Jeffrey Yip

Threshold concepts and modalities for teaching leadership practice

Can the teaching of leadership transform practice? What concepts and modalities are best suited to do so? This article builds on Meyer and Land’s (2003) theory of threshold concepts to examine how students learn and experience leadership as a complex and multi-faceted practice. Threshold concepts are conceptual gateways, opening up new and previously inaccessible ways of thinking about a field. In an ethnographic account using participant observation, analysis of student papers, and in-depth interviews, the authors identified two threshold concepts that had a transformational impact on students: (1) situational leadership and (2) shared leadership. In addition, they found three modalities that supported the learning of threshold concepts: (1) variation, (2) enactment, and (3) reflection. The article concludes by citing the broader implications for the research and teaching of leadership practice.

Metaphors of Identity and Professional Practice Learning From the Scholar–Practitioner

Historically, professional identity was viewed as a singular construct, and the boundary-spanning dynamics of subidentities remained unexamined. More recently, identity scholars have paved the way to consider the multiple personal and social identities that comprise an individual’s professional identity. These dynamics are exemplified by the unique challenges that scholar–practitioners regularly encounter. To deepen understanding of variations in how scholar–practitioners enact their professional identity, we interviewed young scholar–practitioners who completed their doctorates in the past 7 years, as well as seasoned scholar–practitioners with at least 20 years of experience. We elicited metaphors from the interviewees to explore the complexities of their professional identity and subidentities and the challenges that scholar–practitioners face at different stages of career development. We offer implications for the future socialization of scholar–practitioners and others in boundary-spanning roles.

Developmental Networks: Enhancing the Science and Practice of Mentoring

Historically, mentoring has been conceived of as a transformative relationship in which an experienced person helps a less experienced person realize their personal and professional goals (Kram, 1985; Levinson, 1978). It has also been traditionally perceived of as a dyadic relationship between a mentor and a protégé. Yet, research indicates that a single mentor is not sufficient to meet a person’s developmental needs, particularly in today’s volatile, uncertain and fast-paced work environment (Baugh and Scandura, 1999; Murphy and Kram, 2014). The people who are actively involved in helping others to develop, generally include both formal and informal mentors from a variety of sectors and settings. This suggests that mentoring occurs across multiple developmental relationships in a constellation that has been described as a developmental network (Higgins and Kram, 2001). In this chapter, we review research on mentoring as a developmental network and provide suggestions for future research. In particular, we examine how research on developmental networks can enhance the understanding of mentoring through a focus on mentoring functions as they occur across multiple developmental relationships. A person’s developmental network may include one or more formal mentors and may also include other developmental partners, such as a boss who provides developmental opportunities, a junior colleague or subordinate who has deeper expertise of value to the person, or a family member who provides personal and professional counsel. A particular developmental network is defined by the person who is common to all of the relationships. Defined as the ‘focal person’, this individual defines members of the developmental network by enlisting and/or acknowledging the help they provide. Those involved in supporting the individual are described as developers and their individual interactions with the focal individual as developmental relationships. This chapter begins with a review of current research on developmental networks and