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.