Perceptions of Leadership and Management

This study probed U.S. military officers on their perceptions of effective leadership and management behaviors. Serving military members reported the leader styles they found especially useful. The study's aim was to build a theory describing those leader styles that would lead to organizational success. It was based on a series of surveys and interviews of commissioned officers representing all services and commissioned grades, conducted at a joint service headquarters in Europe. The factor analytical techniques of Q-Methodology were used to distill meaning from the subjective judgment of the participants. Subsequent semi-structured questioning helped to put the findings into context and triangulated the results with qualitative data. Respondents reported that they consciously used both transformational and transactional leader styles. They demonstrated the application of a variety of cognitive leadership frameworks. The officers studied displayed important though sometimes subtle differences in their leader styles. As a whole they made their focus on mission accomplishment of paramount importance when balanced against any other concerns.