LEADER BEHAVIORS FOR COMBAT VETERANS AND NON-COMBAT SOLDIERS

Kolditz & Brazil (2005) describe how authentic leadership, leadership based on moral principles by confident, optimistic leaders is especially important in extremis situations (i.e., settings where death is a possibility). In the present study, we evaluated the effect of leader behaviors on unit climate in an Infantry Brigade 12 months after returning from combat. Soldiers were asked to rate their Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO) leaders on 18 leader behaviors developed by Castro & McGurk (2004). Factor analyses of the leader behaviors revealed that there were 3 factors: supportive leadership, advocacy leadership, and counterproductive leadership. We compared ratings of leader behaviors by combat veterans with those who had not been deployed. For both combat veterans and non-combat Soldiers, supportive leadership was related to better unit climate (higher personal morale, higher unit morale, higher cohesion, and higher combat readiness). However, there was a different pattern of the relationships between advocacy leadership and personal morale for combat veterans and non-deployed Soldiers. For combat veterans, advocacy leadership was positively related to personal morale. In contrast, for non- combat Soldiers, advocacy leadership was not related to personal morale.