The relationship between the perceived executive management capabilities of senior Navy Medical Department executives and their reported managerial requirements/

Abstract

The Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) has entered into a partnership with the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) to identify the competencies necessary to effectively function in executive management positions within Navy Medicine and, once the specific competencies are identified, design and conduct a customized, cost effective, executive development program to improve the management competencies of senior Navy Medical Department executives. As part of the needs assessment process used to identify these competencies, a survey instrument was mailed to 720 senior officers within Navy Medicine to identify their current level of skill and their perception of the required level of skill in eight management activity groups. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an initial analysis of the survey responses and identify any gaps, or deltas, between the current level of skill reported by the respondent and the required level of skill for their current position with respect to the respondents corps, rank, and organizational position cohorts. The results indicate that the responses vary by cohort with the gaps between current and required skills directly related to rank, seniority, and previous management experience.