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FOSTERING CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP
EXPLORING LEADERS’ EXPERIENCE OF VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE CONTEXT OF
AN EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP PROGRAM
Bianca Alis Anagnostakis
A Thesis Submitted in Fulfilment of the Degree of Doctor of
Philosophy, 2022
UNIVERSITY OF THE SUNSHINE COAST
School of Business and Creative Industries
Principal Supervisor: Dr Wayne Graham
Co-Supervisor: Dr Susan Simon
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Abstract
In a world rife with disruption and exponentially more complex challenges, the support of
future-fit leadership capabilities requires an evolution of leadership programs: from knowledge
transfer (horizontal development) to transforming mindsets and worldviews (vertical development).
This study explored the mechanisms of vertical development and their implications for leadership
learning and program design. The core research question was: How do leaders experience vertical
development during an executive leadership program?
A dual conceptual framework informed the research: transformative learning (Mälkki, 2019;
Mezirow, 2008) and constructive developmentalism (Cook-Greuter, 2011; Kegan & Lahey, 2009;
Torbert & Taylor, 2008) – both applied to leadership development. The first was chosen for its
practical applications for leadership program design, and the latter for its perspectives on the
continuum of adult development, its stages, and mechanisms for growth. The study aimed to link
transformative learning and constructive developmentalism to better understand leaders’ vertical
development and how to best support it through leadership programs.
The methodology of this research employed a single case study. The case consisted of 35
leaders undertaking a five-month executive leadership program (ELP), hosted by the Australia and
New Zealand branch of a well-regarded global consultancy. To gain a holistic understanding of
leaders’ lived experiences of vertical growth, several qualitative research methods were employed
throughout the study: pre/post developmental stage assessment, weekly diary entries, observation,
in-depth interviews, and peer feedback. Six embedded units of analysis were identified according to
participants’ initial tier of vertical development upon entering the program (conventional or post-
conventional) and whether they progressed (labelled ‘developers’), stagnated, or regressed
(collectively labelled ‘non-developers’) post- program. An inductive thematic analysis was performed
on each embedded unit, followed by a cross-comparison with the other embedded units and with
patterns within extant literature.
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Developers, regardless of initial stage, reported a markedly different experience of growth
through the program than non-developers. Developers were found to be more aware of, and more
pro-active in responding to emotional discomfort through the program. When faced with disorienting
dilemmas that triggered unpleasant edge-emotions (Mälkki, 2019), developers chose to welcome
discomfort instead of avoiding it. They often tempered their negative emotions by accessing a
contrasting, more positive emotion, such as curiosity. Thus, they built a Contrasting Emotions Space
(CES) for themselves, which allowed them to sustain the disequilibrium, actively engage in critical
reflection, construct new meaning and experiment with new behaviours outside the program. By
contrast, non-developers tended to reject the unpleasantness of edge-emotions and the learning
experiences that triggered them. Consequently, they did not seem to gain the same benefits from
critical reflection nor demonstrate subsequent vertical growth. This finding led to the creation of a
new ‘Contrasting Emotions Space’ (CES) Theory of Vertical Development – an expansion of extant
theories, which accounts for the role of emotions in the process of consciousness-development.
The study resulted in an empirical framework of vertical program design principles, which
might inform the purposeful creation of developmentally effective leadership programs for the
future. The framework includes five key principles: building solid holding environments with
psychological safety; providing disorienting experiences; offering participants technologies for
building and navigating the contrasting emotions space; facilitating inquiry and critical reflection and
supporting leaders in organising experiments to test new beliefs and meanings. The empirical
framework also includes specific recommendations for maximising the impact of certain program
elements such as peer groups, which have been shown to be highly effective holding spaces for
vertical development. This study revealed that the most impactful peer groups exhibited five key
characteristics: diversity, similarity, mutual support, mutual challenge, and consistency of
engagement with each other.
These findings inform both extant theory and practice and open new avenues for research in
the field of vertical development of leaders. From a theoretical perspective, this research suggests
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that transformative learning could foster vertical development if the complex emotions elicited by
disorienting dilemmas are recognised and actively managed. This challenges the emphasis on
cognitive processes present in extant research and suggests that emotions and emotional
management play a key role both in transformative learning and in vertical development. From a
practical perspective, this study opens new design opportunities for future leadership programs,
offering program designers guidelines to inform their choices of content and approach. This research
also raises new questions, including on the causes of fallback (Livesay, 2015) and the reasons it
predominantly seems to affect post-conventional leaders during executive leadership programs, as
well as questions on the potential role of flow states (Tse et al., 2020) in mitigating fallback. The
research also opens new avenues for exploration on the role of choice and its potential
developmental impact during an ELP.
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Declaration by author
This thesis is composed of my original work and contains no material previously published or
written by another person, except where due reference has been made in the text.
I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis including statistical assistance,
survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, financial
support, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis
is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my higher degree by research
candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the
award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly
stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award.
I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the university library
and, subject to the policy and procedures of the University of the Sunshine Coast, the thesis be made
available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of
embargo has been approved by the Dean of Graduate Research.
I acknowledge that copyright of all material in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s)
of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder
to reproduce material in this thesis and have sought permission from co-authors for any jointly
authored works included in the thesis.
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Publications included in the thesis
No publications included.
Contributions by others to the thesis
No contributions by others.
Parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree
No works submitted towards another degree have been included in this thesis.
Research Involving Human or Animal Subjects
This research has been undertaken in accordance with the ethics approval from USC’s Human
Research Ethics Committee. A copy of the ethics approval letter is included as Appendix 4.
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Acknowledgements
This research has been more than 15 years in the making. Its first seeds were secretly planted
in my first years as a professional leadership facilitator and executive coach, when I became
fascinated by the intricate and apparently mysterious ways adults seemed to turn insights into new
behaviours (or not). I was amazed to witness what seemed to be immense transformation and growth
in some of my clients and intrigued by the apparent rigidity and stagnation in others.
As I later became a mother, another layer of curiosity emerged: here was a unique
opportunity to raise a human who had come into this world with no ‘baggage’. It was an opportunity
to foster a safe and nurturing environment for this young person to flourish into their full potential.
Perhaps it was a chance to avoid some of the limitations that I, as many of my clients, had carried
over from our own childhoods. How could I continue to develop myself, to become ever more self-
aware and conscious of my impact, so that I could parent from a place of maturity, balance and, I
hope, wisdom?
As my daughter grew and the world around us became more and more disrupted, with
escalating change and ever more complex problems to solve both individually and globally, I became
more aware of the dearth of conscious leadership in the world. I started reflecting on the seemingly
urgent need for a deeper understanding of what it might take to educate the leaders of tomorrow. I
felt compelled to explore ways to foster more mature ways of being, that could inform wiser
leadership approaches, better decisions, and build leadership capacity for guiding the world into a
more sustainable future.
Moving from the space of leadership development practice into research has been one of the
most daunting and life-changing decisions I have ever made. I would never have been able to climb
this mountain without the trust and unconditional support of several people, to whom I am deeply
grateful.
The first person who believed in my dream for this research and has been a steady rock of
wisdom, feedback, and insight throughout was my principal supervisor, Dr Wayne Graham. Wayne,
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thank you for your complete trust and giving me the freedom to explore the questions I was so
passionate about, while always kindly challenging me. I am deeply grateful for your structured
thinking and your honest and considered feedback that kept me walking the fine line between my
inherent creativity and curiosity and the rigours of good research. I am equally thankful to the other
half of my excellent supervisory team - my co-supervisor, Dr Susan Simon. Sue, you always created a
safe space to help me navigate my toughest moments, became the thorough pair of eyes to help me
hone my ideas and find my voice and all the while you were the most compassionate mentor I could
have hoped for on this journey. Wayne and Sue, beyond your separate impact on me, I thank you
both for modelling what a great research team looks and feels like, with open communication,
collaboration, inquiry, and generosity in every interaction. I am inspired by your example and hope to
replicate this spirit of teamwork in all future research groups which I may work with.
I am also thankful to the organisation which hosts the ELP and the extraordinary people who
so generously welcomed my research into their program. Mike V., thank you for making this study
possible, from inception to completion. Thank you for your priceless gift of trust and for your
boundless passion to redefine the future of leadership development. Equally, I am deeply grateful to
the program facilitators who welcomed me into the groups they were supporting, as well as to the
leaders who participated in this study – for the many hours they invested filling in journal entries and
taking surveys and for the openness and authenticity with which they opened their hearts and minds
in our interviews. I have learnt so much from them all and hope to give something back to their
leadership through the insights from this work.
A special thank you to the brilliant scholars who have generously offered me their time,
receiving me into their world with open arms and freely sharing their wisdom. William Torbert, Elaine
Herdman Barker, Kaisu Mälkki, Jer Clifton, Jemma King, Bill von Hippel, Nadia Fox – thank you for your
humbleness and generosity and for showing me that the often-competitive world of research is at its
best when it is inhabited as a space of collaboration and cross-pollination. I am equally grateful to my
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fellow learning practitioners – Tom H., Tom C., Tom B., Adam, Paige – it has been a joy and a gift to
learn from and work with you!
Last, but never least, I thank my loving family and soul friends. To Vio, who has been my rock
through highs and lows and what often feels like multiple life-times – thank you for fully embracing
my perpetual nerdiness, with all my comings and goings, my early starts, and late nights of writing.
Thank you for always stepping up and stepping in, for being father and mother when you needed to,
for being my best friend, my truthful mirror and for helping me be a better human every day. To
Edna, thank you for teaching me to be present, to play, to inquire into the world with fresh eyes and
for your loud and confident voice, always challenging me to face my shadows, walk my talk and lean
into my own growth just as much as I research and support that of others. To Mom and Dad and my
loving sister Cami – thank you for believing I could do anything and making me always feel held and
unconditionally loved and supported, wherever in the world I might have been. To Kate, thank you for
planting the seed of this research into my mind and being my generous guide into a new world and
life. Finally, to Vero, Anca, Alecs, Carmen, Cristina, Miruna, Oana, Anna, Grace, Hayley – thank you for
being my soul-sisters and holding my hand through the years, wherever life has taken us.
As I write these words at the end of three years of research, we are emerging from a
pandemic that has left no country untouched, a senseless war in Ukraine is raging, global warming is
becoming ever more apparent as floods, fires and other extreme weather events disrupt lives and
livelihoods. The world seems in more turmoil and in more need of good leadership than ever. It is my
highest hope that this research can add a small contribution to the effort of growing human
consciousness into new stages of complexity, where wise leadership, dialogue and collective
collaboration become more the norm than the exception. The eternal optimist within me hopes the
effort of expanding our collective minds and hearts will finally allow us to co-create a way out of our
global existential crisis and into a brighter and kinder future for people and planet.
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Financial support
This research was supported by an Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship.
This research has also been supported by Company ‘’X’ (name withheld for confidentiality purposes),
which funded the GLP psychometric utilised in the study.
Keywords
Leadership development, vertical development, adult development, consciousness development,
transformative learning, edge emotions, contrasting emotions.
Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC)
FoR: 1503 Business and Management
FoR: 1701 Psychology (Educational Psychology)
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Table of Contents
ABSTRACT I
DECLARATION BY AUTHOR V
PUBLICATIONS INCLUDED IN THE THESIS VI
CONTRIBUTIONS BY OTHERS TO THE THESIS VI
PARTS OF THE THESIS SUBMITTED TO QUALIFY FOR THE AWARD OF ANOTHER DEGREE VI
RESEARCH INVOLVING HUMAN OR ANIMAL SUBJECTS VI
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS VII
FINANCIAL SUPPORT X
KEYWORDS X
AUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND STANDARD RESEARCH CLASSIFICATIONS (ANZSRC) X
TABLE OF CONTENTS XI
LIST OF FIGURES 15
LIST OF TABLES XVI
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY 1
1.2. RESEARCH PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS 5
1.3. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 8
1.4. OVERVIEW OF METHODOLOGY 16
1.5. SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY 19
1.5.1. Scope 19
1.5.2. Limitations 20
1.6. OUTLINE OF THE THESIS 21
2. LITERATURE REVIEW 23
2.1 OVERVIEW OF THE LITERATURE 24
2.1.1. Adult development theories overview. 27
2.1.2. Transformative Learning (TL) and its Relevance to Vertical Development 29
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2.1.3. Vertical Development and Transformative Learning in the context of Leadership Development. 33
2.2. THE CONSTRUCTIVE-DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT 36
2.2.1 Overview. 36
2.2.2. Stages and tiers of vertical development. 39
2.2.3. Key Adult Development Theories Informing Modern Concepts of Vertical Development 41
2.2.4. Developmental stages and their characteristics. 45
2.2.5. Vertical development and leadership effectiveness. 53
2.3. THE LIVED PROCESS OF VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT AND CONTRIBUTING FACTORS 57
2.3.1. Edge Emotions as Potential Levers for Advanced Consciousness Growth 61
2.3.2. Fallback and Vertical Development 63
2.3.3. Choice and Vertical Development 65
2.4. FOSTERING VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT THROUGH LEARNING PROGRAMS 66
2.4.1 Manners’ & Durkin’s Theory of Developmentally Effective Leadership Programs. 67
2.4.2 Immunity to Change Process and Developmental Coaching. 69
2.4.3. Other approaches to foster development of existing post-conventional leaders. 70
2.4.4. Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry (CDAI). 73
2.5. CONCLUSION OF LITERATURE REVIEW AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THIS RESEARCH 75
3. METHODOLOGY 79
3.1. OVERVIEW OF RESEARCH ISSUES, PROPOSITIONS AND METHODS 80
3.2. PHILOSOPHICAL UNDERPINNINGS OF THE RESEARCH 83
3.2.1. Ontological and Epistemological Frameworks for the Present Research 85
3.3. OVERVIEW OF THE RESEARCH DESIGN 86
3.3.1. Choosing the Case Study Methodology for this Research 88
3.4. CASE SELECTION APPROACH 90
3.4.1. Ensuring the Quality of the Research Design. 96
3.4.2. Addressing the Construct Validity of the Case Study. 96
3.4.3. Addressing External Validity of the Case Study. 97
3.4.4. Addressing the Reliability of the Case Study. 98
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3.5. DATA COLLECTION METHODS 98
3.5.1. Interviews 100
3.5.2. Open, Flexible Diary Method 105
3.5.3. Observation 109
3.5.4. Surveys and Sentence Completion Methods 110
3.6. TECHNIQUES OF DATA ANALYSIS 114
3.7. ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS 118
3.7.1. Protecting Human Subjects 118
3.7.2. Researcher Integrity 120
3.8. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS. 120
4. RESULTS 122
INTRODUCTION 122
4.1 CASE OVERVIEW 122
4.1.1 The ELP Program 123
4.1.2. ELP research participants 127
4.2 RQ 1: HOW DOES THE LIVED EXPERIENCE OF GROWTH DURING AN ELP DIFFER FOR DEVELOPERS VERSUS NON-
DEVELOPERS? 132
4.2.1. Differences in how developers and non-developers set their learning goals as they entered ELP.132
4.2.2. Internal locus of control versus external locus of control 134
4.2.2. Disorienting dilemmas and changing beliefs/assumptions 135
4.2.3. Contrasting emotions 137
4.3. RQ 2: HOW DO DEVELOPERS ENGAGE WITH THE PROGRAM, VERSUS NON-DEVELOPERS? 140
4.3.1. Active engagement versus passive engagement 140
4.3.2. Insights and Experiments Versus Insights With no Action 141
4.4. RQ 3: WHY DO ELP PARTICIPANTS PERCEIVE CERTAIN PROGRAM ELEMENTS AS MORE IMPACTFUL THAN OTHERS IN
GENERATING VERTICAL DEVELOPMENT? 144
4.4.1. How did participants define the impact of ELP? 144
4.4.2. What elements of ELP were perceived as most impactful and why? 147
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4.5. RQ 4: WHAT CONTRIBUTES TO THE FALLBACK PHENOMENON DURING AN ELP? 155
4.5.1. Coping with stressful work and life circumstances. 156
4.5.2. Accessing the state of flow. 160
4.6. CONVENTIONAL VERSUS POST-CONVENTIONAL ELP PARTICIPANTS UNDERTAKING AN ELP 162
4.7. PEER FEEDBACK RESULTS 163
4.8. CONCLUSION 165
5. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS 166
4.1.SUMMARY OF THE STUDY 166
5.2. IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY 169
5.2.1. Research Sub-Question One: How does the growth experience during an ELP differ for developers
versus non-developers? 171
5.2.2. Research Sub-Question Two: How Do Developers Engage with the program, versus non-
developers? 180
5.2.3. Research Sub-Question Three: Why do ELP Participants Perceive Certain Program Elements as
More Impactful Than Others? 181
5.2.4. Research Sub-Question Four: What Contributes to the Fallback Phenomenon During an ELP? 184
5.3. IMPLICATIONS FOR METHODOLOGY 187
5.4. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE 188
5.5. FUTURE RESEARCH AND LIMITATIONS 195
5.6. CONCLUSION 200
REFERENCES 202
APPENDIX 1: CASE STUDY PROTOCOL 232
APPENDIX 2: PARTICIPANT INTERVIEW QUESTIONS 235
APPENDIX 3: FEEDBACK FROM OTHERS AT WORK 236
APPENDIX 4: ETHICS APPROVAL LETTER 237
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List of Figures
Figure 1.1 Chapter One: Structure ..............................................................................................1
Figure 1.2 Summary of research issues and propositions ...........................................................8
Figure 2.1 Chapter Two: Structure ........................................................................................... 24
Figure 2.2 Horizontal versus vertical development .................................................................. 33
Figure 2.3 Theoretical framework for the study ...................................................................... 77
Figure 2.4 Research problem statement and questions.......................................................... 78
Figure 3.1 Chapter Three: Structure ........................................................................................ 80
Figure 3.2: Overview of research paradigms and design of the study ..................................... 84
Figure 3.3: Summary of case study design ............................................................................... 94
Figure 3.4: Data collection methods summary ........................................................................ 99
Figure 4.1: Chapter Four: Structure ....................................................................................... 122
Figure 4.2: GLP distribution scores from initial measurement to final measurement ........... 129
Figure 4.3: GLP pre-post testing detailed data on final research cohort................................ 129
Figure 4.4: The 6 units of analysis and research participants in each one ............................. 131
Figure 5.1: Chapter Five: Structure ........................................................................................ 166
Figure 5.2: Theoretical Framework for the Study .................................................................. 167
Figure 5.3: Research Questions, Issues, and Propositions ..................................................... 168
Figure 5.4: The ‘Contrasting Emotions Space’ (CES) Theory of Vertical Development .......... 176
Figure 5.5: Characteristics of the most impactful mini-boards .............................................. 186
Figure 5.6: Updated theoretical framework, bridging TL and CD ........................................... 182
Figure 5.7: Vertical Development Program Design Principles ................................................ 189
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List of Tables
Table 2.1 Four constructive-developmental frameworks ........................................................ 46
Table 2.2: Chronological summary of studies on leadership effectiveness and vertical
development ......................................................................................................................................... 54
Table 3.1: Research issues, propositions and proposed methods. .......................................... 81
Table 3.2: Tests of validity and reliability within case studies .................................................. 96
Table 3.3: Potential risks ensuing from the study .................................................................. 119
Table 4.1: Demographic overview of ELP research cohort ..................................................... 128
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1. Introduction
This research explores the attitudes, perceptions, and experiences of ongoing personal
growth (vertical development) of a group of leaders as they undertake an Executive Leadership
Program (ELP) in the middle of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Chapter One begins with an overview
of the thesis, outlining the context, background and rationale that led to the research issues and
questions. It proceeds with a discussion concerning the theoretical and practical relevance of this
study for the current understanding of how leaders’ transform towards more psychological maturity
in the context of structured learning experiences. It continues with an overview of the proposed
methodology and defines the scope and limitations of the study. The chapter concludes with an
outline of the rest of the thesis.
Figure 1.1 Chapter One: Structure
1.1. Background to the Study
Contemporary businesses operate in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and
ambiguous world (VUCA) (Jordaan, 2019). This has been made only more challenging by the COVID-19
pandemic which has tested organisations’ agility, adaptability, and sustainability in unique ways –
disrupting supply chains, forcing workforces to become remote, and redefining business models
Chapter 1:
Introduction
Chapter 2:
Literature
review
Chapter 3:
Methodology Chapther 4:
Results
Chapter 5:
Conclusions and
implications
1.1 •Background of the study
1.2 •Research problem and research question
1.3 •Significance of the study
1.4 •Overview of methodology
1.5 •Scope and limitations
1.6 •Outline of the thesis
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(Worley & Jules, 2020). This creates unprecedented pressure on organisations to constantly adapt
and reinvent themselves.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, organisations were faced with an unprecedented
tension between several competing forces. On the one hand, businesses needed to be internally
oriented to maximise their efficiency and profitability in the short term, while quickly adapting to
increasingly rapid changing technological and market conditions and to the changing needs and
values of younger generations entering the workforce (Petrie, 2011). On the other hand, they were
also increasingly pressured to broaden their attention outwardly, to respond effectively to challenges
such as climate change and public pressures to build and uphold their status as responsible corporate
citizens (C. Baron, Baron, Grégoire, et al., 2018). With COVID-19, new layers of complexity were
added on top of an already challenging landscape. These include dealing with phenomena such as
‘The Great Resignation’ (“Re-examining Retention Strategies in the Great Resignation Era,” 2021). This
saw masses of employees leaving their jobs due to burnout, particularly in certain sectors such as
healthcare (Sheather & Slattery, 2021); because of discontent and loss of meaning (Hirsch, 2021) or
driven by the exponential acceleration of workplace flexibility fuelled by remote work and ensuing
opportunities in the global war for talent (Muller, 2021; Simon, 2021).
Successfully navigating all these tensions calls for a new approach to leadership that can
balance the pressures of constantly adapting and cultivating resilience (Sarkar & Clegg, 2021), and
conducting ethical and sustainable business (Fyke & Buzzanell, 2013) with a comprehensive
stakeholder orientation. Such an approach would allow for talent retention as well as cultivation of a
higher purpose and building healthy organisational cultures that sustain the duality of the “pressure
to innovate and the pressure to produce” (Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2018, p. 99). To support such fast-paced
organisational adaptation, significant shifts in leadership approaches are required: from traditional
leadership focused on command and control towards complexity leadership, focused on
organisational adaptability (Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2017), and from unilateral, leader-centred leadership
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towards shared leadership, with an emphasis on social capital (Salas‐Vallina et al., 2020) and
psychological safety (Edmondson, 2018).
Leadership that successfully manages complexity and fosters sustainability and adaptability as
well as employee wellbeing and talent retention is alternatively referred to in the leadership literature
as conscious leadership (Sisodia, 2011), wise leadership (Küpers & Statler, 2008), authentic leadership
(Avolio & Gardner, 2005) and adaptive leadership (Heifetz et al., 2009). Mary Uhl Bien (2017) refers to
it as “complexity leadership” and shows that leaders who are successful in fostering adaptability use
three key functions of leadership: “entrepreneurial leadership” (p 19), which drives innovation and
learning; “operational leadership” (p.19), which takes innovation and transforms it into practical
outcomes that enhance performance and “enabling leadership” (p. 19) that works at the intersection
of the first two, fostering an “adaptive space” so that the ongoing viability of the organisation can be
ensured”. The notions of “conscious leadership”, “conscious leader” or “mature leader” have been
preferred throughout this study as they are most consistent with the notion of “consciousness
development” or “vertical development” as it emerges from the constructive-developmental
literature (Cook-Greuter, 2004).
While the initiators of the differing leadership definitions vary in their theoretical approaches,
they all tend to agree about some core characteristics shared by these conscious, wise, authentic, or
adaptive leaders. Such leaders are psychologically mature, have a high degree of self-awareness,
balance introspective and interpersonal capacities and exhibit complex, systemic thinking and
decision making. They also have high tolerance for ambiguity and ability to operate effectively within
uncertainty and tend to embrace worldviews that are more world-centric than self-centric, favouring
sustainability and conscious capitalism (Voss, 2018) . Finally, they are more likely to be purpose- and
values- driven and therefore more likely to act ethically, by following an internalised moral compass
rather than merely reacting to external pressures (Lambie et al., 2011). The picture that develops
from this disciplinary area is strikingly similar with the characteristics of developmentally mature
adults that have emerged from research into human development (Papalia et al., 2007) and
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particularly from research into adult development (Erikson, 1950; Kohlberg et al., 1969; Levinson,
1986; A. H. Pfaffenberger, 2005; Wilber, 2000). One specific stream of adult development research –
the constructive-developmental approach (Kegan, 1982) - has generated many applications to the
leadership field (McCauley et al., 2006) and therefore has been preferred as part of the theoretical
framework for this study.
In the constructive-developmental view, the journey towards mature consciousness is an
unfolding of increasingly complex stages of meaning-making (Kegan, 1982; Loevinger, 1976), leading
towards a psychological evolution of the individual. The later stages of development are often
labelled as “post-conventional” in the literature (C. Baron & Cayer, 2011a), a term which will be used
throughout this study to differentiate them from the earlier stages of vertical development, called
“conventional”. Post-conventional leaders have been shown to be more effective in leading complex
change initiatives (Brown, 2012), more likely to be preoccupied with sustainability and to have
environmental awareness (Boiral et al., 2014). Furthermore, there is consistent evidence that later
stage leaders are more effective (Fisher et al., 1987), innovative (Schneider et al., 2019), ethical
(Lambie et al., 2011), agile in dealing with change (Joiner & Josephs, 2006) and more likely to build
learning organisations (Heaton, 2017). As follows from the aforementioned studies, the different
facets of post-conventional leaders’ effectiveness are well studied. However, still little is known about
the ways in which post-conventional consciousness can be fostered (C. Baron & Cayer, 2011a;
McCauley et al., 2006). This study proposes to add a contribution to the better understanding of how
mature leaders continue to evolve and how the acquisition of increasingly complex frames of
reference (Mezirow, 2008) can be supported through leadership development interventions.
