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Journal of Applied Psychology 2017, Vol. 102, No. 12, 1686 –1718 © 2017 American Psychological Association 0021-9010/17/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000241 Leadership Training Design, Delivery, and Implementation: A Meta-Analysis Christina N. Lacerenza, Denise L. Reyes, and Shannon L. Marlow Dana L. Joseph University of Central Florida Rice University Eduardo Salas This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. Rice University Recent estimates suggest that although a majority of funds in organizational training budgets tend to be allocated to leadership training (Ho, 2016; O’Leonard, 2014), only a small minority of organizations believe their leadership training programs are highly effective (Schwartz, Bersin, & Pelster, 2014), calling into question the effectiveness of current leadership development initiatives. To help address this issue, this meta-analysis estimates the extent to which leadership training is effective and identifies the conditions under which these programs are most effective. Strayer PSY 838 Week 6 360 Degree Feedback Discussion

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In doing so, we estimate the effectiveness of leadership training across four criteria (reactions, learning, transfer, and results; Kirkpatrick, 1959) using only employee data and we examine 15 moderators of training design and delivery to determine which elements are associated with the most effective leadership training interventions. Data from 335 independent samples suggest that leadership training is substantially more effective than previously thought, leading to improvements in reactions (␦ ⫽ .63), learning (␦ ⫽ .73), transfer (␦ ⫽ .82), and results (␦ ⫽ .72), the strength of these effects differs based on various design, delivery, and implementation characteristics. Moderator analyses support the use of needs analysis, feedback, multiple delivery methods (especially practice), spaced training sessions, a location that is on-site, and face-to-face delivery that is not self-administered. Results also suggest that the content of training, attendance policy, and duration influence the effectiveness of the training program. Practical implications for training development and theoretical implications for leadership and training literatures are discussed. Keywords: leadership training, leadership development, management, development, meta-analysis Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000241.supp Corporate Learning, Dale Carnegie Training, Wilson Learning) and evidence suggesting that organizational funds spent on leadership training are increasing over time (Gibler, Carter, & Goldsmith, 2000), organizations continue to report a lack of leadership skills among their employees; only 13% of organizations believe they have done a quality job training their leaders (Schwartz et al., 2014). Similarly, some have pointed out a substantial leadership deficit (Leslie, 2009) and have noted that organizations are “. . . not developing enough leaders” and “. . . not equipping the leaders they are building with the critical capabilities and skills they need to succeed” (Schwartz et al., 2014, p. 26). This calls into question the general utility of current leadership development initiatives.

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As Wakefield, Abbatiello, Agarwal, Pastakia, and van Berkel (2016) note “simply spending more money on leadership programs is unlikely to be enough. To deliver a superior return on investment (ROI), leadership spending must be far more focused on and targeted at what works . . . with a focus on evidence and results” (p. 32). In response to this call for a focused investigation of leadership training, the purpose of the current study is to provide scientists and practitioners with data-driven recommendations for effective leadership training programs that are based on a metaanalytic investigation of 335 leadership training evaluation studies. In doing so, we attempt to unpack the black box of what works in “Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other” –(John F. Kennedy, 35th President of the United States). In 2015, organizations in the United States spent an average of $1,252 per employee on training, and the largest share of this training budget was allocated to leadership training, making leadership the greatest training focus for today’s organizations (Ho, 2016). As such, leadership development is an essential strategic priority for organizations. Despite the number of organizations devoted to leadership training (e.g., Harvard Business Publishing This article was published Online First July 27, 2017. Christina N. Lacerenza, Denise L. Reyes, and Shannon L. Marlow, Department of Psychology, Rice University; Dana L. Joseph, Department of Management, University of Central Florida; Eduardo Salas, Department of Psychology, Rice University. This work was supported, in part, by research grants from the Ann and John Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University. We also thank Fred Oswald for his helpful comments on an earlier version of this article. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Christina N. Lacerenza, who is now at the Leeds School of Business, University of Colorado Boulder, 995 Regent Dr, Boulder, CO 80309. E-mail: christina.lacerenza@colorado.edu 1686 This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly.

