A stages of change perspective on managers' motivation to learn in a leadership development context

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the applicability of Prochaska and colleagues' “stages of change model,” which has generated substantial support in the therapeutic literature as a useful framework for understanding the dynamics of motivation to change problem behaviors, in a leadership development context. Design/methodology/approach – A group of over 70 supervisors/managers was studied over a period of nine months as they participated in a company‐sponsored leadership development effort. Findings – Results provide initial evidence that the stages of change model has the potential for being reliably and validly assessed in a leadership development context. Participants' stage scores related in meaningful ways to relevant criteria such as job attitudes, perceptions of personal leadership areas needing improvement, and evaluations of actual development module content and presentation over a nine‐month period. Research limitations/implications – Participants were drawn from only one organization and this was the first major leadership development effort undertaken by this organization. Practical implications – Study results provide support for the appropriateness of applying the stages of change model and its measurement in a leadership development context. Results demonstrate that the stages of change model appears to offer useful and pragmatic insight into motivation to learn and on improving the effectiveness of leadership development activities. Originality/value – The present study is unique in that makes use of a stages of change model to empirically examine differential patterns of relationships between participants' stages of change and their organizational attitudes, leadership developmental needs, and longitudinal reactions to the development effort.