This type of development is also referred to as ‘vertical development’ in the leadership
literature (Legault, 2012; Petrie, 2011; Spence et al., 2009), a term which will be preferred and at
times used alternatively to ‘consciousness development’ throughout this paper. ‘Vertical
development’ is used to describe the qualitative shifts in mindsets, beliefs, cognitive frameworks, and
mental complexity that cause leaders to change their views of reality. It is contrasted with ‘horizontal
5
development’ which refers to the acquisition of knowledge and skills, the latter being the more
traditional focus of leadership development programs (Cook-Greuter, 2004).
To date, a limited number of studies has specifically investigated vertical development of
leaders in the context of executive leadership programs (ELPs) (C. Baron, Baron, Grégoire, et al., 2018;
Manners et al., 2004a; Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015). While several leadership development
interventions have been shown to promote vertical development for leaders at the earlier
(conventional) stages, the study undertaken by Vincent et al. (2015) was the only one to date able to
show a positive impact of community leadership programs on existing post-conventional leaders.
Other studies have revealed a paradoxical impact. While conventional leaders have progressed, post-
conventional leaders have been shown to stagnate or even regress within the same program (C.
Baron, Baron, Grégoire, et al., 2018; Manners et al., 2004b). This has confirmed the assertion of
McCauley et al., (2006) and others that the needs of post-conventional leaders within an ELP differ
from those of their conventional peers, and the conclusion of Manners et al., (2004) that an ELP
curriculum needs to be structured one or two levels above participants’ current level of
consciousness to be effective in generating vertical development. However, it is not clear from
existing research how the curriculum addressed to post-conventional leaders should be designed, nor
how exactly post-conventional leaders differ from conventional ones in the way they approach an ELP
learning experience (Vincent, Denson, et al., 2015). These are questions for further research, which
the present study aims to answer.
1.2. Research Problem Statement and Research Questions
Despite the extant interest within the L&D space for the potential value of constructive-
developmental theories, few studies so far have systematically investigated how ELPs can positively
impact consciousness development (McCauley et al., 2006). Such studies aimed to understand how
the most mature leaders think and operate, as well as if and how psychosocial maturity can be
fostered through learning programs. Existing research on this topic has generated mixed results,
suggesting that leaders at different stages are impacted differently by the same ELP (Baron & Cayer,
6
2011). It has been shown that an ELP designed to support the development of conventional
participants to the next consciousness stage can successfully do so, but also cause post-conventional
participants in the same program to regress in their vertical development when exposed to the same
learning experience (Baron, Baron, Gregoire, et al., 2018; Manners et al., 2004).
Within the wider context of leadership research, there is a recognised need for leadership
programs that foster the necessary skills for leading in adaptive organisations (Uhl-Bien & Arena,
2018). There is also a call for further research into how executive programs can particularly support
the ongoing growth of post-conventional leaders, and what might be the specific needs of such late-
stage learners (Baron & Cayer, 2011), with relatively few studies answering that call in the last decade
(Kjellström et al., 2020; Kjellström & Andersson, 2017; Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015). More research is
required to better understand how post-conventional leaders perceive their own vertical
development as they participate in an executive leadership program (ELP) (Vincent, Denson, et al.,
2015) and what exactly this vertical transformation consists of – including a more in-depth
exploration of how leaders’ frames of reference evolve (Mezirow, 2008) and what triggers such
evolution. While different facilitative elements of and readiness factors for vertical development have
been explored in the past, including age, education, personal context and personality characteristics
(Manners & Durkin, 2000; A. Pfaffenberger, 2005; Vincent, Denson, et al., 2015), aspects such as the
link between vertical development growth and a learner’s choices and lived experiences of
transformation during an ELP have rarely been explored (McCallum, 2020) This is mainly due to the
use of questionnaires versus in-depth interviewing during most of the programs studied to date.
These gaps in existing research have informed the identification of the research problem statement
for this study, summarised below:
The subtleties of the vertical development experience as it unfolds are not fully understood,
nor are the specific learning needs of post-conventional leaders (Baron, Baron, Grégoire, et al., 2018;
Cayer & Baron, 2005). There is also lack of clarity on how executive leadership programs can
effectively support the ongoing vertical development of leaders at the later stages.
7
This study aims to investigate this problem and its purpose is to address the gaps in
understanding the needs and perceptions of leaders as they go through a developmental experience,
with a focus on leaders either already operating at post-conventional stages or moving into post-
conventional stages during a leadership program. It also aims to help illuminate the impact of the
interplay between an ELP and its participants at different stages of consciousness. This in turn can
help the creation of more developmentally appropriate ELPs in the future. To further this
understanding, the following overarching research question is proposed:
How do leaders experience vertical development during an executive leadership program
(ELP)?
In addition, the review of the literature has helped generate four research sub-questions,
which focus the inquiry on several aspects relevant to the central research question and which have
as yet not been covered by existing research. These sub-questions are:
1. How does the lived experience of growth during an ELP differ for developers versus non-
developers?
2. How do developers versus non-developers engage with the program?
3. Why do ELP participants perceive certain program elements as more impactful than
others?
4. What contributes to the fallback phenomenon during an ELP?
The term ‘developers’ refers to leaders who developed vertically post ELP and ‘non-
developers’ is used to refer to leaders who either stagnated (remained at the same stage) or
regressed (scored at an earlier stage) post program. Following the literature review, and in alignment
with the research questions, several research issues and corresponding propositions have also been
developed, which will guide the process of inquiry during this study (Yin, 2018). A summary of
research questions, issues and propositions is presented in Figure 1.2 below.
8
Figure 1.2 Summary of research questions, issues, and propositions
1.3. Significance of the Study
In 2018 the Australian Research Council organised the inaugural Engagement and Impact
Assessment, which was released in 2019. It investigates how well researchers are engaging with the
end users of their research. This is part of an ongoing effort to stimulate the translation of research
into “economic, social, environmental, cultural and other impacts” (Australian Research Council,
2019) and its objectives include supporting the translation of the research from academic institutions
to society in ways that benefit Australia beyond academia. The intention to generate research that is
directly relevant to leaders and organisations is central to this study. This is even more salient for the
present study, given that this research has originated from the author’s empirical experiences as a
consultant in the field of executive education and observations around the dearth of scientific
evidence which can help to inform more effective vertical leadership development in practice.
This research aims to deliver several benefits both to leaders in their processes of personal
and professional growth, and to organisations in their processes of leadership development. The
9
gaining of a deeper understanding of the vertical development process of leaders at various stages of
maturity and particularly at post-conventional stages, can support organisations in improving their
approach to leadership development and creating ELPs that are more effective in fostering broader,
more complex mindsets and preparing future-fit leaders, able to thrive in a disrupted world. It
answers the call for further research into how leadership development needs to change to educate
leaders who can promote organisational adaptability (Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2018). It can also help
organisations maximise the contributions of their most mature leaders, by offering them effective
mentoring and contexts for further development. Additionally, this study may help inform executive
programs within academic institutions, by fostering the introduction of a developmental lens within
mainstream executive education. Below is the summary of the proposed theoretical and practical
contributions of this study.
1.3.1. Theoretical foundations and contributions
This study draws on two main theoretical foundations: Transformative Learning (TL)
(Mezirow, 2008) and constructive-developmentalism (Cook-Greuter, 1999; Kegan, 1980) and is
informed by a third – Uhl- Bien & Arena’s (2018) framework of leadership for organisational
adaptability. Uhl-Bien’s work is referenced to specifically anchor this study for leadership and
particularly for leadership development. Each of these will be briefly described below, alongside the
contribution this study seeks to bring.
Transformative Learning (TL) describes the learning processes by which perspective change
occurs (Mälkki, 2019a; Mezirow, 2008) . Newer contributions to TL emphasize the role of emotions,
and particularly negative ones, in the process of learning (Mälkki, 2019a)- an approach which adds a
welcome perspective to a theory that had often been criticised for its over-reliance on the cognitive
aspects of transformation (Illeris, 2007; Mälkki, 2010; Taylor, 2017). However, despite the long history
and popularity of TL, the question as to ‘how’ transformative learning can be successfully and
systematically implemented is left largely unanswered (DeSapio, 2017) – a gap the present study
seeks to address.
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Building on the foundation laid more than half a century ago by Piaget and his research on
child development through assimilative and accommodative processes of learning (Hopkins, 2011;
Piaget, 1948), the constructive-developmental (CD) research tradition is concerned with the
maturation process of the individual, through multiple consecutive stages of evolving mental
complexity (Kegan & Lahey, 2009a). Similar to TL, constructive-developmental theory has been
applied to further understand individual transformation in contexts ranging from tertiary education
(Stewart & Wolodko, 2016), social justice (Bridwell, 2013) to leadership (Cooke & Sharkey, 2006;
Helsing & Howell, 2014; McCauley et al., 2006; Valcea et al., 2011). Few attempts have been made to
explicitly link constructive-developmental and TL theories (Hagström et al., 2003; Kegan, 2009) – the
two fields of research have evolved largely separately, one focused on the process and framework of
learning itself and the other concerned with the unfolding of individual growth through the lifespan.
The present study aims to contribute by demonstrating mutually beneficial links between TL and
constructive developmental theory, particularly when applied to the practice of leadership
development.
The third influence on the theoretical framework for this study comes from the leadership-
focused work of Uhl-Bien & Arena (2018), who point out that ‘enabling leadership’ is critical for
adaptive organisations. They identify the behaviours and capabilities of enabling leaders – complexity
thinking, balance of conviction and humility, comfort with tension, strategic thinking, sense of timing
and comfort with uncertainty (Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2017). Their description of ‘enabling’ leaders
strikingly resembles the description of post-conventional leaders from the constructive-
developmental literature (Rooke & Torbert, 2005). While Uhl-Bien & Arena (2018) are clear on the
urgency of fostering the skills of complexity leadership through a new generation of leadership
development programs, they do not explore the psychological and educational implications of
developing these skills and do not analyse what it might take to foster them reliably in the context of
formal learning. The constructive-developmental literature suggests that such skills might in fact arise
as a result of a profound change in leaders’ epistemologies (Kegan, 2009). Becoming an enabling
11
leader might be more a matter of transforming ‘how’ leaders make meaning of reality rather than
‘what’ they know – it might require a shift in consciousness, in meaning-making (Kegan, 2009). This
study draws on TL and constructive developmentalism to explore how leadership development can
foster enabling leaders through transforming their ways of knowing towards more mature
worldviews. But neither TL, nor constructive-developmentalism alone have been able to answer this
question, hence the opportunity to undertake research at the intersection of these two fields.
As is described in more depth in Chapter 2, the gaps identified through the literature review
reveal limitations of TL, which has traditionally focused on how individuals transform their thinking
and has not explored sufficiently the emotional and social aspects of transformation and these two
aspects – emotions and context - might catalyse transformation (Mälkki, 2010). Also, there have been
few attempts to specifically link TL to vertical development and explain how a process of
transformative learning can result in consciousness development (Kegan, 2009).
On the other hand, constructive developmentalism has been more focused on describing the
characteristics of individuals who operate from higher stages of development than on accounting for
how exactly this process of transformation can be fostered through learning programs. We have more
information on the effectiveness and adaptability of later-stage leaders than we have on the ways to
foster later stages (McCauley et al., 2006). Some researchers have attempted to create guidelines for
developmentally effective learning programs (Drago-Severson, 2016; Manners et al., 2004b).
However, they have not specifically discussed the needs of early post-conventional participants
(Drago-Severson, 2016), or, when developmental programs have been studied, such programs have
been shown to be more effective in fostering development at conventional stages and have had much
lesser impact on the post-conventional participants (Manners et al., 2004). This only supports the
finding that there is a discontinuity between development within conventional versus post-
conventional stages, with individuals at later stages requiring different types of support, yet it is
unclear what this support should consist of (Krettenauer, 2011).
12
This study seeks to address these gaps in understanding how TL can be put in the service of
vertical development by studying leaders’ lived experiences of consciousness transformation as they
undertake an ELP. By exploring consciousness development from the perspective of the participant in
an executive program, new insights can be gained into the mechanisms that promote leaders’
progress towards subsequent stages of development and a deeper understanding of how leaders
interact with the program context and what are the features of the program that promote such
development. It is hoped that all these insights will lead to new and replicable approaches to program
design and implementation which help inform future leadership development programs.
The decision to pay special attention to post-conventional stages in this study is informed by
research suggesting that numbers of post-conventional leaders might be fast increasing, reaching
upwards of 30% of the senior management population (Herdman-Barker & Erfan, 2015), whereas
historically they made up less than 15% of the management population (Cook-Greuter, 2003). This
suggests that a re-evaluation might be in order as to how much importance is placed on ongoing
training and mentoring for these leaders who, given their late developmental stage, might be less
likely to encounter equally late-stage mentors who can guide their journey within the organisation.
Given that the specific learning needs of post-conventional leaders are still relatively little-understood
(Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015) and that it is known they differ from those of conventional leaders
(McCauley et al., 2006), this study seeks to contribute to furthering the understanding of how these
leaders continue to develop and how they can be supported in that process.
In analysing the process of consciousness development, this study will focus on two
theoretical areas that have emerged from extant literature. One is the aim to understand how post-
conventional leaders manage their ‘edge emotions’ when they are taken out of their comfort zones
during learning programs and how this contributes to their growth (Mälkki & Green, 2014). Better
understanding the role of ‘edge emotions’ in post-conventional consciousness growth might, for
example, help inform learning interventions where participants are actively invited to engage with
these emotions in a safe space. The other aim is an exploration of fallback (Livesay, 2013, 2015): the
13
involuntary reverting to earlier-stage ways of meaning-making and what might underlie this
phenomenon in the context of ELPs. This exploration is particularly relevant given previous findings
that ELPs seem to favour the vertical development of conventional participants over their post-
conventional peers, who not only are less likely to develop, but seem more likely to regress post-
program, for reasons which are not understood (Baron, Baron, Grégoire, et al., 2018; Baron & Cayer,
2011c; McCauley et al., 2006; Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015).
In analysing the role of context in consciousness development, this study will inquire what is
the impact of various program elements on a participant’s vertical development. Previous research
undertaken in the context of organisational transformation has indicated that certain elements – such
a consultant’s developmental level - might impact the effectiveness of the organisational
transformation project (Torbert, 2013). Other research suggests that certain learning program design
features, such as emotionally salient content (Manners et al., 2004b), or ‘heat experiences’ that put
the learners in productive discomfort(Petrie, 2011) – can positively impact vertical development. This
study aims to specifically address extant dearth of research on program features which specifically
promote post-conventional development (Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015). Should such features be
identified, this research aims to help illuminate how it is that vertical impact occurs from those
specific program elements.
1.3.2. Practical contributions
In proposing their meta-framework of leadership for organisational adaptability, Uhl-Bien &
Arena (2018) underlined that “research is desperately needed that can inform leadership education
and development programs regarding how to train people in the skills, abilities and knowledge they
need to lead in adaptive organisations” (p. 100). This study answers this call: by better understanding
leaders’ lived experience of vertical development during an ELP, this research can help inform the
design of future executive programs that foster more complex frames of reference in their
participants. By helping increase leaders’ meaning-making complexity, such programs can contribute
to educating a much-needed new generation of leaders: who are better able to solve complex
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problems, think critically, be creative, tolerate and even generate tension that leads to innovation and
effectively coordinate with others to foster adaptive organisations (Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2018). A
possible response to Uhl-Bien’s call for programs that foster the necessary skills for complexity
leadership is to consider that enacting such skills might first require a transformation in leaders’
epistemology. This might be the added value of considering the vertical development perspective and
lead to innovations in program content and approach.
Going beyond the practical application of such research in the context of organisational
learning, more systemic, societal implications might also be considered. It is notable that the
Australian Research Council has identified environmental change as one of the key challenges facing
Australia and a research priority, effectively acknowledging this as a topic of major importance
(Australian Research Council, n.d.). Also, there is widespread consensus that effectively addressing
the climate change challenge requires effective leadership (Karlsson et al., 2011). Existing research in
adult development indicates environmentally aware leadership is in fact one aspect of conscious
leadership and that more developmentally mature leaders are more likely to be preoccupied with
increasing the environmental sustainability of their businesses (Boiral et al., 2014). This suggests a
possible practical contribution of the present research to fostering more environmentally conscious
leadership that helps support ethical and sustainable economic growth into the future.
Similarly, by helping to identify levers through which the vertical development of leaders can
be facilitated, this research can help contribute to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development
Goals – particularly Goal 12- Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, Goal 16 –
Peace, justice and strong institutions and Goal 4 -Quality education. It could help promote the
conscious leadership necessary to “encourage companies (…) to adopt sustainable practices” (United
Nations, n.d., p. Target 16.7). By promoting leadership maturity, it can also contribute to fostering
more “responsive, inclusive, participatory and representative decision-making at all levels” (United
Nations, n.d., p. Target 16.7).
15
From a leadership development perspective, this study seeks to help uncover curriculum
elements that contribute to more effective leadership programs, which can foster the vertical
development of leaders at all stages of consciousness. Also, more broadly, it seeks to help inform
differentiated learning and development strategies and approaches in organisations, that consider
participants’ current developmental level and tailor training, mentoring, coaching or other learning
interventions in ways that foster growth at all stages. The developmental perspective might also help
inform strategies of talent management and retention by providing mature leaders with better tools
and contexts for their continued learning. This can, in turn, help maximise post-conventional leaders’
potential to contribute to the thriving of the organisation and harness their documented capacity to
lead effective organisational transformations (Rooke & Torbert, 1998) . Overall, this might contribute
to higher-quality adult education that promotes the personal maturity required for “global
citizenship”, “sustainable lifestyles, human rights (and) a culture of peace and non-violence” (United
Nations, n.d., p. Target 16.7).
Finally, one practical significance of this research came accidentally from the timing of the
study. As most other similar long-form programs, this ELP was designed for in-person delivery.
However, the outbreak of the global COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020 led to the abrupt decision to
switch the program to an 100% virtual mode of delivery, utilising the Zoom platform. While the
sudden shift to virtual program delivery came with limitations, outlined in section 1.5.2, it also
provided an opportunity to make this study, to the best of the author’s knowledge, the first vertical
development research undertaken in the context of an all-virtual executive leadership program. As
will be further detailed in Chapter 5, this demonstrates that vertical development can be fostered
through non-traditional, remote learning methods, rather than exclusively in-person, as it had been
done before. This is particularly relevant in the current global context, where both remote work and
remote learning have become ubiquitous, calling for new insights, perspectives, and approaches to
preserving learning impact through virtual delivery (DeMartino, 2021).
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1.4. Overview of Methodology
This study seeks to explore the phenomenon of consciousness development within the well-
defined boundaries of an executive leadership program. It seeks to understand the vertical
development of leaders as a result of their learning experience, and how such development might be
reflected in new ways of thinking and behaving. Therefore, the study assumes a subjectivist
ontological and epistemological framework. More specifically, the methodology for this study draws
on a social-constructionist ontological view, assuming that reality is a social construct, context-
dependent and co-created by individuals and groups (Johnson & Duberley, 2000). Also, given that the
study seeks to understand the lived experience of leaders undertaking an ELP and how they interpret
the shifts they are undergoing, this research is consistent with an interpretivist epistemological
framework (Quinlan et al., 2018).
This study seeks to isolate the phenomenon of vertical development within a clearly defined
boundary – one specific ELP, therefore the single case study methodology has been preferred, as
most effective when dealing with “dynamics present within single settings” (Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 534).
A single ELP has been chosen for this study – a six-month executive program which is remarkable in
two ways. Firstly, it brings together an exceptionally diverse group of top leaders from a multitude of
industries, sectors and organisational levels in Australia and New Zealand. Secondly, the program is
specifically designed with a developmental frame in mind. Therefore, the case in point is seen as
potentially revelatory, and thus justifies taking a single case approach to the research design (Yin,
2018). The unit of analysis in this case is the subset of 50 leaders registered in the research (from the
total cohort of 160) as they undertake the program, while the embedded units are determined
through purposive sampling (Guest et al., 2006) and represent groups of leaders determined by
consciousness stage (conventional or post-conventional) and by the degree to which they have
developed, stagnated, or regressed throughout the program. Throughout this paper, participants
whose measured vertical development post program was at a later stage than in the beginning are
labelled ‘developers’, whole those who measured at the same or earlier stage post program are
17
labelled ‘non-developers’. In summary, this study proposes a single case, embedded design as its
methodological approach.
This study also seeks to address several methodological limitations that have emerged from
extant literature. Most importantly, it addresses the overreliance on cross-sectional versus
longitudinal approaches (McCauley et al., 2006) and the previous use of surveys instead of in-depth
interviewing to explore leaders’ needs and perceptions as they undertake an ELP (Baron, Baron,
Grégoire, et al., 2018; Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015). Consequently, a combination of data collection
and analysis methods have been employed for the purposes of this study. This helps to create a more
in-depth understanding of the phenomenon of vertical development as it unfolds and helps to
triangulate data to support the validity of the findings (Yin, 2018).
The proposed methodology includes five steps for data collection. Firstly, leaders’
consciousness stage is assessed pre- and post- program with a recognised vertical development
assessment tool (Torbert, 2016, 2017). This helps identify participants at conventional and post-
conventional stages upon program start, and to track vertical development, stagnation, or regression
during the program. Secondly, to support the objective of gaining a longitudinal view of how the
process of consciousness development unfolds and to avoid the over-reliance on self-retrospective
self-reports, the diary method (Poppleton et al., 2008) is employed throughout the program.
Participants are invited to periodically record their thoughts, feelings, breakthroughs, and behavioural
changes right the way through the program. Thirdly, diary data is corroborated with the unstructured
observations (Quinlan et al., 2018) the researcher made during the two-week live virtual parts of the
program – one at the beginning of the five-month period, and the other at the end. Such observations
can help illuminate aspects of participants’ behaviours or patterns which may be beyond their level of
awareness (Morgan et al., 2017). Fourthly, all the data gathered throughout the program is
complemented by that obtained from in-depth interviews with leaders at the end of the program.
This approach helps address the limitations inherent in the use of surveys in previous studies and
allows the researcher to engage in a thorough inquiry of participants lived experiences during the ELP.
18
For this purpose, a particular type of semi-structured interview is used, called “intensive interview”,
as it was deemed particularly effective in exploring individuals’ interpretations of their own
experiences (Charmaz, 2014). Finally, a thorough thematic analysis of interviews is performed and
conclusions from interviews are informed by feedback from others at work on the behavioural
changes they noticed in leaders after undertaking the ELP, to help triangulate findings and enhance
the validity of the study (Yin, 2018).
Given that this study seeks to both expand on extant theories and develop new theoretical
frameworks, it draws on two data analysis strategies – “relying on theoretical propositions” and
“working your data from the ‘ground up’” (Yin, 2018, pp. 168–169). These two strategies can
complement each other by allowing the researcher to both be guided by existing theoretical
propositions as they have emerged from the literature to develop existing theories (Ridder, 2017),
and to explore new theoretical ground on a topic that is still little understood (Vincent, Ward, et al.,
2015). The data analysis approach also draws on Stake’s (1995) constructivist approach to case
studies, by merging data collection and data analysis. Data is analysed as it is gathered, and emerging
patterns used to inform subsequent data gathering. An aggregation of instances throughout the
study allows for categories to emerge and new patterns to be identified, an approach favoured in
studies for building theory (Ridder, 2017). Also, the role of the researcher as interpreter, emphasised
by Stake (1995), is acknowledged in this study. Therefore, memo writing is employed to account for
and utilize the researcher’s role of co-creator of meaning within the research (Conlon et al., 2015).
By employing the aforementioned approaches, this study seeks to incorporate extant theory
into the analytical process, allowing both extant theory and emerging data to inform next steps
throughout the study. In practice this means that data coding is informed by the theoretical
propositions which have emerged from the literature review, while also allowing for in vivo codes to
guide the analysis, so that new patterns can emerge. As data from the online diaries is gathered and
analysed throughout the ELP, emerging themes inform the researcher’s approach in the in-depth
interviews at the end of the program. Also, whenever possible, the interviewing process is phased so
19
that previous interviews can be analysed before new ones are scheduled. Through all these steps, this
study aims to achieve the best possible synergy between the methodological and theoretical
frameworks in this research.
1.5. Scope and Limitations of the Study
1.5.1. Scope
While the phenomenon of vertical development in leaders can, and has been, studied cross-
sectionally, throughout multiple programs (Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015), an intentional choice was
made to limit this research to a single case study, carefully chosen for its potential to yield valuable
insights. The decision to study post-conventional participants within one program helps set a
boundary around this study. This ensures the investigation focuses on leaders who are going through
the same learning experience. Therefore, given that all participants will undertake the same learning
experience, it is assumed that the differences in perception over their own vertical growth during the
program are more likely to ensue from their own meaning-making processes than from differences in
program curriculum/approach/facilitation. This approach can also help identify those elements of the
program that might be particularly salient in fostering consciousness growth, given that all references
in interviews and diaries point to the same ELP.
While the study involves all participants in the research and takes into account all stages of
development, the focus of in reporting the findings is on shifts towards post-conventional stages.
There are two main reasons for this decision. One is the dearth of research on learning at the later
stages of consciousness (Baron & Cayer, 2011b), and the other is emerging evidence that the number
of early post-conventional leaders might be on the rise, and that this is much larger than reported in
mainstream developmental literature (Herdman-Barker & Erfan, 2015). Both factors justify renewed
efforts to better understand this sub-set of leaders and their experiences, as well as their ongoing
learning needs.
