Papers by Ajay Jivan
South African Journal of Higher Education, 2019
This article advances the critical reviews of the leadership development terrain and argues for t... more This article advances the critical reviews of the leadership development terrain and argues for the necessity to consider and explore the pedagogic spaces of leadership development and its constitutive dynamics. It first synthesises the theoretical debates on pedagogic space by identifying five relevant themes and how pedagogic and learning spaces are differentiated. It locates itself within these debates, focusing on assemblage, embodiment and enactment. It then draws on a case study of the South African retail banking sector to suggest a sectoral analysis. The value and contribution of this case is the attention to different levels of analysis and the theme of journeys. It allows for the consideration of the evolving roles and partnerships of the business schools; and deliberation on expanding and opening up pedagogic and learning spaces. These provoke questions on the roles, nature and values of pedagogy and higher education.
Reading Foucault, Freud, psychodynamic theory and Judith Butler"s works to understand gender... more Reading Foucault, Freud, psychodynamic theory and Judith Butler"s works to understand gender and gender development.
Critical examination of leadership theories, research, and methods of measurement, including ways... more Critical examination of leadership theories, research, and methods of measurement, including ways of understanding African leadership. Empirical exploration of meaning and meaning processes within organisational spaces.
The thesis is a qualitative, multi-site case study of leadership development within the South Afr... more The thesis is a qualitative, multi-site case study of leadership development within the South African retail banking sector. It responds to the call for qualitative research to explore and give voice to the South African and other developing contexts within the predominantly Western-centric literature. It poses questions on the day-today organisational and lived realities of leadership and its development within this context. It is an enquiry of the forms and realities of aligning, designing and integrating leadership development, which leads to deliberation on the possibility of integrative frameworks. This follows from the thesis drawing together the reviews of the state of leadership and leadership development and how the thematic of alignment and integration is approached therein and within the human resource, management and organisational literature. Through this it develops an argument that the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development, including the remedial attempts to address this, do not provide the space to theoretically and empirically attend to, and engage with, the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations at the individual, team, organisational, sector, national and global levels. The thesis explores this within the South African retail banking sector. This is done through qualitative interviews on, and thematic analysis of, the various mandates, purposes, funding and ways of configuring and managing leadership development within the banks' Leadership Development Centres and the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority's (BankSeta) International Executive Development Programme (IEDP) which is hosted at a local Business School. The thesis explores how leadership development is formalised, shaped, configured and managed as a function, purpose, programme and developmental process within the above sites, and how these are navigated, negotiated, enacted and embodied over time by the various stakeholders. It draws out the thematic of layered journeys; that is, the evolving and ongoing organisational, programmatic, pedagogic, personal and individualised journeys within the banks, BankSeta and ii the Business School. The journeys illustrate how leadership development evolves, opens up and differentiates over time at the different sites and levels as well as foregrounds the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations therein. Through these journeys one appreciates the varied forms, perspectives, basis, sites, agency and spaces for designing and integrating leadership development and how these evolve, including how the standardisation, tailoring and customisation evolves. The deliberate, emergent, contingent and relational nature of designing and integrating, and the journey's thematic, point to the limits of the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development. The thesis suggests a critical theoretical stance as an alternative as it provides space to critically attend to, engage with, and undertake the journey, task and process of aligning, designing, integrating and managing leadership development. It proposes ways to locate this task and process within the integrative theoretical models of leadership and the fields of instructional design, curriculum design and design of artefacts as well as the literature on the evolving human resources function, the identity work therein, and on space and place. It then suggests an organising model that can serve both as a guide for developing an open, modular platform and an analytical framework. In this way, the thesis contributes to the question and task of integrative frameworks of leadership development.
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersran... more A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa, in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Panel Discussion - Charting developments in the ‘leadership’ terrain and exploring the assessment... more Panel Discussion - Charting developments in the ‘leadership’ terrain and exploring the assessment linkages Track: Panel Discussion The key questions the panel will explore and open discussion on are: 1. What are the most significant developments within the ‘leadership’ and ‘leadership development’ fields and how will these fields develop over the next five years? 2. How can we engage with these developments in the South African context; and 3. In what ways can the Assessment Centre approach and assessments in general speak to these developments? The above questions arise when we consider that the familiar, linear narrative of the ‘leadership’ domain in mainstream literature is not adequate in capturing the richness, complexity and contested nature of the domain as well as the various developmental lines. Although heuristic, there are limitations to the narrative of linear evolution, which includes the following markers or signposts: beginning with identifying individual traits to un...
