The importance of balance in leadership development: Lessons from a study of railways in Australia
Human Resource Management International Digest
ISSN: 0967-0734
Article publication date: 1 June 2012
Abstract
Purpose
Describes research on the development of leaders in Australian rail organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
Details five areas where the “complementarity” contained in the Chinese yin and yang philosophy could help to restore balance in modern leadership.
Findings
Highlights the importance of balancing: principles and practices; technical and people skills; hard and soft skills; formal and informal learning; and self and others.
Practical implications
Advances the view that these five balances are relevant the world over; one aspect of leadership and management cannot live without the other, yet each aspect lives within the other.
Social implications
Demonstrates a way forward for management development at a time when the need for leadership development, capability building and talent management have reached dangerously low levels across the world and the position will deteriorate as baby‐boomers retire and leave behind a leadership “black hole”.
Originality/value
Postulates that one aspect of leadership and management cannot live without the other, yet each aspect lives within the other.
Keywords
Citation
Short, T. (2012), "The importance of balance in leadership development: Lessons from a study of railways in Australia", Human Resource Management International Digest, Vol. 20 No. 4, pp. 36-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/09670731211233357
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2012, Emerald Group Publishing Limited