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1.5.2. Limitations
The single case research design, while having advantages, can also constitute a limitation of
this study. When evidence is obtained from multiple cases, it is considered more compelling.
Therefore, multiple case designs are more likely to be seen as robust (Herriott & Firestone, 1983).
This limitation is addressed by employing an embedded design within this study, so that multiple
groups can be compared. Also, to address potential validity and reliability limitations of case studies in
general, this research has followed Yin’s (2008) approach of using multiple sources of evidence and
triangulation of data, using theory to inform single case studies, developing a case study protocol, and
maintaining a chain of evidence by using a data base to centralise and track all the information in the
case.
Another potential limitation of this case is the small sample number of post-conventional
participants within the research cohort – which has been a limitation in most similar studies so far
(McCauley et al., 2006). The chosen ELP includes a cohort of over 160 leaders, with a subset of 50
being included in this research, due to budget and time limitations. Out of these 35 completed all
steps of the research, including taking and retaking the consciousness development test Global
Leadership Profile (GLP) (Torbert, 2016), recording diary entries throughout the program and taking
part in the in-depth interviews. Out of these 21 participants scored at post-conventional stages
before program start, which, while considered a robust enough sample for a qualitative study (Yin,
2018), still is a relatively small sample, warranting further research to validate findings.
Another limitation of this study was its intensive approach to data collection, with multiple
methods being used, some of them (particularly the diary method) throughout the study. This study is
unusual given the length of time during which participants have been invited to keep a diary (over five
months compared to an average of one month for many diary studies) (Van Berkel et al., 2018). This
posed a risk to participant compliance with the method and desire to continue keeping the diary
throughout the study (Iida et al., 2012). This limitation was mitigated by choosing an online, mobile
application for the diary, to make it easier for participants to record their insights with minimum
21
effort. Also, the framing of the diary exercise has been carefully constructed, making it a part of the
developmental experience and an opportunity for reflection throughout the program. This helped
increase participants interest in the method, given that diary methods have been shown to have
cathartic effects (Välimäki et al., 2007) and, as will be detailed in Chapter 4 – Results - constituted a
welcome addition to an ELP already focused on fostering reflection and self-development.
Finally, practical limitation of this research was generated by the sudden shift from what had
traditionally been an in-person program to a fully virtual program, under the constraints of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, all the research approaches, originally designed for an in-person
environment, were still applicable in the virtual space. However, the shift to virtual did impact the
study, particularly regarding the ability of the researcher to directly observe participants in their
learning environment. While plenary sessions were still accessible via the Zoom platform, small group
sessions, where most observations of individual participants would have occurred, were harder to
access, as they often occurred in parallel in multiple breakouts and provided only short glimpses of
group interaction. Also, the general fatigue created by the long and strict lockdowns in Australia and
deteriorating team morale through the first months of the pandemic made many participants
reluctant to seek team feedback on their shifting behaviours, worrying that this would add one more
task to their team’s already busy and stressful schedule. Therefore, while individual participant
compliance with the research stayed high, much fewer third-party, peer data were collected than
initially anticipated. This opens the possibility for much more in-depth further research on the real
impact of leaders’ vertical development on their teams and workplaces, beyond the program.
1.6. Outline of the Thesis
Chapter One has provided an overview of the proposed study. It presents the background to
the research, the ensuing research problem and how that informs the research question and several
sub-questions. Also, it outlines the methodology, describing the scope and the limitations. Chapter
Two reviews extant literature, identifying the gaps that led to the research questions. Subsequently,
Chapter Three outlines the methodology chosen to address the research questions, issues, and
22
propositions. Chapter Four presents findings for each research question. Chapter Five discusses the
findings from this study and its implications, and addresses its theoretical, methodological, and
practical contributions to the body of knowledge on vertical development. Finally, Appendix 1 details
the case study protocol, Appendix 2 outlines the interview guide and Appendix 3 presents the
structure of the peer feedback questionnaire.
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2. Literature Review
As discussed in the introductory chapter, there is currently a strong incentive for exploring
new perspectives of leadership development that can help foster in leaders’ maturity of thinking and
decision-making capacity in the context of a volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world. The
rationale and opportunity for this research has been inspired by these factors. The present chapter
provides the broader context as it emerges from existing literature in the field of adult development,
transformative learning, and leadership development. This offers an in-depth justification for the
proposed study and is explained in the following paragraphs.
Section 2.1 provides an overview of extant literature at the intersection of developmental
theories and learning theories and points out how these two are relevant to leadership development.
This provides a rationale for studying leadership development through an adult developmental lens.
Section 2.2 takes a close look at the constructive-developmental perspective, its history and
evolution, outlining the major developmental models and the links between developmental stages
and leadership effectiveness. It justifies the choice of a constructive-developmental theory as a
foundational theoretical framework for this study. Section 2.3 examines extant literature on how the
process of vertical development unfolds and what external and internal factors contribute to it. It also
identifies a theoretical perspective on the inner workings of the consciousness change process that
has not been investigated previously in relation to vertical development: leaders’ attitudes towards
‘edge emotions’ (Mälkki & Green, 2014). Section 2.4 considers documented attempts to foster
consciousness growth through leadership development programs and the ensuing results. Finally,
Section 2.5 presents conclusions from the literature review and justification for this research,
outlining the research issues and research propositions as they result from and build on extant
literature.
Chapter 1:
Introduction
Chapter 2:
Literature
review
Chapter 3:
Methodology Chapther 4:
Results
Chapter 5:
Conclusions and
implications
24
Figure 2.1 Chapter two: Structure
2.1 Overview of the Literature
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped the world, the complex demands and
challenges of the 21st century called for leaders to become more socially responsible, collaborative,
inclusive and value-driven so they can effect social change (Komives, 2016). These demands and
challenges also required them to become adept in navigating the inherent tensions between
innovation and effectiveness to foster adaptive organisations, that can thrive in the face of disruption
(Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2018). In an interview from six years ago, Cisco CEO, John Chambers, pointed out
that digitalisation was causing “the biggest technology transition ever” (Chambers, 2016), and warned
that this would lead to “brutal disruption” and the likely disappearance of many companies in the
next 10-15 years. A mere four years after this prediction, one what could arguably be considered the
most disruptive global event in a few generations – the COVID-19 pandemic - hit the world, placing
unprecedented challenges on leaders at all levels.
The pandemic disrupted countless aspects of individuals’ daily life – from the way they move
and travel, to how they come together, care for children, learn, work, or communicate. It also
profoundly impacted the macro-systems of human collective organising, disrupting businesses,
industries, and whole sectors, forcing accelerated innovation, and testing the links between the
social, economic, political, and academic spheres locally, regionally, and globally (Apitz, 2021;
Ghobadian et al., 2022; McDonald, 2020; Rose & Ellen, 2020; Sarkar & Clegg, 2021; Spicer, 2020; van
2.1 •Overview of the literature
2.2 •The constructive-developmental approach in the context of leadership
2.3 •The lived process of vertical development and contributing factors
2.4 •Fostering vertical development through leadership programs
2.5 •Conclusion of literature review
25
Bavel et al., 2020; Worley & Jules, 2020). Organisations found themselves managing unprecedented,
often competing challenges, including “redeploying talent, establishing remote workforces, building
needed capabilities, propping up distressed supply chains, contributing to humanitarian efforts,
choosing among firing/furloughing/retaining employees, and planning for reopening amid
uncertainty” (Worley & Jules, 2020, p. 279). Seen through the lens of Transformative Learning, one of
the theoretical frameworks employed in this research, such massive disruption can be regarded as a
collective ‘disorienting dilemma’ (Mezirow, 2008): an event of such magnitude as to force individuals
and organisations to radically reconsider their worldviews and transform the ways they operate in the
world. This, in turn, requires a process of critical reflection (Mälkki, 2012), calling into question the
feasibility (or lack thereof) of old ways of doing things and imagining new, often never-before
attempted, approaches to solving ever more complex problems.
To adapt and survive in this highly challenging environment, organisations have had had to
accelerate the speed of innovation to unprecedented levels, turning it to a central component of
organisational life, as opposed to a peripheral concern. Companies had to break down internal silos
and shift into horizontal, collaborative work structures that communicate seamlessly. Such
momentous shifts in organisational culture in turn required profound shifts in leadership: from
models focused on top-down driven change management to adaptive, agile, and flexible
organisations centred on innovation, where collaboration and individual performance are equally
fostered (Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2018). This in turn called for new, more adaptive leadership capabilities.
Certain researchers, such as O’Driscoll (2021), argue that the post-COVID world calls for
fundamental re-imagining of the notion of adaptive leadership as less of a set of attributes of an
individual leader, but as a systemic, fluid set of inter-dependent relationships in which individuals are
willing to alternatively and situationally play the role of leaders and followers, in which power is not
something leaders hold over others, but a shared energy that mobilises the collective; whereas
exercising control is replaced with fostering creativity and rule enforcement is replaced with the
cultivation of relationships. Ultimately, O’Driscoll argues, this makes the leaders’ role less about
26
“mandating responsibility” and more about “cultivating response-ability”(O’Driscoll, 2021, p. 52). All
these attributes of adaptive leadership in a post-COVID world, as well as the suggestion that future-fit
leadership is less the attribute of well-prepared individuals and must instead become more of a
collective activity, are congruent with descriptions of late stage, ‘mature’, thinking and late-stage
organisational cultures as described in the adult development literature (Barker & Wallis, 2016; Palus
et al., 2020; Rooke & Torbert, 1998; Torbert, 2013).
Other scholars have kept the focus on individual leaders and the need to develop adaptive
practices and attributes. Such leaders can cultivate organisational ambidexterity – which implies
successful navigation of the tension between innovation and efficiency (Papachroni et al., 2016). To
achieve this, they need to promote sharing and effective use of collective knowledge and be able to
create an environment that fosters endogenous entrepreneurship (Newey & Zahra, 2009) – new
initiatives that arise from within the organisation. They also need to ensure operational leadership,
that captures new ideas and integrates them into the organisation’s existing system, thus generating
adaptive outcomes (Salvato, 2009). Finally, such leaders need to simultaneously introduce tension in
the system, pressuring it to change, while at the same time creating a psychologically safe climate
where people can experiment and take risks (Carmeli et al., 2014; Edmondson, 2018) . This enables an
adaptive space, where different actors can come together and communicate freely, ideas can cross-
pollinate and conflict can become generative and fuel innovation (Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2018). Such
leadership requires a more hands-off approach to leadership and redefines the role of the leader as
an enabler, less focused on hierarchy and more concerned with mutual power and collaborative
working.
All the aforementioned research, pre- or post-COVID-19, calls for a different type of thinking -
a transformation in leaders’ understanding of their own roles. Beyond the mere acquisition of new
skills, this new kind of leadership implies a deeper transformation of ‘how’ leaders think, not just of
‘what’ they think (Kegan, 2009), bringing the previously niche work of constructive-developmentalists
to the centre of contemporary leadership dilemmas. In-midst of disruption, leaders are called to
27
transform themselves, so they can then effectively lead transformations in their organisations
(Anderson & Anderson, 2010), equipping them to both thrive and positively contribute to solving the
‘wicked’ societal problems humanity is confronted with (Fyke & Buzzanell, 2013). This raises the
question of how leadership development needs to evolve to support such radically different
leadership mindsets.
One possible answer is a shift in the focus of leadership development from ‘horizontal’,
competency-based, models that emphasize the acquisition of knowledge towards ‘vertical’ models
that help foster more mature leadership mindsets (Palus et al., 2020). The latter implies developing
meta-competencies such as strategic thinking, self-awareness, or the capacity to comfortably deal
with ambiguity (Petrie, 2011). One possible path for developing such complex capacities has been
found at the intersection of adult development theories on the one hand and learning theories on the
other, and more specifically at the intersection of constructive-developmental theory (Kegan, 1995,
2009) and transformative-learning (TL) theory (Illeris, 2004; Mälkki & Green, 2014; Taylor & Cranton,
2012) – both applied to the field of leadership development (Harris & Kuhnert, 2008; Kjellström,
Stålne, et al., 2020b; McCallum, 2020; Uhl-Bien & Arena, 2017). This review of the literature seeks to
make visible this point of confluence between how adults grow psychologically and how such growth
can be fostered through transformative learning. It aims to identify the current opportunities for
research into how individuals are experiencing this growth process and how it can be supported by
leadership development programs. The next section will offer a deeper exploration of extant
literature on adult development as it is relevant to the present research.
2.1.1. Adult development theories overview.
While the relevance of adult development theories to fostering more mature leadership
leaders fit for disruptive times is being increasingly recognised in recent years (Kjellström, Stålne, et
al., 2020a; Kjellström, Törnblom, et al., 2020), the field of adult development itself is not new. This
field, part of developmental psychology, has been constantly evolving over the past 70 years. Adults
ongoing psychological growth, also called “ego development” (Levinson, 1986), has been described by
28
different researchers as a succession of qualitatively different developmental phases or stages that
unfold over the course of an individual’s life (Erikson, 1958, 1969; Kegan, 1980; Levinson, 1986;
Loevinger, 1976; Wilber, 2000). Some developmental theorists focus on individuals’ evolution
throughout their whole life cycle and study how the phase of one’s life impacts one’s social life, roles,
and learning (Erikson, 1950; Levinson, 1986). Others focus more on distinct stages of development
that mark different aspects of a person’s psychological growth, such as cognitive growth (Piaget,
1948), moral development (Kohlberg et al., 1969), growing complexity (Kjellström, Stålne, et al.,
2020b), or more evolving frames of reference (Loevinger, 1976) and meaning-making mechanisms for
making sense of the world (Kegan, 1980). Loevinger (1976) describes this internal progression as ‘ego-
development’, while Cook‐Greuter (2004) refers to the same concept as ‘consciousness
development’. This notion has transferred into the field of leadership as ‘vertical development’ (Cook-
Greuter, 2013; Jones et al., 2020; Palus et al., 2020; Petrie, 2011). The concept is described as not a
“singular aspect of the personality, but rather (to) a master trait that includes the domains of
character development, moral development, cognitive complexity, and the capacity for interpersonal
relationships” (Truluck & Courtenay, 2002). Given its complexity and comprehensiveness, this is the
definition that will inform this research. For ease of use, the term ‘vertical development’ will be
preferred as the main label to describe the phenomenon of ego-development itself, as well as the
transformative learning approaches that lead to ego-development.
However different they may be conceptually, most of the developmental theories tend to
assume that people progress, throughout their lives, in mostly linear fashion through various stages of
increasing cognitive/moral/emotional complexity. Some authors assume that this progression is
absolute and happens regardless of the external conditions in which a person is embedded
(Alexander & Langer, 1990). Others have criticised this position and argue that adult development is
the result of a person’s interactions with the social and cultural environment (Cook-Greuter, 2011;
Kegan, 1980; Torbert, 1994). In this view, development is a construct, an interplay between the
individuals’ internal developmental mechanisms and the challenges posed by external reality.
29
Therefore, it does not assume that all individuals automatically develop through all the available
stages but rather, that a combination of external challenge and internal volition needs to exist for
development to occur (Bauer & McAdams, 2010). This perspective is generally called “constructive-
developmental”, a term originally coined by Robert Kegan (Kegan, 1982). The constructive-
developmental approach to adult development makes the focus of the present research, as it
generated most applications for the field of leadership learning and development (Berger, 2004;
Manners et al., 2004b; Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015). A more in-depth review of constructive-
developmental literature and links to the present research is presented in section 2.2.
While the advantages of promoting psychological maturity by fostering later stages of
consciousness in adults have been reliably supported by extant literature (Cook-Greuter, 2004;
Helsing et al., 2008; Rooke & Torbert, 1998, 2005; Starr & Torbert, 2005) the question as to how
precisely this growth unfolds and, most importantly, how it might be accelerated through structured
learning experiences is a complex one, which has not yet been elucidated (Baron & Cayer, 2011c;
McCauley et al., 2006; Palus et al., 2020). Therefore, in this research the constructivist perspective on
adult development has been linked with theories of learning, and particularly with transformative
learning (TL) (Kegan, 2009; Mälkki, 2010; Merriam, 2004; Mezirow, 2008), whose theoretical
framework echoes, in many ways, the fundamental premises of constructive-developmentalism, as
will be detailed in the next section.
2.1.2. Transformative Learning (TL) and its Relevance to Vertical Development
There is wide consensus that learning refers to a complex process that goes beyond the mere
acquisition of knowledge and skills (Illeris, 2008) and might be broadly defined as “any process that in
living organisms leads to permanent capacity change and which is not solely due to biological
maturation or ageing” (Illeris, 2007, p. 3). This definition, when applied to humans, implies that
learning is in essence a constructivist process that happens at the intersection between the individual,
with his/her biological, cognitive, and psychological characteristics and the environment, which
includes personal, social, and learning contexts. In this interaction, the learner constantly modifies
30
their knowledge structures in response to environmental feedback, which then changes how
individuals perceive and react to subsequent information from the world. These mental structures are
also called “schemas” or “schemata” and are described as “organised mental pattern(s) of thoughts
or behaviours to help organise world knowledge” (Plant & Stanton, 2013, p. 2). The concept of
schema, or ‘mental pattern’ is the subject of debate and criticism in the scientific community, given
the array of overlapping terminologies that makes it difficult to establish its definition (Richardson &
Ball, 2009). Still, it is being widely used in learning theories (Illeris, 2007). It is also relevant for the
present research, as it helps describe the underlying mechanisms of personal transformation of
leaders.
Developmental researchers show that individuals change their mental patterns through
ongoing learning. Such learning can be ‘assimilative’, which means the individual simply adds new
elements to existing schema. It can also be ‘accommodative’, meaning that the individual lets go of
parts of a mental pattern that no longer serve them, and adjusts their worldview to accommodate a
more complex reality (Piaget, 1948). Educational researchers suggest learning can be ‘transformative’
(Mezirow, 1991), which implies a deeper reorganisation of the self, where whole clusters of existing
schemas are dismantled, to make room for a whole new way of seeing the world. It is the latter type
of learning that has been most often related to shifts in consciousness stage (Kegan, 2009), effectively
suggesting that consciousness development can be fostered through transformative learning. Still,
there is ongoing discussion as to what elements of transformative learning can best facilitate
consciousness development (Mälkki & Green, 2014), as well as to how learning facilitators can
support that process (Berger, 2004).
Transformative learning (TL) theory has been defined as the process through which
individuals transform “problematic frames of reference (mindsets, habits of mind, meaning
perspectives) – sets of assumption and expectation – to make them more inclusive, discriminating,
open, reflective, and emotionally able to change” (Mezirow, 2008, p. 92). Through transformative
learning adults can critically reflect on and question their own assumptions and change their points of
31
view and, consequently, actions. TL has received increasing attention in the context of leadership
development, as it is seen to support leaders in changing the way they interpret the world (Taylor,
2017) and, through perspective change, lead to more adaptive action.
Mezirow’s (2008) description of the phases of transformation of an individual’s thinking as
they learn bears interesting resemblances with Uhl-Bien’s (2018) description of the transformation
process of dynamic capabilities within an organisational system. Mezirow (2008) states that TL is
triggered by a ‘disorienting dilemma’ – which occurs when a momentous external event
fundamentally challenges one’s existing frames of reference. This major external disruption is
followed by the individual’s self-examination, critical reflection, and examination of personal
assumptions – all of which result in internal disruption and discomfort. This is akin to Uhl-Bien’s
(2018) proposition that organisational transformation is fuelled by exogenous shock – the external
pressure from the environment – and endogenous entrepreneurship – innovation stemming from
within the company – both of which generate disruption. In Mezirow’s (2008) individual
transformation process, reflection is followed by a recognition of one’s discontent with the status quo
and an impetus for action: the individual thus embraces new ways of thinking and relating with
others, which are then reintegrated into a changed perspective - a new status quo. When writing
about organisations’ dynamic capabilities, Uhl-Bien (2018) describes how the transformational
process disturbs the initial configuration of resources within a firm and, when successful, results in a
new configuration, that is more adaptive.
While disorienting dilemmas can be brought about by naturally occurring life crises, they can
also arise within safe transformative learning contexts (Mälkki, 2012), when participants’ current ways
of thinking are challenged. It could be assumed the presence of such disorienting dilemmas in an ELP
may help make the program more salient to participants, which has been shown to have a positive
impact on vertical development (Manners et al., 2004a; Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015). Hence the idea
of utilising disorienting dilemmas continues to inform leadership programs and executive coaching
with a vertical development focus (Berger, 2006).
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Similarities between transformational processes at individual and organisational levels reveal
the intriguing perspective that the individual too might be seen as a complex adaptive system and
that the principles suggested for fostering organisational adaptability might also hold value when
applied to individual transformation. Just as Uhl-Bien (2018) suggests that organisational adaptability
lies at the intersection between the need to innovate and the need to produce, so it might be worth
exploring how the vertical development of a leader happens at the intersection of the need for more
complex ways of thinking and the need to generate results in the short term. The former is necessary
for leaders to effectively deal with ever- increasing disruption. The latter might push leaders to stay
within the comfort zone and do what has been done before. The question remains as to how
leadership programs can help create an effective learning space that fulfils both needs and allows
leaders to transform.
Mezirow (1996) has been criticised for overemphasizing rationality over emotions in his TL
theory and for not considering the role of context in the process of transformative learning – all of
which have been addressed by other researchers (Gunnlaugson, 2007; Mälkki, 2010). While the fields
of TL and adult development research have largely stayed separate (DeSapio, 2017), rare attempts at
cross-pollination suggest that TL theory can be expanded on to consider it as a vehicle for fostering
shifts in consciousness from earlier towards later stages of consciousness, thus effectively favouring
vertical development (Kegan, 2009). It is also recognised that TL can be an effective vehicle for
fostering adaptive leadership (Nicolaides & McCallum, 2013), which makes it a relevant theory to
consider in the context of vertical leadership development. For these reasons, TL has been chosen to
inform the theoretical framework for this study, alongside constructive-developmentalism, as
presented in Figure 2.3. at the end of this chapter.
While TL’s traditional focus has not specifically been on generating vertical development, it
does seem to hold the potential of supporting upward shifts in consciousness (Kegan, 2009) – a
possibility which will be tested through this research. It has also been recognised that TL can be a
deeply disruptive and uncomfortable process, as it leads to a dismantling of an individual’s way of
33
meaning-making and the creation of another (Mezirow, 1991), which opens an inquiry into the
potential relevance of discomfort for vertical development.
2.1.3. Vertical Development and Transformative Learning in the context of Leadership
Development.
The distinction between accommodative and transformative learning on the one hand and
assimilative learning on the other hand, has informed the concepts of “vertical” and respectively
“horizontal” development as they are being applied to the field of leadership (Petrie, 2011). In the
leadership development literature, “horizontal” development is referred to as the acquisition of new
skills and abilities, technical learning, whereas “vertical” development refers to a qualitative shift in a
leader’s way of seeing the world, in their development stage (Cook‐Greuter, 2004). A summary of the
distinction is presented in Figure 2.2:
Figure 2.2. Horizontal versus vertical development
Source: Adapted from Cook Greuter (Cook-Greuter, 2004) and Kegan (2009)
34
Vertical development implies a qualitative shift in perspective, an epistemological change as a
result of transforming schemas. Researchers in the constructive-developmental tradition have
identified discrete stages through which the unfolding of meaning-making occurs towards ever higher
levels of complexity and abstraction (Cook-Greuter, 1999; Cook-Greuter, 2011; Kegan, 1982). These
stages are generally assumed to unfold in order, with every subsequent stage encompassing and
transcending the one before it. It is also recognised that individuals can, under certain circumstances,
revert to behaviours reflecting earlier stages of development, while retaining (theoretically) their
capacity for later-stage thinking. This phenomenon of inadvertently reverting to earlier stages of
development is called ‘fallback’ (Livesay, 2013, 2015). Horizontal development on the other hand is
the acquisition of knowledge and skills within existing schemas. Individuals acquire ever more
knowledge and skills at each developmental stage, but generally new information is assimilated within
the person’s current epistemology. Therefore, horizontal development is the enlargement of
knowledge and skills by which individuals can function optimally at their current stage. It is assumed
individuals only grow into their next stage when the very structure of their worldview changes. In
summary, horizontal development implies more knowledge, while vertical development implies a new
epistemology altogether (Kegan, 2009; Palus et al., 2020) .
Cook Greuter (2004) points out that most modern leadership development is focused on the
acquisition of knowledge, which helps expand a leader’s “current way of meaning-making. It is like
filling a container to its maximum capacity” (p. 3). This suggests most leadership learning is built on
horizontal approaches, intended to expand on what individuals know - as represented in Figure 2.2.
above. By contrast, vertical learning implies figuratively exchanging a smaller container for a larger
one, which is what happens when individuals undergo transformations in the way they make meaning
of the world. From a later stage of consciousness, the individual is capable to go beyond knowledge
acquisition and gain a wider perspective and a deeper understanding of reality. When applied to
organisational leaders, vertical development results in a higher capacity of effectively dealing with
complexity (Petrie, 2011; Rooke & Torbert, 2005).
35
Vertical development creates distinct advantages. Later-stage leaders have been shown to
have higher agility and adaptability (Heifetz et al., 2009), thereby being able to effectively deal with
more complexity (Rooke & Torbert, 2005) and to successfully operate within ambiguity (Nicolaides,
2015). They have demonstrated increased environmental awareness and concern, which in turn
makes them more likely to consider sustainability in their business decisions (Boiral et al., 2014;
Divecha & Brown, 2013). While both vertical and horizontal perspectives to leadership development
are acknowledged as being valuable for the development of a well-rounded leader, it is argued that
vertical development adds a greater dimension to leadership growth, that is not tenable through
knowledge acquisition alone (Petrie, 2011). Therefore, a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of
vertical development becomes necessary for helping foster more conscious, ethical, responsible and
sustainable leadership practices in a world where sustainability has become a matter of urgent
concern (Baron, Baron, Gregoire, et al., 2018; Heifetz, 1999) and world-centric versus ego-centric
thinking seems to become a key factor for fostering collaboration, making good decisions and solving
complex issues in highly disruptive environments (McDonald, 2020; O’Driscoll, 2021; Rose & Ellen,
2020; Zagefka, 2022) . This provides the rationale for choosing to focus the present research on
better understanding the mechanisms of vertical development and how they might be supported in
the context of leadership development programs.
