Identity Crafting: A Study of a Pedagogy of Identity Transformation using Experiential Learning Approaches in a Leader Development Context

A burgeoning stream of literature is making a case for ‘humanising’ leadership and arguing for the importance of identity-based transformational leader development programmes. Yet scholarship is fragmented on if and how identity transformation happens in leaders longitudinally post-interventions. Little is known on how potential changes are implemented in everyday life and what factors might impact this process. Finally, which pedagogical considerations could support identity transformation to become sustainable? Attempting to fill this gap in literature, this qualitative research study is longitudinal and designed as a multiple case study to contrast different experiential pedagogical approaches and aimed to answer the following research questions: RQ1: Is there evidence that identity transformation happens following experiential learning interventions in the leader development context and if so, in what ways does it happen? RQ2: What contributes to identity transformation from the lens of a learner in the leader development context? RQ3: Are there any distinctive experiential pedagogical approaches that support identity transformation in the leader development context? In answer to these RQs, the author underwent three experiential learning interventions in the role of researcher and participant. These included one systems-psychodynamic (group relations) based training in Europe and two T-Group type experiential interventions, one in Europe and one in the USA. Each of these training programmes was designed as a separate case in a multiple case design. Across these three sites 18 volunteer participants were interviewed three times using a drawing-based dialogic approach over a period of 9 months post-training to capture potential longitudinal developments in identity transformation. A further key methodological consideration of this project was the role of the researcher as participant, undergoing these sites as part of a 17-month personal transformation journey, with the aim of experiencing identity transformation through experiential learning first-hand. This study followed a social constructivist stance and data were systematically analysed using constructivist grounded theory approaches. This study makes four significant contributions to leader development scholarship. First, it presents the Model of Integrated Identity Transformation (MIIT), a novel theoretical framework that expands existing experiential learning theories by specifically linking them to identity transformation processes. Second, it provides empirical evidence of how identity transformation manifests longitudinally post-intervention, identifying three distinct stages (experiencing, sensemaking, doing the work) and documenting integration challenges faced by participants. Third, it identifies four critical factors that impact identity transformation: individual context, life forces, communities, and space. Fourth, it introduces Dialogic Visual Identity Crafting as an innovative pedagogical consideration that creates conditions for accessing unconscious identity elements and facilitating narrative reconstruction. These contributions offer important theoretical insights and practical recommendations for designing identity-focused leader development programmes. Specific recommendations are given for a potentially novel experiential pedagogical consideration for identity transformation going beyond a single pedagogical approach to leader development, but rather integrating multiple pedagogical approaches focusing on identity crafting in the leader development context.

Name dc:type.qualificationname

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Level dc:type.qualificationlevel

Doctoral

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

University of Cambridge

Year dc:date.issued

2024

Author dc:creator

• Avramov, Laszlo

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Dudley, Peter

• Leadership
• Experiential Learning
• Leader Development
• Identity Transformation
• Identity Crafting
• Multiple Case Study
• Systems Psychodynamic
• Longitudinal Study
• Constructivist Grounded Theory
• Making the Unconscious Conscious
• Dialogic Visual Identity Crafting

Licence

• https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/f149317e-fb1d-449a-aad1-c3c73e8bb3a8/download
• http://purl.org/NET/rdflicense/allrightsreserved

Language dc:language

eng

DOI dc:identifier.doi

https://doi.org/10.17863/CAM.122099

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.repository.cam.ac.uk:1810/390546