The return on school leadership preparation and development programmes: A study on Australian university-based programmes

Purpose: This paper highlights the potential value of “return on investment” analysis for leadership development investment methods to better providing research informed decision regarding improving organisational outcomes.

Design/methodology/approach: Working with published research on leadership dimensions with greatest impact on student outcomes, return on leadership development formula, and empirical research on Australian university‐based educational leadership programmes, this paper demonstrates an illustrative example of estimating the return on leadership investment.

Findings: Using an illustrative example of Australian university‐based educational leadership programmes, this paper argues that methodologies for estimating the return on leadership development offers a powerful tool for making research informed decisions at the individual, organisational and systemic levels.

Research limitations/implications: This paper provides the basis for substantial further work on the measures of impact of leadership preparation and development such as matters of duration of effect, instrumentations of quality, costing and causal models of effect.

Practical implications: The methodology demonstrated in this paper provides a basis for individuals, organisations and school systems to make decisions regarding the resourcing, or not, of school leadership preparation and development.

Social implications: The methodology demonstrated in this paper provides a basis for individuals, organisations and school systems to make decisions regarding the resourcing, or not, of school leadership preparation and development.

Originality/value: The application of return on investment analysis has been rare in educational leadership preparation and development programmes and its value opens up information for rigorous debate on the resourcing, or not, of programmes by systems, government and individuals.