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LEADERSHIP TRAINING: A META-ANALYSIS the design, delivery, and implementation of leadership training. That is, we attempt to answer the questions (a) How effective are leadership training programs? and (b) How should one design, deliver, and implement a leadership training program to maximize effectiveness? The current study addresses these two questions by metaanalytically summarizing leadership training research. In our examination of the factors that contribute to leadership training program effectiveness, we offer several contributions to the science of leadership development and training. First, the current study provides a meta-analytic estimate of the effectiveness of leadership training across a wide span of years (1951–2014) and organizations. We note that this literature has been previously meta-analyzed (i.e., Avolio, Reichard, Hannah, Walumbwa, & Chan, 2009; Burke & Day, 1986; Collins & Holton, 2004; Powell & Yalcin, 2010; Taylor, Russ-Eft, & Taylor, 2009b); however, the Burke and Day (1986) meta-analysis, which is arguably the most comprehensive meta-analytic investigation of leadership training to date, only included studies published through 1982, which excludes the majority of available leadership training studies. Relatedly, Collins and Holton (2004) only added 13 additional studies to Burke and Day’s (1986) meta-analytic database after conducting their own literature search. Powell and Yalcin’s (2010) meta-analytic investigation only included private sector employees, thereby limiting the ability to generalize findings to other populations. Moreover, Avolio, Reichard, et al. (2009) metaanalysis was limited to 37 primary studies, and Taylor, Russ-Eft, and Taylor’s (2009b) meta-analysis only included studies that assessed training transfer.1 It is clear that a plethora of research within this area has yet to be meta-analyzed; thus, we have included more recent publications to obtain an accurate account of the current state of the field (i.e., our meta-analysis includes over three times the amount of primary studies than reported in the largest previously published meta-analysis). Strayer PSY 838 Week 6 360 Degree Feedback Discussion

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Second, we empirically test moderators of leadership training that have yet to be investigated in order to identify characteristics of the most effective leadership training programs. Although existing work has investigated as many as eight moderators of leadership training program effectiveness, the current study examines 15 moderators of leadership training program effectiveness that will provide those who develop leadership training programs a comprehensive understanding of how to design, deliver, and implement effective programs. Lastly, the current study makes use of updated meta-analytic techniques when combining across study designs to accommodate different types of primary study designs (Morris & DeShon, 2002). Such methods were not used in previous metaanalyses; past authors either excluded certain design types (Burke & Day, 1986), or conducted separate meta-analytic investigations for each design type (Avolio, Reichard, et al., 2009; Collins & Holton, 2001; Powell & Yalcin, 2010). One exception to this is the meta-analytic investigation by Taylor et al. (2009b); however, this study only evaluated training transfer and did not include trainee reactions, learning, or results as outcomes. Using these updated techniques results in a more accurate estimate of the effect of leadership training, and also allows for stronger causal inferences than typical, crosssectional meta-analyses (because all the studies included in the 1687 meta-analysis are either repeated measures or experimental designs). Leadership Training Defined To begin, we define leadership training programs as programs that have been systematically designed to enhance leader knowledge, skills, abilities, and other components (Day, 2000). Parallel to previous investigations, we include all forms of leader, managerial, and supervisory training/development programs and/or workshops in our definition of leadership training programs (e.g., Burke & Day, 1986; Collins & Holton, 2004). Although we use the term “leadership training” as an umbrella term to refer to many forms of leader development/training, we discuss potential differences among various forms of leadership training below.

