The system information

The basis of the system information of the leadership training program is the organization of the training of the Finnish Defence Forces, the objectives of leadership training and the conception of the effectiveness of leadership training in a military organization.

ln the FDF leadership training is built within all training systems. By developing their training systems, military organizations attempt to respond to the change in the internal and external area of operations. Today and in the future military organizations face change that is both extensive and multidimensional. Pressure for change extends from the level of the area of operations and the meaning of the existence of military organizations to the perspectives of meaning of individual people.

The conceptual and practical control of change is also the greatest challenge of military leadership in peace time Defence Forces. The control of change always requires flexibility and continuous learning, as well. Learning related to military leadership can not in the future rest only on the formal training system or be left to it. Every military leader should internalize the principle of continuous self-development or life-long learning as a part of his professional personality.

ln this research I do not analyze the changing organization and structures of military training systems. lnstead, my objective is to present the principles and practical applications on which leadership training is appropriate to construct in any training system, military or civilian. The setting of educational goals for leadership training starts from a basic arrangement, shown in Figure 16, which is a part of the conception of learning in the new paradigm of leadership. Development as a leader is a life-long process that is tied to the whole personality of an individual.

Formal training is only a part of this long process that, from the viewpoint of leadership behavior, is related to the comprehensive growth as a human being. ln the end, the comprehensive development as a leader is in fact the development of the capability that acts on the background of all skills. This process is based on the self-directedness of a leader. The basic idea and the change of emphasis in the career-long perspective in the military leadership training is shown in Figure 16. The new paradigm of leadership has had an effect on the thinking about leadership training in the armed forces of other countries, as well. For example, Army Leadership (1999), starts off from a quite similar framework.

Further on, Hersey et al (1996) base their ideas on this kind of conceptual approach to

Figure 16. Development as a leader in the training of military leaders.

Rauste-von Wright and von Wright (1994) analyze the concepts of reflection and self-reflection from the viewpoint of the development history of an individual. They think that self-reflection requires being aware of and interpreting one's internal activities, i.e.

examining one's own intentions and motives. lt is obvious that with self-reflection, we can obtain new information about our self.

From the viewpoint of the skill metaphor, we are dealing with a skill that requires both learning even as such and learning-related motivation to exploit meta-cognitive information. Scientists emphasize the role of cognitive conflicts in the development of self-reflective thinking and their interpretation is that in adult teaching the concept of self-directedness is an interpretation of self-reflection and is based on the skill metaphor.

Emphasizing the significance of cognitive conflicts builds a direct connection to the thoughts of Burns (1978). Seeing leadership from the point of view of developing the capabilities of subordinates requires that a leader is even capable of inspiring cognitive conflicts in his subordinates and facing the situations that follow.

Mezirow (1991) describes the self-directedness (comparable to the concept of self-system processes, see Malmivuori 2001, 298 - 299) learning and thinking of adults. A communal view is brought to the side of the individual-centricity of self-directedness. Mezirow writes:

"The essence of adult education is to help learners construe experience in a way that allows them to understand more clearly the reasons for the problems and the action options open to them so that they can improve the quality of their decision-making." (Mezirow 1991, 203.)

Ruohotie (1995) emphasizes the concept of self-directedness in relation to learning and he defines, quoting Varila (1990), that self-directedness usually means a learner's state of awareness, or the capability for self-directive learning. Self-directedness can therefore be examined as a process and as a state of awareness. The latter can be regarded as a fairly permanent characteristic of an individual.

What is the relationship between the concept of self-directedness and leadership training?

Development as a leader requires an individual to have very persona! and deep-reaching processes, as a result of which the individual can change both his externally visible leadership behavior and his persona! capabilities that give a foundation to it. From these viewpoints, self-directedness is not only desirable or worth pursuing; it is the basic requirement for development as a leader. From the process view of self-directedness, the question has to do with the cycle of anticipation, activity itself and the logical analysis of activity-related feedback. The entire cycle is related to an individual's own leadership behavior. Seeing self-directedness as a state of awareness means that a general objective of leadership training at ali stages must be the development of capabilities that have to do with an individual's self-awareness and self-reflection.

From the viewpoint of the objectives of leadership training, self-directedness is a conceptual abstraction, an entity that remains behind the specific objectives that can be shaped more clearly. Self-reflection has to do with an individual's ideal of becoming perfect, as well as the dimensions of functionality and maturity (Heikkurinen 1994, 84 -87). When leadership training is being planned, the development of self-directedness should be a central educational premise for training methods as well as for the professional qualifications of instructors. From the viewpoint of evaluation, the question is about an individual's commitment to self-directedness's key value, continuous self-development (Yukl 1998, 490).