SA Journal of Human Resource Management
Orientation: Leadership and its development continue to be an urgent and critical priority for fi... more Orientation: Leadership and its development continue to be an urgent and critical priority for firms. As a field of practice and research, one observes that leadership development continues to be characterised by the failure to achieve its outcomes in spite of the scale of firms’ investment in it and the availability of a rich repertoire of developmental methods. Therefore, there is a need to understand how leadership development is configured and managed within firms as a bounded function, as programmes and as learning and development processes.Research purpose: The study explored how leadership development is articulated, configured and managed within the retail banking sector in South Africa; in particular, the retail banks and the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority (BANKSETA).Motivation for the study: There is a dearth of research on how the purpose of leadership development is defined by and within firms and, relatedly, how the management of leadership development ...
South African Journal of Higher Education, 2017
This article advances the critical reviews of the leadership development terrain and argues for t... more This article advances the critical reviews of the leadership development terrain and argues for the necessity to consider and explore the pedagogic spaces of leadership development and its constitutive dynamics. It first synthesises the theoretical debates on pedagogic space by identifying five relevant themes and how pedagogic and learning spaces are differentiated. It locates itself within these debates, focusing on assemblage, embodiment and enactment. It then draws on a case study of the South African retail banking sector to suggest a sectoral analysis. The value and contribution of this case is the attention to different levels of analysis and the theme of journeys. It allows for the consideration of the evolving roles and partnerships of the business schools; and deliberation on expanding and opening up pedagogic and learning spaces. These provoke questions on the roles, nature and values of pedagogy and higher education.
Keywords: pedagogic space, learning space, leadership development, assemblage, levels of analysis, journey, banking sector
The thesis is a qualitative, multi-site case study of leadership development within the South Afr... more The thesis is a qualitative, multi-site case study of leadership development within the South African retail banking sector. It responds to the call for qualitative research to explore and give voice to the South African and other developing contexts within the predominantly Western-centric literature. It poses questions on the day-to-day organisational and lived realities of leadership and its development within this context. It is an enquiry of the forms and realities of aligning, designing and integrating leadership development, which leads to deliberation on the possibility of integrative frameworks. This follows from the thesis drawing together the reviews of the state of leadership and leadership development and how the thematic of alignment and integration is approached therein and within the human resource, management and organisational literature. Through this it develops an argument that the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development, including the remedial attempts to address this, do not provide the space to theoretically and empirically attend to, and engage with, the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations at the individual, team, organisational, sector, national and global levels.
Panel Discussion - Charting developments in the ‘leadership’ terrain and exploring the assessment... more Panel Discussion - Charting developments in the ‘leadership’ terrain and exploring the assessment linkages
Track: Panel Discussion
The key questions the panel will explore and open discussion on are:
1. What are the most significant developments within the ‘leadership’ and ‘leadership development’ fields and how will these fields develop over the next five years?
2. How can we engage with these developments in the South African context; and
3. In what ways can the Assessment Centre approach and assessments in general speak to these developments?
The above questions arise when we consider that the familiar, linear narrative of the ‘leadership’ domain in mainstream literature is not adequate in capturing the richness, complexity and contested nature of the domain as well as the various developmental lines. Although heuristic, there are limitations to the narrative of linear evolution, which includes the following markers or signposts: beginning with identifying individual traits to understand individual ‘leader’ differences; then the movement to behavioural, situational and contingency theories to consider interpersonal contexts and behavioural relevance and adaptation; and the emergence of theories of the transformational nature of leaders and leading, such as Bass’ differentiation of transactional and transformational leadership. If one broaden one’s lens one finds theoretical and methodological developments that disrupt the familiar narrative and assumptions, which reframes leadership. An earlier review by Hunt et al (2000) had also questioned a linear narrative and evolution. They write of periodic selectivity and lapses in the literature, of “academic amnesia [and] déjà vu, succumbing to fads, fashions, or leadership zeitgeist [tenor of the times].” To add to this the leadership and leadership development literature are not always aligned and follow different lines of development.
