A State of Change: Evaluating the Effectiveness of LEAD Tennessee

Abstract

More and more organizations are looking to become a learning organization, in which they focus more on their employee’s development and put this developmental focus at the forefront of their organization’s initiatives to increase organizational effectiveness. One way that organizations can do this is through the use of leadership development programs that have a variety of components to increase the employee’s skills and development them beyond their current state. The current study empirically evaluates LEAD Tennessee, a state-run leadership development program with an executive coaching component. The results of this study indicate that there is a significant change in time one and time two 360-degree feedback ratings (one year apart) for the manager and peer rating sources, but not for the direct report rating source. Additionally, statistical interactions between the coach and coach gender were examined to determine if certain coaches had an impact on specific rating sources and competencies. These interactions were not significant. Limitations, future research and the overall implications of this study are also discussed.