Anders Klitmøller

ROUNDTABLE: LEADERSHIP IN A MILITARY CONTEXT.

In light of the current geopolitical changes and global security situation the role of the military has been called to the fore – and with it discussions over leadership in a military context. Indeed, some argue that future leadership capabilities need to be different from the present, as anticipated already by Loughlin and Arnold (2007): “…soldiers rising to positions of leadership in the military of the future will require a distinctly different skill set than those of the past.” Yet despite leadership in the military being central to the military profession, the academic field studying leadership in the military context is both small and fragmented. Indeed, there has been a scarcity of research on leadership in the military (Nazri & Rudi, 2019). In their seminal review article Wong et al. (2003), draws on Hunt to provide a useful distinction between two types of studies in military leadership; studies being based on either a ‘context-free’ or ‘context-specific’ orientation. While the former relies on military samples to make more general claims about leadership, the latter approach is occupied with the distinctiveness of the military context and how this informs leadership.