Leadership development needs of today’s organizational managers

Reveals that the need to develop leadership capacity among organizational managers has been on the increase since the early 1990s. Two of the major factors generating this need are the advent of the quality movement with its dependence on teams, and the widespread incidence of organizational flattening that has eliminated many middle management positions. Today’s organizational managers need leadership skills to develop high performing teams and to cover the wider spans of control left in the wake of downsizing. Presents the experience of one quality‐conscious, downsized, team‐based organization as a case study on leadership development needs among today’s beleaguered managers. Notes that there are two primary outputs: first, presents the process by which the case study organization identified its leadership development needs. Second, provides the findings from the identification process within the case study organization. These findings, while not universally applicable, present an initial list of potential leadership development needs among today’s organizational managers.