A Comparative Analysis of Private Sector and Federal Government Leadership Competencies and Organization Performance

Abstract

As the world becomes more complex and evolves at faster rates, it has become imperative that organizations evolve their leadership training to adapt to the ever-changing industrial environment and maintain the organization's competitive advantage. For example, the Department of the Navy has called for cultural changes and programmatic improvements to the way the civilian workforce is prepared for leadership roles and responsibilities. Patricia Ingraham, Heather Getha-Taylor, and the National Academy of Public Administration have conducted studies that identified the current level of training and developing civilian leadership is ineffective within the federal government regarding organizational requirements in an exponentially changing complex environment. If the current approach to leadership development is insufficient, an important question to study is, What leadership capabilities, qualities and competencies contribute to effective leadership and organizational effectiveness in complex environments of defense acquisition? By answering this question, we hope to offer suggestions and recommendations to improve leadership development in the Navy Civilian Acquisition Workforce.