Leadership Nature of Commanders in Royal Thai Air Force

Abstract

The Royal Thai Airforce is applying leadership theories and principles in modernizing the organization. This paper explores the nature of leadership in The Royal Thai Airforce to gain some fundamental information which may be useful in a long term planning. Relevant theories of leadership are reviewed. Three major types of leadership styles are considered: transformation, transaction, and laissez-faire. 30 commanders with ranks equal or higher than squadron leader with experience in RTAF at least 10 years were selected for a questionnaire survey. The majority leadership characters found is transformation leadership characters (X = 3.99 out of 5) follows by laissez-faire (3.67) and transaction (3.44). All the transformational leadership characters possess high score: Idealized Behavior (3.94), Inspirational Motivation (3.93), Intellectual Stimulation (3.89), and Individual Consideration (4.21) show high scores while active management by exception gains only moderate score (3.35) and so are passive management by exception ( 2.99). Laissez-faire leadership shows also a high score (3.67). At this stage of investigation the reasons for the existing distribution of leadership characters in RTAF and how the planned distribution should be are unknowns and need further investigation.