Some of the developmental lines one can identify are the following:
• Day’s (2001) and Day et al’s (2011) often cited differentiation of leader and leadership development
• Differentiation of the categories ‘leader’, ‘leading’ and ‘leadership’ in the leadership literature, including the emergence of ‘distributed leadership’ and ‘network leadership’ models. The understanding leading and managing as a craft or art (classic example is Mintzberg, 2004, 2005, 2006)
• Need for more collaborative, network and high engagement working arrangements in organisations to foster organisational learning, innovation and high-performance teams
• Theoretical shifts from ‘leader-centric’ and ‘follower-centric’ conceptualisations to relational and social processes, which are reframing leadership and challenge the familiar categories of ‘leader’ and ‘follower’ (for example, Drath et al, 2008 and CCL)
• Critical examination of methodological as well epistemological and ontological assumptions; and exploring cross-cultural and global leadership
• The most significant development is the call to clarify levels of analysis. Reviewers criticise the conflation of the following levels: individual, dyad, team, group, organisation and broader socio-economic context levels.
Given the levels of analysis debate and above-mentioned developments within the ‘Leadership’ and ‘Leadership Development’ domains, we need explore how the Assessment Centre Approach and assessments in general can speak to these developments and add value. This means identifying the challenges and opportunities that arise from the various reframing of leadership and leadership development. It also means reflecting on our own assumptions of leadership and going beyond a ‘methods’ debate to ask what informs the design of Assessment Centres and assessment.
The present research reviews the management literature on leadership, with regard to the theoreti... more The present research reviews the management literature on leadership, with regard to the theoretical approaches and methodologies present, and suggests that leadership appears to be a contested terrain ). There are varying definitions as there are varying theoretical perspectives or approaches, which means that one needs to attend to the manner in which the terrain is delimited or leadership is framed. This manner of attending or orientation and reading of the _________________________________________________________________ Ajay Jivan's Masters of Management research report (University of Witwatersrand, 2008) ii examined in a sample comprising three organisations in the non-government sector.
The literature on the lived experience of being female or male is as copious as it is diverse. Th... more The literature on the lived experience of being female or male is as copious as it is diverse. There are different theoretical frameworks that offer varying theoretical accounts or understandings of masculinity and femininity. When one explores the theoretical frameworks' philosophical and conceptual underpinning for understanding subjectivity and sociality, one encounters a particular transition in the literature. The transition can be represented schematically by contrasting two theoretical dimensions, the first being the sex role theoretical framework and sex differences psychometric approach. The second comprises constructivist accounts, which include social constructionist approaches and Judith
Thesis Chapters by Ajay Jivan
Doctoral thesis, 2017
The thesis is a qualitative, multi-site case study of leadership development within the South Afr... more The thesis is a qualitative, multi-site case study of leadership development within the South African retail banking sector. It responds to the call for qualitative research to explore and give voice to the South African and other developing contexts within the predominantly Western-centric literature. It poses questions on the day-to-day organisational and lived realities of leadership and its development within this context. It is an enquiry of the forms and realities of aligning, designing and integrating leadership development, which leads to deliberation on the possibility of integrative frameworks. This follows from the thesis drawing together the reviews of the state of leadership and leadership development and how the thematic of alignment and integration is approached therein and within the human resource, management and organisational literature. Through this it develops an argument that the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development, including the remedial attempts to address this, do not provide the space to theoretically and empirically attend to, and engage with, the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations at the individual, team, organisational, sector, national and global levels.
The thesis explores this within the South African retail banking sector. This is done through qualitative interviews on, and thematic analysis of, the various mandates, purposes, funding and ways of configuring and managing leadership development within the banks’ Leadership Development Centres and the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority’s (BankSeta) International Executive Development Programme (IEDP) which is hosted at a local Business School.
The thesis explores how leadership development is formalised, shaped, configured and managed as a function, purpose, programme and developmental process within the above sites, and how these are navigated, negotiated, enacted and embodied over time by the various stakeholders. It draws out the thematic of layered journeys; that is, the evolving and ongoing organisational, programmatic, pedagogic, personal and individualised journeys within the banks, BankSeta and
the Business School. The journeys illustrate how leadership development evolves, opens up and differentiates over time at the different sites and levels as well as foregrounds the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations therein. Through these journeys one appreciates the varied forms, perspectives, basis, sites, agency and spaces for designing and integrating leadership development and how these evolve, including how the standardisation, tailoring and customisation evolves. The deliberate, emergent, contingent and relational nature of designing and integrating, and the journey’s thematic, point to the limits of the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development.
