Leader Behaviors that Empower First Line Supervisors and Their Work Teams

at the 142d Maintenance Group

Portland State University EMPA Capstone Presentation

Lt Col Joseph Harris

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● Why Empowerment?‒ No single concept more central to OD‒ Motivates and inspires best org performance‒ Nothing more frustrating to me as a public leader

● OD Initiatives Fade Away ‒ At the 142d MXG, e.g. TQM, Lean, CPI‒ In the military and other public sector hierarchies‒ Applied broadly without sensitivity to obstacles

● Do They Have To?‒ Despite obstacles employees are empowered!‒ How? Can there be more?

Background/Literature Review

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● How Are Individuals & Teams Empowered?‒ How are obstacles negotiated? ‒ What part have leaders played?‒ 142d MXG good test bed?

Research Question:What leader behaviors have most successfully

empowered first line supervisors and their work teams within the 142d MXG?

Key Research Questions

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● Study Population: All First Line Work Teams ‒ Sample selection method: Judgment/Purposive‒ Sample selected: 29 first line supervisors

● Data Collection: Informal Interview‒ 26/29 supervisors interviewed‒ History of significant empowerment‒ Leader behaviors that created empowerment‒ Behaviors ranked by significance

Research Method

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● 21 Leader Behaviors in 7 Categories 1. Clarify/unify leader expectations

2. Promote team centric orientation and leadership

3. Align subordinate capability with job expansion opportunity

4. Facilitate subordinate task ownership and decrease leader ownership

5. Increase voice and input from subordinates

6. Promote timely sharing of org info and big picture awareness

7. Add value directly to assigned work

Results

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● What has worked = best chance of success

● Method accounts for unique org features

● Method follows empowerment theory‒ Organization tells leaders how to empower

● Results address most common obstacles‒ Competing value systems muddy expectations ‒ Vertical hierarchical pressure inhibits teaming

● Method repeatable at any public org‒ Same rationale for most applicable results

Significance

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● Informs a significant leadership challenge‒ Leadership responsibility for immutable org

features that discourage & demotivate‒ Increased org performance capability‒ More effective leader ‒ Establish higher leadership expectations

● Template/tool for using org knowledge to solve difficult leadership issues‒ Where else can I leverage this?

Leader Development Implications of Capstone

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● Exposure to theory while engaged in practice‒ Each informs leadership development‒ One without the other is suboptimal learning‒ Seek the practical in all the theoretical‒ High value in mastering both

● Remembering the approach methodology‒ Research methodology‒ Application methodology

● Leaders need to be learners from all sources

Leader Development Implications of EMPA

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● All 26 first line supervisors who shared their emotionally charged stories of empowerment

● Past leaders of the 142d MXG who’s empowering behaviors were mentioned by respondents – especially leaders mentioned multiple times.

‒ They positively changed lives and the org forever and left us a roadmap that will better us all

● Dr. Jones and Dr. Nishishiba – research question shaping and research writing help

Acknowledgements

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Questions

11

Back up Slides

Table 3: Grouped and Ungrouped Behaviors With Significance Scores > 6

LB1

Behaviors that increase

voice and input from

subordinates and teams

LB2

Behaviors that align

subordinate capability with job

expansion opportunity

LB3

Behaviors that facilitate subordinate

task ownership

and decrease leader

ownership

LB9

Behaviors that promote

timely sharing of

org info and big picture awareness

Group1

Behaviors that clarify

leader expectations. LB6, LB7,

LB8, LB13, LB15, LB20,

LB21

Group 2

Behaviors that promote team centric orientation and team

leadership LB4, LB5,

LB11, LB12, LB17

Group 3

Behaviors that add

value directly to assigned.

work LB14, LB16,

LB18

Total Score

23 35 35 14 43 37 13

Rank 4 3 3 5 1 2 6

Table 2: Significance of Empowering Leader Behaviors Leader Behaviors

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 R1-4 1 2 3 4 R2-5 1 3 2 4 5 R3-2 1 2 R4-8 3 1 8 6 5 7 2 4 R5-6 2 5 4 6 1 3 R6 R7-6 2 3 4 6 1 5 R8-4 3 2 1 4 R9-4 1 3 4 2 R10-7 3 1 2 5 6 7 4 R11-6 6 2 3 1 5 4 R12-6 1 4 6 3 2 5 R13-5 1 2 3 4 5 R14-5 2 1 4 3 5 R15-3 2 3 1 R16-7 5 1 2 4 3 6 7 R17 R18-5 4 1 2 3 5 R19-6 4 2 3 5 6 1 R20-3 1 2 3 R21-5 3 2 1 4 5 R22-5 1 3 4 2 5 R23-5 3 4 2 5 1 R24 R25-6 3 4 5 2 1 6 R26-6 1 3 4 6 2 5 R27-6 5 4 1 3 6 2 R28-7 6 7 3 2 4 5 1 R29-5 1 2 5 3 4 Hits

Top 3

14

9

20

14

21

13

2

1

7

4

9

4

10

4

4

1

11

3

3

3

4

2

7

4

3

0

4

1

3

1

3

0

3

2

3

0

2

0

1

0

1

1 Top 3 9 15 14 1 4 4 4 1 3 3 2 5 0 1 2 0 2 2 0 0 1 Total 23 35 35 3 11 13 14 5 14 6 6 12 3 5 5 3 5 5 2 1 2 RANK 2 1 1 9 6 4 3 8 3 7 7 5 9 8 8 10 8 8 10 11 10

12