ORGANIZARIONAL BEHAVIOR

Case Let No- 3: Leadership Mettle Forged in Battle 

Several organizations hire retired or short service commission officers from the Indian defence
organizations. Organizations from all domains - specialized research, construction, financial
services, manufacturing, human resources, and consulting organizations - have hired ex-defence
men and women.

 It’s not really surprising to see companies turn to the military for leadership potential. A long
tradition of books and seminars advises leaders to think like military leaders ranging from Sun
Tzu to Norman Schwarzkopf. And military veterans do have a variety of valuable skills learned
through experience. Several recruiters have commented that ex-defence people have the
experience at a very young age of managing large groups under crisis. They learn to perform
under pressure and scrutiny and have the discipline that is needed to excel in any job or role.
Military leaders are also used to having to make due in less than optimal conditions, negotiate
across cultures, be highly accountable and operate under extreme stress.

 However, they do have to relearn some lessons from the service. Some may be used to leading
someone like an eccentric computer programmer who works strange hours, dresses like a slob,
but brings more to the company’s bottom line than a conventional employee. Indeed, in some
companies like Google, there is nothing like the chain of command military leaders are used to.
Still, most forecasts suggest there will be an ample supply of battle-tested military leaders ready
to report for corporate duty in the near future, and many companies are eager to have them.

 Questions

1. Do you think leaders in military contexts exhibit the same qualities as

organizational leaders?
2. In what ways would military leadership lessons not apply in the corporate sector?
What might military leaders have to relearn to work in business?
3. Are specific types of work or situations more likely to benefit from the presence
of battle-tested leaders? List a few examples?
Summary

As several organizations are hiring retired or short service commission officers from the Indian
defense organizations. Organizations from all domains - specialized research, construction,
financial services, manufacturing, human resources, and consulting organizations - have hired
ex-defense men and women.
This case briefly describes about various strengths possessed by military people and their strong
leadership potentialities in leading various aspects of job role and their responsibilities.
Organizations strongly believe that the Ex- Service persons have the ability to lead the several
job aspects as they are well experienced in managing large groups under crisis as they learned &
trained pragmatically to perform under pressure and scrutiny and have the discipline that is
needed to excel in any job or role.

PROBLEM DEFINITION

The case is discussion about the differentiating qualities of the leaders from Indian defence
organizations and contemporary corporate organizations. Whether, they can compete with the
present organizational leaders or not as they are being hired for several organizations.

CONCEPTS INVOLVED

Leadership Qualities Include:

1. Developing managerial effectiveness 6. Managing internal stakeholders

2. Inspiring others/ Motivation 7. Setting Goals

3. Developing employees 8. Delegating

4. Leading a team 9. Maximizing Your Unique Value

5. Guiding change 10. Gaining Role Clarity

ANSWERS FOR THE CASE LET

1. Do you think leaders in military contexts exhibit the same qualities as organizational
leaders? Why or Why not?

Yes, I believe military leaders are extraordinary leaders and exhibit many of the
same qualities however, the military functions on a much more structured basis. There is
much less room for creativity in management styles in the military. The chain of
command and standing orders dictate much of life in the military so creative
management solutions are few and far between. However, motivation is just as important
and, in that case military and civilian managers are left with the same and different
 struggles on how to motivate employees or subordinates. Motivation is just as important
in both sectors and it falls on the managers, and officers to find solutions to the problem.
Defence intellectuals not only trained enough to tackle the dangerous aspects during war
but, they always learn new outcomes in everyday in their service. Defence means
Discipline, endurance, commitment, confidence level, motivation, self esteem and
actuation too. They are the best example for interpersonal skills which are essential for
leadership.

2. In what ways not mentioned in the case would military leadership lessons not apply in
the private sector? What might military leaders have to relearn to work in business?

Well for starters, there is a vast difference in leadership in the military world
compared to the corporate world. A manager’s day to day solutions very rarely have life
or death consequences but, a military leader can be looking at death for themselves, and
everyone beneath them every time they open their mouths. Along with the stress of
combat decisions and life comes the mental toll that your employees are facing everyday
and as stressful as modern life is a soldiers psyche needs much more care and codling. As
much as you don’t want to hurt the feelings of person sitting behind desk the worry of
what would happen is significantly less than if you have military personnel doubting their
every decision, or worried for their safety.

3. Are specific types of work or situations more likely to benefit from the presence of
“battle-tested” leaders? List a few examples.

I think that high stress jobs would probably benefit from having military
leadership, jobs that require more attention than a normal 8-5 job. Jobs such as:

• Stocks or trades, they are a high stress job that would require attention to detail and
competent employees.

• Corporations, they need someone to lead them to be successful, not only to generate
profits for their company, but to look out for the best interest of their people.

• Hospitals, they would be able to develop a schedule, which is important to run a

smooth operation.

References.

1. https://www.ccl.org/articles/leading-effectively-articles/top-6-leadership-challenges/
 Submitted by.
K. SIVAJI SHARMA,
Roll No: 121923601018,
PGP- MBA, SEC- A.