The Work Foundation has announced the start of a new three-year research programme into leadership.

‘Leading for High Performance’ will focus on the specific role played by leaders in creating the conditions for high performance.

The study will look at how leaders’ behaviour affects team and organisational performance, and, once identified, these approaches and techniques will be tested to establish how applicable they are to other organisations.

Penny Tamkin has been appointed to lead the project, joining The Work Foundation after 13 years at the Institute for Employment Studies where she held the position of associate director.

Tamkin says: “We plan to ground our research in the evidence and in close observation of how real leaders work in real organisations. At the end we hope to have a very clear picture of how leaders spur the performance of their companies.”