Is Online Leadership Training Effective?

A study for the Navy Personnel Development Command

Overview

As part of its ongoing "Revolution in Training" the Navy is using online initiatives to standardize training efforts and make them more efficient and performance focused.

To supplement training during the Chief Petty Officer (CPO) accession process the Navy is currently using the online Situational Leadership II (SLII) course developed by the Ninth House Network. Designed to prepare Sailors to make better choices in the workplace and effectively lead their subordinates, the course is delivered online in order to train Sailors more efficiently by allowing them to take the course at their own pace, on their own time, and while they are deployed.

The Center for Naval Analyses, a Division of CNA, conducted a study to evaluate the online SLII course in the areas of:

• Sailor satisfaction
• Learning
• Behavior Change
• Leading indicators of performance improvement

The study also identified which Sailors perform better in this course, offered recommendations for future uses of the course, and recommended ways to improve the feedback and course evaluation parts of the training.

The research in this area is the first of its kind for the Navy of which we are aware, and served to identify and assess leadership-training metrics that can be evaluated through an online training program. This study measured the "behavioral impact" of an online leadership-training program delivered to Sailors while at their duty stations.

Findings

The study showed that the Navy can effectively deliver training and assessment programs to a diverse workforce across the world and can monitor and assess trainee progress outside the classroom through the web. Additionally, by using rigorous techniques for data collection and analysis, the Navy also has the ability to capture feedback from the workforce in a compressed time period.This is important so that they can identify the impact of the training programs and quickly make adjustments to workforce development programs. Most important for the Navy, this study found a small — but significant — improvement in leadership behaviors that were taught through the online SLII course. Furthermore, the study identified indicators of performance improvement in critical aspects of the aviation and information technology jobs. The analysis also showed that, dollar-for-dollar, the online SLII course cost the same or less than traditional brick-and-mortar courses. Other key findings:

• CPOs generally liked the course, learned the material, and found it useful in their work.
• CPOs applied the acquired leadership skills to their jobs.
• Groups benefited equally across gender, race, years of education, rate of promotion, Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) verbal score, and rating.
• CPOs surveyed after taking the course reported that they had improved in eight leadership areas important to the Navy:

1. Communicating with Supervisors, Peers, or Subordinates
2. Coordinating the Work and Activities of Others
3. Developing Objectives and Strategies
4. Judging the Quality of Objects, Services, or Persons
5. Organizing, Planning, and Prioritizing Work
6. Scheduling Work and Activities
7. Training and Teaching Others
8. Guiding, Directing, and Motivating Subordinates

Recommendations to the Navy

1. Given the findings listed above, continue to use SLII for leadership training.
2. Promote full participation in the training program early in a Sailor’s career. Sailors at the Private First Class rank and above demonstrated the greatest learning improvements from the course and learned the material as well as, or better than, those at senior pay grades. This suggests that the training course would be useful to Sailors earlier in their career.
3. Supplement existing Navy leadership training offered to Sailors early in their career. The SLII course cost the same or less in a dollar-for-dollar comparison with traditional brick and mortar courses. The course costs will be lower than those at the CPO level because of the cost of the Sailor’s time.
4. Improve the course assessment to better measure leadership behavior and to improve feedback to Sailors. The SLII behavioral assessment did not always effectively measure intended leadership style. CNA’s recommendations include suggestions for improving measures of behavior-change and for improving the amount of feedback Sailors receive from their supervisors, peers, and subordinates.