'Whatever your job is, we are all about doing that thing super well': High-reliability followership as a key component of operational success in elite air force teams
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View abstract on PubMed
Summary
This summary is machine-generated.Military leadership is a group process, not just for commanders. Effective military operations rely on shared identity and engaged followership to prevent disasters and ensure high reliability.
Area Of Science
- Military Psychology
- Organizational Behavior
- Sociology
Background
- Unreliable military behavior has significant strategic and political consequences.
- Traditional leadership studies focus on leader traits, neglecting follower contributions.
- Social Identity Approach and High-Reliability Organization (HRO) theories offer alternative perspectives.
Purpose Of The Study
- To develop an alternative understanding of leadership as a group process.
- To explore the role of front-line personnel in military leadership and reliability.
- To investigate the link between social identity, identity leadership, and high-reliability followership.
Main Methods
- Thematic analysis of semi-structured interviews.
- Data collected from 25 air force personnel.
- Grounded in Social Identity Approach and HRO theorizing.
Main Results
- Collective mind and social identity ('us') are crucial for military reliability.
- Social identity strength, content, and alignment, shaped by identity leadership, foster high-reliability followership.
- High-Reliability Followership enables military groups to avoid disastrous events.
Conclusions
- Military HROs depend on identity leaders and engaged followers who internalize and enact shared identities.
- Leadership is a collective process where followership is integral to proving leadership effectiveness.
- Shared identity and its enactment by followers are key to achieving high reliability in military operations.
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