Technical b r Report - International Military Testing Association

Ii
interested in building personal relationships with their fellow workers are
said to be relationship oriented; those interested primarily in getting the
job done are considered task motivated. Fiedler also asserts that a taskmotivated
leader will have a greater probability of success than a relationship
motivated leader. Based upon our analysis of the literature available,
a course in leadership should stress (1) the psychology of motivation and
the satisfaction of doing a job well, (2) analysis and control of leadership
situations, and (3) building a relationship of mutual respect between the
l.eader and members of the group. This was the basis for the Coast Guard
Leadership Course and our challenge was to develop realistic rather than
idealistic leaders. '
HISTORY OF DEVELOPIi;S THE COI;RSE
E-7 through E-9.Chief Petty Officers are Coast Guard front-line managers.
They most frequently fill middle management roles serving to clear the way
for command actions and letting the command know how the cre\/ feels. But
on the other hand, Chiefs are assigned smaller units as Officer-in-Charge
and ir'. Executive Officer. These possible assignments require having both
a narrow specialized knowledge in a technical field and broad knowledge of
the service in general. They also must be able to communicate vertically
and horizontally within the command. Our leadership course was tailored then
to meet these needs. We sought also to provide prospective Chiefs with a
basis for decision making. A leader has three methods of exercising his skill:
he can be authoritarian, democratic or depend upon his men to exercise responsibility
and good judgment to get things done. Although the good leader
must use all three techniques to effectively operate, current literature
promotes democratic leadership or group dynamics as the preferable choice.
This conflict results in confusion. To quote the Harvard Business ReVitW:
"often he [the leader] is not quite sure how to behave; there are
times when he is tom between exerting 'strong' leadership and
'permissive' leadership. Sometimes nc:$ knowledge pushes him in
one direction ("I should really get the group to help make this
decision"), but at the same time his experience pushes him in another
direction ("I really understand the problem better than the
group and therefore I should make the decision"). He is net sure
when a group decision is really appropriate or when holding a staff
meeting serves merely as a device for avoiding his own decision
making responsibility."
We felt a Chief's decision making abilitv wculd be proportional to the information
he had to draw upon. Consequently, we stress the forces operating
in the decision making process.
ii] fiscal restraint..
responsibilit/ ana .* +.hority
(3) legai boundries i'
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