Developing Diverse, Collaborative Leaders: An Empirical Program Evaluation

Recent work in leadership studies emphasizes the importance of developing leaders who can foster collaboration within diverse workgroups. However, leadership development programs are rarely evaluated using measures that link (a) the program’s theoretical framework, (b) its pedagogical practice, and (c) participants’ changes in specific relevant domains, in comparison to those of a peer group. This study used a quasi-experimental design to empirically evaluate the University of Massachusetts at Boston’s Emerging Leaders Program for its impact on diverse participants coming from corporate and nonprofit sectors in Greater Boston.The program promoted collaborative and inclusive leadership practices among diverse leaders, conceptualized and operationalized using Kouzes and Posner’s Leadership Practices Inventory with instructional methods based in an action learning model. In comparison to a control group, program participants reported greater changes in the frequency of their collaborative leadership behaviors. A critical incident in the program is described using participant observation to illustrate how the program’s reflection-in-action pedagogy promoted collaborative learning in addressing diversity. Implications for research and practice are discussed.