Driven by the forces of globalization, the sweeping developments of recent decades have prompted changes in societal perceptions of leadership. The meaning of the concept itself has changed so dramatically that public leadership does not mean public-sector leadership anymore as the sectoral boundaries have been crossed to include individuals from the private and nonprofit sectors, civic leaders, and community volunteers involved in addressing pressing social, economic, and environmental problems (Luke, 1998). And yet, the chain of recent, universally acknowledged public sector leadership failures indicate that lack of leadership in public organizations is, if not immediately apparent, quite real. Increasingly, leadership quality is being linked to leadership training and development. In particular, an approach to leadership development and selection that is gaining momentum under “the pervasive influence” of New Public Management in the US and a number of other countries (Mau, 2009) is based on a set of identifiable personal characteristics called competencies. This research offers an analysis of competency-based approaches and addresses the need for better articulation of leadership models to ensure a better fit with the public sector (Trottier et al., 2008). The purpose of this theory-building exercise has been to create an integrated model of public-sector leadership competencies that could be used as a template in developing a leadership training program for public sector executives and/or managers. Exploratory in nature and qualitative in terms of methodology, the research offers a phenomenological perspective and provides critical assessment of the competency movement’s place within the processes transforming public service. Grounding the analysis in the existing leadership and public administration literature, I ask the questions: How well does the competency-based approach serve the mission of producing public leaders capable of sustaining high performance in their work communities—departmental units or agencies? And is it capable of capturing and integrating new and emerging competencies as they appear? The synthesis of selected competency models into the integrated model brings the disparate and disjointed language of competency modeling one step closer to a common denominator, thus deepening our understanding of this phenomenon. It also responds to the perceived need to further develop competency-based theory of leadership and contributes, through the advancement of the topic, to the improvement of our civil service and its leadership cadre’s training and development.
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Public Administration (SPAA)
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Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
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