School-business partnerships for organisational leadership development

Leadership and how it is developed have become a top priority for almost all organisations, particularly schools and business organisations, to survive and secure growth (Bolden, 2004). Equally, the concept of partnership has become a panacea for solving complex and ‘wicked’ problems in diverse organisations (Armistead, 2007). This study therefore investigates how school-business partnerships could serve as alternative means for organisational leadership development. The study is principally influenced by earlier work in the leadership development field by Day (2000) and Allen and Hartman (2008). Following a review of literature on leadership and partnership, four main sub-questions were formulated. An explanatory multi-case mixed-methods research design (Yin, 1984) was adopted to answer these questions, using qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection – interviews and survey questionnaire – in two schools and two banks in the South-East of England. Data analysis was carried out in two stages – within-case and cross-case analyses (Yin, 1994) – and the data combined to provide composite research findings. The key finding and main original contribution of this study to knowledge is that school-business partnership activities that promote experiential leadership learning experiences can support organisational leadership development. The study identifies twenty-five (25) different learning approaches which enable members of the organisation to develop four main experiential leadership learning experiences: spiritual, emotional, academic and practical leadership competencies. Some of these learning approaches are found in existing literature on leadership development including leadership apprenticeship, job placement, job mixing, degree programmes as well as online learning, action learning and reflections. Other leadership learning approaches such as recitals, records of enlightenment, counselling, reflections, story-telling and themes from the Bible are found to be new to literature in the leadership development field