Schleidt, B. (2012). Utilizing techniques of military leadership to master crisis scenarios [Master Thesis, Technische Universität Wien]. reposiTUm. https://resolver.obvsg.at/urn:nbn:at:at-ubtuw:1-61493
Militär; Führungsstil; Krisenmanagement; Unternehmen
de
Abstract:
The goal of this work is to compare the leadership models of the management literature to military leadership and to demonstrate what executives of private enterprises can use out of this toolbox to master crisis scenarios. For this purpose this thesis gives firstly a literature review on leadership, secondly explains the leadership structure of the military and thirdly gives a brief insight of the origins, mechanisms and different phases of a crisis. Further, practical examples from personal interviews with executives from civil enterprises, management consultants and military leaders are presented with respect to these questions to highlight essential elements of crisis management. On one hand this thesis shows that subordinate's participation needs to be increasingly focused under time pressure and further, that strong transformational leadership is required in crisis. Owing to this fact, the interviewed executives emphasized the importance of immediate action, the role of mutual trust and effective communication. On the other hand, those leaders who also had had military leadership training stated to successfully apply the structured approach of the command and control circle with the implied decision making and communication procedures analogue to the military techniques. Further, it was found that leadership experience and expertise in the respective matter is much more important than innate virtues such as charisma. In terms of leadership military training gives young men and women the chance to learn leadership techniques and to gather experience at a very early stage in their career compared to business life. Further research is recommended to empirically cross check the results of Korn Ferry´s study with respect to leadership education e.g. of the Austrian armed forces (AAF) in order to find out if the enhanced performance is connected to leadership education itself or to maybe wartime experience which a proportion of the Korn Ferry sample group is supposed to have.