Project Work on the Role of Higher Educational Institutions in Organization Leadership Development
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Date
2007-07
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
“Whoever heard of a world manager? World leader, yes. Education leader, yes. Political leader. Religious leader. Football leader. Community leader and Business leader” John C. Maxwell, Developing the Leader within You. Organizations which achieve sustainable growth ascribe their success mainly to their competent leaders who set direction and lead the organization towards it by maximizing the organization’s competitive advantage and minimizing its risk. Leadership is not exclusive club for those who were “born with it” rather leadership is a set of behavioral skills which can be developed. Even though approaches to leadership development vary due to the complexity of leadership and particular need assessment, three forms of leadership development: formal training, experience (developmental activities), and self-help activities.
In Ethiopian context, it seems that organizational leadership development is not in short supply rather it is not supplied at all. Government and non-government higher educational institutions are flourishing; however, none of them are engaged in organizational leadership development at program level or offers leadership as a course in postgraduate program except International Leadership Institute that facilitates Azuza Pacific (California based) University’s Masters Degree in Organizational Leadership and offer BachelorDegree in Organization Management. With such shortage of qualified human resources in organization leadership, organization success in today’s turbulent environment is doubtful. To this effect leadership concept is not understood by most organization members in Ethiopia. The two main reasons identified for lack of conceptual understanding in leadership are absence of higher educational institutions on leadership and lack of training on leadership. Organization members do not recognize the importance of leadership for their organization’s success mainly due to belief that power is more important than effective leadership and consideration of management and leadership as one and the same. The education on leadership offered by Azuza Pacific University’s and facilitated by International Leadership Institute is said excellent in terms of course content, teaching methodology, academic staff capacity, and duration of the program. Grading system, follow-up and feed back mechanism, and reference materials availability are relatively the weak areas of ILI. The leadership program of Azuza Pacific University is said to be very expensive and is not adequate to meet the very high demand for organizational leadership development in Ethiopia. The main option cited is for both government and Non-government Higher Educational Institutions to engage in organizational leadership development.
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Role of Higher Educational Institutions