Leadership Development: An Assessment of the Aspiring Leaders Program at the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality
Abstract
One of the keys to an organizations' long-term success is a management development plan. One such agency that has developed and initiated a leadership training program is the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ). The purpose of this applied research project is threefold. First, it describes the ideal components of a leadership development program based on review of existing literature. Next, it assesses the TCEQ Aspiring Leaders Program using the practical ideal type components. And finally, the project provides recommendations for improving the Aspiring Leaders Program.
An examination of leadership development literature reveals five crucial components of a model leadership development program. The leadership development model components include executive management support, selection process, implement skills training, provide individualized training, and program assessment. These components are used to frame a case study research approach to examining the Aspiring Leaders Program. The case study research utilized document analysis and structured telephone interviews.
The case study research results show that, overall the Aspiring Leaders Program consistently reflects the same structure as the model leadership development program. However, the research results also indicate that significant improvements to the program can be achieved in the mentoring element of the individualized training component. Although to a lesser extent, an area of concern also exists with the selection process component with respect to how candidates are selected and the number of participants per training session.
