Leadership in the Profession of Arms 1 Leadership in the Profession of Arms

We outline the unique causations and contingencies influencing leadership in military contexts. After defining what constitutes a Profession of Arms (internal context) and the combat operating environment (external context), we offer a working definition of leadership in military professions as well as define a professional military leader. Based on these definitions and facets of the internal and external contexts, we discuss unique phenomenon influencing leadership at the individual level of analysis, such as ethos, emotions, sensemaking, cognition and judgment, identity and self-complexity, individual differences, and motivation. Next, we apply the military context to the dyad and collective levels, and discuss effects on leader-follower relationships, leader prototypes, unit composition types, group processes and goals, shared leadership, and collective influences on ethical behavior. We close with future directions to extend this work by studying more macro organizational effects of the military context as well as the routinization of extreme contexts.