Perceptions of Leadership Styles Within Military Hierarchies: An Appraisal

Abstract The leadership of the future is being created now and will mature over the next two decades. Different leadership styles being practised or demonstrated by the military hierarchies must be explored, and the outcomes of the study be utilised for framing the leadership development model. The aim is to explore the perception of leadership style existing in the military hierarchies. A descriptive research design was used in this quantitative study, wherein a total of 71 senior serving defence officers participated. The attribute of charismatic leadership is predominant among the senior officers, while there is no clear evidence of the overwhelming presence of intellectual stimulation in them. Although a few senior officers have displayed the transactional leadership attribute of management by exception, no one displayed the transactional leadership behaviour of contingent reward. For an organisational culture to become more transformational, top management must articulate the changes that are required. Index Terms - Performance, Transformational Leadership, Charisma, Transactional Leadership, Organisational Culture