BUS603: Managing People

The link between leadership styles and subordinate professional development concepts is supported by different theories of literature. On the one hand, studies in the area of learning at work indicate that social support - received from the manager and co-workers - has relevance for the transference of learning to work. On the other hand, the concept of knowledge management associates the performance of management with the development of the intellectual capital of companies. Thus, defines knowledge management as the process of embracing knowledge as a strategic asset to boost sustainable business advantage and promote an approach to identify, capture, evaluate, improve, and share its intellectual capital.

Thus, the emphasis on knowledge management was directed to the level of work teams. The actions of leaders, team members, and the organization as a whole act as catalysts for knowledge management. Leadership performance is, therefore, a potentiating element in the generation, development, and sharing of knowledge in teams. In this way, the leadership that encourages a culture oriented to learning, innovation, and open communication contributes to dynamize the processes of professional development of subordinates. Thus, a leadership style oriented toward learning and knowledge encourages innovation and the sharing of knowledge, encouraging open communication and team development.

In addition, social interaction and the leader's ability to influence subordinates are considered key elements in leadership theories. In this sense, a transformational style of leadership - aimed at the positive influence of subordinates - would be directly associated with the processes of professional and personal development of subordinates. But what elements of transformational leadership would be present in this process of favoring the development of team members? Could supportive leadership and developmental leadership contribute to such a process?

On the one hand, the supportive leadership is one that provides emotional, informational, instrumental, and appraisal support to followers, emphasizing the emotional support, which involves the provision of sympathy, evidence of liking, caring, and listening. So, supportive leadership is associated with leaders who express concern for, and take account of, followers' needs and preferences when making decisions.

On the other hand, developmental leadership is associated with individualized consideration, one of the most important dimensions of the transformational leadership. This point involves behaviors identified in the mentoring literature, such as career counseling, careful observation of staff, recording followers' progress, and encouraging followers to attend technical courses.

Both developmental leadership and supportive leadership have effects of professional development of subordinates, but the effects are not equal. Developmental leadership displayed stronger relationships with job satisfaction, career certainty, affective commitment to the organization, and role breadth self-efficacy than did supportive leadership. In this sense, investing in developmental leadership can bring better results for the professional development of work team members.

But beyond understanding what leadership style can be most effective for the professional development of subordinates, it is also important to know how leaders can contribute to this development process. Considering that professional development depends essentially on formal and informal actions of learning at work, it is important that leadership stimulates these two areas. From the point of view of formal learning actions, there has been an investment in corporate universities that fulfill the function of establishing a theoretical and methodological reference for the educational practice, defining the vision of the professional wanted in the organization and the pedagogical guideline of educational actions to be developed. In this sense, leaders can provide learning opportunities for workers through a broad set of training and development actions, including preparation for new positions in the future.

And in addition to formal workplace education, the leaders also can stimulate the informal learning with actions that are non-systematized, spontaneous, and natural. Literature in the area of learning in organizations supports the theoretical premise that the psychosocial support of peers and bosses to the use of new skills and innovation in individuals' work routines is an important variable to support natural learning in organizations. In this sense, leaders can foster a learning culture as a gradual, cumulative, and ongoing process with structured learning experiences.

This is important because it is estimated that 90% of work-based learning comes from informal processes that are outside the curricula of educational programs. In this sense, it is up to the leaders to understand that learning at work can occur from a question answered by a more experienced colleague, through daily observation, or reading the books and documents of the organization. Thus, the leader needs to create a work environment that can be considered a space of continuous production and sharing of collective knowledge, since this type of environment provides an informal learning process parallel to the actions of the training system.

So, there are basically three fields in which leaders can act to contribute to the professional development of subordinates. The first involves strategic management and concerns the development of a work environment conducive to learning and commitment. This environment should be aligned with people management policies that favor learning paths, error management - with the understanding that they bring learning - and knowledge management. It is important for leaders to understand the importance of investing in systemic communication and technology systems that foster peer collaboration. But probably one of the most important aspects is to have shared goals with the work teams and to carry out empowerment that leads to the commitment of the employees and the perception of each one of their importance in the organization.

The second field of action concerns the encouragement of formal learning actions, and the role of leaders is the intellectual stimulation of the team. Training and development actions may take place in different modalities such as distance education, face-to-face or blended learning, and should aim at preparing for the current positions of subordinates and also for future positions that they may occupy in their careers. Qualification strategies should be diversified, including in-service training, continuing education programs, and mentoring programs. In addition, it is also valid to create communities of practice and seek to develop partnerships with scientific societies in order to offer constant challenges and growth possibilities for employees.

Finally, the third field of action refers to the encouragement of informal learning for which the leader must inspire subordinates. The promotion of informal learning goes from the establishment of multidisciplinary teams - which enrich the quality of the exchanges in the group - to the valuation of concrete experiences and reflective observation, which characterize experiential learning. It is important in this context that there is an incentive to social interaction and experimentation of solutions, which favor learning. Figure 2 summarizes the contributions that leaders can make to the professional development of subordinates, pointing out the theoretical bases, the fields of action, and the aspects involved in this process.

Figure 2. Contributions of leaders to the professional development of subordinates.