In summary, the present study is informed by adult development theories, and particularly
constructive-developmental theories, which help describe the path of development with its various
stages. Additionally, the study draws on learning theories, and particularly TL, to inform the inquiry
into how development can be fostered through transformative learning experiences. Insights from
both streams of research are applied to the field of leadership development and inform the
effectiveness of programs designed to foster a leader’s process of psychological growth. They also
facilitate understanding how leaders themselves experience their own transformation in the context
of executive programs. The following sections will offer a more in-depth review of the literature on
constructive-development and how it informs the current research.
36
2.2. The Constructive-Developmental Approach to Leadership Development
This section traces the evolution of the constructive-developmental approach as it has been
applied to adult development in general and proceeds to narrowing down the relevance of this
approach for leadership development. Extant research on the links between developmental stage and
a leader’s effectiveness will be reviewed, as well as studies investigating if and how consciousness
development can be fostered through leadership programs.
2.2.1 Overview.
Research on the constructive-developmental (Kegan, 1980) approach to adult psychological
growth can be traced back to the work Jean Piaget (Piaget, 1948) undertook more than half a century
ago. Piaget studied the cognitive development of children and adolescents and noticed that, just as
bodies go through stages of growth, so do children’s minds. Taking an evolutionary view of human
consciousness, Piaget identified and set out to map distinct stages of cognitive development. He
discovered that, as young people progressed through these stages, their meaning-making systems –
ways of making sense of their reality - evolved organically, towards more complexity and their notions
of self and relationship to the world evolved toward broader and more sophisticated levels of
understanding. Also, he observed that these cognitive lenses were influenced by feedback from the
environment. He studied the way cognitive maps change and posited that as soon as external reality
no longer matched their existing mental maps, children started expanding these maps and growing
into the next stage of cognitive development.
Despite Piaget’s contribution to developmental psychology (Campbell, 2006; Carpendale,
2000; Kegan, 1982; Matusov & Hayes, 2000) and his merits in offering an alternative perspective to
his era’s prevailing views of environmental determinism, he was criticised for his mainly cognitive
approach of development, and for his focus on early life development and implied assertion that
cognitive development ends in early adulthood (Hopkins, 2011). Both assertions were disproved by
later research (Cook‐Greuter, 2004; Kegan & Lahey, 2009b; Kohlberg et al., 1969; Loevinger, 1966;
Wilber, 1997). It is now well-documented that psychological development, also called by some
37
authors ‘ego development’ (Loevinger, 1976) or ‘consciousness development’ (Boiral et al., 2014) or
‘vertical development’ (Cook-Greuter, 2013; M. A. McDonald & Spence, 2016; Palus et al., 2020;
Sharma, 2018) continues into adulthood and throughout the course of one’s life (Wilber, 2000). It has
also been shown that adult development is more than cognitive: that it is in fact a complex construct
including emotional, operative, and inter-personal dimensions (Cook‐Greuter, 2004; Loevinger, 1966).
Some researchers have shown that the stage of development impacts a person’s view of the world
and, as well as their capacity to adapt to and manage one’s emotions (Cook-Greuter, 2013). Others
have even suggested links between developmental stage and practical wisdom (Barbuto Jr & Millard,
2012; Bennet & Bennet, 2008; Murray, 2021). This helped build the current foundation of inquiry as
to how this particular type of development – mostly referred to as ‘vertical development’ throughout
this thesis - unfolds and if and how it can be fostered by external interventions, such as formal
learning.
Research that builds on the foundation created by Piaget, now often labelled “neo-Piagetian”
(Krettenauer, 2011; Miller & Cook-Greuter, 1994) expands on Piaget’s insights in several ways. Unlike
Piaget, who focused mostly on children’s cognitive development in relation to, and interaction with,
the external world, neo-Piagetian researchers have explored the ways in which adults construct their
experiences, what their meaning mechanisms are and how these evolve over the course of a lifetime.
Also, neo-Piagetian theorists see development as a complex evolution of emotional and moral
maturity, character building, intrapersonal and interpersonal capacity and not just cognition, as Piaget
did (McCauley et al., 2006). However, stage theories have come under criticism for their seemingly
rigid notions of phases or stages and suggestions of an ideal progression through life (Tusting &
Barton, 2003). Some studies have questioned the idea of ‘later is better’ when it comes to stage
evolution, pointing out that the highest stages of development are not automatically correlated with
happiness, while being positively correlated with self-actualisation and a higher concern for personal
meaning (Krettenauer, 2011). This helps to raise a word of caution when investigating how
development can be fostered through learning, by suggesting that readiness plays a key role in the
38
developmental process and that one should not use the proven benefits of later stages as
justifications for attempting to create “one size fits all” approaches that aim to hasten or force
development (Barker & Wallis, 2016).
As research progressed, the stages of development came to be understood less as discrete
phases and more as a continuum of growth and the boundaries between stages seen more as
conventions useful in mapping out an intricate, fluid process, rather than a fixed series of rigidly
distinctive steps (Barker & Wallis, 2016). Some authors suggest the existence of distinct lines of
development within the same individual, which can evolve independently from each other (Wilber,
2000). This suggests that while the developmental process is complex and not easily mapped,
consensus exists that “there are important patterns in the ways adults mature such that earlier ways
of meaning-making are integrated into more comprehensive and complex later ways” (McCauley et
al., 2006, p. 635). This validates the developmental approach as a useful lens for studying an
individual’s process of psychological maturation and suggests stage theories can indeed provide a
practical map to help illuminate the process of transformation of meaning-making as it is experienced
in the moment.
Further building on the foundation laid down by Piaget, Robert Kegan, and Lisa Lahey (Kegan
& Lahey, 2009) have coined the term ‘constructive-developmental’ to describe the whole stream of
research that focuses on studying meaning and meaning-making processes over the course of one’s
life. The term ‘constructive’ reflects the idea that people actively construct the meaning of their
experiences in interaction with their environment. It is implied that the mental, emotional, and
psychosocial maps individuals use directly influence how they understand and react to external
circumstances, creating a variety of behaviours, some more and some less adaptive, in response to
the same situation (Kegan & Lahey, 2009). The term ‘developmental’ suggests an evolution of these
meaning-making frameworks over time. Kegan’s and Lahey’s research concerns the complex
interaction between the challenges placed on individuals by the environment and their capacity to
reinvent themselves to effectively meet those challenges. This has made the constructive-
39
developmental approach particularly relevant for studying leadership effectiveness (Kegan & Lahey,
2009b; Nicolaides & Dzubinski, 2016; Starr & Torbert, 2005) and how vertical development, leading to
higher effectiveness, can be fostered through carefully crafted leadership development interventions
(McCauley et al., 2006). This, in turn, has informed the decision to use the constructive-
developmental approach as a main pillar in the theoretical framework for the present study and to
employ a constructive-developmental validated projective test - The Global Leadership Profile (GLP) -
(Livne-Tarandach & Torbert, 2009) to assess leaders’ consciousness stage before and after an
executive leadership program (ELP).
2.2.2. Stages and tiers of vertical development.
Like other developmental theorists, constructive-developmental researchers have defined
discrete stages of development that individuals go through over the course of their lives (Cook-
Greuter, 2013; Kegan & Lahey, 2009b; Loevinger, 1966; Rooke & Torbert, 2005). These can be
explained as “identifiable patterns of meaning-making that people share with one another” and are
alternatively referred to “as stages, orders of consciousness, ways of knowing, levels of development,
organizing principles” (McCauley et al., 2006, p. 636) or “action logics” (Torbert, 1994). Regardless of
the stage model employed by different researchers, there is agreement that the continuum of
development can roughly be split into early, middle, and later tiers, alternatively called
preconventional /conventional /post-conventional (Cook-Greuter, 2004),
dependent/independent/interdependent (McCauley et al., 2006) or concrete/formal/postformal
(Commons & Ross, 2008; Piaget, 1948). The preconventional/conventional/post-conventional labels
will be used alternatively with earlier/middle/later throughout this thesis, given that they have been
most often employed in literature dealing with the applications of constructive-developmental
theories to leadership (Baron & Cayer, 2011; Harung et al., 2009).
While different theorists have mapped the developmental continuum using different stage
labels, a common challenge in this type of research is the relatively small proportion of the population
who reach the highest stages of development (Krettenauer, 2011). The fact that most individuals
40
seem to stall in their development within the conventional stages, with fewer and very few
progressing towards the early and late post-conventional stages respectively (Kegan & Lahey, 2009),
contradicts developmental theories which claim the universal and unavoidable nature of the
developmental process throughout its breadth of stages (Krettenauer, 2011; McCauley et al., 2006;
O’Fallon, 2010; Pogson & Tennant, 1995; Vincent, Denson, et al., 2015). Consequently, theorists have
suggested that there is a ‘disjunction’ between the lower stages of development and the higher ones
and that while growth at the conventional stages seems to “reflect a continuity of internal processes
driving development”, growth at the post-conventional stages seems “to depend on the availability of
a specific set of growth-enhancing stimuli” (Edelstein & Krettenauer, 2004, p. 231). In other words,
extant research seems to suggest that a combination of the natural impetus for growth which
animates children (Piaget, 1948) in combination with developmental stimulus naturally occurring
from the environment, appears to fuel adults’ ongoing development. This growth occurs up until a
certain point, which seems to reach into the conventional stages. Here, most adults are seen to reach
a sort of developmental stability, where the conventional worldview becomes a comfort zone which
allows most of them to lead functional, independent lives and effectively manage their environments
(Kegan, 1995). An especially disruptive set of circumstances or stimuli appear to be necessary to
provoke growth into the post-conventional stages of development and it also seems that external
circumstances alone are not enough for such advanced development to occur. It is suggested that an
element of choice is also required to foster development into the latest, post-conventional stages
(Edelstein & Krettenauer, 2004; Krettenauer, 2011).
While relatively few individuals reach the post-conventional tier of development, where a
person is considered developmentally mature (Nicolaides, 2008), those who do have been shown to
be more successful on several dimensions – both personal and professional. They have been shown
to better cope with life’s major challenges, such as divorce (Bursik, 1991). They have also been shown
to demonstrate leadership effectiveness (Eigel, 1998) and high-performance in complex, ambiguous
environments (Baron et al., 2018). Thus, a better understanding of the ingredients required for post-
41
conventional development is of most interest for the purposes of the present research. This study
aims to empirically explore what the element of developmental choice might look like in practice and
what is the subjectively perceived link between the external disruption that acts as impetus for
development and the internal experience (e.g., choices or responses) of development as leaders
undertake an ELP. The present study proposes focusing on leaders at later action logics, who have
been, thus far, under-researched due mostly to small samples (Vincent, Denson, et al., 2015).
2.2.3. Key Adult Development Theories Informing Modern Concepts of Vertical Development
Cognitive Moral Development (CMD) Theory. Neo-Piagetian theorists moved beyond Piaget’s
concern with cognitive development and the focus on youth. Lawrence Kohlberg investigated how
individuals’ moral reasoning is correlated with developmental stages, thus bringing to light the topic
of ethical decision-making as a function (among other things) of developmental stage (Kohlberg et al.,
1969). Kohlberg’s Cognitive Moral Development (CMD) theory has been subject to criticism because
of its overreliance on the cognitive aspect of ethical decisions, while in fact many other factors are at
play (Fraedrich et al., 1994). Also, he has been criticised for claiming that higher stages are objectively
‘better’ than lower stages and for the cumbersome method of assessing CMD, with long interviews
and the need for complex training for those who conduct the interview and score the results (Trevino,
1992).
While Kohlberg’s cognitive developmental approach to morality in its original form is largely
discounted by modern research (Krebs & Denton, 2006), his theory is recognised for its valuable
contribution to deepening understanding of adult development (McCauley et al., 2006). His labels for
the developmental tiers – preconventional/conventional /post-conventional - remain a staple
throughout the adult developmental literature, as a way of describing specific clusters of
developmental stages. Kohlberg’s stages of moral development have become part of the literature
informing modern human resource development (HRD) programs, which focus on creating a link
between ethics and sustainability (Ardichvili, 2012). Such programs are helping promote more
sustainable organisational cultures by fostering self-leadership and individual moral development.
42
Other research confirms the positive effects of fostering leaders’ late-stage moral development by
showing that post-conventional leaders tend to be more preoccupied by issues of sustainability and
environmental responsibility, which inform their actions and decisions in the organisation (Boiral et
al., 2014).
Ego Development Theory. Jane Loevinger was a fundamental contributor to the adult
development field, by theorizing psychological maturation beyond the cognitive domain. She studied
the evolution of one’s character, interpersonal style, and conscious preoccupations under the broad
concept of ‘ego-development’ (Krettenauer, 2011; Loevinger, 1966). Most importantly, she
developed one of the first valid tools to measure this progression. Later, Susanne Cook- Greuter
(Cook-Greuter, 1999) and William Torbert (1994) broadened and deepened Loevinger’s work and
applied it to the field of leadership development, thus making her theory and subsequent iterations
one of the most widely used to understand leaders’ vertical development (Petrie, 2011) .
The Washington University Sentence Completion Test (WUCST) (Loevinger, 1966) is a
projective test (Holsopple & Miale, 1954) consisting of 36 incomplete sentence ‘stems’ which
participants are invited to fill in any way they choose. It has become one of the most widely used
tools for measuring consciousness development in adults (McCauley et al., 2006). The test is scored
according to a detailed and publicly available scoring manual (Hy & Loevinger, 1996; Loevinger, 1976),
thus making it easier and more economical to use (particularly after artificial intelligence has started
being used in scoring) in the research on consciousness development and hence the preferred tool
for much of the previous research in the field (Manners et al., 2004b; Vincent, Denson, et al., 2015).
While the soundness of ego development theory, as well as the validity of the WUSCT, have
been supported by research (Manners & Durkin, 2001), Loevinger’s work has faced criticism for its
lack of differentiation of the later stages, where Loevinger’s scoring manual offers only rudimentary
instructions (Krettenauer, 2011). This makes the WUSCT less effective for studying the later action
logics and has called for subsequent research and new iterations of the test, mostly performed by
Susanne Cook Greuter and William Torbert, who applied the sentence completion test (SCT) to
43
organisational work and whose important findings and elaboration on post-conventional stages
inform this study (Cook‐Greuter, 2004; Rooke & Torbert, 1998). Torbert and Cook-Greuter did much
to lessen the major gap in Loevinger’s work. Most notably, this involved addressing the lack of clarity
in describing the later stages of development (Cook-Greuter, 2003; Torbert, 1994) and made her work
relevant for the field of leadership. While Loevinger had built her theory by measuring mostly college
students’ levels of development and had amassed massive data on the preconventional and
conventional tiers, Torbert and Cook Greuter accessed a different demographic by administering the
sentence completion test in organisations (Torbert & Livne-Tarandach, 2009). They built on Cook-
Greuter’s previous work of theorising post-conventional development (Cook-Greuter, 1999) and,
together with Rooke, increasingly applied it to fostering a deeper understanding of vertical
development in organisational contexts, as well as to theorising approaches to practically support the
shift from one stage to another (Cook-Greuter, 2000, 2004; Rooke & Torbert, 1998; Torbert, 1994;
Torbert et al., 2004).
Torbert and Cook-Greuter thus updated and expanded on Loevinger’s developmental stages.
Torbert’s updated framework contains nine stages, which he called ‘action logics’ – to emphasize the
dynamic nature of consciousness development as an interplay of worldview and action (Nicolaides &
Dzubinski, 2016; Torbert & Taylor, 2008). Cook-Greuter subsequently did further work on the very
late post-conventional stages and expanded the framework even further (Cook-Greuter, 2011).
Torbert, Rooke and Cook-Greuter built a modified version of WUCST called Leadership
Development Profile (LDP) (Rooke & Torbert, 2005), which each of them later continued to work on
and iterate separately. Torbert’s final version of the vertical assessment tool became the Global
Leadership Profile (GLP) (Torbert & Livne-Tarandach, 2009) and Cook-Greuter’s became the Maturity
Assessment for Professionals (MAP) (Torbert, 2016). The LDP, GLP and MAP all eliminated some of
the original Loevinger stems, which were more focused on issues around gender or sexuality, which is
more appropriate for the younger audience that the WUSCT was originally designed for. They added
new sentence stems, prompting reflections on topics such as power, time, or good leadership, which
44
is considered more relevant to organisational life and leadership performance. All these new sentence
completion tests continue to be widely used now in organisational contexts to assess leaders’
developmental level (C. Baron & Cayer, 2011a; McCauley et al., 2006). GLP became the assessment
tool of choice for this study given that its validity is best supported by published data at the present
time (Torbert, 2016), as will be detailed further in Chapter Three - Methodology.
Constructive Developmental and Subject-Object Theory. Kegan coined the term “constructive-
developmental” (Kegan, 1980) to emphasize the interplay between the demands of the environment
and the developmental shifts of individuals evolving their meaning-making systems in response to
those demands. He has applied his inquiry specifically to the organisational and leadership
development field (McCauley et al., 2006), which makes his contribution foundational for the
theoretical framework of a study dealing with the vertical development of leaders, such as this one.
Kegan (1980) describes the progression from one stage of consciousness to another as a
process of turning ‘subject’ into ‘object’. Here, the term ‘subject’ describes being enmeshed in the
mindset or lens through which the individual perceives reality, unaware their perception is being
distorted. The term ‘object’ refers to the ability to dissociate from one’s own beliefs and mindset and
critically reflect on one’s own assumptions, which now the individual holds in front of them as
‘object’, instead of being ‘subject’ to them. It is essentially a process of making the invisible visible by
stepping away from one’s own mental and emotional filters and observing them as if from outside.
Such a shift allows one “to look at what before one could only look through, so that a way of knowing
or making meaning becomes a kind of ‘tool’ that we have (and can control or use) rather than
something that has us (and therefore controls and uses us)” (Kegan & Lahey, 2009b, p. 521).
Consequently, a person’s repertoire of perception and action is expanded towards more and more
complex, encompassing epistemology, their consciousness evolves into a new stage, and they
become capable of noticing and more adaptively acting on patterns that they were unaware of or that
were previously hidden to them.
45
Such a shift in perspective is consistent with the tenets of TL theory, which posits that
individuals shift their frames of reference when they are confronted with disorienting dilemmas
(Mezirow, 2000). These disruptive dilemmas challenge a person’s current way of thinking, inviting
them to question and eventually relinquish existing schema, thus leading to transformation. Kegan
himself explicitly links constructive -developmentalism to TL by suggesting that the perspective
change described in TL is in fact the same as the subject-object shift described in his own theory
(Kegan, 2009). Kegan also takes the theoretical view that the ‘form’ which ‘transforms’ according to
TL is nothing else than an individual’s own epistemology which evolves as they grow through
subsequent developmental stages. This implies that the transformative learning process might have
an impact on vertical development and, conversely, that vertical development might be in turn an
example of transformative learning. The present study thus proposes to empirically connect the two
theories and verify these assertions.
Kegan has also devised his own version of a vertical assessment tool - the Subject-Object
interview (SOI). This is a semi-structured type of interview that invites the interviewee to relate
various personal experiences, while the interviewer listens and interprets the way in which the
subject takes perspective and uses language to make sense of those experiences (Lahey et al., 1988).
While the SOI has been recognised for its rigour and has been employed in previous research on
leadership development (Berger & Atkins, 2009), it can be difficult to use in studies involving large
samples of leaders due to its being time-consuming and requiring extensive interviewer training. This
drawback of SOI makes the choice of a sentence completion test preferable as a vertical development
assessment tool, particularly for larger studies, such as the present one (Torbert, 2016).
2.2.4. Developmental stages and their characteristics.
While different researchers have devised different names for the discrete stages of
development within each tier – pre-conventional, conventional, and post-conventional - their
descriptions tend to overlap. Table 2.1 below presents a summary of the most notable stage theories
in the constructive-developmental stream of research, with their respective characteristics and the
46
theoretical correspondence between them. It is worth mentioning that no study to date has
empirically linked all these frameworks (McCauley et al., 2006; Miller & Cook-Greuter, 1994; Torbert,
1994), while attempts have been made to systematically compare the main vertical development
assessment tools (Torbert, 2016). Torbert’s stages, outlined on the far-right column, will be used as
points of reference throughout this thesis, given their prevalent use in organisations.
Table 2.1 Four constructive-developmental frameworks
Developmental Tier
Kegan’s
stages
(“orders of
the mind”)
Loeving
er’s
stages
Cook Greuter’s
stages
Torbert’s stages (“action logics”)
Preconventional:
Have little self-control, a
very short-term outlook,
view life as a zero-sum
game, tend to be
reluctant to receiving
feedback and show little
capacity for self-
awareness, while
tending to place
responsibility for their
actions outside of
themselves. (Miller &
Cook-Greuter, 1994).
Magical
mind
E2
2 Impulsive
Impulsive
Is a developmental level pertaining to
the first years of life and is not
discussed as a distinct level in the
adult development literature
The Self
Sovereign
Mind
E3
2/3 Self-
Defensive
Opportunist (around 5% of leaders)
Rejects feedback exhibits hostile
humour and can act in deceptive and
manipulative ways, while flouting
power. Focuses on personal gains and
regard others and the world as things
to be exploited (Rooke & Torbert,
2005)
Conventional
Within this tier
individuals progress from
needing to conform to
the perceived
expectations of others
and guiding their actions
by external frames of
reference towards
developing independent
thinking, internal frames
of reference and
capacities for self-
reflection. Conventional
individuals have yet little
awareness of being
embedded in a larger
system and tend to not
question the system
itself (Miller & Cook-
Greuter, 1994).
The
Socialised
Mind
E4
3 Conformist
Diplomat (around 8% of leaders and
mostly at junior management levels)
Avoids conflict, adopts black/white
attitudes, and suppresses own desires
in favour of group loyalty, gains
acceptance by following group norms
and paying attention to others’ needs
(Rooke & Torbert, 2005)
n/a
E5
3/4 Self-
conscious
Expert (around 38% of leaders)
Aware of separation between self and
group, interested in solving problems
and being efficient rather than
effective, concerned with own
performance and perfecting one’s
knowledge, accepts feedback only
from perceived subject matter experts
(Rooke & Torbert, 2005)
The Self
Authoring
mind
E6
4
Conscientious
Achiever (around 30% of leaders)
Shifts from efficiency and focus on
task to effectiveness and focus on
results and longer-term goals. Open to
47
Developmental Tier
Kegan’s
stages
(“orders of
the mind”)
Loeving
er’s
stages
Cook Greuter’s
stages
Torbert’s stages (“action logics”)
feedback. Becomes capable of
working collaboratively, has increased
self-awareness and notices own
patterns of behaviour, while still being
blind to one’s shadow (Rooke &
Torbert, 2005)
Post-conventional
Post-conventional
individuals reflect on the
system they are
embedded in and
progress from
questioning and
opposing it, to
collaboratively shaping it
and finally to
intentionally creating
ambiguity so they can
transform the system
itself. This tier is
characterised by
systemic worldview,
capacity of critically
examining the accepted
norms of society and
differentiating between
inner values and external
pressure. Individuals are
more tolerant of
differences, more
accepting and willing to
engage with different
(even opposing) points
of view and more
capable of dealing with
paradox and adapting to
ambiguous and fast-
changing contexts
(Miller & Cook-
Greuter, 1994).
n/a
E7
4/5
Individualist
Redefining (formerly called:
“Individualist” in Torbert’s earlier
work. Around 10% of leaders, but up
to 30% at senior leadership levels)
First step towards a systemic view of
the world and acknowledgement that
the accepted ways of doing things
might be flawed. Starts questioning
the established order. Increased
preoccupation with learning and self-
development. Increased awareness of
own and other’s assumptions and
preoccupation with congruence with
one’s own values. Can become forces
for change, but also disruptive in
organisations, as they can get
entrenched in promoting new ideas
and concepts at all costs (Herdman-
Barker & Erfan, 2015)
The Self
Transformin
g mind
E8
5 Autonomous
Transforming (formerly called
“Strategist” in Torbet’s earlier work.
Around 4% of leaders)
Increased capacity to take a 4th
person meta-perspective, noticing
self, other and systems
simultaneously; aware of one’s
shadow; capable of tolerating and
effectively dealing with ambiguity;
high emphasis of growth and self-
fulfilment; exercises power in mutually
transforming manner. Highly
collaborative interpersonal style, goal,
and process oriented, capable of
building shared visions (Torbert &
Taylor, 2008)
48
Pre-conventional and conventional stages. While all different, these models of development
all agree that while most humans evolve through the pre-conventional stages before they reach
adulthood, a minority ( 5-10%) remain arrested in these early phases of development (Cook-Greuter,
2013; Kegan & Lahey, 2009b; Kohlberg et al., 1969; Loevinger, 1966; Rooke & Torbert, 2005). This has
negative consequences on their relationships and capacity to adapt in adult life, as one of the main
characteristics of pre-conventional individuals is an inability to take full responsibility for one’s
actions. In organisations, pre-conventional leadership is undesirable as it can breed toxic cultures.
