Research Article
Is Guidance as a Tool for Leadership Communication Effective for Military Leaders?
Ole Boe1* and Torill Holth21Department of Military Leadership and Management, Norwegian Defence Staff and Command College, Norwegian Defence University College, Oslo mil, Akershus, 0015, Oslo, Norway
2Department of Military Leadership and Tactics, Norwegian Military Academy, P.O. Box 42 Linderud, 0517 Oslo, Norway
- *Corresponding Author:
- Boe O
Department of Military Leadership and Management
Norwegian Defence Staff and Command College
Norwegian Defence University College
Oslo mil, Akershus, 0015, Oslo, Norway
Tel: +47-990-04-545
E-mail: [email protected]
Received Date: March 27, 2017; Accepted Date: April 10, 2017; Published Date: April 14, 2017
Citation: Boe O, Holth T (2017) Is Guidance as a Tool for Leadership Communication Effective for Military Leaders?. Arts Social Sci J 8: 263. doi:10.4172/2151-6200.1000263
Copyright: © 2017 Boe O, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Serving as a military officer requires among other skills strong communication skills. The Norwegian Military Academy (NMA) educates its cadets in the use of guidance as a leadership communication tool. The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether participating in a 5-day guidance course would lead to an improvement of the ability to communicate better with others. Materials and Methods: Forty-nine officers from the NMA participated in the study. The participants served as supervisors in nine exercises related to practicing guidance as a communication tool. Eight of the participants filled out a questionnaire three times during the 5-day course. Results: The results showed that the supervisors felt that they became better at communicating with others and at building and maintaining relationships. Interestingly, trust was found to decline a bit between the supervisor and the person being supervised. However, they felt that they got to know the other person. In addition, the supervisors felt that they increased their awareness of which communication tools that were effective to use to give the conversation its necessary/desired content and form. They also felt that they became more aware of the kind of information they asked for in the conversation. Furthermore, they felt that they were able to communicate more effectively as leaders, and they perceived that their ability to develop others became enhanced by the use of guidance. Finally, the supervisor´s felt that their ability to influence the supervised person´s attitudes through the creation of new thinking and reflection also increased. Conclusions: The results from the present study suggest that practicing guidance as a leadership communication tool is an effective communication tool for military officers.
