The significance of leadership behavior to service satisfaction and organizational commitment of servicemen

The Master’s thesis analyses leadership, service satisfaction and organizational commitment based on Lithuanian and foreign researches. The significance of leadership as a phenomenon in the armed forces is described as well. The leader behaviour description questionnaire established the most valuable traits of a leader (representation, clear structure, conflict resolution, assuming the role of a leader, freedom and tolerance). The thesis revealed that statistically service satisfaction positively correlates with all the traits of a leader behaviour. Five out of twelve behavioural traits enabled forecasts of general service satisfaction (representation, tolerance of surprises and changes, accurate forecasting, cooperation with commanders). Organizational commitment is determined by conflict resolution, tolerance of surprises and changes and assuming the role of a leader. The mentioned traits have a predictive value for servicemen commitment in all three dimensions of organizational commitment. On the basis of the research results, a leader’s significant behavioural traits are recommended for a new leadership competency model at the Military Academy of Lithuania. The findings of the research also lead to conclusions and recommendations for efficient leader training, servicemen service satisfaction and organizational commitment