Developmental Tier
Kegan’s
stages
(“orders of
the mind”)
Loeving
er’s
stages
Cook Greuter’s
stages
Torbert’s stages (“action logics”)
Transpersonal & Ego-
transcendent
Individuals at these
stages perceive
themselves as part of a
continuum of
consciousness and gain a
transpersonal
perspective on life
(Cook-Greuter, 2013).
n/a
E9
5/6 Construct
Aware /Ego-
aware
Alchemist (around 1% of leaders)
Take complex system views, adopt
high moral standards; capable of
simultaneously holding short- and
long-term views; increased capacity to
deal with complexity and ambiguity
and even generate ambiguity as a way
of reinventing themselves and the
systems they are embedded in
(Nicolaides, 2008; Rooke &
Torbert, 2005)
n/a
n/a
6 Unitive
Ironist (extremely rare, not generally
encountered in organisations,
therefore not often discussed in the
leadership development sphere)
This is the last stage that can be
reliably measured through sentence
completion tests, as the boundaries of
language tend to be reached at this
stage. Aware of interconnectedness of
all phenomena; perceives reality as
undifferentiated continuum; have
transcended an individual self-
perspective and take a
universal/cosmic perspective;
effortlessly shifting awareness among
multiple points of view and awareness
states; a stage where personal and
transpersonal meet. (Cook-Greuter,
2013)
49
Such leaders tend to use power unilaterally and treat their teams as objects to be exploited. Action
from these early consciousness stages is also likely to result in ethical issues, as the preconventional
mindset is characterised by rule-breaking, short-term gains, excessive risk taking with little concern
for consequences (Rooke & Torbert, 2005). Most adults however grow beyond this tier and into the
conventional stages of development (Cook‐Greuter, 2004).
Conventional individuals are prevalent in leadership positions (over 78%) (Cook‐Greuter,
2004) and operate effectively within the accepted norms and rules of society. They progress from
mostly conforming, cultivating loyalty, compliance and being preoccupied with preserving the status
quo preferred by the majority (at Diplomat stage) towards developing more independent thinking,
increasingly relying on skills, expertise, and knowledge acquisition as effective means for excelling at
tasks and being effective individual contributors (at Expert stage). At the late-conventional end of the
spectrum, leaders grow into developing internalised standards of ethics and behaviour, becoming
increasingly self-reflective, goal- versus task-oriented, cooperative, and seeking mutuality in
relationships (at Achiever level) (Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015). The Achiever action logic has been
associated, in multiple studies, with high managerial effectiveness and the capacity to build and lead
high-functioning teams, creating positive team and organisational cultures (Kegan, 1982). However, a
limitation of this stage, as of the whole conventional tier, is the difficulty in challenging one’s frame of
reference or staying effective when the environment becomes highly chaotic and previously stable
points of reference disappear (Rooke & Torbert, 2005).
Conventional individuals are challenged in stepping back to a broader perspective, in
observing the system they are embedded in or in thinking systemically. They tend to think
unidirectionally, focused on one or two perspectives, noticing the parts rather than the whole and the
separate components rather than the relationships between them. They also have trouble paying
attention to content and process at the same time. This leads to a propensity for controlling
outcomes while having difficulty in seeing self as part of a larger system, with all the resulting
intricacies and interdependencies. Moreover, they have not yet acquired the capacity of consciously
50
questioning one’s own way of seeing the world (C. Baron & Cayer, 2011). Also, conventional leaders
tend to be overly focused on action at the expense of reflection and typically struggle with time,
which they treat as a perpetually scarce resource. This results in a tendency to focus on short and
mid-term outcomes at the expense of a longer-term, more strategic relationship with time (Rooke &
Torbert, 2005).
Such limitations have less bearing on leadership performance during stable times, when
businesses operate predictably, within achievement-oriented frameworks, with clear strategies,
targets, and goals. However, the same limitations can create negative consequences in a context of
increasing disruptive change, ambiguity, and complexity. Conventional thinking cannot arguably serve
leaders who need to constantly explore the unknown, make decisions with little information, consult
widely, and harness the collective intelligence to help their organisations constantly reinvent
themselves to survive. The limitations of conventional thinking can be a real setback in supporting the
complex, multi-perspective thinking, and adaptive leadership organisations require. This is particularly
true when organisations are simultaneously facing massive disruption to their business models,
navigating a global pandemic, fighting for preserving precious talent and an increasingly remote
workforce – all the while fronting public pressure to act not just as economic actors, but responsible
corporate citizens, promoting environmental and social sustainability alongside business profitability
(Ardichvili, 2012; Banerrji, 2021; C. Baron & Cayer, 2011b; Comfort et al., 2020; Fraedrich et al., 1994;
Ghobadian et al., 2022; O’Driscoll, 2021; Zagefka, 2022).
Post-conventional stages and beyond. Some of the limitations of the conventional tier of
development are transcended as individuals progress towards the post-conventional stages. While
post-conventional leaders have made up a minority of the leadership population - less than 20%
(Cook‐Greuter, 2004) - their numbers seem to be increasing, particularly at senior levels, where
Redefining leaders make up to 30% of the population (Herdman-Barker & Erfan, 2015). The increasing
numbers of early post-conventional leaders might be an opportunity, but also a challenge for
organisations, given that Redefining leaders tend to question the systems they are embedded in.
51
Without adequate guidance, researchers point out, these leaders can shift from being inspirational
forces of innovation and change towards creating unintended negative consequences in their
organisations by becoming too attached to their reformist thinking and falling into self-righteous
behaviours that alienate others (Herdman-Barker & Erfan, 2015). If more leaders are progressing
towards the post-conventional stages, it can be assumed that they will find, within the organisation,
few if any exemplars at even later stages who can guide their steps. This is one more reason for
accelerating steps towards better understanding these later-stage leaders – particularly in how they
learn and what they need to make the most of their newly-acquired developmental advantage: hence
the opportunity and justification for the current research.
At their best, post-conventional leaders can engage in an increasing process of integration
and interdependence with others and the world at large. Such individuals construct more fluid
identities, as the boundaries between self and others start breaking down (Cook-Greuter, 2013). They
are also capable of taking multiple perspectives on any given issue, tend to be more self-aware, able
to be simultaneously in the action and take a ‘meta’ view, reflecting on the process itself. Such
leaders can be exemplars of Torbert’s ‘inquiry in action’ concept (Rooke & Torbert, 1998, 2005; Starr
& Torbert, 2005; Torbert & Taylor, 2008) or of the ‘balcony-dance’ capacity specific of adaptive
leaders, as Heifetz describes them (Heifetz et al., 2009).
These abilities to dabble in complexity might account for post-conventional leaders’
documented agility and increased capacity to deal with paradox and ambiguity. In turn, these reflect
leaders’ measured effectiveness in leading organisational transformations (Nicolaides, 2015; Rooke &
Torbert, 1998). Post-conventional leaders are also known to be able to take long-term perspectives,
thinking in broader terms that integrate individual, group and community interests. They also tend to
demonstrate mature thinking and adaptive, creative decision-making – all valuable capacities in the
current, disruptive global context (Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015).
It is important to mention that post-conventional stages do not come without setbacks. A
frequent criticism of post-conventional leaders is that they can become so preoccupied with their
52
complex way of thinking that they risk losing connection and relevance with the rest of the
organisation. At times they can have difficulty translating their thinking and adapting it to make it
useful to colleagues who inhabit other action-logics and thus can fail to harness talent that simply
operates form a different frame of reference. Also, hubris and a perceived sense of self-importance or
‘specialness’ can blind these leaders to their own shortcomings and prevent them learning from
others (Barker & Wallis, 2016). Thus, as Barker and Wallis point out, one major vulnerability of stage
theories lies in the fact that they can easily be perceived as a hierarchy, where it is implied that ‘later’
is automatically ‘better’, when in fact human development is a much more fluid process, with every
stage having its own strengths and positive impact under the right circumstances and with all stages
being deserving of equal honour. This idea and its implication for investing in post-conventional
leaders’ ongoing growth are discussed in the next section on fallback.
All the benefits of post-conventional leadership, while not losing awareness of the potential
negative side of these later stages, have led to the renewed interest in studying such leaders, how
they attain their maturity and particularly the ways in which post-conventional consciousness can be
fostered through learning programs, as is the purpose of the present research.
Theory also points to levels of consciousness beyond the post-conventional domain – so
called ‘ego transcendent’ or ‘unitive’ (Cook-Greuter, 2000) stages. Here another profound qualitative
shift takes place in the way individuals make sense of the world and of themselves in it – towards a
fluid, transcendent sense of self, a stable meta-awareness over one’s consciousness in flux and the
emergence of a cosmic scale time perspective (Cook-Greuter, 2000). Such individuals are more likely
to take an observer view of experience itself, as well as of their own ego, and become aware of the
constructed nature of language and its limitations in describing reality. They tend to more
purposefully access and utilise non-cognitive forms of knowing, such as intuition, and are more likely
to have transpersonal experiences. As they start to lose the perception of self as separate from
others, such individuals become less attached to outcomes, more likely to embrace life as is and more
inclined to enter a spiritual path (Cook-Greuter, 2000). This might bring such individuals at odds with
53
the outcome-driven, results-oriented cultures of most organisations, which might help explain why
they are rarely found in formal leadership positions (Fisher et al., 1987). These highest stage
individuals are exceedingly rare in the general population - under 1% of tested individuals, according
to Cook-Greuter (2000). Given their extreme rarity in the organisational realm, leaders at the ego-
transcendent tier of development do not make the object of the present research.
In conclusion of this overview of the developmental journey and its stages, it becomes
apparent that individuals’ views of the world and mechanisms for making sense of and effectively
responding to reality broaden and deepen as they progress through the stages. It is also notable that
this progress does not come without its perils - given that later stages of development can be lonely
and confusing places to be and that developmentally mature individuals do not automatically use
their gifts in constructive ways, as noted by Barker & Wallis (2016). Their research points out the risks
of thinking of vertical development as if it were a rigid hierarchy and for refraining from automatically
assuming that later stages are intrinsically better. They invite other researchers and practitioners to
use the developmental perspective as a map, not to be mistaken with the territory – a view fully
embraced throughout this research.
While the developmental process might be interesting from a psychological point of view, it is
important to question what relevance it has for the business world and for the field of leadership. Are
post-conventional leaders indeed more effective? The answer, as it emerges from the literature, is
mostly ‘yes’. Existing research offers strong evidence for the positive impact of later developmental
stages on overall leadership effectiveness (McCauley et al., 2006) – as will be detailed in the
upcoming section.
2.2.5. Vertical development and leadership effectiveness.
The notion that a leader’s developmental stage impacts their managerial effectiveness has
been extensively investigated in previous research. McCauley et al. (2006) found that conventional
(self-authoring) leaders tend “to enact leadership in ways deemed effective in most modern
organisations” (p.647). They note that such leaders are less likely to engage in coercive power
54
practices and more likely to work collaboratively and delegate, more tolerant of conflict and more
inclined to become agents for change in their organisations. Some more recent key studies exploring
links between leadership effectiveness and developmental stage are summarised in Table 2.2 below,
while overall conclusions of limitations of current research will be discussed further in this section.
Table 1.2: Chronological summary of studies on leadership effectiveness and vertical
development
Study
Key points and Conclusions
Organizational transformation as a
function of CEO’s developmental
stage. (Rooke & Torbert, 1998)
• One of the first and, 24 years later, remaining one of the
few longitudinal studies investigating the impact of post-
conventional CEOs on organisational transformation – 10
organisations were studied over 4 years
• Post-conventional CEOs were more successful in fostering
organisational learning and transformation, as compared to
their conventional counterparts
Leadership agility: Five levels for
anticipating and initiating change
(Joiner & Josephs, 2006)
• Research focused on differences in effectiveness between
conventional and post-conventional leaders uncovered eight
mental/emotional capacities that develop in sync with
consciousness stage: “situational awareness, sense of purpose,
stakeholder understanding, power style, connective awareness,
reflective judgment, self-awareness, and developmental
motivation” (Krettenauer, 2011, p. p 182). Collectively these
capacities, when used in action, lead to what Joiner & Josephs
(2006) call “leadership agility” – the ability to effectively
respond to environments defined by fast change and increased
interdependence and hence increased leadership effectiveness.
• Post-conventional leaders have been shown to
demonstrate increased leadership agility if they translated their
reflexivity into action. Joiner and Joseph (2006) emphasize the
potential gap between a leader’s mental and emotional capacity
and their actions. Not all mental maturity translates into action,
which informs the importance of not only helping leaders shift
into later stages of consciousness, but also supporting them in
translating more mature thinking into concrete actions.
Looking through the lens of
leadership: A constructive-
developmental approach. (Harris
& Kuhnert, 2008)
• One of the first of its kind quantitative, empirical studies to
examine the relationship between leaders’ developmental level
and their effectiveness.
• 74 executives from a variety of industries, who participated
in an executive development program, took part in this study.
Consciousness level (called “leadership development level” –
LDL in the study) was determined through subject-object
interviews. Leadership effectiveness was assessed through 360-
degree feedback, including feedback from superiors, peers, and
subordinates.
• A strong positive correlation between the leaders’
development level and their effectiveness as rated by superiors,
peers, and subordinates. Leaders at later stages of development
were rated as more effective across several competencies, some
more concrete, others more complex. Higher stage leaders
rated better at more operational and interpersonal
55
Study
Key points and Conclusions
competencies such as “managing performance, cultivating and
retaining talent, inspiring commitment, and catalysing teams” (p
61). They also found increased efficiency in more strategic and
intrapersonal competencies, including “leading change, creating
a compelling vision and personal grounding” (p 61). The authors
argue that these correlations point to late-stage leaders as more
effective change agents, capable of challenging the status quo
and more capable of holding a clear vision of the future and
cultivating resilience in the face of change.
Personality and Leadership
Developmental Levels as
predictors of leaders’ performance
(Strang & Kuhnert, 2009)
• Data was gathered on 67 executives taking part in a
development program. Leadership development level was
measured using Kegan’s SOI (1988). Personality (Big Five model)
was measured with a validated measure. Leadership
performance was assessed by 360-degree feedback.
• A leader’s developmental level emerged as an important
predictor of leader performance, as expressed by superior, peer
and subordinate feedback.
• The developmental level has been shown as clearly distinct
from the Big Five personality factors – being a unique
component that predicts the variance in leaders’ performance
as perceived by peers and subordinates. This study has shown
that the developmental level is more highly predictive of
performance than the Big Five personality dimensions.
Leading complex change with
post‐conventional consciousness.
(Brown, 2012)
• In-depth interviews with 13 subjects.
• Leaders at the latest stages of consciousness development
“appear to: design from a deep inner foundation, including
grounding their work in transpersonal meaning; access non-
rational ways of knowing, and use systems, complexity, and
integral theories; and adaptively manage through "dialogue"
with the system, three distinct roles, and developmental
practices.” (p 561)
Understanding Leadership from
the Inside Out: Assessing
Leadership Potential Using
Constructive-Developmental
Theory. (Helsing & Howell,
2014)
• 32 participants in the World Economic Forum’s Global
Leadership Fellows were interviewed using Kegan’s SOI (1988)
at the beginning of the leadership development program and 11
were re-interviewed at the end of the program.
• A positive link was discovered between leaders’
developmental level and the likelihood that they be assessed as
“high potential” by an external assessment agency.
• Fellows at later stages of development were shown to
perform better in more complex leadership roles. Also,
developmental level predicted how demanding leaders would
find their roles.
• Unlike other studies, this is a case study, taking a qualitative
approach to the inquiry and focusing on the nuances of the
interplay between vertical development and performance.
Conclusions support the usefulness of employing developmental
tools to enhance leaders’ performance.
Environmental Leadership and
Consciousness Development: A
• Case study in 15 industrial SMEs involving 63 leaders
• Organisations run by leaders at post-conventional stages of
consciousness displayed the most environmental management
56
Study
Key points and Conclusions
Case Study Among Canadian SMEs
(Boiral et al., 2014)
practices. Also, the opposite was true –all organisations which
displayed less environmentally sustainable practices were run by
leaders at conventional levels.
• This study contributes to showing that environmental
leadership – understood by a leader’s capacity to hold a long-
term vision of ecological sustainability and to influence others
and the organisations towards attaining that – is influenced by
the leader’s order of consciousness.
Promoting post-conventional
consciousness in leaders:
Australian community leadership
programs. (Vincent, Ward, et al.,
2015)
• Graduates of Australian community leadership programs
who progressed to post-conventional stages reported an
increased capacity for considering multiple perspectives and
dealing with complexity. They also showed a decreased need for
control and an increased focus on developing others.
Managers’ Citizenship Behaviours
for the Environment: A
Developmental Perspective.
(Boiral et al., 2018)
• Longitudinal study linking managers’ ego-development
stage to “organizational citizenship behaviours for the
environment (OCBEs)” (p 395) spanning five years, involving 138
managers from different companies, from five different cohorts,
attending a 12-month professional development program
• Found a positive correlation between consciousness stage
and behaviours such as „eco-initiatives” (recycling, pollution
prevention, etc.) and “eco-helping” (assisting others with their
environmental concerns).
• Showed that post-conventional stage leaders are more
likely to engage in environmentally friendly behaviours and to
encourage others to do the same.
Transformational Change by a
Post-conventional Leader (Brandt
et al., 2019)
• This is a case study on an organisational transformation and
the role post-conventional leadership has played in ensuring
success.
• Leadership capabilities such as dispersed power and
employee empowerment, freedom within a frame, leader
vulnerability and holding space for collective emotion arising
from the change, leader as facilitator – were proven to have a
beneficial impact both on employee growth and the overall
success of the transformation itself.
• The study demonstrates the measurable positive impact of
post-conventional leadership on transformational change
efforts within organisations and supports the insights from the
similar study from Rooke & Torbert in 1998.
As detailed in Table 2, the review of the literature points towards consistent evidence that
later stage leaders are more likely to effectively deal with the challenges inherent in their roles, and
more likely to be recognised by peers and subordinates as being effective leaders, with a positive
impact on the team. This evidence helps provide a strong rationale for pursuing the present research,
as another step in better understanding these highly effective, late-stage leaders and ways to foster
their development.
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However, it is worth noting that ‘more likely’ to be effective does not automatically mean
‘certain to’ be effective. What this review of studies linking vertical development and leadership
effectiveness does not account for are the potential gaps between reflection and action in late-stage
leaders (Joiner & Josephs, 2006). Such gaps might mean that late-stage operating does not
necessarily automatically translate into late-stage action. Moreover, research suggests that late-stage
capabilities are not necessarily used to their full potential all the time and that in fact, under certain
circumstances, people can temporarily lose access to their late-stage perspective and sense of agency
and inadvertently shift into earlier stage thinking – a phenomenon called ‘fallback’ (Livesay, 2013,
2015) and whose relevance to and this research is examined in Section 2.3.2.
While suffering from limitations, most important of which are small sample sizes and
overusing cross-sectional versus longitudinal research designs, most of the studies to date confirm
the importance of vertical development for leadership effectiveness and suggest a potentially positive
societal impact of fostering post-conventional development in leaders (McCauley et al., 2006).
Nonetheless, this provides the rationale for undertaking further research into how the developmental
process of leaders can be better understood. However, most of the studies to date either focus on
the impact of leaders who operate from later stage consciousness (McCauley et al., 2006) or seek to
gain a deep understanding of how these leaders think and operate (Nicolaides, 2008), while only a
minority seek to investigate how late stage leaders have evolved to their present level of maturity
(Berger, 2006; Mälkki & Green, 2014; A. Pfaffenberger, 2007) and how consciousness development
can be fostered through leadership development programs (Baron, Baron, Gregoire, et al., 2018;
Manners et al., 2004a; Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015). The following section will outline extant literature
on the unfolding of the developmental process and the factors that contribute to shifts in
consciousness in adults in general and leaders in particular.
2.3. The Lived Process of Vertical Development and Contributing Factors
Developmental models of consciousness generally agree that the shift from one stage of
development to another tends to happen when an individual’s worldview is challenged and persistent
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inconsistencies appear between their current belief system and some contrary evidence from the
environment (Kegan, 1982; Piaget, 1948) or, particularly at later stages, also from intrapersonal, and
potentially transcendent sources (Cook-Greuter, 2000; Wilber, 2000). When the tension between
existing schema and new evidence is sufficiently strong, a process of reorganisation is triggered and
the activity of ego development progresses to the next stage, where the individual integrates a
higher-order worldview (Hy & Loevinger, 1996; Wade, 1996). The process of consciousness evolution
as described by developmental theorists is congruent to the process of transformative learning as
described by learning theorists, where a so-called ‘disorienting dilemma’ describes the tension
between the current and emerging worldviews (Mezirow, 1991). Hence there is an incentive for some
researchers to use the tenets of one theoretical stream to inform the other, by suggesting that
consciousness development is in fact the result of a transforming learning process (Kegan, 2009).
Studies seeking to explore the mechanics of the consciousness evolution process at different
stages along the developmental continuum have revealed an intriguing difference between growth
patterns at the earlier (preconventional and conventional stages) and those later stages (post-
conventional and beyond). Transition between consequent preconventional and conventional stages
tends to follow the dilemma-based growth model (Helson & Srivastava, 2001; Kegan, 1982), whereby
the individual develops as a result of the cognitive dissonance between their current worldview and
contrary evidence. At these earlier stages, development seems to unfold naturally, due to challenges
inherent in adult life. However, this unfolding seems to slow down at the post-conventional stages. A
relatively small proportion of individuals ever reach the highest stages of development – a finding
common across all structural-developmental theories (Krettenauer, 2011). Those who do are more
likely to take an active role in their own process of consciousness development, and to seek “growth
inducing practices or experiment in a serious manner with alterations of consciousness” (Marko,
2011, p. 133).
Researchers have suggested that a developmental discontinuity exists between conventional
and post-conventional stages (Edelstein & Krettenauer, 2004) which needs to be explored and
59
understood if we are to find means of facilitating growth beyond the conventional stages. The finding
that development at later stages seems to follow a different pattern from development at earlier
stages is particularly salient for the purposes of this research, as it suggests that post-conventional
leaders might need different approaches than their conventional peers in order to further their
development. It also helps explain why certain programs designed to further development at
conventional levels have managed to do so, while causing post-conventional participants to regress
(Manners et al., 2004a). This highlights that learning approaches effective for conventional learners
are not necessarily impactful for post-conventional leaders (McCauley et al., 2006). Therefore, an
opportunity exists to further investigate the developmental paths of post-conventional leaders as
compared to their conventional peers. This has informed the central research question for this study:
How do post-conventional leaders experience vertical development during an executive leadership
program (ELP)?
In attempting to better understand what facilitates growth beyond the conventional stages,
researchers have investigated factors such as age, gender, intelligence, personality type, education
level and attitudinal factors. Studies have shown a weak relationship between age and ego
development (Loevinger, 1976) pointing out that most adults stabilise in the conventional stages of
development. Similarly, intelligence does not seem to be highly correlated with ego-development (A.
H. Pfaffenberger, 2005). Other research has shown a moderately positive correlation between
personality factors such as Openness to Experience (Big Five model) (De Raad, 2000) or Intuition
(MBTI) (Furnham, 1996) and development into later stages of consciousness (Vincent, Denson, et al.,
2015). Studies on education and consciousness development have revealed that individuals at later
stages were more likely to be highly educated (Truluck & Courtenay, 2002). One explanation could be
that older, highly educated adults are more likely to have been exposed to complexity, less likely to
engage in stereotypical thinking and therefore more likely to notice multiple alternative ways to act in
a situation. However, there is no way to know whether higher consciousness development leads
individuals to engage in further education or if further education automatically has an impact on
60
consciousness development. Longitudinal studies have shown that advanced education in midlife
does not automatically lead to gains in consciousness development at the post-conventional level
(Miller & Cook-Greuter, 1994). Therefore, these studies suggest that neither a certain personality
type, nor higher education, automatically lead to post-conventional consciousness.
While factors such as gender, age, intelligence quotient (IQ) or higher education qualifications
have not been proven conclusively to predict development at later stages of consciousness,
researchers have turned towards investigating attitudinal factors and have found that growth-
mindedness plays a significant role in the growth process, by creating the motivation for engaging
with the inherent discomfort of transformation. For example, studies have pointed out that more
advanced ego-development seems to be favoured by how individuals choose to respond to
challenging life experiences (Lilgendahl et al., 2013; Manners & Durkin, 2000). The response to life
disruption - by shying away from the challenge or actively engaging with it (King, 2001) – seems to
have a strong impact on the likelihood of one’s development towards later stages. To the point,
individuals who reported having gone through difficult times that led to them actively constructing
new schemas through ‘accommodation’ were more likely to advance to later stages of development
(Helson & Roberts, 1994). Individuals who grow from their negative experiences also seem
preoccupied with actively rewriting the narrative of their own lives, especially by reframing unhappy
events into opportunities for development (A. H. Pfaffenberger, 2005).
Therefore, research is suggesting that one major factor underlying the discontinuity of
development at conventional versus post-conventional stages seems to be the individual’s attitude
shift. While at conventional stages development is ‘happening to’ the individual and they are
responding to the challenge, at post-conventional stages the individual starts ‘taking an active role’ in
their own development, rather than merely responding to challenges that life throws at them (King,
2001). This finding is supported by studies which show that post-conventional adults are more likely
to seek therapy, even without reporting any mental health problems (Vaillant & McCullough, 1987).
It seems that post-conventional individuals are more likely to engage in intentional self-development
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and to embrace a mindset of growth to the point where it becomes part of their identity (Bauer,
2011).
The finding that post-conventional individuals overwhelmingly show growth mindedness gives
rise to new research questions. Firstly, how does this growth mindedness happen and what is it that
individuals do to turn challenges into growth opportunities? Secondly, can this type of attitude be
purposefully stimulated through leadership learning experiences? Answering these questions could
help open new paths towards supporting post-conventional leaders on their ongoing journey of
consciousness development. They are particularly important to the current research, informing its
purpose to uncover how post-conventional leaders perceive and engage in their own consciousness
growth within the boundaries of a specific leadership development experience.
