development landscape and architecture; and (2) the retail banking landscape therein. Within this context and landscapes, the chapter introduces the BankSeta, the banks’
Leadership Development Centres (LDC) and the Delta Business School wherein the BankSeta IEDP is located. This sets the ‘scene’ for the discussion on the mandates of the BankSeta, banks’ LDCs and Delta Business School and how they position themselves in relation to, and as differentiated from, each other.
Thereafter, the chapter discusses the standardising, tailoring and the forms of customising leadership development by these stakeholders. This opens up the discussion on the forms of designing and integrating leadership development.
Chapter four ends with a table that provides a visual schematic of these discussions. The table also indicates the links to the discussion and themes in chapters five, six, seven and eight.
Chapter five presents the organisational journeys of leadership development within the BankSeta and the retail banks; and the evolving, ‘opening up’ and differentiation of leadership development within these institutions and the retail
banking sector. This includes how standardisation and customisation evolves within the institutions and how these institutions’ understanding and framing of their contexts evolves over time. The discussion of the BankSeta’s IEDP journey provides insight into how a leadership development programme and the designing and design thereof evolves over time. The discussion on the organisational journey of the individual retail banks helps to understand the evolving leadership development function, centre, designers and designing and integrating within the banks. Illustrative visual summaries are presented in the chapter.
Chapter six explores the research participants’ various personal and individualised journeys in and of leadership within their respective organisations, beginning with the Delta Business School participants, then the Heads of Leadership Development Centres (HoLDC), and thereafter the BankSeta IEDP delegates from the retail banks. It illustrates the journeys within shared spaces and within an ‘interior’ or personalised and individualised space. It explores the positions the participants take up and their lenses on the changing landscape of leadership and leadership development. It is through these different lenses that the participants engage with the question of “African leadership” and leadership in the South African, regional, continental and global contexts.
Chapter seven explores the framing, forming, shaping and managing of the pedagogic space from the individual delegate/learner and organisational perspectives. Thereafter, the chapter explores the pedagogic implications of the differentiation, integration and positioning of management, leadership and executive development within organisations. This leads to the discussion on how management, leadership and executive development are taken up, aligned and made administrable, manageable and realisable by and within organisations. Here, the chapter discusses the role of the competency construct and competency frameworks within organisations and how it informs in part the standardising of leadership development and its alignment with other human resource functions and processes within organisations. This foregrounds the organisational dilemma
of standardising as well as tailoring and customising the design, development and delivery of leadership development that emerges through the previous chapters.
Chapter eight begins by drawing conclusions on the study’s research questions. It then discusses the empirical, theoretical and methodological contributions of the study. Regarding the theoretical contribution, the chapter explores how one theoretically foregrounds designing, design and integration in leadership development. It first locates this within the critiques in the fields of instructional design, curriculum design and design of artefacts. Thereafter, it locates designing, design and the function of leadership development within the literature on (1) the journey of the human resources function; (2) the “identity work” (Pritchard, 2010, p177) therein; and (3) space and place. The chapter draws out recommendations for the retail banking sector and suggests the extrapolation to other sectors and contexts. An organising model is suggested, which can serve (1) as a guide for articulating, planning, and developing leadership development within organisations; and (2) as an analytical framework of how leadership and leadership development is constituted, situated, centred, bounded and decentred within organisations. This may contribute to a more reflexive practice of leadership development (Caroll and Levy, 2008). The chapter closes with recommendations for future research and the limitations of the present research.