Reed Larkey Group is an active participant in the field of leadership research. Our position is that leadership research is just now coming of age. We freely acknowledge the lack of consensus among experts in the field and encourage our clients to look for new, creative ideas about what they expect from leaders. We believe new insights will come from asking new questions.

We are determined to be leaders in helping others develop and apply sound research methods, tools and analysis. In turn, you can take the lead in conducting research, product development, and interventions that target opportunities for growth.

Why leadership? Simply stated, the identifying, developing and teaching of leaders is the top-down approach to most organizational development goals. It is the natural compliment to the organizational/cultural bottom-up approach.

While both leadership and culture are hot topics, actual empirical research lags far behind the pop business books and assessments.

State of Knowledge: Identity, Ethics, Leadership and Organizational Culture

There is simply no consensus among experts in the field as to the defining characteristics of leadership, culture and strategy. In addition, the studies of identity and of moral reflection remain much debated topics.

Here is what experts in the field say:

“For all the research that has been conducted on the topic of leadership, the field remains curiously uninformed….there are no generally accepted definitions of what leadership is, no dominant paradigms for studying it, and little agreement about the best strategies for developing and exercising it.”
J. Richard Hackman and Ruth Wageman,
Asking the Right Questions About Leadership,
American Psychologist, January 2007, pg. 43.

“The dynamic processes of culture creation and management are the essence of leadership and make one realize that leadership and culture are two sides of the same coin. Leadership has been studied in far greater detail than organizational culture, leading to a frustrating diffusion of concepts and ideas of what leadership is really about, whether one is born or made a leader, whether one can train people to be leaders, and what the characteristics of successful leaders are.”
Edgar H. Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, pg. 1.

The leading experts in the field have arrived at point where there is a consensus that the right questions must not have been asked over decades of leadership research. We agree and have determined to work with our clients to ask better questions.

We can help you ask the right questions.

Here is a sample of old and new questions concerning leadership that should be asked (American Psychologist, January 2007):

1. Not do leaders make a difference, but under what conditions does leadership matter?

2. Not what are the traits of leaders, but how do leaders’ attributes interact with situational properties to shape outcomes?

3. Not do there exist common dimensions of which all leaders can be arrayed, but are good and poor leadership qualitatively different phenomena?

4. Not how do leaders and followers differ, but how can leadership models be reframed so they treat all system members as both leaders and followers?

5. Not what should be taught in leadership courses, but how can leaders be helped to learn?

These are a sample of a movement to reframe leadership research. Of course, it much more complicated that finding new questions. Scientific methodology and analysis must be rigorously applied. The problem for you is that your organization needs answers now.

We believe that professionals in the field are in the best position to surface to questions and conduct research focused on results and applications. We are dedicated to help you in this endeavor.

Helping Leaders

Following the admonition of Edgar H. Schein, RLG is stepping outside the culture of academic and business school research to change the way our clients view research, product development, training, strategy, culture, coaching and organizational development in general.

We believe that valid and highly applied research results can be conducted by individuals, groups and organizations. We provide online research services designed to help you in your particular situation to explore, describe, predict and explain critical organizational growth issues.

The functional tools allow you to collaborate online with us or work alone in:

1. Designing a research study
2. Create data collection tools
3. Managing research process
4. Communication
5. Analysis
6. Reporting results
7. Designing interventions
8. Monitoring application for quality and effectiveness

Clients interested in product development and IP creation can take advantage of RLG product development models or integrate client methods using the technology available.

RLG’s core business is to create the assessment tools and analysis that are right for our clients.