The role of HR in leadership development
Shilpa Kabra Maheshwari and Jaya Yadav
Shilpa Kabra Maheshwari is
based at Amity Business
School, Amity University,
Noida, India, and
Department of Human
Resources, National
Engineering Industries
Limited, Jaipur, Rajasthan,
India. Jaya Yadav is based
at Amity Business School,
Amity University, Noida,
India.
PAGE 20 j DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING IN ORGANIZATIONS j VOL. 33 NO. 5 2019, pp. 20-23, © Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1477-7282
Introduction
The role of human resources (HR) has evolved considerably in its strategic impact and
complexity because of the changing business dynamics, new customer and workforce
contracts, digital disruption, and leadership gaps (Ulrich and Beatty, 2001). It has evolved from
being a strategic partner, administrative expert, employee champion, and change agent (Ulrich,
1998) to a leadership proponent. Davenport (2015) cites building leadership capacity as one of
the significant areas for HR, but this remains a concern for HR to deliver in line with the strategic
agenda. While leadership theories allude to experiences, context, and situation for effective
leadership, the role of HR becomes significantly enhanced in supporting perceived behaviors
and critical performance to develop organization-wide leadership depth (Ulrich and Dulebohn,
2015). The challenge remains as to how HR facilitates or impedes the development of leaders.
Though the impact of HR processes on organizations is known, studies examining the
interlinkages of HR and leadership development are rare (Davenport, 2015; Markush-Hallman,
2015). The purpose of this study is to examine the role of HR in leadership development.
Theoretical framework
Leadership development is the process of enhancing the collective leadership capability of
an organization through the engagement of its members in leadership processes (Day and
Dragoni, 2015). It is every form of development that assists the expansion of knowledge and
expertise required to optimize one’s leadership potential. Greater success is achieved by
the integration of HR into leadership development. Given that, Ulrich’s (1998) accepted
model of HR roles strategic partner; administrative expert; employee advocate; and change
agent is used as the theoretical construct.
䊏 Strategic partner: This role reflects the strategic partnership of HR with the line and
leadership to execute business goals, by a better understanding of the business,
enabling a business-aligned organizational architecture and developing leadership
talent in alignment to strategic goals.
䊏 Administrative expert: This role focuses on the operational efficiency and expertise of
HR in the way work is defined, organized, and executed. It defines the effectiveness of
the HR processes that support business-strategy execution. As a result, HR’s visibility
and trustworthiness will be enhanced.
䊏 Employee champion: This role relates to understanding and managing the needs of
employees to enhance their engagement with the organization. This implies the need for HR
to listen and respond to employees while championing their cause to critical stakeholders.
䊏 Change agent: This role focuses on HR’s involvement in managing transformation and
change, institutionalizing, and ensuring capacity for change, putting in place HR
processes and a culture that enhances an organization’s ability to manage the
changing business complexity.
DOI 10.1108/DLO-11-2018-0141
Methodology
The qualitative study is based on the case of an Indian engineering family-owned
organization undergoing people, process, and technology transformation. In 2016, 14
middle-management (vertical heads) employees from manufacturing, engineering, sales,
finance, and HR, being groomed for higher positions, participated in a nine-month leadership
development program. Post the program, they, along with 15 industry and organization HR
experts (2 HR heads; 10 HR managers; and 3 HR consultants), participated in this study.
Purposive sampling was used for respondent selection because of their understanding of
leadership development as participants, facilitators, and sponsors. All the respondents were
male, above 35 years of age, with an engineering/management qualification. In-person (25)
and telephonic (14) semi-structured interviews were conducted for 30-45 min. The questions
asked were: What do you understand by leadership development? What is the objective
of adopting this? What is your experience with the program? Which is the best development
tool and why? What areas of the program did you find the least useful? What other
components should be added to the program? Any additional support you needed? A
response of 100 per cent was obtained using pen and paper. No recording was done and no
data was transcribed. An inductive approach was used to arrive at coding, i.e. “manager
nomination,” “leadership pipeline planning,” “HR facilitation,” “leadership strategy,” “next level
opportunity,” and “organization needs.” The analysis was conducted, and common themes
were generated, given the theoretical construct and practitioner insights.

Results
Findings indicate key perspectives concerning the program experience and the role of HR.
These relate to career planning, selection process, HR support, program alignment to
individual and organizational needs, HR processes, etc. Respondents indicated the need
for leadership development and affirmed that their organization invests adequate resources
and efforts. HR practitioner said, “Our role is to encourage the potential homegrown
employees, to take higher positions in the organization, due to the dearth of quality talent in
the market.” However, participants expressed concern on a formal leadership strategy by
HR: “Leadership development is about developing an individual, but there is no formal
articulation of leadership development strategy by HR.” HR indicated their involvement and
support in the development journey, whereas participants felt that HR’s role was limited to
facilitation, program coordination, obtaining feedback, and individual-development
planning. Someone said, “The program should give visibility on what are the experiences
that I am preparing for, that would give clear motivation on why and how I should develop
myself.” Gaps in terms of expectations of career opportunities, robust HR processes, and
HR and leadership support emerged in responses. As cited, “Leadership support was not
strongly evident through the entire journey. Also, HR seemed more of a coordinator than a
facilitator”; Leadership journey should be aligned with certain key outcomes such as
readiness for a role and a sharply defined individual development plan. The need for HR to
institutionalize HR processes, i.e. career progression, recognition, and opportunities for new
leaders, emerged. As cited, “Role and career growth are important aspects to me”;
Exchange and network opportunities for participants should exist. Expectations on HR’s
involvement in creating buy-in and organizational mandate for leadership development also
emerged, “There should be monitoring and feedback by HR to ensure that the development
of the individual does not stop with the closure of the program”.

