Table Of ContentCRANFIELD UNIVERSITY
LINDA FLORIO ZINTEL
EXPLORING PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLICATIONS FOR LEADERSHIP
SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
PHD THESIS
Academic year: 2012-13
Supervisor: Professor Andrew Kakabadse
October 2012
CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
PHD THESIS
Academic year: 2012-13
LINDA FLORIO ZINTEL
EXPLORING PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLICATIONS FOR LEADERSHIP
Supervisor: Professor Andrew Kakabadse
October 2012
This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
© Cranfield University 2012. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced without the written permission of the copyright holder.
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ABSTRACT
In leadership development, an established literature and a fertile praxis fall short of
clarifying how individuals may develop the many and varied capabilities that
contribute to leadership processes. Literature promoting personal growth tends to
reduce personal development to cognitive development or rely on broadly defined and
under-evidenced notions. The adult development literature offers to this research a
conceptualization of personal development as systemic qualitative change in individual
sensemaking. As sensemaking develops, it progresses toward greater integration (of
interdependent cognitive, emotive, purposive, and conative dimensions),
sophistication, and self-determination. The research aimed to examine how changes in
the sensemaking of individuals may result in developmental outcomes relevant for
personal and leadership development.
This inquiry moves from a perspective idealist ontology and a social constructivist
epistemology, selects philosophical hermeneutics as a research paradigm, and
embraces exploratory qualitative longitudinal research. Purposive sampling guided the
selection of research context, a leadership program focused on personal growth.
Transcripts from 32 semi-structured constructivist-phenomenological interviews,
collected from nine participants across fourteen months, were analyzed through
constructivist grounded theory. Development was assessed ipsatively according to a
literature-based framework. Contributions, in terms of substantive theory, are not
generalizable beyond research context and sample.
This research advances the differentiation of developmental context, process and
outcomes. Context is found to transcend holding environment—to be ideally
conducive to a specific type of change in virtue of a distinctive emerging quality. While
vector processes facilitate development, core processes (individual sensemaking) are
development. In terms of outcomes, the research supports an association between
personal development and development of leadership capabilities, but questions
whether self-awareness or personality adjustments per se constitute authentic
personal or leadership development.
This research exposes a pattern of seeking affirmation, associated with
disproportionate identity salience of external image, which is potentially capable of
hindering personal development by triggering maladaptive rather than adaptive self-
reflection.
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Key words: personal development, leadership development, authentic leadership
development, affirmation, developmental context, developmental process,
developmental outcomes, holding environment
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This doctoral research is the longest project I have ever undertaken. During the past
five years, a passion for the topic has energized my efforts in the face of a steep
learning curve and some daunting challenges. I am deeply grateful for the support and
encouragement that I received throughout the years, especially from my friends who
made the UK feel like home, my colleagues who shared their journeys with me, and
the professional and supportive Cranfield faculty and staff.
My deepest gratitude goes to Professor Andrew Kakabadse for his wise supervision.
While I was learning unfamiliar things in unfamiliar ways, I felt that guidance and
encouragement were available to me without ever feeling that I was being held by
hand. Something that resonates deeply with me, I was always encouraged to explore
what was meaningful for me to learn.
One of the things that Chris, my husband, and I have in common is that we obstinately
refuse to consider geography as an impediment to our more meaningful aspirations.
When I started my program at Cranfield five years ago, the two of us had just met and
Chris was working in Conakry, Guinea. For us, the last five years were above all the
journey of becoming closer and finding that we are home to each other wherever we
are together. I will forever be grateful to Chris for the generosity with which he made
space in his life for both me and my mobile PhD desk. A terse thinker and a
philosopher in spirit and by education, Chris has become an integral part of the
dialectic of my mind. When I struggled most, Chris kept me going--by reminding me of
the mantra ‘one day at a time’, by nudging me to put work aside for a weekend hike,
and by baking delicious gluten-free scones. This thesis and much more would simply
not exist without him.
Throughout the years, my sister Eleonora and brother Carlo have been my best friends.
With their wisdom, sense of humor and growing expertise, in psychology and
jurisprudence respectively, they have provided advice, encouragement and inspiration
to my efforts.
I would like to thank those people without whom this research project would not have
started. Thunderbird (Arizona, USA) Professor Mary Teagarden is an inspiring picture
of what academic work can be like when you love your work. Thunderbird Associate
Professor Mary Sully de Luque generously had me as her research assistant for one
term after my MBA graduation. During that time, I had the honor of lending some very
modest help to Phase 3 of the cross-cultural Global Leadership and Organizational
Behavior Effectiveness (GLOBE) study. At the same time, I received from Mary
invaluable advice and got started on building some research experience. My closest
friend and MBA colleague Jessica Vandermark had a key role in my application to the
Cranfield program: she helped me think through and edited my research proposal and
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encouraged me with the cheerful but sound optimism that is so very hers. I would also
like to thank Keith Nisbett, a Cranfield MBA and formerly part of the Thunderbird
Consulting Network, and Dr. Ruth Barratt, Clinical Assistant Professor at the W.P. Carey
Business School (Arizona State University). Both Keith and Ruth kindly reviewed my
research proposal and shared with me about their experience at Cranfield.
