A Longitudinal comparative case study of leadership development in Singaporean small and medium enterprises

There are currently around 220,000 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Singapore employing 65% of the workforce. Though studies have shown that effective leadership is critical to success, it is argued that these SMEs have so far not been able to develop sufficient effective leaders to support their growth. Current leadership development initiatives proposed by the government are modeled on those of Western multinationals that have very different organizational challenges and context, and there is an overwhelming focus on developing the founders or owners, overlooking other levels of managers. Conceptually, leadership development in the SME context has been unclear, as SME leaders require not just leadership but specific managerial skills, which are based on a unique set of external conditions and organizational context. Furthermore, what usually occurs as leadership development in organizations is simply a focus on 'leader development', which attempts to develop leadership competencies in a single individual, rather than developing the individual in conjunction with the larger context.

Therefore, this research adopted a year-long longitudinal case study approach in investigating the process of developing effective leaders in the context of Singaporean SMEs. Two successful growing SMEs were selected to provide three and four middle managers each. Data on the two companies and the managers were collected over two phases that are a year apart. These data were collected from multiple sources, including the 360-degree Competing Values Framework (CVF) survey; interviews with the managers, supervisors and subordinates; company documentation; and direct observations. Data from Phase 1 pointed out the similarities and distinctions between the two SMEs. The CVF ratings of managers from both organizations suggest that while they share the same societal culture, the individual organization culture seems to have a trumping effect, which support the argument for developing a process of leadership development that is based on individual SME's organizational context. The findings from Phase 2 led to an empirically informed multiple factor model of SME Leadership Development in Singapore, which underlines the contemporary direction in leadership development research, recognizing that leadership development unequivocally occurs in and for a specific context. The model describes how different factors at the macro (environmental), meso (organizational) and micro (individual) levels influence the leadership development process. The external conditions and societal culture at the macro-level impact the organization's strategies, goals, culture and development readiness at the meso-level, which alongside the inputs from the owner-manager, consequently, influences the development of individual managerial-leadership. The research found that having a clear definition of effective leadership which satisfy unspoken leadership hurdles, is a crucial starting point to leadership development, which is ultimately determined and rewarded by the organization.

The study also discovered the importance of work-based experiences in the development and discovery of SME managerial-leadership, and that SMEs could be better off structuring an experiential learning process using work activities and a team-based approach, rather than sending the leaders off to external leadership development programs. Finally, this research produced findings on how the Confucian paternalistic culture present in many Chinese owned Singaporean SMEs, could impact organizational culture and leader developmental readiness.