Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the influence of psychological hardiness, social judgment, and “Big Five” personality dimensions on leader performance in US military academy cadets at West Point.Design/methodology/approach – Army cadets were studied in two different organizational contexts, i.e. summer field training and during academic semesters. Leader performance was measured with leadership grades (supervisor ratings) aggregated over four years at West Point.Findings – After controlling for general intellectual abilities, hierarchical regression results showed leader performance in the summer field training environment is predicted by Big Five extroversion, and hardiness, and a trend for social judgment. During the academic period context, leader performance is predicted by mental abilities, Big Five conscientiousness, and hardiness, with a trend for social judgment.Research limitations/implications – Results confirm the importance of psychological hardiness, extroversion, and consc...

Big five personality factors, hardiness, and social judgment as predictors of leader performance

The question of how to develop effective leaders is one of major importance to military organizations. This study, which examines a large cohort of U.S. Military Academy cadets over time, tests the...

Cognitive and Personality Predictors of Leader Performance in West Point Cadets

Efforts to educate and develop future military officers aim to produce highly competent, ethical and effective leaders to serve the nation. But while there is general agreement about desired outcomes, the underlying developmental processes associated with these outcomes are not well understood. How do we grow such leaders? This paper reports on a longitudinal study of West Point college students over four years, addressing three questions: (1) do military officer-cadets grow or change in their basic level of psychosocial development [Kegan, R. (1982). The Evolving Self: Problem and Process in Human Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.], (2) is the level of psychosocial development related to performance as leaders, and (3) do activities in high school predict later psychosocial development? Two groups of cadets were studied from their freshman or sophomore year to their senior year at the academy. Results show significant positive developmental growth over time for 47% of study participants, with most of this growth occurring from sophomore to senior year. Furthermore, psychosocial development predicts several peer, subordinate and supervisor ratings of cadet performance as leaders during the upperclass (junior and senior) years, a time when cadets take on substantial leadership roles. In addition, early performance ratings by high school teachers, as well as active participation in high school extracurricular activities both predict psychosocial development levels for freshman and sophomores. These findings lend support to Kegan's theoretical model, and suggest that greater attention be paid to these basic processes of human psychosocial development that can influence leader performance in important ways.

Psychosocial development and leader performance of military officer cadets

Using R. Kegan's (1982, 1994) theory of identity development, it was discovered that most military cadets enter college with relatively simple ways of making meaning, and for many the college years are a time of significant developmental change. For most, the key developmental issue is not self- authorship but establishing shared meaning.

Identity Development During the College Years: Findings from the West Point Longitudinal Study

This investigation examined leader creativity, broadly conceptualized as a confluence of personal attributes, as a predictor of leading change in organizations. Because organizational change occurs primarily in the social system in support of the technical system, the role of social-emotional competency was also examined. Two correlational studies were conducted in samples of U.S. Army officers. As predicted, leader creativity was a significant predictor of leading change. Creativity measures explained 42% of the variance in leading change performance measures in novice officers and 71% of the variance in early- to mid-career officers. Social-emotional competency was also a significant predictor of leading change, but less than creativity.



“The art of the creative leader is the art of institution-building, the reworking of human and technological materials to fashion an organization that embodies new and enduring values” (Selznick, 1957, pp. 152–153).

Leader Creativity as a Predictor of Leading Change in Organizations1

: The construct validity of a leadership behavior rating system used by the U.S. Military Academy (USMA) was examined as a prelude to a longitudinal program of research on leadership development. Their system centers on Cadet performance Report (CPR) ratings made by superior, peer, and subordinate raters. CPR ratings include individual scores on 12 leadership behavior dimensions and a global score of performance. Two CPR dimensions, duty motivation and military hearing, were found to be most strongly related to the CPR global score and the leadership grade, which is USMA's official evaluation of a cadet's overall performance in a leadership role. Although this finding was consistent for each type of rater, the relationship of other dimensions to the global score and leadership grade suggested different types of raters focussed on different dimensions when evaluating overall leadership performance. Additionally, four broader factors were found to underlie the 12 CPR dimensions, based on a synthesis of the results from principle components analyses. Consistent with other leadership behavior taxonomies and other research concerning the effects of rater position on the leadership evaluation process, our findings offer some evidence of the construct validity of the CPR dimensions for measuring cadet leadership performance.

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Elisa H. Schwager

Papers

An Exploration of the Construct Validity of a Leadership Behavior Rating System.

An exploration of the construct validity of a leadership behavior rating system.: (426862004-001)