Social Awareness and Leader Influence: Development of Classroom and Web- Based Learning Interventions

摘要

This research entailed developing and testing a detailed program of instruction to help Army leaders improve their social awareness and influence skills. Based on input from Soldier subject matter experts and the behavioral sciences literature, two training programs were developed: a six-hour classroom course and a parallel web-based course. Additionally, four assessments were created: a Social Awareness and Influence Skills Self-assessment to assess self- perceptions of skills, a knowledge test to assess learning in the course, a situational judgment test (SJT) to assess the students' ability to apply social insight and judgment to interpersonal situations, and a web-based role-play to assess the students' ability to apply influence tactics. These courses and assessments were then subsequently tested in two pilot samples. Results of the participant reactions questionnaire indicated that the training programs in both the classroom and web-based formats were well received by the target audience and that participants gained new knowledge as a result of the course. Results also indicated promise for the measures piloted in this project. The outcomes of this effort include a fully developed classroom-based POI and a companion prototype web-based POI that are suitable for first-line Army leaders (E4 to E6 and O1 to O3).