Hierarchical Leadership Behaviors of USAF Majors at Air Command and Staff College

How does one mentor leadership? What behaviors should be mentored for more effective leadership and are those behaviors different at various organizational levels? Jacob and Jaques (1985) found that organizations require different hierarchical leadership behaviors at different levels of the organization. Yukl (1994) produced an integrated taxonomy useful across all organizational levels for determining critical leadership behaviors. The purpose of this investigation is to determine the critical leadership behaviors for Air Force majors and the two major career tracks of "operations" and "support".This investigation used a modified off-the-shelf survey by Yukl known as the Managerial Practices Survey (MPS). 302 Majors at ACSC AY 97-98 completed and returned the survey. Of the eleven behaviors on the MPS, four were found to be the most important: Informing (M = 4.4), Planning and Organizing (M = 4.2), Problem Solving (M = 4.2), and Recognizing and Rewarding (M = 4.1).This study made tentative first steps towards empirically determining what behaviors Air Force majors perceive to be critical to job accomplishment and successful leadership. It is also discovered significant differences between operations and support officer views on the importance of different leadership behaviors. Further replicating studies with company grade officers and Lieutenant Colonels are needed before the question of "where" the Air Force major is on hierarchical organizational leadership models. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.