The thesis suggests a critical theoretical stance as an alternative as it provides space to critically attend to, engage with, and undertake the journey, task and process of aligning, designing, integrating and managing leadership development. It proposes ways to locate this task and process within the integrative theoretical models of leadership and the fields of instructional design, curriculum design and design of artefacts as well as the literature on the evolving human resources function, the identity work therein, and on space and place. It then suggests an organising model that can serve both as a guide for developing an open, modular platform and an analytical framework. In this way, the thesis contributes to the question and task of integrative frameworks of leadership development.
Keywords: context, post-Apartheid, banking, leadership, leadership development, alignment, design, customisation, integration, pedagogy, journey, programme, function, centre, modular, platform
The thesis is a qualitative, multi-site case study of leadership development within the South Afr... more The thesis is a qualitative, multi-site case study of leadership development within the South African retail banking sector. It responds to the call for qualitative research to explore and give voice to the South African and other developing contexts within the predominantly Western-centric literature. It poses questions on the day-today organisational and lived realities of leadership and its development within this context. It is an enquiry of the forms and realities of aligning, designing and integrating leadership development, which leads to deliberation on the possibility of integrative frameworks. This follows from the thesis drawing together the reviews of the state of leadership and leadership development and how the thematic of alignment and integration is approached therein and within the human resource, management and organisational literature. Through this it develops an argument that the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development, including the remedial attempts to address this, do not provide the space to theoretically and empirically attend to, and engage with, the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations at the individual, team, organisational, sector, national and global levels. The thesis explores this within the South African retail banking sector. This is done through qualitative interviews on, and thematic analysis of, the various mandates, purposes, funding and ways of configuring and managing leadership development within the banks' Leadership Development Centres and the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority's (BankSeta) International Executive Development Programme (IEDP) which is hosted at a local Business School. The thesis explores how leadership development is formalised, shaped, configured and managed as a function, purpose, programme and developmental process within the above sites, and how these are navigated, negotiated, enacted and embodied over time by the various stakeholders. It draws out the thematic of layered journeys; that is, the evolving and ongoing organisational, programmatic, pedagogic, personal and individualised journeys within the banks, BankSeta and the Business School. The journeys illustrate how leadership development evolves, opens up and differentiates over time at the different sites and levels as well as foregrounds the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations therein. Through these journeys one appreciates the varied forms, perspectives, basis, sites, agency
Drafts by Ajay Jivan
The learning module showcases the principles of learning design, including neuro- and cognitive s... more The learning module showcases the principles of learning design, including neuro- and cognitive science, blended learning, modularity and the blending of proprietary and open resources. The module addresses the following topics: (1) fourth industrial revolution, (2) types of innovation and (3) disruptive innovation.
The structure of the module:
Module 1
Understanding the changing world and contexts p3
1.1 Understanding the 4th industrial revolution p4
1.1.1 A typology of industrial revolutions p4
1.1.2 Enrichment exercise - fourth industrial revolution and globalisation p5
1.1.3 Self-test quiz – test your knowledge p6
Question 1 p6
Answer to Question 1 p7
1.1.3 Self-test quiz – test your knowledge p8
Question 2 p8
Answer to Question 2 p9
1.1.3 Self-test quiz – test your knowledge p10
Question 3 p10
Answer to Question 3 p11
1.2 Understanding innovation p12
1.2.1 A typology of innovation p12
1.2.2 Innovation in South Africa p14
1.2.2 Success factors for innovation in South Africa p15
1.3 Understanding disruption p16
1.3.1 Disambiguating disruption p16
1.3.2 Disruptive innovation p17
1.3.3 Disruption, innovation and dilemmas thereof p20
1.3.4 Enrichment exercise - critical reviews of disruptive innovation p21
Paper and Book Reviews by Ajay Jivan
SABPP Fact Sheet, 2024