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Leadership training is traditionally focused on developing “. . . the collective capacity of organizational members to engage effectively in leadership roles and processes” (Day, 2000, p. 582). Roles refer to both formal and informal authority positions, and processes represent those that facilitate successful group and organizational performance (Day, 2000). Beyond this approach, recent research has begun to distinguish between leadership development and leader development (Day, 2000). Leader development represents training initiatives aimed at individual-level concepts, whereas leadership development takes a more integrated approach that involves the interplay between leaders and followers and socially based concepts (Iles & Preece, 2006; Riggio, 2008). Although this difference is recognized, it is often the case that the terms are used interchangeably, and because of this, the current study incorporates leader and leadership training/development evaluation studies. It is also important to address the distinction between managerial training and leadership development. Managerial training and development has been described as “the process by which people acquire various skills and knowledge that increases their effectiveness in a number of ways, which include leading and leadership, guiding, organizing, and influencing others to name a few” (Klein & Ziegert, 2004, p. 228). The objective of a managerial training or development program involves teaching or enhancing managerial skills with the purpose of improving job performance (Goldstein, 1980). Although, theoretically, there may be a distinction between managerial training and leadership training, the terms are often used interchangeably and in the current investigation, managerial training programs are included within our examination of leadership training programs. Executive coaching programs are also included in the current meta-analysis because these programs aid executives (who are leaders) in learning specific skills or behaviors (Witherspoon & White, 1996), which is consistent with our definition of leadership training.

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In summary, the current study takes a similar approach to prior work by including managerial, executive, leader, and leadership training/development programs in our meta-analytic summary. 1 See Table A in the online supplementary material for more information regarding previous meta-analyses. LACERENZA, REYES, MARLOW, JOSEPH, AND SALAS 1688 The Design, Delivery, and Implementation of Leadership Training This document is copyrighted by the American Psychological Association or one of its allied publishers. This article is intended solely for the personal use of the individual user and is not to be disseminated broadly. According to Kirkpatrick (1959), when evaluating training effectiveness, outcomes of training can be categorized into one of four criteria: reactions, learning, transfer, and results. This framework has been adopted in previous leadership training metaanalyses (e.g., Burke & Day, 1986) and other training metaanalyses (e.g., Arthur, Bennett, Edens, & Bell, 2003), and is used in the current study to evaluate training effectiveness. Below, we develop hypotheses based on the extant training, learning, and leadership literature. Reactions Reactions reflect the attitudinal component of effectiveness and consist of trainee attitudes toward the training (e.g., training utility and satisfaction with the training/instructors). As an example, Kohn and Parker (1972) evaluated the reactions of trainees to a management development meeting by asking trainees to rate the extent to which they felt the meeting was of value. According to Patel (2010), 91% of organizational training evaluations collect reaction data, although this is not necessarily reported in published literature nearly as often as it is used in practice. In addition to the popularity of reaction data, this evaluation technique is important to consider when evaluating training effectiveness because it can be a precursor to other desired training outcomes (Hughes et al., 2016; Sitzmann, Brown, Casper, Ely, & Zimmerman, 2008). Strayer PSY 838 Week 6 360 Degree Feedback Discussion

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According to social learning theory (Bandura, 1977; Bandura & Wood, 1989), an individual must be motivated to learn for actual learning to occur, and trainee reactions may serve as an indicator of motivation (i.e., if a trainee does not find a program to be useful, s/he may not be motivated to learn). Similarly, Hughes et al. (2016) tested a sequential model of general training outcomes using meta-analytic data and found support that reactions set the stage for more distal outcomes (i.e., transfer, results). Therefore, reactions may be an important component of a training evaluation because they signal trainee satisfaction, serve as indicators of trainee motivation to learn, and can lead to additional outcomes. Given the popularity and importance of trainee reactions, it is critical to evaluate whether leadership training elicits positive changes in employee reactions (i.e., Does leadership training improve trainees’ perceptions of satisfaction and utility?). Although the idea that employees typically dislike training has been prevalent in popular media (e.g., Kelly, 2012), training literature suggests training generally produces positive reactions (e.g., Brown, 2005) that may stem from employees perceiving training as a form of organizational support. Sitzmann, Brown, Casper, Ely, and Zimmerman (2008) suggest that this may translate into motivation and interest such that employees who perceive a high degree of organizational support will exhibit increased motivation and interest in training, as they believe the organization will subsequently provide the support they need to apply training to the job. Therefore, we argue that although employees’ pretraining perceptions of training utility and satisfaction may be lower given that employees tend to think they will dislike training (Kelly, 2012), these perceptions will increase during training because of the organizational support that is reflected in training, resulting in positive prepost change in training reactions. Although primary studies have begun to investigate the extent to which leadership training results in positive trainee reactions, meta-analytic work has yet to provide an estimate of this effect.

