Military Supervisors

Examining the relationship between young supervisors and older workers in the military

Introduction Military operations have never been concentrated on only one warfare area. Military operations are constantly conducted all over the world whether it is on the sea, air, land, or underwater. They can range from humanitarian services to restoring peace in an unsteady country. The personnel that execute these operations are aged between 17 and 50 years old. Some join right after high school, while others decide to make a career change at a later age. All service members are provided with basic and specific rate training to operate in combat environments. No matter what the service member’s age, all are expected to meet the orders of those

For example, an individual in a supervisory role may be leading in a highly dangerous combat unit or in a training command. These two commands are very different in nature, stress, and subordinates. In a combat environment, leaders are challenged with short fused taskers, limited supplies, and limited subordinates. In a training command, leaders have more time to get the job done, unlimited supplies, and more subordinates. No matter what the mission entails, there is no age requirement that limits the leader’s role in leading their personnel. Young leaders must be able to shift leadership styles depending on the circumstances. There have been several studies on what leadership is effective with employee’s job performance. Most studies have suggested that transformational leadership is one of the effective styles of leadership due to its strong positive correlation with employee team performance (Gyanchandani, 2017). Other studies note that transactional leadership is required for employees to provide quality results and reduce counterproductive behavior (Hui & Tian-yao, 2014). Shared leadership is where each team member shares there responsibility of leadership (Lindsay, Day, & Halpin,

The use of online questionnaires and surveys will be initially conducted. The online questionnaires and surveys are great methods to use because service members will be serving in different commands, remote areas. The questions and surveys will contain a 5 point Likert scale for the three leadership styles: transformational, transactional, and shared leadership. They will also contained opened ended questions on the expectations and perceptions of a younger leader older worker dyad; behaviors that mark effective leaders and most effective leadership styles for this dyad. After analyzing the results from the questions and surveys, then a tele conference focus group will be conducted on 20% of the participants to gather and combine further detailed