A Commander's First Challenge: Establishing a Pathway of Trust

Abstract

This research focuses on the concept of systematically engineering a pathway of trust for squadron commanders in the Air Force. Leadership is the most important characteristic that a commander brings to their organization and has a significant impact on the effectiveness of his or her unit. The goal of a commander is to be able to influence their people to achieve a desired end state. In order for a commander to be able to influence an individual they need to have a relationship with that person and the key to that relationship is trust. Specifically, this research focuses on the concept of Swift Trust and how a commander can quickly establish trust with their Airmen. By focusing on the antecedents and outcomes of trust, this research investigates what a leader specifically needs to do in order to quickly establish trust within their unit. This research supports the need for a commander to quickly develop trust with unit members and offers a systematic pathway for building trust. The data highlights and demonstrates the importance of trust within a military organization and what a commander can do in order to quickly earn and maintain the trust of his or her unit.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2016
Accession Number
AD1054242

Entities

People

  • Jesper R. Stubbendorff

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Cyber
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Engineering
  • Literature Surveys
  • Military Education
  • Military Organizations
  • Military Science
  • Military Training
  • New York
  • Psychological Phenomena And Processes
  • Psychology
  • Reliability
  • Squadrons
  • Students
  • Teamwork
  • United States
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Business

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Organizational Psychology.