Implications for practitioners

In view of the evolving role of HR, from transactional to strategic, there is a need for HR to
play a more critical role in leadership development. Results indicate that there exists an
opportunity for HR practitioners to rethink their contribution to leadership development. In
this direction, we propose the HR “PACE” model:

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 䊏 P – leadership partner: HR can play a crucial role in creating and sustaining a
leadership culture by building, and nurturing partnerships with key stakeholders. In
turn, the success of leadership-development efforts will depend on HR’s adeptness,
and credibility to meet the organizational leadership needs and partnering with
participants and stakeholders. HR can play multiple roles as partners, leaders, and
practice masters to ensure that leadership development happens.
䊏 A – leadership architect: One of the critical roles for HR is to articulate the context of
leadership, key attributes, and competencies to enhance the skills of emerging leaders.
Architecturing leadership landscapes requires seamlessly weaving all components of
HR processes, learning tools (i.e. coaching, mentoring, action learning, and diagnostics),
succession, and career-growth paths to arrive at an integrated approach. Consequently,
HR’s role in defining the design and structure of the leadership strategy in alignment with
business goals becomes essential.
䊏 C – leadership champion: A truly strategic and successful leadership-development
agenda is accomplished with greater organizational buy-in. HR can influence this by
championing and creating a business case and demonstrating how leadership
initiatives are essential for competitiveness. By advocacy and showcasing visible
examples of future leaders, HR will help articulate a clear leadership strategy, generate
excitement, and inspire others to build leadership.
䊏 E – leadership expert: Emerging leaders have unique needs that require contemporary
HR practices to help them succeed in their new roles. HR needs to play the expert role
that designs and facilitates opportunities for new leaders to transition to leadership
roles, stretch their leadership skills, and expand their experience. In turn, leadership-
development frameworks must have interlinkages to HR processes.
It is evident that context must be leveraged by HR practitioners to design and implement
better leadership-development programs. Beyond facilitation, success is dependent on
HR’s role as a partner and custodian, creating buy-in and enabling robust HR processes.

Conclusion
HR is a key contributor to leadership development through the design of HR programs that
support development and opportunities that enable the practice of lessons learnt. By
Keywords: partnering and championing the leadership agenda, HR can amplify the shaping of
Leadership development, collective leadership behavior in tune with the organization’s goal. Leadership development
Human resources,
thus requires HR to move beyond traditional approaches and actively envision, support,
HR development,
HR learning, anchor, and champion leadership development, in turn playing a key role in building
Role of human resources leaders.

References
Davenport, T.O. (2015), “How HR plays its role in leadership development”, Strategic HR Review, Vol. 14
No. 3, pp. 89-93.

Day, D.V. and Dragoni, L. (2015), “Leadership development: an outcome-oriented review based on time
and levels of analyses”, Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, Vol. 2
No. 1, pp. 133-156.
Markush-Hallman, R. (2015), “The role of human resources in developing diverse leadership paradigms”,
Available at: https://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&
httpsredir=1&article=1081&context=chrr (accessed 11 January 2019).
Ulrich, D. (1998), “A new mandate for human resources”, Harvard Business Review, Vol. 76 No. 1,
pp. 124-135.

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Ulrich, D. and Beatty, D. (2001), “From partners to players: extending the HR playing field”, Human
Resource Management, Vol. 40 No. 4, p. 293.

Ulrich, D. and Dulebohn, J.H. (2015), “Are we there yet? What’s next for HR?”, Human Resource
Management Review, Vol. 25 No. 2, pp. 188-204.

About the authors

Shilpa Kabra Maheshwari is Research Scholar with Amity University, Noida, and Vice
President and Head (Human Resources) at National Engineering Industries Limited (NEIL),
India’s largest bearing manufacturer. At NEIL, Shilpa is leading the HR function and is
passionate about making a difference in organization transformation and talent building
through leadership development, culture enablement, and change transformation. She
comes with more than 20 years of experience, with a wide exposure to various facets of HR.
She holds a keen interest in leadership studies and its applications to the industry.
Shilpa Kabra Maheshwari has graduated in economics (hons) from Lady Shri Ram College,
Delhi University, and holds an MBA in human resources from Faculty of Management
Studies, Udaipur. She is an accredited trainer by Marriott, HR Excellence Assessor by CII,
Assessment Center Assessor, Hay job evaluation & DiSC Profiling, and a certified coach. A
passionate writer, she has authored a book, Human Resource Strategy – Architecture for
Change, published by Sage India. Shilpa Kabra Maheshwari is the corresponding author
and can be contacted at: shilpa.kabra@gmail.com
Dr Jaya Yadav, Professor, is Head of HR Department of Amity Business School, Amity
University, Noida, India. Dr Yadav has been actively involved in teaching, research, and
consultancy in a distinguished career spanning 14 years. She is also the Head of the PhD
program of ABS. She has research interests in the area of HR. She has authored various
papers and books, and currently five scholars are working under her guidance.

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