Literature points towards two potential avenues for further inquiry into the underlying
mechanisms of growth-mindedness in post-conventional individuals and how they might be fostered
purposefully. One avenue is represented by the research into the emotional dimension of
transformative learning and how an individual’s growth may depend on how engagement with
difficult emotions occurs (Mälkki & Green, 2014). The other is research into beliefs, how they change
over time and how belief shifts may underlie consciousness shifts (Kegan, 2009). Both theoretical
avenues will be explored in the following sections and two research issues and corresponding
propositions will be defined, as potential research contributions of the present study, intended to
expand on existing theory and develop new theory.
2.3.1. Edge Emotions as Potential Levers for Advanced Consciousness Growth
Mälkki (Mälkki, 2012; Mälkki & Green, 2014) has developed a theoretical proposition that
may help illuminate how growth mindedness takes place in practice and how it may be intentionally
fostered within learning experiences. She suggests that consciousness shifts are more likely when
individuals embrace the unpleasant “edge emotions” (2012, p.14) that arise when a disorienting
dilemma has thrown the person outside their comfort zone. Mälkki (2012) is pointing out that
individuals are naturally tempted to protect themselves by retreating into their comfort zones
62
whenever they are confronted with challenge and disruption. Emotions such as anxiety are generally
interpreted through a conservation impulse as something negative to be avoided. However, he points
out that personal transformation happens when the individual gets a sense of agency: of choice when
confronted with difficult emotions. He suggests growth is the result of a shift from responding with
denial and rejection of the unpleasant emotions and towards consciously embracing these emotions
as opportunities, as a sign that something is about to change. In his words: “we can say: “Oh, I’m
feeling anxious, something must be challenging the assumptions that I take for granted… I wonder
what that may be.”” (p.14) The result of this shift in attitude is an opening up to experience, even
when the immediate feelings are unpleasant. Consequently, the individual is letting go of trying to
control the situation or emotions and adopts an attitude of acceptance of the negative affect,
followed by a conscious choice in how to respond to the situation. Incidentally, this type of three step
attitude – acceptance/reflection/action - is defined in Loevinger’s scoring manual of the WUSCT (Hy &
Loevinger, 1996) as a criterion qualifying a sentence stem at early post-conventional levels. This
shows that Loevinger herself identified the behaviour of embracing negative situations and emotions
as a developmental opportunity as pertaining to the post-conventional realm.
The suggestion emerging from this study is that vertical development could be fostered by
educating individuals on the nature and usefulness of edge emotions and supporting them in opening
themselves to the experiences they are undergoing. Such an approach, should it be incorporated into
a leadership learning program, would require the facilitators to effectively accompany participants to
the edges of knowing (Berger, 2004), to that liminal space where the comfort zone ends, and edge
emotions arise. It would also require making participants aware of the potential hidden in edge
emotions. However, to potentially advance such a proposition for future executive programs, one first
needs to gain a deeper understanding of how post-conventional individuals approach their edge
emotions in practice and what can be learnt from that. This is one focus of the proposed study.
Building on Mälkki’s (2012) and Berger’s (2014) research, this study incorporates the idea of
edge emotions into its theoretical framework and proposes to investigate the attitudes of post-
63
conventional leaders towards these emotions, as they go through an executive leadership program
designed to take them out of their comfort zones. The research proposes to inquire into how these
attitudes may be linked to potential shifts in consciousness during the program and how conventional
and post-conventional leaders may differ in these attitudes. The research proposition that will guide
the inquiry is that leaders who develop during the ELP are more likely to demonstrate an attitude of
acceptance and to embrace edge emotions. To date, to the best of the author’s knowledge, no study
has taken this approach towards illuminating developmental discontinuity in executive populations by
investigating the role of attitudes towards edge emotions. Theoretical findings from this inquiry may
help generate new insights into how post-conventional leaders continue growing and how diverse
leadership populations could best be supported through learning programs.
2.3.2. Fallback and Vertical Development
Livesay clarifies that fallback is not the conscious, deliberate choice a late-stage leader makes
to access an earlier-stage frame of reference for the purposes of communicating or solving a
problem. Fallback is defined as a “total loss of capacity to reason, to see, to feel, what you saw, felt,
and reasoned before (…)” (Livesay, 2015, p. 180), which is generally temporary and, in the moment,
feels beyond the person’s capacity to control. The potential consequence of fallback is that the
person reacts or behaves in ways that are not effective or appropriate and feels helpless in adjusting
their course of action in the moment. The perceived sense of helplessness and inevitability of fallback
might potentially have major implications for the previously mentioned assertion that post-
conventional leaders are more effective leaders and helps nuance that assertion.
The phenomenon of fallback was first empirically documented in the context of a conference,
where late-stage leaders behaved in uncharacteristically reactive ways when faced with triggers such
as conflict or uncertainty (McCallum, 2008, 2020). Subsequent empirical research was undertaken to
explore how the phenomenon of fallback plays out in practice, and what the consequences might be
in the context of leadership (Wells, 2018). It confirmed the reality of fallback in organisational
contexts. It also confirmed that the process of vertical development is not unidirectional and that, in
64
fact, fallback seems to be a natural and perhaps unavoidable part of the developmental continuum.
For this reason, a consideration of fallback in the context of an ELP was considered necessary to
ensure this study takes a comprehensive, rather than limited or limiting view of the nature and
phenomenology of vertical development of leaders.
In her research, Livesay identifies “five overarching causes of fallback. These include ordinary
triggers” (day-to-day stressors inherent in a VUCA environment), “physiological brain responses”
(under stress), “contextual “gravitational pulls”, challenges to identity, and unresolved
trauma.”(Livesay, 2015, p. 181). These causes of fallback have been identified through interviews with
some of the foremost thinkers in the adult development field, including Cook-Greuter, Kegan,
Torbert, Garvey Berger and Palus and reflect these experts’ thinking on the nature and causes of
fallback. Some of the proposed fallback triggers correlate with other research, such as Barker and
Wallis’ (2006) investigation of Redefining leaders operating in Achiever-oriented organisational
cultures. These are leaders who, due to the organisational pressure to conform to a linear, goal-
oriented standard, might repress their later-stage capacity to challenge the status quo or, on the
contrary, become entrenched in their pursuit of challenging the norms to the point of alienating their
stakeholders and creating the opposite of the desired positive change (Barker & Wallis, 2016).
In her investigation of fallback, Livesay’s posits the intriguing perspective that becoming
aware of fallback and recovering from such moments might in fact become an effective contributor to
adult development. This assertion was confirmed empirically by Wells (2018), who showed that
offering leaders the opportunity to discuss their moments of fallback prompted self-reflection and
self-awareness and became conducive to broader perspectives and forging new meaning out of these
unpleasant moments (Wells, 2018). This suggests that making the mechanism of fallback visible to
learners might in fact become a facilitative agent of vertical development.
The apparent importance of fallback in the context of vertical development has informed the
development of a research sub-question for this study, that is, what contributes to the phenomenon
of fallback during an ELP? Given the focus of previous fallback research on external triggers of
65
fallback, this study is particularly concerned with a perspective not touched on in previous work in
this study, the potential additional role of internal factors such as attitude or behavioural choices in
making leaders more susceptible to fallback will be investigated. Existing links between choice and
vertical development are explored in the next section.
2.3.3. Choice and Vertical Development
Extant research exploring facilitative agents which foster ego-development suggests that such
agents are different in nature at the different stages on the developmental continuum (Marko, 2011).
Vertical development at the earlier stages tends to be experienced as a sudden realisation, an almost
abrupt shift in perspective. Meanwhile growth at the middle stages tends to be the result of the
individual struggling with a dilemma, in a process that seems very consistent with the standard
perspective in TL on how transformative learning is triggered through disorienting dilemmas (Mälkki,
2012). Studies on late-stage individuals suggest that ongoing growth at the post-conventional stages
might be supported by a conscious choice the individual makes – both in challenging their current
ways of thinking and in intentionally pursuing new perspectives or ways to make meaning (Marko,
2011).
Others have discussed the role of choice in adult development, connecting choice theory with
both adult development and fallback. This research suggests that developmental progress is made by
a series of “sustainable and good choices and learning from these choices” while “regression is
possible when encountering a (…) problem that is outside the domain of one’s life experience. Bad
choices may be made, and an individual may ‘slide’ down the progression spiral”. Under this view, the
cumulative effect of individual choices – good and bad – is “knowledge” which “once learned need
not be re-learned” (Mottern, 2008, p. 38). Of relevance to the present research is Mottern’s
suggestion that the fundamental needs which motivate choices evolve as individuals themselves
mature, with later stage individuals motivated by less self-centred and more world-centred needs. He
suggests that developed individuals are both more able and more inclined to make choices that
66
involve personal discomfort or even suffering if that suffering is in the service of a long-term goal or
need.
This is consistent with other observations from the field of adult development around the
seemingly inverse link between post-conventional stages and happiness (Bauer, 2011; Bauer &
McAdams, 2010; Fossas, 2019). It is suggested that late-stage individuals might in fact score lower on
hedonic happiness (pleasure-centred) and higher on eudemonic happiness (meaning-centred). Could
this discovery connect back to the increasingly important role of choice at the later stages and the
capacity of late-stage individuals to pursue long-term needs over short-term satisfaction?
All this raises the question of what might be the role of choice and particularly of the choice
to step into developmental discomfort for post-conventional leaders? Could such choice and
openness to tolerate discomfort play a role in ongoing growth at the later stages? These are intriguing
questions which all inform the design of this study and research propositions.
The overview of the literature on factors that underlie consciousness development suggests
further opportunities for more deeply exploring the role of emotion, fallback, and choice – as well as
any relationships between them - in the lived process of vertical development. The question remains
of whether learning programs specifically targeted at leaders can reliably create the conditions for
such development to occur and, if yes, how. Current research answering this question, as well gaps in
understanding around this topic, are presented in the following section.
2.4. Fostering Vertical Development Through Learning Programs
As more and more studies have indicated the positive impact of leaders operating from later
stages of consciousness, researchers have started to inquire if, and how, such vertical development
can be fostered within adult learning environments (Baron & Cayer, 2011; Heaton, 2017; Kegan &
Lahey, 2009; Krettenauer, 2011; McCauley et al., 2006; Teeroovengadum & Teeroovengadum, 2013).
Studies have investigated the potential characteristics of developmentally effective leadership
programs (Manners et al., 2004) and developmentally informed models and approaches to coaching
have been created (Berger, 2006; Laske, 1999). However, most documented vertical learning
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interventions to date have focused on conventional leaders and much less has been done to explore
and address the specific needs of post-conventional leaders in the context of executive learning
programs (Baron & Cayer, 2011; McCauley et al., 2006; Vincent, Denson, et al., 2015). Hence there is
an opportunity for the present research to take a step towards adding new insights relevant to post-
conventional leadership populations.
This section outlines some of the most important theoretical contributions towards
leadership development with a vertical focus. Also, it presents how these theories, tools and
approaches have been applied to different leadership development programs designed with the
intention to foster vertical development. Results of each program are outlined, and further research
opportunities are identified.
2.4.1 Manners’ & Durkin’s Theory of Developmentally Effective Leadership Programs.
Manners & Durkin (2000) undertook another notable effort to explore the characteristics of a
leadership program that can foster vertical development. They proposed that consciousness
development “occurs in response to life experiences that are structurally disequilibrating, personally
salient, emotionally engaging, and interpersonal” (p 20), and hypothesised that learning programs
with these four characteristics are more likely to promote development. They later devised an
experimental design and tested this proposition in a learning intervention targeting people at Expert
stage. They found a significant increase in ego-development levels of participants in the program
compared to the wait-list control group. However, this effect was only visible for participants at
conventional stages, whereas participants who were at post-conventional stages when the program
began tended to regress post program (Manners et al., 2004). The researchers concluded that, for a
leadership development program to be developmentally effective, it needs to be structured one or
two stages above the current consciousness stage of participants. However, they did not elaborate on
how a program targeted at late conventional and post-conventional participants should be different
from one targeted at conventional leaders.
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Vincent, Denson, and Ward (2015) built on the insights of Manners et al. (2004) and applied
their proposed framework to eleven Australian community leadership programs (CLPs), totalling 337
participants and a control group of two management programs (37 participants). This was one of the
first studies explicitly exploring how post-conventional consciousness can be fostered through
leadership learning programs, which also yielded positive results.
The programs unfolded over a period of ten months and included the equivalent of two to
three full-day sessions per month and multi-day retreats and field trips. These were highly immersive
programs that directly exposed participants to “major economic, environmental, social and cultural
issues affecting their communities” (p 242) and invited them into completely new environments that
challenged their existing world views. It was found that ‘enhanced’ programs which contained more
highly immersive, personally salient experiences were more conducive to consciousness
development. Such experiences included community focused group projects, coaching, intensive
reflection through psychological testing and feedback and a wilderness retreat.
Both non-enhanced and enhanced programs were effective in furthering development of
early conventional participants but not that of later stage leaders. The enhanced program was more
effective for participants who were at the last conventional stage or first post-conventional stage. An
important proportion of these shifted into the next developmental stage in enhanced programs
(29.3% from Achiever to Redefining and 22.5% from Redefining to Transforming) versus only 7% and
respectively 0% in the non-enhanced programs. This suggests that late stage conventional and post-
conventional participants need potentially more psychosocially challenging learning environments to
make developmental shifts versus their earlier stage peers.
However, because the additional features in the enhanced CLPs were grouped together, it is
hard to determine from Vincent et al.’s (2015) study which of the interventions or combinations
thereof were more effective in promoting ego-development for late-stage participants. Also, given
that the researcher used surveys instead of interviews to investigate participants’ experiences of the
program, the study yielded a sketchy picture of participants’ actual transformative experiences.
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Vincent et al. (2015) suggest that a more in-depth, qualitative approach might be called for to shed
more light on what it is that makes a program developmentally effective and how participants
experience their own psychological growth throughout. The present study proposes to answer this by
taking a case study approach to a single ELP, employing in-depth inquiry methods (interviews), and
tracking participants’ incremental shifts throughout the program (using the diary method). The
proposed methodology and how it complements Vincent et al.’s (2015) approach will be detailed in
the Methodology chapter of this document.
2.4.2 Immunity to Change Process and Developmental Coaching.
Kegan and Lahey’s (2009) immunity to change (ITC) process, described in the previous section
(2.3), is not just a theoretical contribution to understanding the process of consciousness
development of leaders. It is also a tool that Kegan and colleagues have used in organisations to
foster the vertical growth of leaders and teams (Kegan & Lahey, 2009). It has also helped inform new
approaches in executive coaching, which have been refined by contributions from scholars such as
Berger (2006), Laske (2007) and Bachkirova (2010), all of whom support the notion that a
developmental lens can add much value to the coaching process.
Studies have shown that the use of the Immunity to Change process can indeed be an
accelerator in supporting leaders to achieve their goals (Markus, 2013). At the same time, other
researchers have suggested caution might be required in the use of Immunity to Change, as it can
prove to be an overwhelming exercise, that can create “unwillingness and inability to participate”
(Kjellström, 2009, p.116). It has been suggested that ethical guidelines might be required in
implementing ITC, including ensuring participants’ willingness, facilitators’ skilfulness to hold the
space for this activity and bringing a developmental lens to implementing the exercise itself,
considering participants readiness to engage in it.
Berger (2006) considers coaching as an opportunity to accompany a leader in the threshold
space that lies at the end of their current way of knowing and bridges two planes of meaning-making.
Inquiring in this transition space, the coach can support the leader in the vertical process of
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expanding their worldview. In a longitudinal study of six executives undergoing a coaching process,
Laske (2007) showed that developmental coaching can have transformative effects on leaders’ adult
development process, prompting growth into subsequent stages (Laske, 1999). However, impact was
contingent on the existing level of maturity of the respective leader and on the expertise of the coach
in constructive-developmental approaches. In a similar vein, Rooke and Torbert (1998) have shown
that the developmental process of the executive client is influenced by the developmental level of the
coach or consultant facilitating the intervention, suggesting an interplay between the maturity levels
of facilitators and participants in the developmental process. To further illuminate this interplay, the
current research proposes to investigate the role of the facilitators’ maturity in leaders’ consciousness
progression during an ELP, as will be outlined in the Methodology chapter of this document.
2.4.3. Other approaches to foster development of existing post-conventional leaders.
Beyond more general developmental approaches to leadership education, such as Immunity
to Change and coaching, the search for learning interventions that specifically hold the promise of a
positive impact in promoting post-conventional development is still in its early stages, with very few
studies focusing specifically on the leaders at post-conventional stages (Baron, Baron, Gregoire, et al.,
2018; Krettenauer, 2011).
Baron and Cayer (2011) identified two learning processes likely to promote consciousness
development beyond the Redefining stage: a mainly cognitive process that involves “recognizing,
critically examining and reframing meaning structures” - a description consistent with the process
described in transformative theory (Mezirow, 2008). The second process they identify implies
suspension of judgement shifting from cognition to direct experience of “suspending one’s
preconceptions and experiencing more direct contact with reality” (Baron & Cayer, 2011, p. 349).
They proposed two approaches which, in their view, held the promise of fostering vertical growth
through both the cognitive and non-cognitive paths – Bohm Dialogue (Bohm, 1996) and Mindfulness.
Dialogue. Bohm Dialogue (Bohm, 1996) is a type of inquiry devised by the late physicist David
Bohm that invites individuals to explore underlying assumptions and hidden beliefs and effectively
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reflect on their own thinking. It is a free-flowing group process in which the facilitator guides
participants in taking a meta-perspective that can potentially foster shifts in cognitive meaning-
making. In Bohm Dialogue people engage in inquiry to make their own thinking visible to themselves
and others, effectively turning ‘subject’ into ‘object’ (Kegan, 1980). Baron and Cayer (2011) suggest
Bohm Dialogue might offer a cognitive path to post-conventional development. This is supported by
Schlitz et al. (2010), who propose that discourse and conversation approaches such as Bohm Dialogue
can help foster collaborative social consciousness and have a developmental impact on individuals
and groups.
Mindfulness. Researchers have explored the impact of mindfulness - a non-cognitive practice
- on leadership effectiveness and vertical development (Baron, Baron, Grégoire, et al., 2018; Baron et
al., 2018; Donaldson-Feilder, 2019; Frizzell, 2018; Lippincott, 2018). It fosters reflection and promotes
the direct contact with reality, which in turn can increase meta-awareness and facilitate
introspection. Baron and Cayer (2011) assert that mindfulness might lead to shifts in consciousness
through direct experience, versus cognitive analysis (C. Baron & Cayer, 2011b, p. 349). Mindfulness
has been the focus of extensive research and mindfulness meditation is being employed in a variety
of clinical contexts with measurable positive impact on patients’ quality of life (Kabat-Zinn, 2003). It
has started to be employed in non-clinical contexts and proven to reduce anxiety and ruminative
thinking, as well as to increase self-compassion and empathy (Chiesa & Serretti, 2009). There is a
heightened interest in the application of mindfulness in leadership contexts, with studies indicating
that mindfulness might help increase leaders’ flexibility (L. Baron et al., 2018) and have a positive
effect on increasing leaders’ self-awareness and improving competencies related to emotional
intelligence that reflect in performance (Lippincott, 2018). Previous studies have also linked another
type of mindfulness- enhancing practice – transcendental meditation – to advances in consciousness
development (Alexander et al., 1990; Alexander et al., 1994; Schmidt-Wilk et al., 2000).
To empirically test the effectiveness of Bohm Dialogue and Mindfulness in fostering post-
conventional growth in leaders, Baron and colleagues (Baron, Baron, Grégoire, et al., 2018) have
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undertaken two studies involving several samples of managers taking part in a one- year executive
training program. The first study comprised 21 leaders in the intervention group and 25 in the control
group. The second study involved 120 leaders. Several hypotheses were tested, one of which was
participants’ progression towards post-conventional stages of consciousness. The curricula included
learning aimed at fostering self-awareness by better understanding one’s thinking, emotions, and
intentions. Participants were also invited to keep a regular mindfulness practice throughout the
program. Also, Bohm Dialogue groups were part of the flow of the program. Results were mixed.
The study confirmed the effectiveness of the program in supporting transition from the last
conventional stage, ‘Achiever’, to the first post-conventional stage, ‘Redefining’. More than 30% of
participants who were at Achiever stage at the beginning of the program progressed one or two
stages. Also, the program fostered a statistically significant increase in mindfulness, emotional
stability, and openness to experience in participants versus the control group. However, participants
who were initially at the first post-conventional stage or above showed stage regression after taking
part in the program. The authors suggest this regression might be because the program was not
specifically designed to address the needs of post-conventional learners who might need more
opportunities to “link their personal transformation to collective transformation; to co-create new
dynamics, processes and structures; to learn and develop with others; and to actualize their vision
through concrete and negotiated actions” (p 24). They also hypothesize that the presence of a critical
mass of conventional participants might have acted as a gravitational point, generating the regression
of those above conventional stages. This leads to the question of what the dynamic might look like in
a learning group where post-conventional leaders form the majority.
This study, in a similar way to that undertaken by Vincent et al. (2015), suggests the
need to create developmentally appropriate programs for the later stages and it also represents a call
for further research into the needs and transforming experiences of post-conventional leaders. The
present research aims to contribute to this goal and address the existing dearth of empirical research
on post-conventional leaders’ experiences of leadership development programs and the best ways to
73
maximise the impact “of these programs on the vertical development of their most mature
participants. It also aims to explore whether frameworks such as Collaborative Developmental Action
Inquiry – which is explored in the next section – might be particularly effective in supporting the
growth of post-conventional leaders.
2.4.4. Collaborative Developmental Action Inquiry (CDAI).
Torbert (1994, 2005, 2017) has been at the forefront of applying constructive-developmental
theories to leadership and organisational development. His research indicated several types of
experiences that seem to trigger a leader’s vertical development. These include disruptive changes in
their personal life (for example, divorce), changes in work environments, changes in professional roles
or responsibilities that call for different capabilities or planned developmental interventions.
The idea that action, alongside reflection, can help create developmental momentum was
one of Torbert’s major contributions to the research on vertical development - it allowed for
innovation in practical applications in the context of learning or organisational life. His work on action
inquiry was taken forward and expanded on by other researchers, who applied it to imagine future-fit
learning programs in educational or leadership contexts (Dzubinski et al., 2012; Nicolaides &
McCallum, 2013). Building on action inquiry and linking it to the tenets of TL, Torbert and colleagues
co-created a methodology which they called Collaborative-Developmental Action Inquiry (CDAI) – a
development in action framework that has been successfully embedded in both research and learning
programs with a developmental focus (Nicolaides & Dzubinski, 2016; Starr & Torbert, 2005). Torbert
himself saw the potential of CDAI as a tool for shaping global dialogue, new paradigms of scientific
inquiry and ultimately for fostering societal transformations (Torbert, 2013).
CDAI invites the person to notice, inquire and act on three types of information
simultaneously, which Torbert (Torbert & Taylor, 2008) calls “territories of experience” (p. 241): the
first territory is represented by outside events; the second territory is the perception of one’s own
behaviour and feelings in relation to the external world; the third territory refers to one’s thoughts
and finally the fourth territory is intentional attention, which can be directed at any of the other three
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territories or at all of them simultaneously, noticing potential discrepancies. Through inquiry followed
by action, Torbert (2008) promotes increased attendance to more than one territory of experience at
once and the implementation of ensuing insights into behaviour, in a cyclical process of reflection and
action. This approach fosters awareness of one’s own meaning-making mechanisms and can yield a
positive impact on consciousness development (Torbert & Taylor, 2008).
One practical implementation of the action inquiry approach was in restructuring the MBA
program at the Wallace E. Carroll School of Management in the 1980s. Torbert has written extensively
about the results in what is, to this day, a rare application of constructive-developmental principles in
formal education (Torbert, 1994; Torbert et al., 2004) . In this MBA program, 10% of all students
changed a full stage during its 20-month duration and, 94% of those taking part in a voluntary
consulting role in the second year – which offered ample opportunities of practising action inquiry –
showed a full stage shift. The program itself went from being unranked to ranking among the top 25
schools of management globally. Torbert’s work within that MBA program has pointed to the
potential benefits of applying a constructive-developmental lens to higher education, however this
approach has been taken in few other academic programs to date (Torbert & Taylor, 2008). More
recently, other researchers have employed CDAI to promote transformational learning and adaptive
leadership in an organisation, with positive results (Nicolaides & McCallum, 2013), confirming that
CDAI is a relevant approach to vertical development.
Given the practical value of Torbert’s CDAI approach, and its explicit links to TL theory, it has
been considered a foundational concept in the present research, which intends to indirectly explore
both barriers and facilitative factors that make action-inquiry possible within the context of a
leadership development program, as well as the role of collaboration in facilitating inquiry, action
and, ultimately, vertical development. Also, given their specific application to leadership
development, Torbert’s labels for the developmental stages (as summarised in Table 2.1. above) have
been preferred throughout this study.
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2.5. Conclusion of Literature Review and Justification for This Research
The disjunction hypothesis advanced by Edelstein and Krettenauer (Edelstein & Krettenauer,
2004), has direct implications for the purposes of this research and has informed the choice to focus
this research on individuals at later (post-conventional) stages, as it implies that the learning needs
and challenges of post-conventional leaders might be different from those of conventional ones.
The decision to study post-conventional leaders in the process of learning is motivated, firstly,
by indications that the number of early post-conventional leaders is on the rise in organisations.
