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.