Leadership and Unit Effectiveness in Combat Infantry Platoons.

Abstract

Mapping the components of military leadership exhibited by Israeli platoon leaders was achieved using subjective reports by the platoon leaders themselves and by others (peers, subordinates, and supervisors) regarding perceptions of their leadership. The subjective reports (implicit perceptions of leadership) extracted from the analysis of our respondents (91 infantry platoon leaders) suggest the following tentative scheme of leadership: The Israeli platoon leader's representations include both 'internal' qualities of the leaders and overt behavioral patterns. The internal qualities are: Two types of military skills (personal and command abilities); two types of motivations (general achievement and military/organizational commitment); and a general factor of traits. The main theme of all the internal elements is a mission-oriented and success-driven individual combatant. The external-overt factor, i.e., behavioral patterns, reveal the classical dimensions of leadership: mission- and task-related behaviors; the human relations aspects of the group maintenance behavior; and, finally, a value-transmission and educational activity.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1996
Accession Number
ADA309601

Entities

People

  • Nehemia Geva
  • Reuveu Gal

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Applied Psychology
  • Army
  • Command And Control
  • Infantry
  • Information Processing
  • Leadership
  • Maintenance
  • Military Organizations
  • Motivation
  • Perception
  • Psychological Phenomena And Processes
  • Psychology
  • Social Psychology
  • Statistical Analysis
  • Students
  • Training
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military Science
  • Organizational Psychology.