Chameleon leaders? : the influence of context on leadership in Australian private providers

The current environment of increasing contestability, moves towards a more interconnected tertiary sector and rapid expansion in provider numbers presents leaders of private registered training organisations (RTOs) with opportunities and challenges. This paper analyses leaders’ perceptions of the challenges they face and how they adapt to meet them, in order to show how organisational context impacts on their leadership. In-depth interviews were held in situ with 34 personnel in 16 private RTOs (five commercial, six enterprise and five industry) across New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia. The organisations were selected to obtain a broad coverage of different types, particularly in terms of geographical location and types of industry they serve. The leaders exemplified the complex and contextual nature of the work that being a leader in VET entails. Their leadership was shaped by the operating conditions in which their organisations were located, including the state of the business and its position vis-à-vis the competition with other providers. The decisions they made and the way their work unfolded could only be understood within their particular context