Date of Conferral

2016

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Management

Advisor

Lilburn Hoehn

Abstract

Female retired Army colonels (FRACs) have significant potential to contribute to civilian organizations. To take advantage of that talent, it is important to have a better understanding of their behaviors based on their dual identities as women and leaders. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand the under researched factors accounting for the development of FRACs' leader behaviors and the transfer of those behaviors to civilian careers. The 4 underlying meta categories of leadership behavior formed the conceptual framework. The theory of planned behavior was used to explore potential influences on FRAC leader behavior development. The 3 research questions focused on how FRACs developed and used their leader behaviors in their military and civilian careers. Eight FRACs and 6 civilian managers participated in semistructured interviews for this study. The data were analyzed to discern categories and themes to determine the influences that contributed to FRAC leader behavior development. My results indicated FRACs developed leader behaviors through experiential learning, overachieving, and blending masculine and feminine behaviors. The results also suggest that in civilian positions, FRACs employed task-oriented leadership behaviors developed in the military while expanding use of external-oriented leadership behaviors. Consistent Army leader training on the use of blended feminine and masculine leadership behaviors is recommended. Positive social change may result from Army senior leaders and civilian managers using this rich understanding of the FRAC leadership behaviors for leader accession, development, and retention programs.

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