There is much discussion and confusion on micro-credentials within the world of work, particularl... more There is much discussion and confusion on micro-credentials within the world of work, particularly in the space of learning management and experience platforms, and in various educational, quality assurance and other institutional and policy contexts¹. Within the world of work, micro-credentials are linked with ideas of just-in-time skills, a future-fit and agile workforce ecosystem, and the future skills-based organisations. Another example is the link with the suggestions for an internal talent marketplace, where technology platforms are seen as the enabler for matching (1) the supply of skills and time available in or to the organisation with (2) the organisational demand in terms of work and projects that need to be achieved. Micro-credentials are seen as part of the solution for the skilling-whether up, multi, or re-skilling-that is required for the future-fit and agile organisation. However, we find that there are many approaches to micro-credentials, which are informed by different implicit and/or explicit assumptions. This could be assumptions around learning, the different forms thereof, and how these relate to each other and how these can be credentialed, organised, and managed. We also find that online platforms, such as the Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other commercial platforms (whether Coursera, EdX, Degreed or LinkedIn Learning for example), provide stand-alone courses as well as long form learning programmes. These platforms offer a hybrid of short courses, learning programmes, and qualifications linked to higher education institutions. In this Fact Sheet we explore how we may define a micro-credential, and how it relates to different forms of learning and learning spaces. We note the discussion on different quality assurance frameworks in relation to the different forms of learning and learning spaces. And we consider how as HR practitioners we can leverage these forms of learning and learning spaces as well as ensure good practice. To orient ourselves the below figure identifies aspects of micro-credentials. The figure that follows later lays out the relations to forms of learning, learning spaces, and quality assurance frameworks. The key question for HR practitioners is how we locate and position micro-credentials in the education, training, and the world of work ecosystems to meet the learning and development strategy and needs of our organisations. We need to explore micro-credentials as an ecosystem itself and in relation to the other ecosystems. This means understanding micro-credentials in all its forms and creating a differentiated as well as integrated approach to the different forms of learning.
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Papers by Ajay Jivan
Keywords: pedagogic space, learning space, leadership development, assemblage, levels of analysis, journey, banking sector
Track: Panel Discussion
The key questions the panel will explore and open discussion on are:
1. What are the most significant developments within the ‘leadership’ and ‘leadership development’ fields and how will these fields develop over the next five years?
2. How can we engage with these developments in the South African context; and
3. In what ways can the Assessment Centre approach and assessments in general speak to these developments?
The above questions arise when we consider that the familiar, linear narrative of the ‘leadership’ domain in mainstream literature is not adequate in capturing the richness, complexity and contested nature of the domain as well as the various developmental lines. Although heuristic, there are limitations to the narrative of linear evolution, which includes the following markers or signposts: beginning with identifying individual traits to understand individual ‘leader’ differences; then the movement to behavioural, situational and contingency theories to consider interpersonal contexts and behavioural relevance and adaptation; and the emergence of theories of the transformational nature of leaders and leading, such as Bass’ differentiation of transactional and transformational leadership. If one broaden one’s lens one finds theoretical and methodological developments that disrupt the familiar narrative and assumptions, which reframes leadership. An earlier review by Hunt et al (2000) had also questioned a linear narrative and evolution. They write of periodic selectivity and lapses in the literature, of “academic amnesia [and] déjà vu, succumbing to fads, fashions, or leadership zeitgeist [tenor of the times].” To add to this the leadership and leadership development literature are not always aligned and follow different lines of development.
Some of the developmental lines one can identify are the following:
• Day’s (2001) and Day et al’s (2011) often cited differentiation of leader and leadership development
• Differentiation of the categories ‘leader’, ‘leading’ and ‘leadership’ in the leadership literature, including the emergence of ‘distributed leadership’ and ‘network leadership’ models. The understanding leading and managing as a craft or art (classic example is Mintzberg, 2004, 2005, 2006)
• Need for more collaborative, network and high engagement working arrangements in organisations to foster organisational learning, innovation and high-performance teams
• Theoretical shifts from ‘leader-centric’ and ‘follower-centric’ conceptualisations to relational and social processes, which are reframing leadership and challenge the familiar categories of ‘leader’ and ‘follower’ (for example, Drath et al, 2008 and CCL)
• Critical examination of methodological as well epistemological and ontological assumptions; and exploring cross-cultural and global leadership
• The most significant development is the call to clarify levels of analysis. Reviewers criticise the conflation of the following levels: individual, dyad, team, group, organisation and broader socio-economic context levels.
Given the levels of analysis debate and above-mentioned developments within the ‘Leadership’ and ‘Leadership Development’ domains, we need explore how the Assessment Centre Approach and assessments in general can speak to these developments and add value. This means identifying the challenges and opportunities that arise from the various reframing of leadership and leadership development. It also means reflecting on our own assumptions of leadership and going beyond a ‘methods’ debate to ask what informs the design of Assessment Centres and assessment.
