Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25 years of research and theory

The development of effective leaders and leadership behavior is a prominent concern in organizations of all types. We review the theoretical and empirical literature on leader and leadership development published over the past 25 years, primarily focusing on research published in The Leadership Quarterly. Compared to the relatively long history of leadership research and theory, the systematic study of leadership development (broadly defined to also include leader development) has a moderately short history. We examine intrapersonal and interpersonal issues related to the phenomena that develop during the pursuit of effective leadership, describe how development emerges with an emphasis on multi-source or 360-degree feedback processes, review longitudinal studies of leadership development, and investigate methodological and analytical issues in leader and leadership development research. Future research directions to motivate and guide the study of leader and leadership development are also discussed.     

Environmental Protection,Population Change,and Economic Development in the Rural Western United States

This research analyzes the relationship between protected federal lands (wilderness, national parks, national monuments and roadless areas) and nearby communities in the rural western United States. Opponents of environmental protection claim that protected lands limit the growth of nearby communities by locking up potentially valuable natural resources and restricting mining, logging and grazing. Others claim that extractive industries are no longer the backbone of rural economies— instead, the presence of protected federal lands encourages growth by attracting tourists and new residents. A geographic information system is used to calculate the proportion of protected lands occurring within 50 miles of the center of each western county. This calculation, in combination with detailed county-level data, indicates that environmental protection is correlated with relatively rapid population growth and with relatively rapid income and employment growth.     

Financial literacy and retirement planning in the Netherlands

The complexity of financial decisions that households now face has increased to unprecedented levels. At the same time, households seem to lack the financial knowledge to cope with these decisions, including how to save and invest adequately for retirement. In this paper, we examine the relationship between financial knowledge and retirement planning in the Netherlands. For this purpose, we have designed a module on financial literacy and planning for the De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB) Household Survey. We find a strong and positive relationship between financial knowledge and retirement planning; those who are more financially knowledgeable are more likely to plan for retirement. Using information on economics education acquired in school, we show that the nexus of causality goes from financial literacy to planning rather than the other way around.     

Good Practice in the Education of Children in Residential Care

Correspondence to The Directors, New Horizons (Child Care) Ltd., Unit B, Silkmoor, New Street, Frankwell, Shrewsbury, Shropshire SY3 8LN, UK. E-mail info{at}new-horizonschildcare.co.uk Summary Research shows that the education of children in residentialcare is generally poor, in terms of both process and outcome.This has highlighted the uncertainty over how best to educatethese children and a pessimism over what they can achieve. Drawingupon the findings of an evaluation of a children’s home,this paper argues that children in residential care can havegood educational outcomes. It also shows that it is possibleto identify the processes by which these outcomes can be broughtabout. However, this largely positive assessment is predicatedupon education being defined broadly in respect of ‘process’and ‘outcome’. Moreover, it is important not tounderestimate the formidable challenges inherent in this work.While the multi-agency nature of this work gives rise to oneof the most significant, it has to be recognized that responsibilityfor the education of children in residential care falls primarilyto children’s homes. If children’s homes are tomeet the increasing expectations that are being made of them,national and local government will have to undertake a radicaltransformation of residential childcare, especially in termsof attitudes towards, and resources invested in, this sector.Central to this is the establishment of a qualified and properlysupported workforce.     

Parenting: Can Skills be Learned?

The effectiveness of parent education courses conducted in the northern suburbs of Sydney was assessed in terms of Hereford's Parent Attitude Scale after norms for this area had been established. The results indicated that on completion of these courses participants had greater confidence in their abilities as parents, were more aware of the influence of environment on their children and had a more trusting relationship with their children. Kavanagh doubted the relevance of a course such as PET to parents of lower socioeconomic status—these parents have also been shown to score lower on the PAS. However in this study participants who scored lowest initially improved most, showing that the course is reaching those who are not very well informed about childrearing.     

Reversals of preference between compound and simple risks: The role of editing heuristics

A reversal of preference between compound and simple risks was demonstrated in the context of compound gambles with loss elements transparently in common. The role of predecision editing heuristics in this violation of the Invariance Principle was explored in a process-tracing study. Verbal reports showed thatcancellation-by-similarity andamalgamation heuristics were differentially applied to simple and compound risks depending on their similarity structure. It was argued that such heuristics are often useful in simplifying complex choice problems without loss of important information. However, the inappropriate cancellation of elements of compound risks can be maladaptive, and can contribute to a lack of insight into the true nature of these risks.     

Local Voices in an Internal Market: The Case of Community Health Services*

This paper presents findings from a study of contract specification and implementation in community health services (CHS). In this paper, we focus on one aspect of that study: the role of local people in informing the assessment of health needs and in determining the provision of community health services in the context of the NHS “internal market”. The paper is based on fieldwork undertaken in three districts within one region. Analysis of data obtained from these localities suggests that while there appears to be a genuine commitment to the principle of local involvement, ideas about how that involvement can be built into the activities of either purchasers or providers are less transparent.     

Predicting falls in older women

Falls among older people are common and their occurrence is associated with detrimental effects on physical and psychosocial functioning. However, falls are not an inevitable consequence of ageing and there is growing evidence of effective interventions to prevent them. Accurate screening methods to identify high-risk populations are important if such strategies are to be cost-efficient. Epidemiological studies have identified a diverse group of risk factors for falls of different types in a variety of settings and patient groups. These have proved useful in delineating high-risk groups and have propagated a range of risk assessment tools for falls. Without an accepted taxonomy for the reporting of trials testing these instruments, direct comparison of results has been difficult. In frail older people, 'multi factorial assessment tools' have achieved some utility in the discrimination of fallers from non-fallers, whereas performance-based 'functional mobility assessments' appear to be more suited to predicting falls in groups of more active elders. The predictive value of these measures has been hampered by the complex and dynamic interaction between attendant risk factors and their variable influence in populations of different frailty profiles. Furthermore, current indices used in the prediction of falls are built upon statistical methodologies employing logistic regression, which fail to account for the breadth and depth of these associations in populations at risk of falling. Statistical representations more consistent with the complex modelling required in the design of falls risk assessment trials, such as tree classification techniques, may provide better results in future studies that aim to generate accurate predictors of falls.     

Shot at Dawn: Late photography and the anti-war memorial

The military executions of World War One are the subject of Chloe Dewe Mathews’s 2014 photographic series Shot at Dawn. These events—in which hundreds of soldiers were court-martialled and executed for cowardice and desertion—remain controversial, without consensus or established collective narrative. This article charts historic negotiations with the subject but also considers more recent efforts to integrate these proceedings within memorial practice. World War One remembrance activities, whilst diverse, have often emphasised sacrifice, heroism and community. Correspondingly, participation and engagement were core values in the major British World War One centenary arts project, titled 14-18 NOW, from which Shot at Dawn was commissioned. Chloe Dewe Mathews’s contribution to the programme, however, presents a photographic aesthetic of resistance to the principles of inclusivity and remembrance elsewhere embraced by the project. As such, the work challenges the consensual politics of commemoration and—through the practices of late photography, land art and performance pilgrimage—substitutes trauma and forgetfulness for reconciliation and memory.