Leadership Development in the Acquisition Workforce

Abstract

As the world becomes more complex and evolving at faster rates, it has become imperative that organizations evolve their leadership training to adapt to the ever-changing industrial environment, and maintain the organization's competitive advantage. For example, Navy leadership has called for cultural changes and programmatic improvements to the way the civilian workforce is prepared for leadership roles and responsibilities (Department of the Navy, 2016; Department of the Navy Research, Development Test & Evaluation, 2017). Studies have identified that the current level of training and developing civilian leadership is ineffective within the Federal government regarding organizational requirements in an exponentially changing complex environment (Ingraham and Getha-Taylor, 2004; National Academy of Public Administration, 2017). If the current approach to leadership development is insufficient, an important question to study is, "What leadership capabilities, qualities and competencies contribute to effective leadership and organizational effectiveness in complex environments of Defense Acquisition?"By answering this question, we hope to offer suggestions and recommendations to improve leadership development in the Navy Civilian Acquisition Workforce.