The effect of sleep deprivation on leadership behaviour in military officers: an experimental study

Abstract

While several studies show that leaders frequently lack sleep, little is known about how this influences leadership behaviour. The present study encompasses an experiment that investigated how three main types of leadership behaviour: transformational (four sub-facets); transactional (two sub-facets); and passive-avoidant (two sub-facets) leadership differed across a rested and a long-term, partially sleep-deprived condition. A total of 16 military naval officers participated. In both conditions, the leaders managed a team of three subordinates in a navy navigation simulator, instructed to complete a specific mission (A or B). Both sleep state (rested or sleep deprived) and mission were counterbalanced. Leadership behaviour was video recorded and subsequently rated on the three leadership behaviours. Overall, the scores on transformational leadership (and on two of four sub-facets) and transactional leadership (on both sub-facets) decreased from the rested to sleep-deprived condition, whereas scores on passive-avoidant leadership overall (and on both sub-facets) increased from the rested to sleep-deprived condition. This study underscores the importance of including sleep as a potentially important determinant when assessing leadership effectiveness.

Active and passive forms of destructive leadership in a military context: a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Antecedents of destructive leadership initially received less attention than the potential outcomes, but this has changed dramatically over the past five years (Tepper et al, 2017;Zhang & Bednall, 2015). Possible antecedents range from micro-level to macro-level factors, such as supervisor personality traits (Eissa & Lester, 2017) and stress caused by climate conditions (Van de Vliert, Matthiesen, Gangsøy, Landro, & Einarsen, 2010) to antecedents in the military context like lack of sleep (Olsen, Pallesen, Torsheim, & Espevik, 2016). In a recent meta-analysis, Zhang and Bednall (2015) categorised antecedents into four main groups: supervisor-related, organization-related and subordinate-related antecedents, in addition to, demographic characteristics of supervisors and subordinates.…”

“…A study of naval officers showed that ratings of military performance as a naval academy midshipman were predictive of laissez-faire leadership as an officer four to ten years after graduation (Yammarino, Spangler, & Bass, 1993). Olsen et al (2016) examined the influence of sleep on leadership behaviour and found that scores on laissez-faire behaviour increased from a rested to a sleep-deprived state, while Johnsen, Eid, Pallesen, Bartone, and Nissestad (2009) found that laissez-faire was associated with poorer military development grades and leadership effectiveness. Hence, destructive leadership appears to be associated with lack of sleep, lack of moral competency, low military competence and leadership effectiveness, in addition to low personality trait scores for hardiness.…”

“…5 of the studies were only included in the review. Briefly, these studies showed that sleep, hardiness trait and military performance may be antecedents to laissez faire leadership Olsen et al, 2016;Yammarino et al, 1993) and that active forms of destructive leadership were associated with risk for sexual assault, stigma and barriers to seek mental health care (Britt et al, 2012;Sadler et al, 2017). All the studies included measurement of constructive forms of leadership, and the result showed an inverse effect to active and passive forms of destructive forms of leadership.…”

Human factors awareness and recognition during multidisciplinary team meetings

“…A short break of just a few minutes every 60‐90 minutes—perhaps coinciding with a new section of the MDT discussions—not only refreshes team members but makes them more alert and able to continue and has been shown to be effective in many other working environments …”

Adult attention deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms and passive leadership: The mediating role of daytime sleepiness

“…More specific to a focus on passive leadership, Barling & Dionisi () showed that cognitive distraction predicted passive leadership (but not abusive supervision). More recently, a study of 16 military naval officers who were randomly assigned in counterbalanced order to a rested or partially sleep‐deprived condition showed higher levels of passive‐avoidant and laissez‐faire leadership (and lower levels of transformational leadership) in the partially sleep‐deprived condition (Olsen, Pallesen, Torsheim, & Espevik, ). Thus, we predict thatHypothesis Daytime sleepiness predicts passive leadership.…”