Effects of Solution-Focused Training on Leadership Behaviour and Productivity

Recently the transfer of the “solution-focused approach” developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg into the field of management can be seen in many applications in HR-Management, leadership, team-management, marketing and sales and so on. But there are only few studies which investigate the effect of solution-focused work in organizations and up to now there has been no research concerning the effects on productivity in organizations. This evaluation study examines the effects of a solution-focused training and coaching programme on leadership behaviour and productivity which was carried out at a Norwegian production plant in the fast-moving consumer goods industry. The goal of the present study was in the first step to establish a theoretic base in order to accompany a solution-focused leadership training and coaching programme, which was meant to deliver first results in some areas within a short time. Continuative the objective was to evaluate how far this type of leadership training is able to actually bring about changes in behaviour and productivity with the purpose of meeting the growing challenges presented by the management development training as well as the demands on the effectiveness of training measures.