I projektet System för ledarskapsutveckling har forskare vid Jönköping University i partnerskap med ett tiotal svenska organisationer och genom en nationell telefonintervju med drygt 1 300 privata och offentliga verksamheter fördjupat kunskapen om hur ledarskapsutveckling organiseras, uppfattas och omsätts i praktiken. Resultatet i denna rapport bygger på ett varierat material i form av dokument, intervjuer och workshops.

Genom projektet har vi fördjupat vår förståelse av att ledarskapsutveckling kräver systematik och integration. Det handlar om att arbeta medvetet och långsiktigt med olika arbetssätt som är kopplade till organisationens syfte, samtidigt som vi reflekterar över de antaganden och idéer som påverkar utformningen. Ett ledarskapsutvecklingssystem omfattar de arbetssätt som främjar utveckling av ledarskap anpassat efter verksamhetens syfte, kontext och föränderliga behov.

I rapporten beskriver sju organisationer sin syn på ledarskap och hur de arbetar för att utveckla detsamma. Genom deras egna ord får vi en inblick i hur ett system för ledarskapsutveckling kan se ut i praktiken. Särskilt markeras att ledarskapsutveckling måste skräddarsys utifrån organisatoriska förutsättningar och individuella behov. De aktiviteter och metoder som används måste kontinuerligt testas, förstärkas eller fasas ut beroende på relevans. Hellre hålla fast vid en genomtänkt metod än att ständigt byta.

Den nationella kartläggningen ger en översikt av vilka aktiviteter som är mest använda och till vem de vänder sig. Fördjupande analyser visar att de organisationer som har starkast finansiella resultat värderar fem verksamhetsnära metoder främst; chefsmöten, utvecklingssamtal, teamutveckling och tillfälliga uppdrag.

Slutligen presentera vi en uppsättning framgångsprinciper, frågor och verktyg för att arbeta mer systematiskt med ledarskapsutveckling. Vår förhoppning är att de ska fungera som en kompass för ett mer nyfiket och reflekterande arbetssätt och öppnar vägen mot en hållbar och framgångsrik ledarskapsutveckling. 

A leadership development system (LDS) encompasses all methods and practices used in an organisation to train and develop effective leadership. However, the underlying assumptions upon which such a system is based are often overlooked, and the workplace as a learning site is generally under-investigated, which may cause an unreflected LDS. Using a social representations theory approach, this study explores such underlying assumptions, i.e. social representations of leadership and leadership development, among 19 employees of an organisation with a non-hierarchical business structure. To collect data, the free association method was used to reveal underlying social representations shaping the company’s current LDS. Through a transdisciplinary framing and customised design of work-integrated learning (WIL) among the employees (N = 57), the study also develops an exploratory model for facilitating the development of a deliberate LDS. The results show that uncovering social representations supports professional learning in work, which helps create an LDS that is based on articulated awareness. The study further shows that the process of uncovering hidden values, ideas, and perspectives can support a context-relevant and customised WIL curriculum for professional learning and cultivate a deliberate and purposeful approach to leadership development.

The contemporary era, frequently characterized as a period of crises, is distinguished by precarity, vulnerability, and uncertainty. In a post-pandemic context, we confront a global environmental crisis and observe technological transformations of existential magnitude. These crises unequivocally reveal the numerous tensions between global and local circumstances, as individuals grapple with the rapid changes occurring worldwide.

In this context people are facing constant transitions requiring from them lifelong and life-wide learning. However, learning occurs in many individuals’ lives dimensions pertaining not only to their vocational but also existential dimensions. The dominant policy learning discourses often emphasize a simplified view of learning, primarily focusing on strategic aims of skills provisions through formal education for companies to maintain competitiveness in the market. When adult learning is approached, there is a tendency to either emphasize the process of workplace learning (Fenwick, 2010), represented by diverse understandings of learning processes and disciplines, or to emphasize adult learning as mainly occurring through formal education, which emphasize lifelong learning rather as lifelong continuous education. Furthermore, there is a notable paucity of analyses regarding the learning processes that occur during activities designed to support adults in career development and navigation, specifically career guidance. This inadequately explored domain of learning requires, in our opinion, enhanced comprehension to augment its capacity for supporting adults in career development and transitions in their lives.

