2024/03/12 by Jørgen Skovhus Haunstrup, Ulrich Thy Jensen · 1 voice · 1 citation
Psychology · Business, Management and Accounting · #Human Resource Development and Performance Evaluation #Organizational Learning and Leadership #Competency Development and Evaluation
paper · doi:10.1080/10967494.2024.2314055
openalex publication_date 2024/03/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Government agencies use leadership training programs to improve human capital and public service provision. However, existing research ignores how limited cognitive capacity and task overload in the aftermath of leadership training programs can reduce the transfer of learning into action. Integrating insights from behavioral science on choice architecture with research on leadership development, we propose a leadership development model with “just-in-time” implementation nudges. In a field experiment involving 226 Danish public managers and their 4,442 employees, we found that employees perceived their managers as exhibiting more transformational leadership behaviors following our leadership development intervention. The intervention combined classroom training with just-in-time implementation nudges that targeted goal-oriented development dialogues. We also found that these dialogues mediated the treatment effect on transformational leadership behavior. Our results highlight the need to consider choice architectural approaches in designing leadership development efforts in the public sector.