Military leadership: A systematic literature review of current research

Abstract

Although leadership is generally a complex concept, its application is crucial, especially for military organisations. Many have believed that leadership theory begins with research on military leaders. However, empirical studies on military leadership in recent years have been scarce. This study set out to analyse the recent extant literature on military leadership by applying a systematic literature review methodology. Guided by the PRISMA technique, two databases, Scopus and Web of Science, were employed, resulting in 16 related empirical studies. Further analysis of the studies revealed four significant themes: (1) leader attributes and traits; (2) leadership development; (3) adverse situations and environments, and (4) policy, guiding principles, and standards. The themes are conceptualised into a proposed military leadership framework, and several recommendations are reconciled based on the proposed framework. Leader traits and attributes remain a potential area for future research on military leadership coherent with other themes. The review also indicates that a number of further research directions should to be considered as the extant military leadership studies were only prevalent within the USA and several European countries as settings, mixed methodology is still an underutilised approach, and high ranking military leaders as well as gender studies were found to be other promising future research directions.