Leading Us Forward: Leadership Development Programs and the Leaders of the Future

Abstract

Leadership development programs have exploded in popularity across Canadian Post-Secondary Institutions. These programs are free, offer no degree or formal accreditation, and yet universities and funders are pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into them. This paper seeks to address what these programs teach and why. Using Semi-structured interviews with creators and facilitators of post-secondary leadership development programs, this research works to understand how they view the programs and how post-secondary institutions view these programs. Risk society theory is applied to the data to make sense of why change is the most prominent intended outcome, how self-actualization is used, and why post-secondary institutions want to address global complexity.