Building people up: Growth‐oriented leadership in the public sector

Abstract

Public services face increasing and more varied demands, but public service managers often lack the resources to develop their staff to effectively deal with them. This paper identifies how public sector line managers can support their subordinates to not just cope with challenges, but also to grow and develop in the midst of them. It primarily draws on employee attributions of leader effectiveness, to identify growth‐oriented leadership behaviours. The framework is based on empirical data from two sequential phases of interviews, focus groups, and one‐on‐one discussions with employees and managers in the public sector. Five categories of growth‐oriented leadership behaviours were identified: managing the whole team, enabling self‐management, managing safe failures, supporting both career and personal growth, and recognising individual needs and contributions. Causation coding identified a set of processes through which these leadership behaviours supported staff to use networks, learn, and adapt. The developed framework can be used to enhance growth and development of public sector employees.

Growth-oriented management and employee outcomes: employee resilience as a mechanism for growth

“…For instance, a manager that encouraged subordinates to collaborate would spill over to colleagues as the collaboration ensued, further deepening exchanges within both dyads and wider groups (Abu Bakar and Sheer, 2013). Also, the team management capabilities embedded in GOM would directly facilitate and encourage network leveraging, as well as added peer support and opportunities for social learning (Franken et al, 2021). In summary, GOM provides the support, resourcing and opportunities for employees to engage in resilient behaviors, which not only promote growth in employees, but also help the organization to adapt (Walker et al, 2020).…”

“…Wellbeing is understood here as the degree to which an individual judges the overall quality of their life as a whole in a favorable way (Veenhoven, 1991;Boujbel and d'Astous, 2012). Growth-oriented managers show a positive orientation to work, show care for employees as individuals, explicitly recognize employees' strengths and career pathways, and as such, work to improve self-concepts (Franken et al, 2021). A positive self-concept has been identified as a core contributor to psychological well-being (Sirgy, 2021).…”

“…Some functional line manager behaviors can promote growth through well-studied practices including coaching and feedback for task performance (Sue-Chan et al, 2011). Employee growth may also be facilitated through providing social and career support, developing employee confidence and self-concept, and modeling, as well as promoting teamwork and leadership in employees (Franken et al, 2021). Yet, line manager behaviors that foster employee growth have not been adequately addressed from both theoretical and empirical perspectives.…”

“…, 2011). Employee growth may also be facilitated through providing social and career support, developing employee confidence and self-concept, and modeling, as well as promoting teamwork and leadership in employees (Franken et al. , 2021).…”

“…This paper responds to the omissions described above in regard to the development of employee growth, and examines management behaviors specifically geared towards fostering such growth, termed in this paper as growth-oriented management (GOM). We define GOM as “behaviors by line managers to actively build employee capability”, in order “to develop subordinate capabilities that help their own growth and adaptation” (Franken et al. , 2021, p. 662).…”