Thesis Chapters by Ajay Jivan
The thesis explores this within the South African retail banking sector. This is done through qualitative interviews on, and thematic analysis of, the various mandates, purposes, funding and ways of configuring and managing leadership development within the banks’ Leadership Development Centres and the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority’s (BankSeta) International Executive Development Programme (IEDP) which is hosted at a local Business School.
The thesis explores how leadership development is formalised, shaped, configured and managed as a function, purpose, programme and developmental process within the above sites, and how these are navigated, negotiated, enacted and embodied over time by the various stakeholders. It draws out the thematic of layered journeys; that is, the evolving and ongoing organisational, programmatic, pedagogic, personal and individualised journeys within the banks, BankSeta and
the Business School. The journeys illustrate how leadership development evolves, opens up and differentiates over time at the different sites and levels as well as foregrounds the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations therein. Through these journeys one appreciates the varied forms, perspectives, basis, sites, agency and spaces for designing and integrating leadership development and how these evolve, including how the standardisation, tailoring and customisation evolves. The deliberate, emergent, contingent and relational nature of designing and integrating, and the journey’s thematic, point to the limits of the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development.
The thesis suggests a critical theoretical stance as an alternative as it provides space to critically attend to, engage with, and undertake the journey, task and process of aligning, designing, integrating and managing leadership development. It proposes ways to locate this task and process within the integrative theoretical models of leadership and the fields of instructional design, curriculum design and design of artefacts as well as the literature on the evolving human resources function, the identity work therein, and on space and place. It then suggests an organising model that can serve both as a guide for developing an open, modular platform and an analytical framework. In this way, the thesis contributes to the question and task of integrative frameworks of leadership development.
Keywords: context, post-Apartheid, banking, leadership, leadership development, alignment, design, customisation, integration, pedagogy, journey, programme, function, centre, modular, platform
Drafts by Ajay Jivan
The structure of the module:
Module 1
Understanding the changing world and contexts p3
1.1 Understanding the 4th industrial revolution p4
1.1.1 A typology of industrial revolutions p4
1.1.2 Enrichment exercise - fourth industrial revolution and globalisation p5
1.1.3 Self-test quiz – test your knowledge p6
Question 1 p6
Answer to Question 1 p7
1.1.3 Self-test quiz – test your knowledge p8
Question 2 p8
Answer to Question 2 p9
1.1.3 Self-test quiz – test your knowledge p10
Question 3 p10
Answer to Question 3 p11
1.2 Understanding innovation p12
1.2.1 A typology of innovation p12
1.2.2 Innovation in South Africa p14
1.2.2 Success factors for innovation in South Africa p15
1.3 Understanding disruption p16
1.3.1 Disambiguating disruption p16
1.3.2 Disruptive innovation p17
1.3.3 Disruption, innovation and dilemmas thereof p20
1.3.4 Enrichment exercise - critical reviews of disruptive innovation p21
Paper and Book Reviews by Ajay Jivan
Keywords: pedagogic space, learning space, leadership development, assemblage, levels of analysis, journey, banking sector
Track: Panel Discussion
The key questions the panel will explore and open discussion on are:
1. What are the most significant developments within the ‘leadership’ and ‘leadership development’ fields and how will these fields develop over the next five years?
2. How can we engage with these developments in the South African context; and
3. In what ways can the Assessment Centre approach and assessments in general speak to these developments?
The above questions arise when we consider that the familiar, linear narrative of the ‘leadership’ domain in mainstream literature is not adequate in capturing the richness, complexity and contested nature of the domain as well as the various developmental lines. Although heuristic, there are limitations to the narrative of linear evolution, which includes the following markers or signposts: beginning with identifying individual traits to understand individual ‘leader’ differences; then the movement to behavioural, situational and contingency theories to consider interpersonal contexts and behavioural relevance and adaptation; and the emergence of theories of the transformational nature of leaders and leading, such as Bass’ differentiation of transactional and transformational leadership. If one broaden one’s lens one finds theoretical and methodological developments that disrupt the familiar narrative and assumptions, which reframes leadership. An earlier review by Hunt et al (2000) had also questioned a linear narrative and evolution. They write of periodic selectivity and lapses in the literature, of “academic amnesia [and] déjà vu, succumbing to fads, fashions, or leadership zeitgeist [tenor of the times].” To add to this the leadership and leadership development literature are not always aligned and follow different lines of development.
