Effectiveness of instructor behaviours and their relationship to leadership

• Published in: Journal of occupational and organizational psychology Vol. 82; no. 3; pp. 491 - 509
• Main Authors: Patrick, John, Scrase, Gemma, Ahmed, Afia, Tombs, Michal
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.09.2009; British Psychological Society
• Subjects: Armed forces; Authoritarianism; Behavior; Biological and medical sciences; Critical incident technique; Effectiveness studies; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Leadership; Management science; Military; Military personnel; Military training; New technology; Occupational psychology; Occupations; Organization and management. Professional relation; Organizational behavior; Organizational behaviour; Psychology; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Punishment; Reliability; Stimulation; Trainees; Training; United Kingdom; United Kingdom > UK; Human; Leadership; Coaching; Professional practice; Organizational behaviour; Strategy; Occupational role
• ISSN: 0963-1798; 2044-8325
• DOI: 10.1348/096317908X360693

This study analysed qualitatively the nature of instructor behaviours and their relationship to leadership. The Critical Incident Technique was used to collect effective and ineffective incidents of instructor behaviour in military training from both instructors' and trainees' perspectives (total incidents = 1150, effective = 696, ineffective = 494), across the three UK Armed Services. Nine dimensions of instructor behaviour were developed with high inter‐ and intra‐coder reliability. No differences were found between instructor and trainee generated incidents or among the three Armed Services. About 82% of the incidents could be recoded with high inter‐coder reliability into categories of both transformational and transactional leadership. Strong relationships emerged between the following dimensions of both instructor behaviour and leadership respectively: Showing and Demonstrating, and Appropriate Role Model; Using Instructional Strategies and Intellectual Stimulation; Feedback, Practice and Adapting, and Individual Consideration; Forms of Punishment and Control, and Contingent and Non‐contingent Punishment. These results inform not only the relationships between instructor behaviours and leadership but also the future training of military instructors, particularly the balance between a traditional authoritarian approach and an individualised supportive one.