Learning-Oriented Leadership: Managers as Facilitators of Human Resource Development in Daily Work

International Journal of HRD Practice, Policy and Research 2017, Vol 2 No 1: 21-34
doi: 10.22324/ijhrdppr.2.103

Andreas Wallo, Linköping University, Sweden

The aim of this article is to provide theoretical and empirical insights concerning the role of managers in facilitating their employees’ learning and development at work. The empirical basis of the article is two case studies of industrial companies in which managers were interviewed and observed. The results indicate that managers use combinations of different activities (planned, partially planned and spontaneous) and roles (the supporter, the educator and the confronter) to facilitate learning in different situations. Depending on the combination of activities, roles and the learning to be facilitated, two types of learning-oriented leadership emerge. The main type, performance-oriented leadership, is intended to facilitate adaptive learning. The less prominent type, development-oriented leadership, is intended to facilitate developmental learning. By illustrating learning-oriented leadership in daily work, the findings contradict the romantic notion that leadership for learning is charismatic and transformational.

Key Words: HRD, learning-oriented leadership, managerial work, workplace learning

Introduction

In today’s globalized world, favourable learning conditions are considered important not only for individuals but also for organizational efficiency, development and innovative capacity (Ellström, 2010; Illeris, 2011; Tynjälä, 2013). Thus, the workplace is no longer seen as a site only for production, but also as an environment where formal training and informal learning can be integrated (Ellström, 2001). For human resource development (HRD) researchers and practitioners, this focus on learning entails an interest in how environments that facilitate learning can be created (Fuller & Unwin, 2011). In this respect, the support from managers has especially been highlighted as important for promoting and enhancing individual and collective learning (Eraut, 2011; Loon, Mee Lim, Heang Lee & Lian Tam, 2012). Popular designations for this new leadership are transformational and transactional leadership (Bass, 2000; Loon et al., 2012), developmental leadership (Gilley, Shelton & Gilley, 2011; Larsson et al., 2003), managers as teachers (Agashae & Bratton, 2001), managers as facilitators of learning (Cohen, 2013; Ellinger & Bostrom, 2002), managers as developers (Warhurst, 2013), and managers as coaches (Ladyshewsky, 2010).

However, these conceptualizations tell us little about whether and how managerial work and leadership practice have actually changed, what managers in organizations do to facilitate learning, or what kind of learning is supposedly facilitated. Studies have indicated a need for empirically based research on the manager’s role in facilitating learning processes (Döös, Johansson & Wilhelmson, 2015; Ellström, 2012; Ellinger & Bostrom, 2002; Hughes, 2004). The intended contribution of this article to HRD research and practice is to address this paucity of empirical data by presenting and discussing findings from case studies of two industrial companies in the light of previous research on learning-oriented leadership. More precisely, the article aims to further integrate the literature on leadership and learning and to provide theoretical and empirical insights concerning the manager’s role in facilitating learning and development at work. The focus of the article is managers’ views on learning and what managers do to facilitate their employees’ learning in daily work.

In the article, leadership is understood as an interactive and reciprocal process through which a manager influences one or more employees to attain a goal (cf. Yukl, 2012). The process of leadership is situated within, and contingent on, contextual structures that may enable or constrain the interaction between manager and employees, but in turn, this interaction may either reproduce or transform these structures (cf. Archer, 1995; Hersey & Blanchard, 1969). The focus on learning does not imply an emphasis only on formal training activities (e.g., courses). Rather, it implies a view of learning mediated by individual actions and interactions in different work situations and tasks, which is typically called informal learning (Ellström, 2011). As used here, informal learning refers to learning that occurs regularly in work as well as in everyday life, but is subordinate to other activities (e.g., work practices) that do not have learning as their primary goal. Such learning may occur without the awareness or intention to learn (implicit learning), or it may involve a more or less deliberate effort to learn (cf. Eraut, 2000; Marsick & Watkins, 1990).

Problematizing Leadership and Learning at Work

As mentioned above, the management and HRD literature offer a plethora of conceptualizations for a leadership that is aimed at facilitating learning. In order to summarize the contribution to the understanding of learning-oriented leadership that is made by previous research, this section comprises a brief review of two leadership research approaches that have chosen different paths towards finding explanations and interpretations for this form of leadership. The review is then followed by a discussion of how theories of leadership and learning at work can be further intertwined.

The normative approach

The normative approach focuses on developing knowledge of how leadership should be performed to maximize effectiveness. Theories within this approach draw on classical models of effective leadership styles, especially the distinction between production-oriented and relation-oriented leadership (cf. Blake & Mouton, 1964; Likert, 1961). Among the theories concerning this approach, Bass’s (2000) theory of transformational and transactional leadership, also known as the Full-Range Theory of Leadership, is probably the most popular (Yukl, 2012). Transformational leadership behaviours, i.e. individualized consideration, idealized influence, intellectual stimulation and inspirational motivation, are seen as the means to create a ‘Learning Organization’ using grand visions and charisma to lead employees to excellence (Bass, 2000). The Bass model also includes transactional behaviours, i.e. contingent reward and management by exception, but these behaviours are typically seen as a ‘necessary evil’ related to conventional leadership (cf. Larsson et al., 2003).

Few empirical studies have used Bass’s model to explicitly focus on learning and development issues. In general, these studies use questionnaires and survey data to examine the occurrence of transformational leadership and its correlations with learning and organizational performance (cf. Raes et al., 2013; Loon et al., 2012; Thuy Pham & Swierczek, 2006). In line with Bass’s model, these studies find that transformational behaviours are positively linked to learning and innovation, whereas transactional behaviours are not (Amitay, Popper & Lipshitz, 2005; Jung, Chow & Wu, 2003). However, Vera and Crossan (2004) argue that transactional leadership may be more beneficial for learning than transformational leadership, depending on contingencies such as the external and internal environment, prior organizational performance, and stages of organizational life.

Introduction

Problematizing Leadership and Learning at Work

Volume 2, Number 1