Therefore, investing in research to understand the later stages of development no longer benefits just
a small niche of leaders, but serves a growing number of leaders with impact in organisations.
Secondly, the inquiry into late-stage leadership development might reveal ways to ensure
such leaders operate from their full potential. Extant research points out that, while generally more
effective than earlier-stage peers, these mature leaders, lacking guidance, can and do lead from their
shadow side (Herdman-Barker & Erfan, 2015). ‘Shadow’ as it is utilised in the vertical development
literature derives from the Jungian concept of an unconscious, unrecognised, often ‘dark’ side of
personality that can manifest as negative behaviours or projections and judgements of other people
(Meredith-Owen, 2011) . In the context of leadership, ‘shadow’ is used as a descriptive term
encompassing various derailment behaviours, which undermine leadership effectiveness (De Haan,
2015). Acknowledging that mere operating from later stages of consciousness does not guarantee
leaders won’t succumb to their ‘shadow’, reinforces the need for a better understanding of how
these leaders can be supported in their continuing vertical development. It also justifies the need to
better understand the phenomenon of fallback – its causes and consequences, and potential ways to
mitigate it (Livesay, 2013, 2015).
Thirdly, this study is motivated by questions raised from existing literature on the
developmental impact of leadership programs and their mixed results of promoting development at
conventional stages while seeming to be less effective for leaders at post-conventional stages (Baron
et al., 2018; Manners et al., 2004). This calls for a more thorough consideration of participants’
76
developmental level when designing leadership programs as well as a deeper understanding of the
mechanism of fallback in the context of ELPs.
Fourthly, this study is an answer to the lack of research into what exactly fosters further
consciousness development at the later stages (Baron & Cayer, 2011; Krettenauer, 2011;
Pfaffenberger, 2005) and the lack of studies focusing on post-conventional leaders’ experiences of
their own consciousness growth in the context of leadership development programs (Vincent,
Denson, et al., 2015). Considering that more and more leaders progress towards the post-
conventional stages, as previously mentioned, this implies that an increasingly large number of
participants in executive development programs might not be fully understood. The ensuing risk is
continuing to design programs for a conventional audience when in fact participating leaders might
have very different needs. This research aims to help illuminate how further growth happens for
these already mature leaders and what kinds of needs they may have from an executive leadership
program, if in any way different from their conventional peers. Concluding all the points mentioned
above and in accordance with current practices of framing qualitative research (J. W. Creswell & Poth,
2017; McCaslin & Scott, 2003), this literature review has pointed towards a theoretical framework
which is depicted in Figure 2.3, that encompasses transformative learning and constructive
developmentalism, applied to leadership development within an ELP.
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Figure 2.3 Theoretical framework for the study
A research problem statement has been formulated, followed by a research purpose
statement, a central research question and four sub-questions and accompanying research issues and
propositions – all captured in Figure 2.4.
78
Figure 2.4 Research problem statement and questions
The following chapter, Methodology, outlines the research design that helps investigate the
research questions. It will show how the methodological approach is guided by the research issues
and propositions developed from the review of the literature.
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3. Methodology
The previous chapter presented an overview of the literature relevant to the study of the
evolution of leaders’ consciousness and how it can be fostered by carefully and purposefully designed
learning experiences. It outlined the theoretical framework for this research (Quinlan et al., 2018). It
presented evidence that participants at post-conventional levels of development may have different
learning needs from their conventional peers and this is something that is likely to have implications
for the way leadership development programs are designed and delivered (McCauley et al., 2006). It
also pointed out the dearth of research into post-conventional leaders’ subjective experiences of
consciousness growth in the context of structured learning programs, thus justifying the rationale for
the present research (Vincent, Denson, et al., 2015). This chapter outlines the methodological
framework for the research. This is a detailed account of the proposed approach for carrying out this
research, as well as of its fundamental philosophical underpinnings. The choice of research
methodology will be presented and justified, as it is rooted in current methodological literature.
Section 3.1 of this chapter summarises the research question, research issues and
propositions, as well as proposed methods for data collection as they connect to each proposition.
Section 3.2 proceeds to outline the philosophical underpinnings and overall outline of this research. It
outlines the ontological and epistemological foundations of this study and justifies the choice of a
qualitative research design. Section 3.3 goes in depth into explaining the choice of a single, embedded
case study design and how it serves the current objectives. Section 3.4 details the approach taken to
choose the single, potentially revelatory case which will make the object of this study. It proceeds to
outline the rationale for choosing the unit of analysis – a heterogeneous group of leaders taking part
in a particular ELP. It also outlines criteria for determining the embedded units of analysis - the groups
of leaders who are at conventional and post-conventional stages of consciousness in the beginning of
Chapter 1:
Introduction
Chapter 2:
Literature
review
Chapter 3:
Methodology Chapther 4:
Results
Chapter 5:
Conclusions and
implications
80
the program and the sub-groups of leaders who have developed, stagnated or regressed during the
program. Further, Section 3.5 outlines the proposed data collection methods chosen for their
potential of maximising case validity and reliability. Section 3.6 proposes two complementary
strategies to data analysis and two main analytic techniques. The chapter concludes with ethical
considerations (Section 3.7) and conclusions (Section 3.8). Figure 3.1 outlines the structure of this
chapter:
Figure 3.1 Chapter Three: Structure
3.1. Overview of Research Issues, Propositions and Methods
The literature review revealed a research problem, namely the lack of understanding of how
post-conventional leaders experience their own vertical development within learning contexts, as well
as a lack of clarity on how ELP programs can specifically support leaders’ vertical development,
particularly at the later stages. This has helped develop the conceptual framework (Quinlan et al.,
2018) for this study, which in turn generated a research question and helped identify several research
issues and ensuing propositions. These are summarised in Table 3.1 below, along with the proposed
methods for inquiry and are fully outlined in subsequent sections of this chapter.
3.1. •Overview of research issues, propositions and methods
3.2. •Philosophical underpinnings: ontology and epistemology
3.3. •Research design: case study
3.4. •Case selection approach
3.5. •Data collection methods
3.6. •Techniques of data analysis
3.7. •Ethical considerations
3.8. •Summary and conclusions
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Table 2.1: Research issues, propositions, and proposed methods
All research issues relate to how leaders interact with the learning context and how their
consciousness development is influenced by the different aspects of the ELP, as well as aspects
relating to internal choice or external context. Psychometric testing using the Global Leadership Profile
(GLP) (Torbert, 2017) helps measure the shifts in meaning-making participants undergo throughout
the program. This is intended to add an objective measure to the perceived shifts participants
experience, as they come across through their diaries and in-depth interviewing. However, as with
most psychometric testing, results at re-test can be influenced by response shift bias (Kaushal, 2016).
In the case of a sentence completion test such as the GLP, which measures participants’ meaning-
making mechanisms, the response shift bias is likely to be minimized by the very limitations intrinsic in
developmental stages. Participants at later action logics (Rooke & Torbert, 2005) can access the views
of earlier stages, but those at earlier stages cannot yet comprehend the ways of seeing the world of
later stages (McCauley et al., 2006). In previous test-retest studies it has been shown that participants
do score at later stages if instructions to the sentence completion test are modified to suggest they
respond from their most ‘mature self’ - this has been considered to suggest people can express
82
reflect their ‘optimal’ ego level if specifically directed, while generally expressing their normal-
functioning ego stage if instructions are neutral(Drewes & Westenberg, 2001). In the present study,
the standard protocol of providing neutral instructions - that do not direct participants to access a
certain state of mind or another when completing the test - has been followed. Participants do not
receive a debrief after taking the test, nor will they specifically be exposed to developmental theories
during the ELP that might influence their responses upon re-testing. All of this is expected to help
decrease the bias inherent in retesting.
It is expected that much of the relevant information surrounding all research issues will come
from the analysis of participants’ diaries and from the in-depth interviews, as well as an analysis of the
content of stems they write in their pre/post GLPs. The guiding questions employed in the interviews
are outlined in Appendix 2 and will, as a starting point, explore leaders’ experience with and attitudes
towards their edge-emotions and comfort zone (Mälkki & Green, 2014), and how these are influenced
by the environment of the ELP (Hoggan et al., 2017). Participants will be invited to describe instances
of being taken out of their comfort zones during the ELP and invited to recount their lived process of
relating to and utilising the edge-emotions they experienced during those moments.
Research Issue 3 focuses on the impact of various program elements on participants’ vertical
development. This will mainly be investigated as part of the interviews, through open questioning,
allowing participants to express their top-of-mind reflections on how they were helped or hindered by
the program design and/or facilitation. The researcher will probe further depending on the
participant’s input. This exploration intends to include investigating any potential patterns correlated
with facilitators’ GLP scores. To all extent possible, facilitators’ behaviours will be observed during
researcher observation sessions. This will help further explore Torbert’s proposition that the
facilitator’s consciousness stage might impact the participant’s development (Rooke & Torbert, 1998).
The coding of the diary content will be informed by the same underlying theoretical framework, as
will be detailed in the data analysis section.
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Finally, Research issue 4 intends to explore the phenomenon of fallback, particularly at the
later stages. This has direct implications on the relevance of this study for leadership development
practice and how it can help influence leaders’ actions within and beyond the learning environment.
The in-depth interviews will investigate how participants are perceiving the impact of contextual
factors such as COVID on their leadership. They will also explore participants’ perceived behavioural
changes at work and beyond as a result of the transformations undertaken during the ELP (as detailed
in Appendix 2). Also, this question will inform the coding of the diary entries – attempting to uncover
examples of behavioural changes and their links to ongoing shifts in mindsets and meaning-making
patterns. Participants’ self-reported perceptions will be corroborated with peer feedback collected at
the end of the ELP to identify potential gaps between reflection and action, as they have been
revealed in extant literature (Joiner & Josephs, 2006) . This feedback will be collected through an
online anonymous survey with open-ended questions that participants will send to the work peers,
superiors, or subordinates of their choice.
3.2. Philosophical Underpinnings of the Research
The approach to research is informed by a philosophical framework, which refers to the
“world view in which the research is situated” (Quinlan et al., 2018, p. 56). This reflects the
fundamental assumptions about the nature of reality on which the researcher bases their approach.
These foundational beliefs that inform the research design are alternatively called worldviews (J. W.
Creswell, 2018), paradigms (Lincoln et al., 2011) or ontologies and epistemologies (Crotty, 1998). The
ontological aspect of the research refers to the assumed nature of reality, while the epistemological
aspect refers to what constitutes knowledge for the purposes of the research (Eriksson & Kovalainen,
2008).
The philosophical paradigms which underpin the research help justify the choice of a particular
design for the study, as well as the preference for certain research methods versus others.
Consequently, they become the foundation for the strategy of inquiry. Figure 3.2 below helps
summarise the relationship between major philosophical paradigms, research design and methods.
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Outlined in blue are the paradigms, design and methods for data collection and analysis chosen for
this research, as will be justified in the rest of this chapter.
Figure 3.2: Overview of research paradigms and design of the study
Source: Adapted from Creswell (2018), Quinlan (2018), Yin (2018) and Stake (1995)
While theorists use a variety of labels for the different paradigms, they generally agree that
these fall on a continuum from ‘objectivism’ to ‘subjectivism’ (Johnson & Duberley, 2000). The
objectivist worldviews, such as positivism, assume there is one objective reality, of which all of us are
a part and which exists independently from our consciousness. In the objectivist view, the social world
exists independently of people and their actions. The subjectivist paradigms, such as social
constructionism, assume reality is a social construct and therefore made up of multiple realities,
which are context dependent and which individuals and groups co-create. In this view, there are no
•Constructivist ontology
•Interpretivist epistemology
Paradigms:
Ontologies and
Epistemologies
•Qualitative research: Case Study
Research
methodology:
•Questionnaires
•Projective techniques
•Observation
•Diaries
•In-depth interviews
Data collection
methods:
•General Analytic Strategies: Relying on theoretical
propositions and working data from the ground
up
•Main Analytic Techniques: Pattern Matching and
Categorical Aggregation
Data analysis
methods
85
two identical realities, and the nature of reality itself can be changed as social actors shift their
mindsets and understandings of what constitutes truth for them. Interpretivism, is a subjectivist
epistemology closely aligned with social constructionism, and assumes each individual constructs
their own reality through their own personal and unique interpretations of it (Quinlan et al., 2018).
Generally, subjectivist paradigms are more conductive to qualitative research designs, where
the aim of inquiry is to understand, and the researcher is an active participant in and facilitator of the
inquiry process. Meanwhile objectivist paradigms tend to be associated with more quantitative
approaches to inquiry, aiming for explaining phenomena with the purpose to predict and control and
the researcher is positioned as an ‘expert’ (Guba & Lincoln, 1994). The subjectivist paradigm applies
to the proposed study, as will be detailed in the following section.
3.2.1. Ontological and Epistemological Frameworks for the Present Research
The present research is concerned with the subjective perceptions of psychologically mature
individuals in their ongoing process of vertical development and how these perceptions shape their
needs and attitudes in each learning context. Therefore, it assumes the ontological position that
social reality is a construct, encompassing different individual experiences and perceptions that are
amenable to constant change over time. Also, it is in line with the assumption that individuals actively
construct their own realities. Therefore, it can be argued that the current study falls under the
constructivist ontological paradigm, which is consistent with the very nature of the phenomenon
being study.
From an epistemological point of view, the present research is concerned with how leaders’
mindsets and meaning-making mechanisms evolve throughout a learning experience and how
participants themselves make sense of that experience. The theoretical framework underpinning this
study includes the constructive-developmental framework of psychological growth (Kegan, 1980;
Loevinger, 1976). Within this framework, it is considered that individuals’ capacities for making
meaning evolve in stage-like fashion towards increasingly complex levels throughout their lives. As the
literature review revealed, these increasingly complex mindsets inform leaders’ actions, thus helping
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create a new reality for their teams and organisations. This research will examine individuals’
subjective, - inside-out interpretations of their own process of psychological growth that leads to the
increased meaning-making complexity. Consequently, this study is consistent with the interpretivist
epistemological framework.
3.3. Overview of the Research Design
Given the interpretivist epistemological paradigm of the proposed study and its inductive,
exploratory (Yin, 2018) nature, this research is consistent with a qualitative approach, which focuses
on “words, on stories, on visual portrayals, on meaningful characterisations, interpretations and other
expressive descriptions” (Quinlan et al., 2018, p. p 130). Qualitative research is particularly useful
when investigating phenomena that have not been extensively examined previously (J. W. Creswell,
2014). This is consistent with the scope of the current research, which aims to undertake an in-depth
study of post-conventional participants’ subjective experience of their own consciousness growth
within the context of a leadership development program.
To the best of the author’s knowledge, only one other similar study has been undertaken
before (Vincent, Denson, et al., 2015), exploring the subjective experiences of participants’ shifts in
consciousness within the context of a series of community leadership programs. The present study
builds on and attempts to expand the insights and conclusions drawn by Vincent et al. Also, it intends
to address some of the limitations they identified in their research design. Specifically, Vincent et al.
(2015) used questionnaires to investigate participants’ perceptions of the programs and their impact
on leaders’ vertical development. The authors concluded that questionnaires were “particularly
inadequate for exploring such elaborate concepts and so we would encourage future researchers
interested in doing so, to utilise in-depth interviews or other more appropriate qualitative tools”
(Vincent, Denson, et al., 2015, p. 203). By contrast, this study proposes using a combination of data
collection methods, including in-depth interviews, to gain a deeper understanding of this complex
phenomenon.
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Also, Vincent et al. (2015) studied leaders’ shifts in consciousness in the context of not one,
but several different community leadership programs (CLPs), which might have led to difficulties in
clearly outlining the links between specific program features and their impact on leaders’
development, given that not all participants were exposed to the same experience. By contrast, the
proposed research will take place in the context of a single executive leadership program (ELP),
chosen for its unique characteristics, which will be further detailed in Section 3.4. As part of this
common setting, participants will all be exposed to the same curriculum and overall experiential
framework. This allows for studying them in relation with this shared environment and provides a
multiple-sided, holistic view of the same phenomenon (Gummesson, 2000), namely vertical
development within learning contexts. Therefore, the ‘Case Study’ is the proposed methodology for
the current research, given its appropriateness for facilitating “understanding the dynamics present
within single settings” (Eisenhardt, 1989, p. 534).
The main proposed advantage of using the single case study approach is that it helps create
clear boundaries around the studied phenomenon – vertical development in the context of learning –
by studying a population involved in the same learning experience. Within the case study, several
embedded units will be defined to allow investigating differences between participants who, at the
beginning of the program, were at conventional versus post-conventional stages of development. This
approach will facilitate in-depth inquiry into the process of vertical development (or fallback), and
comparison between groups who have shifted with those who haven’t, within the same context. This
study will also focus on participants who may regress during the program, given previous research
showing that the same program can cause later stage participants to regress while conventional ones
develop (Baron, Baron, Gregoire, et al., 2018). The reasons for the fallback of late-stage participants
have not been clarified, and neither have the ways to prevent it (Manners et al, 2004). Therefore, this
research also intends to help further illuminate the mechanism of fallback, should it take place in the
context of this case study.
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In addition, the case study methodology allows for taking a longitudinal research approach
(Halinen & Törnroos, 2005), by closely following participants’ progression throughout the program.
This is in contrast with previous research, which has mainly been cross-sectional (McCauley et al.,
2006). To this purpose, this study will employ a series of methods of data collection at different points
throughout the program – including pre- and post-program psychometric testing via questionnaires
and projective techniques, in-depth interviews, diary study method throughout the ELP, direct
researcher observations and collecting peer feedback. All these methods will allow for triangulation
and thus the strengthening of the internal validity of the case (Yin, 2008). They will also facilitate a
longitudinal approach that allows for understanding participants’ lived experience during the
program, not just at the end. This may help illuminate the process of consciousness development as it
unfolds and potentially help expand existing research.
In conclusion, the single embedded case study methodology proposed for this research offers
a potentially useful departure from the more quantitative stance taken by Vincent et al. (2015) and
other researchers who have inquired into the impact of learning programs on participants’ vertical
development (Baron, Baron, Gregoire, et al., 2018; Manners et al., 2004a; Torbert, 1994). This
approach to research design allows for both completing existing theory (Ridder, 2017) and for
building theory by taking an inductive approach (Perry, 1998). Thus, it may help shed additional light
on the complexity of the intrapersonal process of development at the higher stages and how it can be
fostered by leadership development programs. The next section will address more thoroughly the
methodological approaches to case studies and the rationale for choosing a particular approach for
this research.
3.3.1. Choosing the Case Study Methodology for this Research
The context under which the proposed research will be undertaken is consistent with Yin’s
(2018) definition of the case study as a research methodology, which “investigates a contemporary
phenomenon (“the case”) in depth and within its real-world context, especially when the boundaries
between phenomenon and context may not be clearly evident.” (Yin, 2018, p. 15). In the context of
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the current research the aim is to study a phenomenon – vertical development – within a particular
context – a learning program, given that the specific intent of this research is to understand how
learning experiences foster the development of consciousness. Given that phenomenon and context
cannot be separated, this further justifies the choice of a case study methodology.
Furthermore, in discussing how different epistemological orientations apply to case studies,
Yin (2008) recognises that case studies lend themselves to both a realist perspective, assuming the
existence of one reality existing independently from the observer, but also to a relativist perspective,
which acknowledges the existence of multiple concurrent realities and meanings and in which the
observer plays an important interpretive role. Case studies whose focus is the lived, subjective
experience of participants, lend themselves to a constructivist approach in their design.
Consequently, given the interpretivist orientation of the present research, the constructivist case
study approach (Stake, 1995) was deemed as most effective in pursuing this inquiry.
Stake (1995) distinguishes three types of case studies. The first type is the ‘intrinsic case
study’, where the case itself is of primary interest in the research, due to its special or unique
features. The second type is the ‘instrumental case study’– where the decision to study the case is
motivated by the need for a more general understanding, thus the case being a means for gaining
insight into a larger question. The third type is the ‘collective case study’ – where the inquiry into a
larger question is best served by studying multiple cases (Stake, 1995). Thus, it can be argued that the
present inquiry into post-conventional leaders’ experience of their own vertical development uses the
chosen ELP as a gateway into addressing a larger question: how do leaders in general experience their
vertical development within ELPs? The existence of a single context calls for a ‘single case design’
(Stake, 2006). Moreover, while the proposed case will include leaders at various stages of
consciousness taking part in an ELP, this research is particularly focused on better understanding the
evolution of post-conventional leaders. As the Literature Review has shown, this is a category of
leaders that has historically been under-researched mostly due to small sample sizes (Krettenauer,
2011) but is becoming increasingly relevant for science, due to their increasing numbers (Herdman-
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Barker & Erfan, 2015) and potential impact in organisations (Baron & Cayer, 2011b).Therefore, this
case can be instrumental for understanding this particular group of leaders and thus justifies
considering the proposed study an ‘instrumental case study’ (Stake, 1995).
For the purposes of this research, “the case” is the group of leaders undertaking the same
ELP. The embedded units of analysis (Yin, 2018, p. 51) are the subgroups of this cohort, defined by
whether they showed a growth, stagnation, or regression (fallback) in their consciousness
development during the program. Consequently, the embedded units of analysis are:
conventional/post-conventional leaders who have shifted, conventional/post-conventional leaders
who have stagnated and conventional/post-conventional leaders who have regressed, thus resulting
in six embedded units, as outlined in Figure 3.3. Summarising all these perspectives, this research
employs constructivist case study methodology and the case study design follows a single,
instrumental, embedded approach.
3.4. Case Selection Approach
The potential of case studies as vehicles for theory building provided has been emphasized in
the literature (Eisenhardt, 1989; Stake, 1995). However, a condition for generating high quality theory
is that the case or cases are chosen strategically, to maximise the given amount of information on the
phenomenon under study (Flyvbjerg, 2006). A well-chosen case has the potential to generate
“constructs, measures and testable theoretical propositions”, so that inductive case study research
becomes “consistent with the emphasis on testable theory within mainstream deductive research”
(Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007, p. 25). Consequently, the present case has been selected precisely
because of its features relevant to the purposes of this research: a diverse group of leaders at all
organisational levels, representative of the three major economic sectors – public, profit and non-
profit – all taking part in an ELP specifically designed to foster vertical development. The particulars of
this ELP and why it has been considered relevant for the undertaking of a single case study research
are outlined below.
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A single case design has been chosen for the purposes of this research. While some theorists
argue that multiple case designs are preferable to single case ones because of more compelling
evidence and increased robustness of the findings (Herriott & Firestone, 1983), others identify clear
rationales for choosing single-case designs (Yin, 2018). A single case study is deemed preferable when
the chosen case is “critical, unusual, common, revelatory or longitudinal” (Yin, 2018, p. 49). Several of
these characteristics apply to the case proposed as object of the current research, as will be detailed
below.
The proposed case study will take place in the context of a large executive leadership
program (ELP) organised by the Australia & New Zealand office of a global management consulting
organisation. Given the high-profile of the company and the sensitive nature of the information
accessed through this research, the name of the company is not used in this thesis. Instead, it will be
referred to as ‘Company X’. The program is addressed to high potential leaders from the two
countries and is part of a larger executive leadership suite of programs, which has thus far included
over fifty thousand leaders globally. The explicit purpose of the program is to foster the personal
transformation of key leaders and to stimulate cross-sectorial collaboration between the three major
economic sectors. Through this, the program aims at contributing to stimulating economic innovation
and creating a systemic impact on business, society, and environment.
This ELP gathers yearly over 160-180 leaders from all three major sectors in Australia and
New Zealand – public, private, and social, spanning a diversity of industries and domains. The
program is specifically built with a developmental intention in mind and has a longitudinal approach,
with follow-up programs organised for the same cohorts in the second and then third year. The
structure of the first-year program, which makes the focus of this research, is two residential weeks
four months apart. During the residential weeks, participants work alternately in the big group and in
smaller groups of 15-20, each mentored by a professional coach. In between the two residential
weeks, leaders have periodic meetings in smaller groups of 5-6 to discuss how they are applying the
knowledge from the program to their work and life contexts. The 2020 edition of this program was,
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due to the COVID context, the first one to be organised virtually. While keeping with the original
structure of the program, the transition to virtual delivery had direct implications for this study, which
will be outlined in Chapters 4 and 5.
Admission into the program is by invitation only – all the participants need to be recognised
as high potential leaders by key stakeholders in their organisations and be nominated to take part.
Participants from the NFP sector apply for competitive scholarships to enter the program. Also, the
program focuses on bringing together leaders at differing levels of seniority – mixing young leaders
with highly experienced ones.
This ELP can be considered uniquely suitable for the purposes of this research for several
reasons. Firstly, it offers a developmentally focused executive learning experience to a diversity of
peer-endorsed and vetted, high-potential leaders from all three sectors, different industries, and
organisational levels. Secondly, Company X is itself a recognised research organisation, which
produces peer-reviewed research, and it is considered one of the leaders in the global management
consulting sector and one of the emerging non-traditional players in the global leadership
development industry, which was historically dominated by universities, business schools and
specialised training companies (Narayandas & Moldoveanu, 2019). For confidentiality reasons,
specific references to Company X have been removed from the bibliography. The experience and
demonstrated credibility of the organising company justifies considering this ELP a potential
benchmark program which integrates the highest quality approaches to leadership development
available globally. In addition, researcher access to similar programs is difficult, therefore studies of
cohorts taking part in programs organised by industry leading providers are scarce (McCauley et al.,
2006; Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015). To the best of the author’s knowledge, no previous similar study
was undertaken in the context of a program of this calibre. This justifies considering this case study
unusual (Yin, 2018).
