Elite High-Performing Military Leaders: An Evidence-Based Analysis on the Role of Resilience in Military Careers

Ingrid K. Covington, Wika Malkowska, Vicki Elsey

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

Abstract

Career resilience is a career resource predicting career success. Although research is in its infancy, this chapter addresses gaps in understanding this concept in the modern environment, offering unique insights into the role of career resilience in the successful journeys of elite, high-performing military leaders. Our evidence-based approach draws on different organizational perspectives—practitioner, academic, and other stakeholder views. We present a comprehensive review of career resilience through the lens of the military, concluding that career resilience is a dynamic, useful concept and resource for individuals and organizations, is usefully understood as a spectrum, can be fostered by organizational practices and culture, and underpinned by social support networks that evolve as individuals progress through organizational hierarchies. Ultimately, career resilience can be leveraged by individuals and organizations as a resource to enable them to thrive in the context of modern resilient careers. Providing a deeper understanding of career resilience from an evidence-based practice perspective, leaders, researchers, and practitioners will understand the theoretical context of career resilience relating to successful careers combined with insights into lived experiences of elite high-performing military leaders and those individual, organizational, and social support systems necessary to thrive in a volatile uncertain complex ambiguous (VUCA) environment.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationResilience in Modern Day Organisations
EditorsRitsa S. J. Fotinatos-Ventouratos, Cary L. Cooper, Alexander-Stamatois G. Antoniou
Place of PublicationLondon
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Chapter11
Pages189-212
Number of pages24
Edition1st
ISBN (Electronic)9781003287858
ISBN (Print)9781032263441, 9781032258041
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 8 Sep 2023

Publication series

NameCurrent Issues in Work and Organizational Psychology
PublisherRoutledge

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