Therefore, the aim of this presentation is to question these dominant positions and capture the “career” as a complex and life-long learning that requires “a dialogue” between diverse theoretical approaches to provide a deeper understanding of career complexity. This dialogue creates a bridge of understanding adults’ career transitions complexity in the context of local and global tensions. Drawing from our previous research that underscores the growing significance of learning in career and vocational life (Bergmo-Prvulovic, 2024: Bilon, Minta, 2016), we propose a critical approach to current perspectives and practices of learning that occurs in career.

By integrating knowledge from diverse research fields (adult education and learning, career guidance, together with philosophy, sociology, social psychology and critical psychology) we adopt a transdisciplinary approach, and emphasize the importance of uncovering social representations of career in each context and the necessity for a transformative, biographical perspective on individual learning during transitional phases of adults lives and the learning support provided through career guidance (Bergmo-Prvulovic, 2022). By paying attention to 1) the learning processes occurring in the gaps, “the spaces in between” during a transition phase, as illustrated by Bergmo-Prvulovic (2024), and 2) the role of agency and its complex relation with learning processes (Bilon, 2020) in often-neglected learning domains in policy discourses, we offer a framework that transcends simplified views on learning. Adults’ agency is stressed as fundamentally connected to the learning processes (Biesta & Tedder, 2007; Bilon, 2020), and defined as the “temporally constructed engagement by actors of different structural environment (…) which, through the interplay of habit, imagination, and judgment, both reproduces and transforms those structures in interactive response to the problems posed by changing historical situations” (Emirbayer, 1997). Therefore, our framework is built on the “dialogue” of diverse approaches. We adopt the relational nature of reality (Burkitt, 2015; Crossley, 2011) emphasizing the constitutive role of interconnectedness not only between humans but also non-humans worlds (e.g environments that interact with individuals). Our approach is also supported by Biesta's (2016) three domains of educational purposes (qualification, socialization, subjectification) as we want to stress that subjectification is strongly connected to adults’ agency.

We examine where learning takes place, what learning content is prioritized, why learning occurs, for what, and for whom learning is intended. Lastly, we discuss the implications for future career guidance practices and identify new directions for further theoretical development.

This study explores the relationship between organizational leadership identity, defined as "who we are" and "what we value related to leadership", and leadership development practices in five Swedish companies. Through the analysis of their narratives, the study reveals five distinct organizational leadership identities, ranging from individual leadership excellence to collaborative self-leadership. These identities significantly influence the shaping of a leadership development system (LDS) in practice. The study highlights three critical aspects—coherence, continuity, and comprehensiveness—that define the interdependency between leadership identity and an LDS. A closer linkage creates high interdependency, resulting in a stronger and more effective system, while weaker linkages reduce this interdependency and its potential to support organizational objectives and manage change. This research challenges traditional, linear models of leadership development, emphasizing the interaction and interconnectedness of practices within an organized "place". This place serves as a site of integration, activation, and interconnection between people, things, and experiences. By integrating concepts of organizational identity, historical context, and values, the study provides a more holistic theoretical framework for understanding how effective leadership is developed within organizations.

This session will introduce participants to the Critical perspectives on career and career guidance (COCAG) project. It will explain how to get involved in the project and then encourage participants to explore the emerging issues relating to the project's three working groups.

(1) How can the challenges and changes that are happening to careers in the contemporary world be understood?

(2) How can policymakers respond to contemporary challenges to individual’s careers?

(3) How can career guidance practice adopt a more critical stance to address the changing world more effectively?

In the workshop we will foster debate around these questions by exploring the implications for policy, practice and research and supporting the development of new ideas and collaborations.

This position paper argues for the development of a coherent body of critical career theory that responds to contemporary crises of inequality, precarity, and ecological breakdown. It rejects individualising models and synthesises diverse traditions into practice principles that cultivate critical consciousness and connect guidance to collective, organisational and policy change. Situated amid precarity, platformisation, automation, ecological transition and widening inequality, the argument defends bounded yet real agency. It also outlines our COST Action agenda to map theory, strengthen the evidence base and shift institutions. The outcome is a clearer field with a shared vocabulary and a practical plan for research, pedagogy and policy.

