| Despite the fact that organizations consistently cite leadership development as a top priority (Colvin, 2006), the scientific community provides limited insight into how individuals develop leadership capacities from their experiences at work (Burke & Day, 1986; Day, 2000). The present research develops a multi-level theory of leader development that specifies how work experiences enhance individuals' leadership capacity. This theory is then empirically tested using both qualitative and quantitative methods. In the qualitative phase of this study, leaders from a variety of different organizations provided examples of discrete work experiences that had occurred over the past 12 months. In the subsequent quantitative phases of this study, leaders and their supervisors rated these experiences on a number of different measures. Results indicate that the characteristics of these experiences shape the development of leadership capacities. Moreover, individual differences and contextual factors moderate the relationship between the characteristics of work experiences and leader development outcomes. |
