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Leadership in Extreme Situations pp 323–346Cite as

Officer Socialization as Prelude to in Extremis Leadership

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Abstract

Military socialization and character building at officer academies often also involves leadership development. To assess the effects of organizational introduction activities on leadership behavior, transformational, transactional, ethical and situational leadership was measured at three times during the first six weeks of the officer education at the Royal Netherlands Military Academy. Newly arrived cadets participated in a self-report questionnaire, at organizational entry, after military introduction and after Cadet Corps’ introduction. Results indicate that military introduction stimulates participative leadership whereas the Cadet Corps’ introduction improves the effectiveness of directive leadership behavior but decreases the effectiveness of participant leadership behavior. Integrity as sub factor of ethical leadership seems to be under pressure by the military and Cadet Corps’ introduction. Both periods stimulate a hands on attitude in contrast to laissez-faire which has virtually been eliminated as a leadership style. Overall the officer socialization period seems to be beneficial for the development of (parts of) transformational leadership. Furthermore, this chapter discusses the relation between how new recruits think about leadership styles and leadership in extreme situations. Various factors of transformational, situational and ethical leadership are suggested to be useful in situations of in extremis and from the edge leadership.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    RNLMA: Royal Netherlands Military Academy. USMA: United States Military Academy. RMAS: Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (Brittish Army). OSH: Offizier Schule des Heeres (German Military Academy). ESMSC: Ecole Speciale Militaire des Saint Cyr (French Military Academy).

  2. 2.

    See methods section for an explanation of the SLII measure operationalization.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Netherlands Defence Academy, Breda, The Netherlands

    Sander Dalenberg

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  1. Sander Dalenberg
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Correspondence to Sander Dalenberg .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Military Academy at ETH Zurich, Birmensdorf, Zurich, Switzerland

    Michael Holenweger

  2. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Military Academy at ETH Zurich, Birmensdorf, Zurich, Switzerland

    Michael Karl Jager

  3. Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Military Academy at ETH Zurich, Birmensdorf, Zurich, Switzerland

    Franz Kernic

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Dalenberg, S. (2017). Officer Socialization as Prelude to in Extremis Leadership. In: Holenweger, M., Jager, M., Kernic, F. (eds) Leadership in Extreme Situations. Advanced Sciences and Technologies for Security Applications. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55059-6_17

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