Manager Teaching to Enhance Leadership Learning and Effectiveness

“Development of others” appears consistently in leadership competency frameworks; managers are now being asked to think of themselves as teachers in addition to their myriad other roles. Little empirical evidence however seems to exist that managers who teach their employees learn to lead better, generate more employee satisfaction and are indeed more effective than those who do not. Twenty managers and forty-three of their employees participated in this study. Data were collected from both groups before and after the managers attended a workshop designed using activity systems theory. Results indicate that employee perceptions are positively influenced by manager teaching, managers can learn to be situational leaders and that post-workshop teaching by managers to employees facilitates manager learning and leadership effectiveness. This supports the view that managing, leading, teaching and learning are interdependent elements within the same activity system. Suggestions for future research are provided.