The dark side of leadership development: An exploration of the possible downsides of leadership
development
Sammanfattning
In principle, leadership development may have positive effects, negative effects, or no effects at
all. The present study aims to explore the potential negative effects of leadership development. We
approach this issue with three studies. The first study develops theoretical reasons to expect
negative effects and provides a qualitative description of such instances based on 14 semi-
structured interviews with people witnessing negative effects. The second study is a quantitative
assessment of the prevalence of negative effects. While 97.4% of 189 managers responding to an
anonymous survey have experienced positive effects from developmental activities, 63% of them
have also experienced instances they deemed wasted or ineffective, and 37% have witnessed actual
negative effects. A small but distinct group (13% of the entire sample and 36% of those witnessing
negative effects) reported detrimental effects on mental health and private life. The third study
explores the evaluation practices of 143 companies to examine why negative leadership
development interventions may persist. The data indicates that negative effects co-exist with a lack
of systematic evaluation practices. Our findings suggest that a combination of insufficient evaluation
with outsourcing of leadership development activities may render organizations susceptible to fads.
In turn, the chance of exposing participants to ineffective and even harmful experiences increases.