An analysis of leadership effectiveness in the Naval surface community.
Abstract
This study attempts to provide empirical data which will
show how and to what extent specific styles of leadership
may maximize the performance and retention of units within
the Navy. The study focuses upon a sample of twenty comparable
destroyers and frigates within the Pacific Fleet.
Leadership-style data were collected from the first and
second officers in command of these units (CO and XO) by
means of Fleishman's Leadership Opinion Questionnaire (LOQ),
a self administering inventory which measures two important
dimensions of leadership behaviors consideration, relating
to the leader's degree of socio-emotional emphasis; and
structure, relating to the leader's degree of task-related
emphasis. These leadership-style data were compared with
six measures of unit effectiveness: overall mission readiness
(OVL) , personnel readiness (PER) , supply readiness (S'JP) ,
equipment readiness (EQP) , training readiness (TNG) . and
retention (RET) . These measures were collected for a six
month period in which the CO and XO of each unit had functioned
as a "dual leadership" team.
The results of this study indicate that the CO either
tends to perform both the task-related and socio-emotional
functions, or the CO and XO appear to divide these functions,
with the CO performing the socio-emotional function, and the
XO performing the task-related function. The results also
indicate that the leadership styles of the CO and XO appear
to exert the most influence upon overall mission readiness
and retention, while unit training readiness appears to be
unrelated to the leadership style of either the GO or XO
.
More specifically, the task-related emphasis of both the
CO and XO was found to have a significant positive correlation
with overall unit readiness. Further analysis indicated
that the GO'S task-related emphasis has a significant
positive correlation with unit personnel readiness, while
the task-related emphasis of the XC has a significant positive
correlation with both unit supply and equipment readiness.
Finally, the socio-emotional emphasis of the CO,
and to a lesser extent the XO , was found to have a significant
positive correlation with unit retention. These results
suggest that units are likely to be most effective
with respect to performance and retention when the first
and second in command are high in both the socio-emotional
and task-related dimensions.
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.Collections
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