Should I stay, or should I go? An exploratory analysis of why some people decide to leave their organization after completing a leadership development program

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to shed light on potential unintended consequences of leadership development, more specifically why some participants choose to leave their organization after attending a leadership development program. The main focus is to investigate how leadership development can influence the participants' desirability of leaving the organization and perceived ease at leaving the organization. The study was conducted by qualitative interviews with former participants of leadership development programs that had changed professional positions within two years after the program ended. The sample consisted of 9 participants from various organizations in both the public and private sector in Norway, and they had all attended leadership development programs held by different suppliers and facilitators. The research design adopted an exploratory approach, as the aim was to uncover the subjective experiences of the participants and search for emerging themes from appearing from the data. The findings suggests that leadership development may influence the perceived ease of leaving the organization in multiple ways, such as increasing the participants perceived mobility capital, increased career ambitions and selfefficacy beliefs, which could affect the participants accessibility to alternative opportunities. Additionally, findings suggest that leadership development may trigger awareness about lack of P-O fit and Perceived Organizational Support potentially influencing the desirability of other options. The most prominent finding of why participants leave the organization after leadership development was lack of desirable and accessible career opportunities in the current organization. Some findings suggest that leadership development could influence the career ambitions and expectations towards reaching career goals, and thereby higher expectations towards career development at the current workplace. The findings of this study can be used as a suggestion for further research on the topic, as well as increased attention on what we perceive to be a gap in the research literature related to unforeseen and unintended consequences of leadership development