On Trust: A Hard Look at Canadian Senior Officer Relationships During the Italian Campaign
Abstract
Trust and leadership go hand in hand. Trust facilitates risk taking, overcomes emotional resistance, and reinforces existing organizational norms and thus is essential to successful military leadership. This monograph examines the performance of three Canadian general officers during the Italian Campaign of World War II--Hoffmeister, Vokes, and Burns--with each case building on the last. Ending with a study of Burns explores the issues that ultimately led to his demise as a field commander. The study uses Beer's model of change (D + M + P = C), with trust added as a lens--D + M + P + (T) = C--to examine their performance as leaders and commanders. Using Beer's model to examine the leadership of these three general officers will demonstrate that trust is the missing component for this model to be an accurate leadership tool when attempting to influence behavior. In addition to the standard secondary sources, an array of journals, after-action reports, and memoirs provide context. Official archive reports offer primary evidence for the ultimate evaluation. The findings are analyzed against current theory and American and Canadian leadership doctrine. This study then provides recommendations for improving how leaders are educated and trained for positions of responsibility and, perhaps, provide a revised definition of trust.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2015
- Accession Number
- AD1001863
Entities
People
- James Cuthbert Smith
Organizations
- School of Advanced Military Studies