Date of Award

Fall 12-1-2006

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

College of Technology

First Advisor

David P. Beach

Second Advisor

John R. Sutton

Third Advisor

James W. Lussier

Abstract

The contemporary operational environment, the war on terrorism, and the Army transformation effort are requiring officers in the U.S. Army to exhibit high levels of adaptive performance. The Army recognized the need to develop adaptive leaders and developed the Think Like a Commander (Shadrick & Lussier, 2001) training program. Prior to this research no attempt has been made to establish the construct validity of the training program or to measure the levels of adaptive performance exhibited throughout an officer's career. The current research investigated the construct validity of the training program by examining the differences in adaptive thinking behaviors between officers of various ranks and deployment status. In addition, baseline measures of adaptive thinking were established for lieutenants, majors, captains, and lieutenant colonels. Data from a group of captains that received the training during a formal military course were compared to baseline measures to determine if the training could accelerate the development of adaptive thinking in captains. The results of this research revealed that officers with deployments to Operation Iraqi Freedom or Operation Enduring Freedom performed significantly better then nondeployed officers. In addition, the results indicated that adaptive thinking performance increased with officer rank. The results support the validity of the adaptive thinking measurement instrument and the relevance of the Think Like a Commander training program. In examining the performance of captains using the training program as part of formal education, results revealed a significant trend of improved performance as the captains progressed through the training. The performance of captains in the training group was significantly higher than to the baseline measures for lieutenant colonels. The results support the continued use of the training and demonstrate that deliberate training methods may produce greater learning gains than experiential learning environments.

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