| In 1988, the Institute of Medicine published a report stating that public health leadership was in disarray. As a result, a mushrooming of leadership development programs has ensued, culminating in the tremendous growth of business revenues in the United States. This research study focused on the problem that leadership development training may not translate into personal meaningfulness for participants, which is critical to the utility of new knowledge. To answer the research question of how participants' assigned value to training provided by the Florida Public Health Leadership Institute, the hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used. The qualitative research tool used to gather data was a semi-structured interview protocol, and the data analyzed and interpreted using Gadamer's circle of interpretation. From the interpretation of the interview narratives, the greatest valued experience acquired was friendship, and the apparent lack of support by the sponsoring organizations was the greatest devaluing factor to the overall meaningful experience of the participants. Respondents identified their senior management as the main limiting obstacle in using new learning, and typically planned to apply learning in creative self-selecting ways within their work environment. General recommendations include the solicitation for the support of senior level managers as imperative to sustained change initiative, as lack of organizational support is a documented hindrance to professional development and organizational viability. The social implication of this finding is the awareness that effective leaders tend to have more effective employees, who are also efficient performers. This leads to improved customer service and greater effectiveness of the overall organization. |