Aims:

To move beyond simplified views on learning, uncovering social representations for creating a platform for transformative learning approaches.

Gaps addressed:

Based on the model of ”Learning in the Gaps” we address the ”in-between spaces” identifed (Bergmo-Prvulovic, 2024).

Approaches:

We use a transdisciplinary approach (philosophy, sociology, social psychology, critical psychology, pedagogy/andragogy).

Although the vast majority of adults in the Western world have had or currently have a vocational life and career, the latter is not frequently analyzed as a lifelong learning experience and process. Most analyses of learning processes in careers pertain to young people (Law, 1996) and are focused on dominant policy discourses that often emphasize a simplified view of learning, primarily focusing on strategic aims of skills provisions through formal education for companies to maintain competitiveness in the market. When adult learning is approached, there is a tendency to either emphasize the process of workplace learning (Fenwick, 2010), represented by diverse understandings of learning processes and disciplines, or to emphasize adult learning as mainly occurring through formal education. Although there is existing research that addresses learning processes in guidance activities designed to support adults in career transitions (e.g. Bergmo-Prvulovic, 2020; Law, 2017, Rose et al., 2005), career guidance practice and adult education appear not to have yet implemented knowledge from their respective research fields into their daily practice. Neither are holistic aspects of learning clearly addressed or fully implemented as a part of career guidance activities in the governance of career guidance practice in many countries. Traditionally, career guidance within adult education systems in several countries (e.g. Sweden and Poland) has been designed and governed according to supporting adults educational and vocational choices for skills development. However, the focus on choices for skills development poses a risk of lacking strategies that may embrace holistic approaches to learning. Career guidance has also been highlighted as a lost potential in adult education (Thomsen & Mariager-Anderson, 2015) as well as having the potential of supporting adults transition learning throughout life (Bergmo-Prvulovic,2020). Therefore, the aim of this presentation is to question the lack of integration between different research fields knowledge into daily practice and capture the “career” as a complex and life-long learning that requires a bridging perspective (Bergmo-Prvulovic, 2024). Also, the aim is to stimulate a dialogue between diverse practices and their theoretical approaches to provide a deeper understanding of career complexity. Drawing from our previous research that underscores the growing significance of learning in peoples’ career navigation, their career transitions and throughout their vocational and educational life (Bergmo-Prvulovic, 2022; 2024; Bilon-Piòrko, 2022), we propose a critical approach to current perspectives, policies and practices of learning that occurs in career.

By integrating knowledge from diverse research fields (adult education and learning, career guidance, together with philosophy, sociology, social psychology and critical psychology) we adopt a transdisciplinary, and holistic approach to address adults career complexity from a lifelong perspective. We emphasize the importance of uncovering social representations of career in each context and the necessity for a transformative, biographical perspective on individual learning during transitional phases of adults’ lives and the learning support provided through career guidance. By paying attention to the role of agency in often-neglected learning domains in policy discourses, we offer a framework that transcends simplified views on learning. Adults’ agency is stressed as it is fundamentally connected to the learning processes (Biesta & Tedder, 2007; Bilon, 2020) and it is defined as the “temporally constructed engagement by actors of different structural environment (…) which, through the interplay of habit, imagination, and judgment, both reproduces and transforms those structures in interactive response to the problems posed by changing historical situations” (Emirbayer, 1997). Our approach is also supported by Biesta's (2016) three domains of educational purposes (qualification, socialization, subjectification) as we want to stress that subjectification is strongly connected to adults’ agency.

We examine and illustrate where learning takes place, what learning content is prioritized, why learning occurs, for what, and for whom learning is intended. We address the learning that occurs in the “liminal spaces” (Thomassen, 2009) as people navigate their careers and their movements experiencing the ongoing state of “being in-between” and experiencing transitions (Bergmo-Prvulovic, 2024). We argue that learning in and throughout career processes requires a comprehensive and holistic approach to capture its complexity. As a result, our framework is a bridging approach, aiming at stimulating dialogue between practices with diverse approaches and assuming the relational nature of reality (Burkitt, 2015; Crossley, 2011) emphasizing the constitutive role of interconnectedness in the world.