Human Resources Development

In the twenty first century, leaders are required to create a greater impression in which people believe in strategy, trust in management decisions, and trust in their organisation. Once people believe in management choice, there will be enthusiasm and direction inside an organisation. Such an environment helps the organisation expand and flourish. As employee loyalty steadily declines and increased value is placed on intangible organisational assets such as human capital, creating a learning environment where organisations facilitate the training and development and retention of new managers and leaders is vital to the survival of organisations as they must adapt to rapid global changes in current times. According to Robbins et al. (2011) ‘The entire process that organisations go through to fill management positions is essentially an exercise in trying to identify an effective leader’. Therefore, because ‘Organisations spend billions of dollars on leadership training and development’ (Robbins et al., 2011, pp. 353), it is vital for organisations to thoroughly understand this training and development process and create the most cost-effective and successful strategic training programs which facilitate a learning environment that develops new visionaries and leaders. These visionaries and leaders will be the future of the organisation. This literature will be covering what factors or attributes contribute to a person’s effectiveness as a leader and what sort of training and development exercises and activities might increase such attributes in people aspiring to a leadership role within organisations.

Leadership and management are often confused. Managers are needed to formulate detailed plans and oversee day-to-day operations by controlling, leading, organising and planning organisational resources. Leaders are needed to create visions of the future and inspire organisational members to want to achieve the visions and act upon them. Robbins et al. (2011) define leadership as ‘the ability to influence a group towards the achievement of a vision or set of goals’. DeJanasz et al. (2012) propose that leadership is ‘a process of social influence to move individuals and groups toward goal achievement’.

According to DeJanasz et al. (2012) the characteristics of an effective leader comprise of five basic elements. Leaders must; Challenge the process. Some of the most successful leaders take risks, challenge convention and ignore rules. They must inspire a shared vision. Effective leaders appeal to group members’ values, beliefs, and emotions motivating them to align themselves with a mission that reflects the greater good. Leaders enable others to act. They share information and power with collaborators, empowering them for the collective good. Effective leaders Model the way. Leader’s power is granted by those who follow so they must ‘walk the talk’ and be trust worthy. Leaders encourage the heart.