I would also like to thank people without whom this research project would not have
been completed. To start with, thanks to my PhD Review Panel, and especially Prof.
Donna Ladkin and Dr. Javier Marcos-Cuevas, for balancing challenge and support. I am
grateful to Sheena Darby, Prof. Kakabadse’s personal assistant, for her positive and
humorous attitude that made every visit to her office an uplifting experience. Thanks
also to Wendy Habgood, PhD Programme Manager at the Cranfield School of
Management, whose professionalism is second only to her kindness. My gratitude
goes to Praxis Director Mary Mills, for her open door, transformative listening, and
most on point guidance. I am grateful for the trust Mary showed me in letting me
conduct research on Cranfield’s Praxis programs. Attending Praxis programs has been
invaluable for my personal development. In this respect, heartfelt thanks go to my
OIPS tutors Andy Logan and Sally Potter and to all fellow delegates of the Spring 2009
OIPS cohort—especially to Alastair Scott who, together with his family, has become a
very close friend.
I am very grateful to Ido and Daniela Van der Heijden, the two lead PTFL tutors. Ido
and Daniela have welcomed my research and made themselves available for a number
of conversations. They helped me understand their work while never becoming
evangelists for their approach. I appreciate the trust that Ido and Daniela have
extended to me by proposing that I assist in some of the PTFL programs. Since then, I
have been learning tremendously and Ido has become a precious mentor and a friend.
I also would like to thank Paul Harvey, my Yoga teacher in Bristol, for all the times
during his lectures when his words stirred a little epiphany, recalibrated my
understanding of myself, and perhaps gave me a glimpse into the mysteries of human
psychology. Many thanks to Dr. Andrey Pavlov, a good friend and Cranfield colleague.
During the last five years when I lost my direction, Andrey, who is an admirably clear
and systematic thinker, never hesitated to share his insights with me and help me to
see how to move forward.
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LIST OF CONTENTS
Abstract..............................................................................................................................ii
1. Introduction to the research .................................................................................... 1
1.1 Research rationale ............................................................................................. 1
1.1.1 Research motivation, aim and objectives .................................................. 1
1.1.2 Leadership .................................................................................................. 2
1.1.3 Leadership development ............................................................................ 2
1.1.4 Adult development ..................................................................................... 3
1.1.5 Summary of research problem ................................................................... 4
1.1.6 The research context .................................................................................. 4
1.1.7 Research question ...................................................................................... 5
1.2 Research approach ............................................................................................ 6
1.2.1 Philosophy .................................................................................................. 6
1.2.2 Methodology .............................................................................................. 6
1.2.3 Limitations due to literature review strategies .......................................... 7
1.2.4 Design ....................................................................................................... 11
1.2.5 Assessing development ............................................................................ 12
1.3 Research outcomes .......................................................................................... 15
1.3.1 A synthesis of findings .............................................................................. 15
1.3.2 Contributions ............................................................................................ 19
2. A review of the literature ........................................................................................ 23
2.1 Overview .......................................................................................................... 23
2.2 Leadership ........................................................................................................ 24
2.2.1 Significance of leadership ......................................................................... 24
2.2.2 Locating the individual in leadership ........................................................ 24
2.2.3 A working definition of leadership ........................................................... 25
2.3 Leadership development ................................................................................. 27
2.3.1 Significance of leadership development .................................................. 27
2.3.2 Locating the individual in leadership development ................................. 27
2.3.3 A working definition of leadership development ..................................... 31
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2.4 Adult development .......................................................................................... 32
2.4.1 Significance of adult development ........................................................... 32
2.4.2 A working definition of adult development ............................................. 32
2.4.3 Universal and idiosyncratic patterns in adult development .................... 33
2.4.4 Constructive-Developmental (CD) theory ................................................ 37
2.4.5 The role of sensemaking in adult development ....................................... 43
2.4.6 Summary ................................................................................................... 46
2.5 Conclusion: research problem and research questions .................................. 48
3. Research Philosophy and Methodology ................................................................. 49
3.1 Overview .......................................................................................................... 49
3.2 Research philosophy ........................................................................................ 50
3.2.1 A perspective idealist ontology ................................................................ 50
3.2.2 A social constructivist epistemology ........................................................ 52
3.3 Research paradigm: philosophical hermeneutics ............................................ 57
3.4 Methodological choices ................................................................................... 61
3.4.1 Longitudinal qualitative research ............................................................. 61
3.4.2 Exploratory research ................................................................................ 62
3.4.3 Purposive sampling ................................................................................... 63
3.4.4 The research context ................................................................................ 65
3.4.5 Constructivist-phenomenological semi-structured interviews ................ 69
3.4.6 Constructivist grounded theory................................................................ 71
3.4.7 Ethical implications ................................................................................... 74
3.4.8 Researcher bias ......................................................................................... 77
3.4.9 Validity ...................................................................................................... 81
3.5 Assessing developmental outcomes: a framework of personal development 84
3.5.1 Assessing developmental change ............................................................. 84
3.5.2 Assessing non-developmental change ..................................................... 87
4. Findings ................................................................................................................... 92
4.1 Overview .......................................................................................................... 92
4.2 Developmental outcomes ................................................................................ 96
4.2.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 96
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