Abstract
The study's aim is to ascertain the role of contextual influences on leader development among natural scientists in Uganda differ from those of non-scientist leaders in the Ugandan context. The study design, methodology, and approach include a retrospective mixed-methods multi-case comparative case study to examine the leader development lifespan experiences of technical expert scientists holding leadership positions in organizations of different sectors. Purposive sampling was used to select senior expert natural scientists providing sustainability leadership at healthcare organizations, at the Uganda Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry, and Fisheries and affiliate agencies. Non-scientist leaders from Uganda Revenue Authority were included as a comparator group. Findings reveal that scientists experience normative behaviors right from their undergraduate levels only focused on technical skills being devoid of soft skills. Research limitations and implications direct to the need for developing leaders through coaching and mentoring, as well as leadership succession planning.
TopReview Of The Literature
In this section, a review of extant literature is presented. This study highlights a critique of the contextual factors and especially, the theory of planned behavior.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Subjective Norms: Rules that arise from perceived peer pressures to participate or not. For example, a characteristic of technical fields is the despise of social skills training as right-brain skills and an emphasis on learning technical skills as the premium towards performance.
Perceived Behavior Control: A form of influence based on attitudes, beliefs, subjective norms, intentions that focus on the perceptions or situations where the person may desire to participate in development activities but in reality, may feel held back by limitations such as resources.
Self-Efficacy Beliefs: Are fundamental in developing leader efficacy and these principles are embedded in the individual’s confidence levels.
Leader Development: Advancing and improving the set of skills pertaining to the particular individual to fulfil the capacity as a leader through learning intervention strategies of coaching and mentoring.