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The approach to organizational learning in this article is anchored in structural and cultural facets. The structural facet focuses on organizational learning mechanisms, which are institutionalized structural and procedural arrangements allowing organizations to systematically collect, analyze, store, disseminate, and use information that is relevant to the performance of the organization. The cultural facet focuses on the shared values, without which these mechanisms are likely to be enacted as rituals rather than as means for real learning. The article describes examples of this approach and focuses mainly on the role and style of organizational leaders in determining values that facilitate effective learning.

The history of a management development programme in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) is presented. The programme was developed in response to two problems which handicapped internal consultants in the IDF, their low power position and the inappropriateness of organisation development as a paradigm for applying behavioural sciences in this organisation. Both problems were alleviated by institutionalising a management development programme in the curriculum of two officer schools of the IDF, and by changing behavioural scientists′ roles from consultants to instructors.

Offers a conceptual framework which relates leadership development to theories of leadership. The framework suggests that programmes of leadership development should include three components: developing self‐efficacy in the domain of leadership, developing awareness of different modes of motivating others in correspondence with different theories of leadership, and developing specific leadership skills (e.g. giving feedback). Also discusses the “added value” of such programmes to how leaders develop on their own. Specific principles for designing programmes for different types of leadership are outlined.

The correlation between organizational unit managers’ leadership styles and the level of organizational learning in their units was tested.

A positive correlation was hypothesized between transformational leadership and organizational learning as manifested by organizational learning mechanisms – OLMs (the structural component) and by organizational learning values (the cultural component). The research was conducted at 44 community clinics of a health‐care organization in Israel.

The findings attested to the central role of organizational leaders in determining the effectiveness of organizational learning. The theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

Suggests that, in addition to separating the sources of reporting, and increasing the number of measures, future studies should also extend the research to different kinds of organizations, addressing different purposes, environments, work forces, and so forth.

Coaching is a much‐discussed topic on which little has been written at a thoeretical level. Relates coaching to Bandura′s theory of sefefficacy and Schon′s work on developing reflective practitioners. Claiming that enhancement of self‐efficacy (a sense of mastery in a particular domain) is central to coaching, describes how self‐efficacy is acquired in general, how it can be enhanced in coaching on leadership, and what characterizes good coaches.

Examines the practical utility of research on managerial behaviour and managerial effectiveness for training and development programmes. Casts doubt on the relevance of models in the literature that tell managers what they should do. Reviews studies of effective managers. Concludes that the design of programmes in particular settings requires a study of who is an effective manager in that setting; that the concepts and methods available in the literature will be used; that such research has potential use for programmes where training is a stepping stone to change.

This paper proposes a framework for understanding the concept of a learning organization from a normative perspective. A questionnaire was developed to operationally measure the described management practice attributes of a learning organization. Using a sample of four organizations and 612 subjects, support was found for three a priori predictive hypotheses derived from a conceptual framework. Implications of the results and further empirical research are discussed, especially for linking learning organization attributes to performance using larger samples and multiple measures.

The empirical literature on charismatic or transformational leadership demonstrates that such leadership has profound effects on followers. However, while several versions of charismatic leadership theory predict such effects, none of them explains the process by which these effects are achieved. In this paper we seek to advance leadership theory by addressing this fundamental problem. We offer a self-concept based motivational theory to explain the process by which charismatic leader behaviors cause profound transformational effects on followers. The theory presents the argument that charismatic leadership has its effects by strongly engaging followers’ self-concepts in the interest of the mission articulated by the leader. We derive from this theory testable propositions about (a) the behavior of charismatic leaders and their effects on followers, (b) the role of followers’ values and orientations in the charismatic relationship, and (c) some of the organizational conditions that favor the emergence and effectiveness of charismatic leaders.