Developing Employees’ Mental Complexity: Transformational Leadership as a Catalyst in Employee Development

Abstract

As organizations grapple with greater complexity in the competitive business environment, more work is needed to understand how to create a human capability equal to the challenge. Research on adult learning suggests that increasing mental complexity, an individual's system for processing information and making sense of their environment, can be a valuable way to help individuals become more adaptive in a complex environment and enhance performance. While there is evidence that this human capability can grow over time, individual growth does not come without considerable effort, and such growth can be facilitated by the right contextual factors. In this article, we examine the role of leaders in employee development. Synthesizing literature from adult learning and transformational leadership, we lay out a theoretical framework for why transformational leadership and its corresponding behaviors can serve as a mechanism to encourage developmental movement within an employee and increase mental complexity. We discuss the implications for human resource development.

Supervisory coaching and performance feedback as mediators of the relationships between leadership styles, work engagement, and turnover intention

“…Findings from the study further support the role of transformational leadership on employee development not only from the Western perspective but also from the Eastern perspective. To summarize, transformational leadership, rather than transactional leadership, is able to develop employees' mental complexity through necessary guidance and feedback across cultural contexts (Crane and Hartwell 2018;Dong et al 2017).…”

Transformational leadership and human resource development: Linking employee learning, job satisfaction, and organizational performance

“…The potential for TL to play a significant role in the achievement of organizational performance through support of HRD appears to be a growing theme in the existing HRD literature (Crane & Hartwell, 2018; Gillet & Vandenberghe, 2014; Han, Seo, Li, & Yoon, 2016; Jeong et al, 2016; Kim & Kim, 2017; Park, Song, Yoon, & Kim, 2013; Sheehan, Garavan, & Moreley, 2020). However, despite marked increases in TL‐related research and publications overall, TL has rarely been examined empirically in relation to either HRD or measured organizational performance outcomes.…”

HRD Scholarship: Trends, Reality, and Opportunities

“…In closing, I am excited to present the four articles included in this issue, each of which contributes to advancing our vision for HRDR. All four articles address the top concerns of business and industry, aligned with those revealed by Deloitte's annual surveys-transformational leadership for employee development (Article 1 by Crane & Hartwell, 2018), technology in HRD (Article 2 by Oh & Huang, 2018), work design (Article 3 by Lee & Lee, 2018), and quality of work life (Article 4 by Beigi, Shirmohammadi, & Stuart, 2018). In addition, I am excited to present alternative ways of analyzing literature, for example, qualitative metasynthesis as illustrated in Article 4 (Beigi et al).…”