Training and development of leaders

– an example from the Norwegian aviation industry

Abstract

Pilots in the aviation industry are professionals with strong requirements for formal technical competence. In this article, we address possible shortcomings in the training of leadership skills for pilots in the Norwegian commercial aviation industry. First officers are formally assigned leadership responsibilities when they are promoted to captains, but they are only to a limited extent prepared to undertake such tasks through the formal training at flight academies or airline companies. We have conducted a survey receiving 162 responses (both captains and first officers) and the data has been analyzed by the Importance Performance Analysis (IPA) framework. One out of five captains reports having received sufficient training in leadership prior to being assigned such tasks. We observe that first officers rate the leadership performance of captains lower than the rating of their own performance by the captains. There is generally a broad underperformance for all indicators on aspects of leadership. This could indicate that the focus on training of leadership skills is inadequate in the Norwegian aviation industry. Increased attention to leadership skills might give a competitive advantage in this increasingly globalized and fiercely competitive industry. Furthermore, we raise the question of whether inadequate leadership training is a phenomenon unique for the aviation industry or whether this also is valid for other industries particularly where safety and technical skills are given high priority. We demonstrate that the IPA framework is well suited to assess leadership performance and discuss possible implications for training with respect to both authorities and companies.