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As such, we examine this in the current effort and hypothesize: Hypothesis 1a: Leadership training programs have a positive effect on trainee reactions. Learning Learning is “a relatively permanent change in knowledge or skill produced by experience” (Weiss, 1990, p. 172) and it represents what trainees can do following training. According to Kraiger, Ford, and Salas (1993), learning outcomes can be categorized as affective-, cognitive-, or skill-based. Affective learning reflects the acquisition or change in internally based states. Cognitive learning reflects a developmental change in intellectual or mental-based skills. Skill-based, or psychomotor learning, refers to the acquisition of technical or motor-skills. By definition, leadership development programs are designed to produce changes in the ability of trainees to engage in leadership roles and processes by presenting new information (Day, 2000). According to adult learning theory, knowledge acquisition and learning during training may occur because training transforms preexisting schemas, or mental constructions of the world, and challenges assumptions (Mezirow & Taylor, 2009; see also Chen, 2014). For example, the leadership training program described in a study conducted by Unsworth and Mason (2012) involved identifying dysfunctional thinking biases; this strategy encouraged leaders to use more constructive thinking patterns to contend with management challenges and was ultimately found to enhance learning. Given the prior meta-analytic evidence supporting learning as an outcome of leadership training (i.e., Burke & Day, 1986; Collins & Holton, 2001; Powell & Yalcin, 2010), we hypothesize: Hypothesis 1b: Leadership training programs have a positive effect on affective-, cognitive-, and skill-based learning outcomes. Transfer Transfer (behavior) outcomes represent what the trainee will do, and can be conceptualized as the extent to which trainees utilize the skills and abilities taught during training on-the-job, including job performance (Alliger et al., 1997; Baldwin & Ford, 1988; Kirkpatrick, 1959). For instance, Russell, Wexley, and Hunter (1984) evaluated the transfer of trained behaviors in supervisors by collecting ratings on a behaviorally anchored rating scale that involved the quality of the supervisor’s work and how organized s/he was. An obvious primary goal of leadership training is to create a positive behavioral change in leaders on-the-job (Day, 2000). As such, transfer evaluation is critical for the assessment of leadership training effectiveness.

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Interestingly, some scholars have identified a “transfer problem” (Baldwin & Ford, 1988, p. 63) which refers to the tendency for targeted behaviors to fail to transfer to the work environment (Goldstein, 1986). Indeed, some studies have found that training in and of itself does not inherently lead to transfer (e.g., May & Kahnweiler, 2000). However, some degree of transfer is generally expected to occur as a function of training, and the extent to which trained behavior fully transfers to LEADERSHIP TRAINING: A META-ANALYSIS on-the-job behaviors is argued to be contingent upon various training factors (e.g., the moderators discussed below; Baldwin & Ford, 1988). Moreover, empirical and meta-analytic evidence indicates that leadership training does, to some extent, generally evoke transfer of training (Avolio, Rotundo, & Walumbwa, 2009; Burke & Day, 1986). In line with this research, we hypothesize that: Hypothesis 1c: Leadership training programs lead to the transfer of trained affective-, cognitive-, and skill-based concepts. This document is copyrighted by the American Ps … Strayer PSY 838 Week 6 360 Degree Feedback Discussion.