Some of the developmental lines one can identify are the following:
• Day’s (2001) and Day et al’s (2011) often cited differentiation of leader and leadership development
• Differentiation of the categories ‘leader’, ‘leading’ and ‘leadership’ in the leadership literature, including the emergence of ‘distributed leadership’ and ‘network leadership’ models. The understanding leading and managing as a craft or art (classic example is Mintzberg, 2004, 2005, 2006)
• Need for more collaborative, network and high engagement working arrangements in organisations to foster organisational learning, innovation and high-performance teams
• Theoretical shifts from ‘leader-centric’ and ‘follower-centric’ conceptualisations to relational and social processes, which are reframing leadership and challenge the familiar categories of ‘leader’ and ‘follower’ (for example, Drath et al, 2008 and CCL)
• Critical examination of methodological as well epistemological and ontological assumptions; and exploring cross-cultural and global leadership
• The most significant development is the call to clarify levels of analysis. Reviewers criticise the conflation of the following levels: individual, dyad, team, group, organisation and broader socio-economic context levels.
Given the levels of analysis debate and above-mentioned developments within the ‘Leadership’ and ‘Leadership Development’ domains, we need explore how the Assessment Centre Approach and assessments in general can speak to these developments and add value. This means identifying the challenges and opportunities that arise from the various reframing of leadership and leadership development. It also means reflecting on our own assumptions of leadership and going beyond a ‘methods’ debate to ask what informs the design of Assessment Centres and assessment.
The thesis explores this within the South African retail banking sector. This is done through qualitative interviews on, and thematic analysis of, the various mandates, purposes, funding and ways of configuring and managing leadership development within the banks’ Leadership Development Centres and the Banking Sector Education and Training Authority’s (BankSeta) International Executive Development Programme (IEDP) which is hosted at a local Business School.
The thesis explores how leadership development is formalised, shaped, configured and managed as a function, purpose, programme and developmental process within the above sites, and how these are navigated, negotiated, enacted and embodied over time by the various stakeholders. It draws out the thematic of layered journeys; that is, the evolving and ongoing organisational, programmatic, pedagogic, personal and individualised journeys within the banks, BankSeta and
the Business School. The journeys illustrate how leadership development evolves, opens up and differentiates over time at the different sites and levels as well as foregrounds the realities, complexities, contingencies and contestations therein. Through these journeys one appreciates the varied forms, perspectives, basis, sites, agency and spaces for designing and integrating leadership development and how these evolve, including how the standardisation, tailoring and customisation evolves. The deliberate, emergent, contingent and relational nature of designing and integrating, and the journey’s thematic, point to the limits of the mainstream assumptions and programme-based approach to leadership development.
The thesis suggests a critical theoretical stance as an alternative as it provides space to critically attend to, engage with, and undertake the journey, task and process of aligning, designing, integrating and managing leadership development. It proposes ways to locate this task and process within the integrative theoretical models of leadership and the fields of instructional design, curriculum design and design of artefacts as well as the literature on the evolving human resources function, the identity work therein, and on space and place. It then suggests an organising model that can serve both as a guide for developing an open, modular platform and an analytical framework. In this way, the thesis contributes to the question and task of integrative frameworks of leadership development.
Keywords: context, post-Apartheid, banking, leadership, leadership development, alignment, design, customisation, integration, pedagogy, journey, programme, function, centre, modular, platform
The structure of the module:
Module 1
Understanding the changing world and contexts p3
1.1 Understanding the 4th industrial revolution p4
1.1.1 A typology of industrial revolutions p4
1.1.2 Enrichment exercise - fourth industrial revolution and globalisation p5
1.1.3 Self-test quiz – test your knowledge p6
Question 1 p6
Answer to Question 1 p7
1.1.3 Self-test quiz – test your knowledge p8
Question 2 p8
Answer to Question 2 p9
1.1.3 Self-test quiz – test your knowledge p10
Question 3 p10
Answer to Question 3 p11
1.2 Understanding innovation p12
1.2.1 A typology of innovation p12
1.2.2 Innovation in South Africa p14
1.2.2 Success factors for innovation in South Africa p15
1.3 Understanding disruption p16
1.3.1 Disambiguating disruption p16
1.3.2 Disruptive innovation p17
1.3.3 Disruption, innovation and dilemmas thereof p20
1.3.4 Enrichment exercise - critical reviews of disruptive innovation p21