Another unique feature of the Company X’s ELP program is the introduction, starting in 2019,
of the GLP vertical development assessment (Torbert, 2017) as part of the developmental journey of
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the attending leaders. In the 2019 ELP, a sub-group of 20 leaders undertook the GLP test in
preparation for the course. All 20 leaders offered the opportunity to take the test agreed to do so,
suggesting an openness of participants towards participating in research. Results showed that 85% of
participants scored at post-conventional levels pre-program. This is an unusually high percentage
given that the prevalence of post-conventional individuals in the general population is estimated to
be less than 25% (Cook-Greuter, 2003), while in the senior management population the percentages
of early post-conventional leaders were found to be around 30% (Herdman-Barker & Erfan, 2015).
This suggests that a significant number of post-conventional leaders might be attracted to this
particularly prestigious ELP, therefore creating the possibility for a larger than usual post-conventional
sample. Moreover, after 14 of the initial group of 20 re-took the GLP at the end of the program, over
70% showed vertical development of half a stage or more. This again points to the potential
effectiveness of this program in fostering post-conventional consciousness and justifies its overall
significance for the purposes of this study. Finally, the longitudinal nature of the program, with the
same cohort taking part in a learning journey spanning three years, holds the opportunity of
subsequent follow up studies that go beyond the purposes of the current research, which will initially
focus on the first-year program. Such subsequent research might expand and refine the findings of
the present study, something that is also unusual given that most similar programs are one-off
experiences.
This constellation of features justifies considering this, on the one hand an unusual case (Yin,
2018) – due to the diversity of participants and the potentially unusually high number of post-
conventional leaders involved. On the other hand, given the particularities of this learning program
and generally difficult researcher access to similar programs, the case can also be seen as potentially
revelatory (Yin, 2018) for studying the process of consciousness growth of post-conventional leaders
in an executive learning context. All these arguments support the rationale for devising a single,
embedded case study.
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While the context for this case study presents some unique features, the program itself is
regarded, for the purposes of the present research, as a mere holding space for the phenomenon
under investigation – post-conventional vertical development - to unfold. The focus of this research is
the group of leaders going through this learning experience, including their perceptions and
experiences of growth in this context. Special emphasis is placed on understanding the experiences of
post-conventional leaders, compared to their conventional peers. Given that participants in the
research are not randomly chosen, but according to clearly defined pre-existing criteria (in this case
vertical development stage), this study uses purposive sampling (Guest et al., 2006). Implicit in the
design is the comparison between post-conventional participants’ experiences and those of
conventional ones, with the purpose of gaining a deeper understanding of the post-conventional ones
and of bounding the case (Yin, 2018). The proposed case study design is summarized below:
Figure 3.3: Summary of case study design
As shown in Figure 3.3., the proposed single case study includes six embedded units of
analysis, determined by two criteria: ego development stage upon program start (conventional or
post-conventional) and the degree to which participants have developed, stagnated, or regressed
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(‘fallen back’), as revealed from the post program GLP measurement. For the purposes of this study
participants who developed will be called ‘developers’ and participants who stagnated or regressed
will be called ‘non-developers’. Given that data will be gathered and analysed progressively
throughout this study, the first criterion (initial consciousness stage) will inform the initial analysis of
data from observations and through the diary method over the course of the program. Once
participants have re-taken the GLP at the end of the course, the second criterion
(develop/stagnate/fallback) will inform the approach to the in-depth interviews at the end of the
program, as well as in the final data analysis.
While this study is mainly concerned with understanding post-conventional leaders,
conventional participants have been included in the study for two reasons. Firstly, some leaders are
likely to make the transition from late-conventional to early-post-conventional during the program
and their process of shifting from one tier of development to the next can lead to a better
understanding of how ELPs might help leaders make this important transition. Secondly, studying the
attitudes and perceptions of conventional leaders as they undertake the ELP can act as a benchmark
for better understanding what generates and fuels the developmental discontinuity mentioned in the
literature (Krettenauer, 2011) – comparing how conventional and post-conventional leaders differ in
their perceptions of transformation can potentially lead to a better understanding of why relatively
few leaders make the transition into post-conventional in the first place.
Given the exploratory and interpretive nature of the proposed case study, as well as the
choice to use a single-case design, it is acknowledged that much is unknown in the planning phase of
the study and valuable information is likely to emerge during data collection that might require
revisiting the proposed design. Therefore, while aiming at following rigorous procedures for data
collection and analysis, the design itself is intended to be adaptive, rather than closed (Yin, 2018),
leaving room for subsequent changes in approach as new relevant insights are gained. Also, this case
study was designed with an awareness of the potential criticism of case studies, particularly for the
challenges of using inductive approaches to generate new theories from a case study (Dogan &
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Pelassy, 1990) and for concerns around reliability and validity of case study research (Yin, 2018).
These concerns and steps to mediate them are addressed in the next section.
3.4.1. Ensuring the Quality of the Research Design.
The decision to use a primarily qualitative approach to inquiry and particularly a case study
approach is not without its risks and drawbacks. Yin (2018) addresses some of the main concerns
about case study research. One concern has to do with the rigour of the endeavour, emphasizing that
high-quality case studies require the pursuit of systematic procedures, and that attention must be
given to clearly linking evidence to findings and conclusions. To address this concern in the design of
the current study, special consideration has been given to addressing the four tests proposed by
Robert Yin to ensure a high quality of the case study research design. These are summarised below:
Table 3.2: Tests of validity and reliability within case studies
VALIDITY
RELIABILITY
Construct validity: implies “identifying the correct
operational measures for the concepts being
studied” (Yin, 2018, p. 42)
Reliability means “demonstrating that the operations
of a study – such as its data collection procedures –
can be repeated, with the same results.” (Yin, 2018,
p. 42)
Internal validity: refers to proving a causal versus
spurious relationship between study conditions. This
is only relevant for explanatory or causal studies, not
for exploratory studies, such as the proposed
research.
External validity: shows “whether and how a case
study’s findings can be generalised” (Yin, 2018, p. 42)
Source: Adapted from Yin (2018)
Out of the four possible tests outlined by Yin (2018), three are relevant for this study,
respectively construct validity, external validity, and reliability. The fourth, internal validity, is not
applicable given the exploratory nature of this research. The first three and how they are considered
within the methodological approach for this study are outlined below.
3.4.2. Addressing the Construct Validity of the Case Study.
One proposed tactic to address the first test – construct validity - is using “multiple sources
of evidence” (Yin, 2018, p. 44). For the purposes of the current research, a combination of projective
psychometric measurements, questionnaires, in-depth interviews, direct researcher observations and
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diary study will be employed to corroborate information relevant to the research questions. While
most data collection methods employed in the study are qualitative, there is also a quantitative
component represented by a projective test (GLP) (Torbert, 2016), used to assess participants’
consciousness stage and potential shifts. The use of quantitative data in case studies is in line with
Yin’s (2018) recommendations that such data is a helpful part of an inductive approach to case-
studies, when it helps cover “behaviour and events that (the) case study is trying to explain” (p. 169).
This approach to data collection is also consistent with the bottom-up approach to conducting
research, which has been used in the past by qualitative researchers (J. W. Creswell & Tashakkori,
2007) and is consistent with the framework of a constructivist worldview and a qualitative research
design, given that it can help to strengthen the construct validity of the findings.
3.4.3. Addressing External Validity of the Case Study.
The second test relevant to the current research is that of external validity, which is
concerned with how one can generalise the conclusions of the case study. As Yin (2008) mentions,
generalisation is a common concern raised about case study in general. This concern can be
addressed by focusing on how the case study can be relevant to expanding existing theories or in
generating new ones, therefore its value is in generating analytical, not statistical generalisations.
To this end, Yin (2008) recommends having pre-existing theoretical foundation for a case
study, which can help guide the inquiry. In response to this, the current research builds on several
existing theories on the phenomenon of vertical development (Berger, 2004; Block, 1982; Cook-
Greuter, 2004; Kegan, 1980; Krettenauer, 2011; Loevinger, 1976; Manners & Durkin, 2000; Torbert &
Taylor, 2008) and also on theories regarding facilitative agents for consciousness development and
particularly those informing the characteristics of effective leadership development programs aimed
at vertical development (Baron & Cayer, 2011; Manners et al., 2004; Torbert, 1994; Vincent, Ward, et
al., 2015).
However, while being firmly rooted in existing research, it is the aim of this study to explore
potentially new theoretical frontiers, particularly by investigating the possible role of edge emotions
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(Mälkki, 2019a) in participants’ process of vertical growth. For this purpose, within the case study
methodology, data analysis will draw on a dual strategy of both relying on theoretical propositions
and working data from the ground up (Yin, 2018), as will be detailed in section 3.6.
3.4.4. Addressing the Reliability of the Case Study.
While the topic of reliability is more generally relevant for the purposes of replicating
findings, it is approached from a more nuanced perspective when it refers to case studies. At its core,
reliability implies that another researcher would reach the same results by studying the same case all
over again and following the same steps, (Lincoln et al., 2011). By ensuring reliability, one helps
“minimize the errors and biases in a study” (Yin, 2018, p. 46). In response to the need for increased
reliability, a case study protocol has been developed (Appendix 1). Also, all the data pertaining to the
case will be centralised in one case study database using the qualitative software package Nvivo,
making it accessible for later reference (Auerbach & Silverstein, 2003). Above all, this study aims for
reliability as interpretive awareness, which is consistent with recommended methodological
approaches for interpretive research, such as this one (Sandberg, 2005). Maintaining interpretive
awareness means acknowledging and explicitly dealing with researcher subjectivity throughout the
study. A few ways of maintaining interpretive awareness are: employing a ‘describing orientation’ by
focusing on exploratory ‘what’ and ‘how’ questions throughout data collection and analysis, rather
than explanatory ‘why’ questions; employing ‘horizontalization’ – aiming at not treating some aspects
of leaders’ lived experience during the ELP as more important than others, but focusing on every
aspect of experience as equally important and maintaining that mindset throughout data collection
and analysis; and also using ‘free imaginative variation’ by testing different interpretations of the data
that challenge the first tentative interpretation and use this process to test the stability of the most
likely interpretation. (Sandberg, 2005).
3.5. Data Collection Methods
A variety of case study methods – both qualitative and quantitative – are applicable to case
studies and the judicious use of a variety of methods can contribute to the validity of the case study
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(Yin, 2018). As different methods are embedded in different epistemological approaches,
epistemological coherence was a factor considered in the decision of the most appropriate data
collection methods for this study (Farquhar, 2012). Consequently, given the exploratory and
interpretive nature of the research, a combination of mostly qualitative methods with two
psychometric tests as added quantitative elements is being proposed for this case study. A brief visual
overview of data collection methods will be detailed further below:
Figure 3.4: Data collection methods summary
While case studies such as this one, focusing on phenomena, informed by existing theories,
and aimed at developing new ones, allow for adaptive designs and flexibility during the study
(Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007), the inherent risks to rigour present in such flexibility are being
mitigated in several ways. One way is by triangulation – choosing several angles to study the same
phenomenon (Gibbert et al., 2008). For this study triangulation is achieved by corroborating data
from direct observation with data from in-depth interviews, data from “in the moment” participant
experience as expressed through diaries and finally with observations by third parties (peer feedback
survey – Appendix 3). To this is added data from psychometric testing with pre-validated tools. In
addition, a clear chain of evidence will be established (Yin, 2018), outlining the path from the research
question to the end conclusions. Finally, a case study protocol has been developed (Appendix 1) to
enhance transparency and contribute to the reliability of the proposed research (Gibbert et al., 2008).
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In conclusion, the proposed methods for this study are in-depth interviews, open diary
method, direct observation, surveys, and projective methods, respectively one questionnaire and a
sentence completion test (SCT). The rationale for choosing each one and the relevance for the
research will be outlined below.
3.5.1. Interviews
Choosing the appropriate type of interview for this study. Interviews are a popular research
method in case studies and are deemed effective in gathering data on the feelings, motivations, and
attitudes of informants around complex topics (Farquhar, 2012). While interviews are a versatile data
collection method, and useful under various epistemological and ontological frameworks, most
authors distinguish between three main types of interviews, namely, structured, semi-structured and
unstructured. The former is mostly used to explore facts and test pre-existing hypotheses and the
latter is more suitable for exploratory studies (Dicicco‐Bloom & Crabtree, 2006). While the former is
more appropriate within a positivist paradigm (Cavana et al., 2001), the latter is better suited within a
constructivist/interpretive paradigm, in which the researcher seeks to capture the interviewee’s
personal perspective on the phenomenon under study (Quinlan et al., 2018). This makes in-depth
interviewing appropriate for studying intrapersonal phenomena, as is the case of the present
research.
A particular type of in-depth interview, intensive interview, is used when seeking to elicit
“each participant’s interpretation of his/her experience”, thus becoming a useful method for
interpretive inquiry (Charmaz, 2014, p. 25). This approach to interviewing is consistent with the social-
constructionist perspective in which “the researcher and the respondent actively share the space of
the interview” (E. Gubrium & Koro-Ljungberg, 2005). The intensive interview invites the researcher to
take a more conversational role than in other types of interviews. By asking open-ended questions,
following intuitions, and actively engaging in the conversation, the researcher stimulates the
participant to explore the meanings of their experiences.
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This type of interviewing generates data that “penetrate beneath the surface of the
conversation” and has the potential to turn the very dialogue “between the interviewer and the
research participant” into an object of study (Charmaz, 1991, p. 386). This type of meta-view of the
conversation itself as an artefact of meaning-making mechanisms is particularly relevant for the
present study, as the phenomenon of vertical development is simultaneously something that the
individual experiences and a lens through which they interpret reality. Therefore, engaging in a
conversation in which the researcher is an active participant and co-creator of the shared experience
can help bring to the surface the interviewee’s meaning-making mechanisms in ways in which a more
detached interviewing approach might not.
When undertaking intensive interviewing, the researcher is encouraged to engage with the
participant and “validate the participant’s humanity, perspective or action” while also using
“observational and social skills to further the discussion” (Charmaz, 2014, p. 26). They are also
encouraged to be active, rather than passive in the conversation, by slowing or quickening the pace,
restating points to check for accuracy, stopping to further explore a statement or topic, shifting the
topic altogether and inquiring about the participant’s feelings, thoughts, and actions. However, while
the implication of the researcher as a co-participant in the dialogue can help shift from interview as a
means of gathering data to interview as a conversation that can reveal deeper meanings and insights,
this comes with potential drawbacks. Among these are researcher bias and participant bias (Quinlan
et al., 2018), to be detailed below, and ethical issues, such as reducing the risk of unanticipated harm
and protecting the interviewee’s information (Dicicco‐Bloom & Crabtree, 2006), which will be detailed
in the Ethics section (3.7.) of this document.
Bias can occur during the interview as the researcher consciously or unconsciously influences
the interviewee through the way they formulate the questions or emphasize different points or when
the respondent gives socially desirable answers (Quinlan et al., 2018). During the interview, through
the phenomenon of reflexivity (Yin, 2018), the researcher’s and participant’s perspectives can subtly
influence each other, thus potentially biasing the resulting interview material. Paradoxically,
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reflexivity becomes both an asset when mediating the deeper connection necessary for intensive
interviewing and a risk as it can skew the resulting data.
Being aware of the phenomenon is one way of mitigating risk associated with bias (Yin, 2018).
Also, using multiple respondents who bring diverse perspectives on the studied phenomenon, as well
as triangulating by corroborating data from interviews with other data sources can help mitigate the
inherent bias present in in-depth interviewing (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). Consequently, to
mitigate bias and add rigour, in the present study data is collected in multiple ways: by employing
diary methods as well as direct observation, and finally psychometric testing is employed to add an
objective measure to participants’ subjective perceptions of vertical development.
Concluding from the points made above, this research will employ in-depth intensive
interviewing for maximizing the richness and depth of information gathered in the research process.
In-depth interviews can be structured, un-structured and semi-structured (Lincoln et al., 2011), with
the first most suitable for acquiring data on very specific topics and validating existing theories
(Cavana et al., 2001) and the last two more appropriate for investigating novel topics with no or little
pre-existing information (Lincoln et al., 2011). The semi-structured interview has been preferred for
this study, given the exploratory nature of the proposed research and its dual intention of both
expanding existing theories and possibly breaking new theoretical ground.
Beyond choosing the interview format most suitable for the research, one should consider
the medium to be used in the interviewing process. While many interviews are conducted face to
face, online or phone interviewing is becoming increasingly used in research (Lincoln et al., 2011).
While an advantage of face-to-face interviews is that they tend to produce more words and take less
time to complete than online interviews, studies have shown that the mode of collection does not
affect data quality (Shapka et al., 2016). Still, a concern when conducting telephone interviews is
creating rapport (Easterby-Smith, 2008), an issue more easily overcome by online video interviewing,
which allows visual contact and a better interpretation of non-verbal cues (Cavana et al., 2001).
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Further considerations on the interview include length, recording, piloting, and memo-writing
as a means of accounting for the researcher’s intrinsic role as co-creator of meaning in the study
(Conlon et al., 2015). The expected length of the interviews, given the semi-structured approach and
the time needed for building rapport and engaging in conversations that yield rich, layered data, will
be approximately 60-90 minutes, the average length suggested as optimum in the literature
(Hermanowicz, 2002). In line with best research practices, all interviews are recorded and transcribed
and subjected to a piloting process before reaching the final form of the interview’s guide (Yin, 2018).
A final consideration concerns the use of memo-writing as an additional tool for increasing
interview reliability and mediating researcher subjectivity. In the interpretive paradigm one considers
the role of the researcher as co-creator, actively shaping the conversation (Given, 2008), thus
challenging researchers to be mindful and reflect on how their inquiry may be informed by their own
constructions, preconceptions, and assumptions (Charmaz & Belgrave, 2012). Particularly in a study
aimed at uncovering participants meaning-making mechanisms, such as this one, it is important to
also consider and account for the researcher’s own meaning-making mechanisms and how they might
influence the way data is gathered and interpreted. Therefore, the researcher will employ memo-
writing throughout this study to reflect the meanings and insights emerging from interviews, to
document the research process and to add a reflexive dimension to the research, in which the
researcher’s own role as meaning-making actor is acknowledged and utilised (Conlon et al., 2015).
In conclusion, as outlined in the previous sections, this research uses a semi-structured, in-
depth, and intensive interview approach. Given the dispersion of the ELP leaders throughout Australia
and New Zealand as well as the inherent challenges posed by the COVID pandemic, online
interviewing is the preferred medium for the purposes of this study, as it helps maintain rapport and
preserve safe distance, while ensuring more flexibility and minimizing the costs of the project (Cavana
et al., 2001). The semi-structured approach to interviewing helps create a scaffolding of interview
questions relevant to the research topic, rooted in existing theories while maintaining openness to
emerging themes within each conversation (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2008). An interview guide
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(Appendix 2) has been developed with the purposes of maintaining a consistent approach across all
interviews, thereby maximising validity and minimizing irrelevant information (Kubinger et al., 2008).
While the interviews are guided by the research questions, as will be detailed in the next section, the
approach will be open to new emerging themes and topics, as the conversations unfold (Eriksson &
Kovalainen, 2008). Finally, the researcher will undertake memo-writing as part of the interviewing
process, as well as throughout the rest of the study, thus adding a reflexive lens to the study, as a
methodological means to ensure trustworthiness (Gubrium, 2012).
Final considerations on interviewing. An interview guide has been developed for the purposes
of this research. This allows for consistency in using the same core questions for each interview, in
pursuance of best practice for increasing the reliability of findings in case studies (Perry, 1998). Given
the exploratory nature of this research and the relatively uncharted territory of post-conventional
leaders’ experience of their ongoing development (McCauley et al., 2006), a conscious decision has
been made to keep the initial questions of each interview to a minimum and not to devise pre-
determined probing questions. Instead, a constructivist grounded theory approach has been taken to
structuring the flow of questions (Charmaz, 2014), to achieve a balance between rigour and flexibility.
Each interview is therefore structured as a flow of initial open-ended questions, followed by
intermediate questions, and finally end questions. The intention is to allow for an in-depth
exploration of the research topics, while also being mindful of participants’ level of comfort during
the conversation and of the researcher’s own role as intersubjective actor. While opening questions
help gather data on the participants’ experience of the program as a whole and their overall
perception of their own development in the ELP context, the intermediate questions concentrate on
the different topics pertaining to the research. Finally, the end questions are geared towards closing
the conversation in a positive way, to bring the participant to a natural level of conversation at the
end of what can be a deep introspective exploration (Charmaz & Belgrave, 2012).
A final consideration concerns the number of interviews. For the purposes of this case study,
where the case is the whole group of leaders attending the ELP, the choice of interview sample is
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influenced by two criteria: the first is the leaders’ initial consciousness stage (priority is given to post-
conventional leaders); the second is whether leaders have developed, stagnated, or regressed after
the program (priority is given to those who have developed and those who have regressed).
Data saturation principles are taken into consideration when deciding interview sample size.
Saturation is achieved when no new information can be attained by more interviews or when no
further codes or categories are emerging from analysis (Fusch & Ness, 2015). Sample sizes of up to 30
participants are considered sufficient to achieve data saturation in qualitative studies (Mason, 2010) –
and this is also the minimum number of interviews this study aims for.
3.5.2. Open, Flexible Diary Method
Diaries as an Intrapersonal Inquiry Tool. The phenomenon of vertical development has, in the
past, been studied mainly by employing a few research methods: in-depth interviewing, researcher
observation, psychometric testing and questionnaires, regardless of whether the research design was
cross-sectional or longitudinal (Kegan, 1980; Loevinger, 1966; Manners & Durkin, 2000; Nicolaides,
2015; Piaget, 1948; Rooke & Torbert, 1998). The same methods were prevalent in studies involving
participants’ consciousness development in the context of leadership development programs (Baron,
Baron, Grégoire, et al., 2018; Vincent, Ward, et al., 2015). One of the challenges when studying
intrapersonal phenomena through these methods is retrospective bias (Reis & Gable, 2000), the
fading of memories which can threaten the validity of findings when a significant amount of time has
passed between the moment of the survey or interview and the event the participant is asked to
describe.
By including a diary method in the design of a study, one can help reduce retrospective bias
and better capture fluctuations and nuance in perception, such as, in this research, the shifting
thoughts and feelings of leaders in the process of vertical development. ‘Diaries’ is an umbrella term
encompassing several related methods, including “experience sampling, event sampling and daily
diary studies" (Ohly et al., 2010, p. 79). While related, these three types of diary methods are usually
employed differently.
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Experience sampling and event sampling are both “in situ” methods, prompting participants
to complete self-reports either at random intervals, when prompted by a signal for the former or
after pre-designated events for the latter (Scollon et al., 2003). On the other hand, the daily diary
method invites participants to complete self-reports, usually once per day, and are particularly useful
for “studying thoughts, feelings and behaviours within the natural work context” and thus can help
“capture the short-term dynamics of experiences within and between individuals in the work context”
(Ohly et al., 2010, p. 80). This makes daily diary method particularly applicable for research of within-
person processes (Scollon et al., 2003) such as, for the present research, the intrapersonal
phenomenon of consciousness developing in interaction with a given external context, within a
determined span of time. This method can help track participants’ progress through the ELP and
capture the incremental shifts in perspective that take place throughout the program, thus bringing
more depth to the inquiry. Diary data complements data captured through the in-depth interviewing
at the end of the program. However, a potential disadvantage is that the frequency of diarizing in the
daily method might lead to research fatigue (Herron et al., 2018), as will be detailed later in this
section.
While structured diaries that use standardized questions are most common in organizational
research (Ohly et al., 2010), the diary method can also be employed in an open format which invites
participants to use their own words in recording experiences, thoughts, attitudes, and behaviours
(Poppleton et al., 2008). This type of open format can be a better option for the present research, as
it will allow participants to express their own subjective views on their process of growth throughout
the program and the events which trigger shifts in mindsets, instead of merely completing a survey.
Moreover, a variation of the open diary method, also called flexible diary method (Herron et al., 2018)
will allow for a flexible timing of reminders – more frequent during live virtual weeks of ELP and more
infrequent in the interim. This is designed to help mitigate research fatigue, while still allowing
participants to track their internal development throughout the whole period of the program.
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Given the versatility of the diary method, this approach may offer rich holistic data on the
participants’ journey through the whole learning process. It will permit tracking how participants
implement the insights gained from the first residential week into their work and life and studying the
role of the four intervening months and their potential impact on personal transformation. Finally, it
will offer information on how participants build on their experiences as they get back into another
week of formal learning, at the end of four months. Also, this method will allow the researcher to gain
insight on how the non-residential aspects of the program impact participants perceptions of vertical
development – such as the role of the mini-board meetings with program peers which happen
between residential periods.
Limitations of Diary Methods. While allowing the researcher to collect rich, qualitative data
from everyday life that would be otherwise difficult to access through other means (Herron et al.,
2018), the flexible diary method is not without its drawbacks. Firstly, diary methods have been found
by some participants as being time consuming (Herron et al., 2018) and, unless framed properly, they
create unwelcome participant burden. This burden can be related either to the length of diary entry
or to the response frequency required from participants or to the length of the diary period and, if
left unmitigated, it can affect participant attrition and compliance (Iida et al., 2012). Secondly, diary
methods have the disadvantage of requiring participant training and obtaining a high degree of
commitment and dedication for participation (Reis & Gable, 2000). Thirdly, an implicit risk in
employing the diary method is reactivity – the possibility that the studied phenomenon changes
because of the measurement itself (Scollon et al., 2003).
These risks can be mitigated in several ways for the purposes of this study. Firstly, research
fatigue and participant burden could be minimized by adjusting the response intervals to a
comfortable level, particularly considering the four-month duration of this study, which is unusual
compared to the average length of one month for most studies employing the diary method (Van
Berkel et al., 2018). The proposed frequency for diary writing is daily only during the live weeks of the
program, when participants will be fully immersed in the learning, and weekly in the intervening