LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IN A BUSINESS ORGANIZATION: DESIGNING EFFECTIVE PROGRAMS AND EVALUATING PERFORMANCE

Abstract

The findings of the study indicate that the effectiveness of leadership development programmes is determined not by individual tools or educational formats, but by the coherence of all elements of their design and implementation within a unified managerial logic. In contemporary organisations, leadership should be viewed not as a set of individual traits, but as an organisational capability shaped through systematic efforts at the strategic, organisational, and individual levels of management. An analysis of existing leadership development formats confirms the absence of universal solutions: programme effectiveness depends on alignment with the company’s strategic objectives, its stage of development, participant characteristics, organisational needs, and the actual conditions of operation. A key challenge lies in balancing the scalability of programmes with the preservation of individualised development trajectories. The most significant difficulties arise when strategic grounding, personalisation, and the connection between learning and real managerial situations are lacking. Middle-level managers play a decisive role in transferring learning outcomes into practice, as they shape the organisation’s everyday managerial behaviour. The proposed conceptual model emphasises the importance of cyclicality, continuous feedback, and programme adaptability, which enable timely adjustments in response to changes in the external and internal environment. The organisational nature of the identified challenges suggests that technological and methodological solutions alone are insufficient without transforming organisational culture and managerial practices. The complexity of measuring programme effects should not be a reason to abandon evaluation; rather, it underscores the need for more precise, multi-level, and context-sensitive assessment methods. A comparison of international approaches with the Ukrainian context confirms the relevance of adaptation rather than mechanical adoption of managerial models. Under martial-law conditions, priority is given to strengthening organisational resilience, integrating digital and human-centred competencies, addressing the consequences of traumatic experiences, and enhancing leaders’ ability to act in crisis situations and high uncertainty. The recommendations presented in the article form a coherent strategic framework that enables a shift from fragmented initiatives to a systemic approach to leadership development in modern business organisations.