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Understanding the process of military leaders' development as professionals : implications for professional military leadership development
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Type
Thesis
Author
Siew, Daniel Hoi Kok
Supervisor
Chee, Yam San
Abstract
Becoming a leader within one’s profession entails being professional, which is exemplified through one’s professional identity, knowledge, and practice (Snider, 2003) acquired formally through leadership development programs or informal learning within the workplace (Daley, 2001). Among the many professions, the military is particularly concerned with developing leaders to tackle leadership challenges in a “volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA)” (Stiehm, 2002, p. 6) operating environment. However, no substantive theory of leadership development process has been validated comprehensively and empirically (Avolio & Chan, 2008), as understanding of what gets developed in the process is not entirely clear (Day & Halpin, 2004). Using the identity lens in development efforts bridges the leader and leadership developmental levels (Lord & Hall, 2005) and enhances the understanding of leadership development from a multilevel perspective (Day & Harrison, 2007). Impacting leaders’ self-identity in the context of leadership development demands deep learning and for military organizations that see institutional training as professional development for their personnel, leadership learning then becomes critical.
The purpose of the study is to understand the developmental process of professional military leaders and develop a grounded theory of their development in order to derive the implications for military leadership development. Using a non-positivist grounded theory approach, this study established the understanding and theorized the integrated processes of military leaders’ development through 19 in-depth interviews with military officers who have sufficient leadership and leadership development experiences within a military organization. For the findings, the grounded theory paradigm model consisting of coded categories was developed to describe the process of military leaders’ development as professionals through the storyline of their developmental experiences. Three paradigm models described their developmental trajectories covering the beginning, advancing, and maturing phases. The structure of their developmental trajectories was also explicated to identify the factors and how they were related in the process of them developing as professional military leaders.
From the findings, a model for the theoretical integrated processes of the military leaders’ development as professionals was proposed. The theoretical contribution of this study is the examination of the ontological and praxiological dimensions that impact these leaders in becoming military professionals and how these factors contributed to the leaders’ being and becoming and learning and doing of their leadership practice belonging to the military profession. Leadership development of professional leaders could be made more complete by challenging and re-conceptualizing the philosophical assumptions of formal professional leadership development program, sequencing of both formal and informal varieties of developmental experiences, and situating leadership learning in the context of leadership practice. Continued research on understanding the processual and contextual leadership developmental experiences using qualitative and interpretative approaches should be conducted to advance further understanding of leadership learning and development of professional leaders as their being, becoming, and belonging to a profession.
The purpose of the study is to understand the developmental process of professional military leaders and develop a grounded theory of their development in order to derive the implications for military leadership development. Using a non-positivist grounded theory approach, this study established the understanding and theorized the integrated processes of military leaders’ development through 19 in-depth interviews with military officers who have sufficient leadership and leadership development experiences within a military organization. For the findings, the grounded theory paradigm model consisting of coded categories was developed to describe the process of military leaders’ development as professionals through the storyline of their developmental experiences. Three paradigm models described their developmental trajectories covering the beginning, advancing, and maturing phases. The structure of their developmental trajectories was also explicated to identify the factors and how they were related in the process of them developing as professional military leaders.
From the findings, a model for the theoretical integrated processes of the military leaders’ development as professionals was proposed. The theoretical contribution of this study is the examination of the ontological and praxiological dimensions that impact these leaders in becoming military professionals and how these factors contributed to the leaders’ being and becoming and learning and doing of their leadership practice belonging to the military profession. Leadership development of professional leaders could be made more complete by challenging and re-conceptualizing the philosophical assumptions of formal professional leadership development program, sequencing of both formal and informal varieties of developmental experiences, and situating leadership learning in the context of leadership practice. Continued research on understanding the processual and contextual leadership developmental experiences using qualitative and interpretative approaches should be conducted to advance further understanding of leadership learning and development of professional leaders as their being, becoming, and belonging to a profession.
Date Issued
2019
Call Number
UB210 Sie