Developing Trust Between U.S. Army Military and Civilian Subgroups
Open Access Depositedthrough one-on-one interactions with individuals
through inclusive and transparent handling of negative events
it shows what the subgroups’ reactions were, thereby providing lessons learned to draw upon. The findings can ultimately contribute to the U.S. Army’s development of leadership training in trust-building between subgroups.
Abstract of the Dissertation Developing Trust Between U.S. Army Military and Civilian Subgroups In organizations such as the U.S. Army, where lives are at stake and national security is affected, trust is extremely critical for the success of the organization—not just linear vertical trust between leaders and followers, but also the horizontal trust that is shared between peers (Ostlund, 2018). However, a significant lack of trust between Army military and civilian personnel has been reported (Brockerhoff et al., 2015
and by implementing clear work processes and practices that create positive work environments. The study has benefits for both research and practice. The findings supplement the current body of knowledge about trust between the subgroups of the U.S. Army military and U.S. Army civilians. Leaders can use the study findings to address these persistent low levels of trust. This study provides examples of how leaders can influence intergroup relational identity and foster intergroup trust between subgroups
How do U.S. Army leaders foster trust between U.S. Army military and civilian subgroups in a U.S. Department of Defense organization? There were three subquestions
by modeling how to interact through their behaviors and actions
through consistent participative decision-making behaviors
What did the leaders do to foster trust? How did the leaders accomplish what they did? How was this received by the subgroups? Through snowball sampling, 14 participants were recruited who were senior U.S. Army military leaders with a rank of lieutenant colonel or above and who made intentional efforts to foster trust between the U.S. Army military and civilian subgroups. Two semi-structured interviews were conducted using an interview guide. Data were coded and the codes were clustered to identify patterns and themes (Merriam & Tisdell, 2016). Both inductive and deductive coding approaches (Glaser & Strauss, 2017) were employed. Through in-depth interviews, key themes emerged on how participants fostered trust between the U.S. Army military and civilian subgroups. First, leaders’ understanding of trust was based on dyadic relationships, not on relationships with or between subgroups. Second, leaders attempted to foster subgroup trust in a variety of ways
Riley et al., 2017a, 2017b). Army Doctrine acknowledges the importance of such trust between military and civilian personnel but offers no associated direction or training (Department of the Army, 2019b
through frequent and open communication
Holmberg et al., 2019). This basic qualitative study addressed the following research question
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