The Leadership Calibration Scale

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The Leadership Calibration Scale

• Under a good General, there is no bad soldier
  Chinese proverb
• Captain Karen J. Brown
• Director Human Resources Research Evaluation
• Canadian Forces
• Brown.KJ3_at_forces.ca

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The Importance of Climate
Climate
Performance
3
The Influence of Leadership
Leaders
Climate
Performance
4
Leaders and Climate
Leaders
Climate
Performance
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Previous Research

• Officers tended to believe that their men were
  more favorably disposed on any given point than
  they were (Stouffer et al. 1949)
• Leaders are not having the positive leadership
  effect on their subordinates that they think they
  do (Eyres, 1998)
• Overestimation on moral issues increased with
  rank/position and inaccuracy was associated with
  high confidence in ratings (Korpi, 1965)

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Confidence in Judgment

• Confidence Climate Assessment
• Inaccurate assessments related to high levels of
  confidence (Korpi, 1965 Farley, 2002)
• Cognitive Psychology
• Confidence usually increases as difficulty of
  judgment increases (Baranski Petrusic, 1999)
• Overconfidence found in ratings of cognitive
  judgment, intellectual and knowledge tasks

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Leaders Calibration Scale

• Determine if leaders were over rating their
  subordinates perceptions
• Determine if discrepancies were associated with
  high levels of confidence
• Develop an instrument that could assist in the
  re-calibration of perceptions and confidence
• GOAL to improve unit combat effectiveness by
  improving leaders accuracy of assessing unit
  climate

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Climate Dimensions

• Cohesion
• Task Cohesion
• Morale / Social Cohesion
• Professional Morale
• Perceptions of Immediate Supervisors Leadership
  Skills
• Military Ethos
• Confidence in Leadership (6 positions)

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Sample Item
Task Cohesion A groups collective enthusiasm
and persistence in pursuing assigned
goals.   Example items My platoon/troop is
ready for combat. I am confident in the combat
abilities of soldiers in my platoon.   On this
aspect of unit climate, how would the majority of
your soldiers respond to the following
statement   Task cohesion is high in my
platoon/troop/company.   O 1 O 2
O 3 O 4 O 5
  Strongly disagree
Strongly agree
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Demographics
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Analyses

• Two Scales
• Unit Climate Profile
• Officer Calibration Scale
• Average for each climate constructs for each
  participant
• Merge two files
• Difference score
• Leaders rating subordinates rating
• Positive number indicates overrating

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Results
High
Mean Ratings
Low
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Differences between Companies
High
Mean Ratings
Low
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Differences between Platoons
High
Mean Ratings
Low
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Confidence with AssessmentClimate
High
Mean Ratings
Low
r2 .29
r2 .24
r2 .32
r2 .27
r2 .22
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Confidence with AssessmentLeadership Positions
High
Mean Ratings
Low
r2 .29
r2 .22
r2 .18
r2 .29
r2 .27
r2 .11
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Correlation between Difference Scores and
Confidence
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Re-calibration Hypothesis
Mean Difference Scores
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Confidence across a Tour
High
Mean Ratings
Low
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Principal Components Analysis

• Direct Leadership and their Confidence Rating
• Indirect Leadership and respective Confidence
  Rating
• Perceptions of Climate
• Confidence in Climate
• Perceptions of CO and Confidence Rating

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Results Summary

• H1 Leaders rated climate higher than
  subordinates
• H2 Differences found between Companies and
  Platoon
• H3 Accuracy negatively related to confidence
• H4a Some climate variation over time
• H4b Confidence varied little across time
• PCA yielded a 5-component solution

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Future Directions

• Research
• Controlled experiment
• Defensive mechanisms
• Situational differences
• Professional Development
• Self-awareness
• Formal Training

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HDO LCS Intentions

• Provide Commanding Officers
• with an objective tool to measure and monitor
  important human dimensions that affect
  operational readiness of Units.
• Provide leaders
• with a method to assess their ability to judge
  subordinates perceptions on climate to make
  necessary changes.

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• Captain Karen J. Brown
• Brown.KJ03_at_forces.ca