Leadership | Topic page

New research on purposeful leadership

Exploring the concept of purposeful leadership, this research draws on findings from surveys, interviews and focus groups to identify links between purposeful leadership, ethical leadership behaviours and various employee and organisational outcomes. Our research also investigates how organisations can nurture an environment where leaders can be purposeful.

Reports

Purposeful leadership

This report conceptualises a construct of purposeful leadership and investigates the impact it has on various employee and organisational outcomes

Perspectives on leadership

The theories and models of leadership have changed over time – and continue to change with time, with context and with each theorist or subject-matter expert. There is no one overarching theory or model of leadership. There is no one agreed definition of leadership. There is also no agreed set of knowledge, skills and behaviours that leaders need to perform effectively. As a result, the answer to the simple question ‘What is leadership?’ is almost impossible to capture.

New directions in academic theory and research on leadership have focused upon three main areas of emerging leadership theory and research, namely:

relational leadership (focusing on the relationship between the leader and their direct report and wider team)
values-based leadership (focusing on the characteristics of the leaders and their sense of self, self-awareness and ethics system)
contextual leadership (focusing on the importance of the environment and system within which the leader operates).

Below we signpost a range of reports available.

Reports

Inclusive leadership

Research, commissioned by the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion (enei), looks at how organisations understand inclusive leadership

Reports

Real-life leaders: closing the knowing-doing gap

Opens the debate on the barriers preventing organisations from getting closer to effective leadership

Reports

Perspectives on leadership: implications for HR

An exploration of leadership perspectives in 2012

Podcasts

Dan Pink on leadership - ACE special

Author and business speaker Dan Pink gives his insights on what good leadership looks like and how companies can help to cultivate good leadership practices.

Barriers to leadership

In this programme of research we explore the systemic barriers to leadership under four groups of challenges to leadership which are present in some organisations today.

Reports

Leadership – easier said than done

Explores the capacity of individuals at all levels of an organisation to buy into and lead on the organisational agenda

Reports

Tackling the barriers to leadership

An exploration of the systemic barriers to leadership illustrated through case studies

Podcasts

Barriers to leadership

Does your organisation have the leaders it needs? Experts from CIPD, BBC and Xerox discuss the barrier to leadership and how HR can overcome them.

Trustworthy leadership

These two reports, produced in a collaboration with the University of Bath, examine the HR systems and processes in organisations that cultivate trustworthy leaders and how followers experience trustworthy senior leaders within some of the UK’s major corporations and institutions.

Reports

Cultivating trustworthy leaders

Examines the HR systems and processes in organisations that cultivate trustworthy leaders

Reports

Experiencing trustworthy leadership

Examines how followers experience trustworthy senior leaders within the context of practice, process, actions and behaviours

Leadership and management fundamentals

Leadership is the ability to influence people by demonstrating positive personal attributes and behaviours. Different leadership styles and qualities may be needed in different circumstances. Here you’ll find information and guidance on leadership styles and skills, effective leaders, transformational leadership, and leading teams and effective management.