The role of group membership and social identity leadership on the resilience of Royal Air Force personnel

This thesis makes an original and significant contribution to the fields of leadership and resilience by being the first to examine the influence of SIL on resilience, by being the first to use the 5R leadership development programme to enhance resilience, and to test a 5R programme within a military setting. This thesis also further develops the use of social identity mapping and the 5R programme and provides practitioner reflections. The primary purpose of this thesis was to explore the link between the social identity approach to leadership (SIL) and individual resilience within the Royal Air Force (RAF). The secondary aim was to examine the relationship between group memberships (both within and outside of the RAF) and individual resilience within the RAF. The final aim of this programme of research was to test the efficacy of the ‘Leading for Resilience’ programme, which is based on the 5R programme. Three studies are reported in three empirical chapters. The first study investigated the association between group membership and resilience, as well as the relationship between SIL and resilience. As such two hundred and forty-three RAF personnel, from 18 bases, undertook a social identity mapping exercise and completed a questionnaire as part of a cross-sectional design. The results of the first study indicated that the more positive groups that people belong to the higher their resilience, and the greater number of groups people belong to the lower their resilience. In addition, social identification was positively related to resilience. Next, the second study focused on the influence of SIL, social identification, and relational identification on resilience. This study utilised a longitudinal, two-wave, design, with participants undertaking an online questionnaire twice, six-months apart. One thousand and fifty-three RAF personnel undertook a survey at timepoint one, and two hundred and fifty-eight personnel, after exclusions, completed the questionnaire at timepoint two. The cross-sectional path analysis suggested that SIL positively influences both social identification and relational identification, and that in turn social identification positively influences resilience. Moreover, the results of study two indicated an indirect effect of SIL on resilience, over time, when serially mediated by relational identification and then social identification. The final study tested a ‘Leading for Resilience’ programme, based on the social identity-based 5R leadership programme, with formed RAF teams, using a non-active comparison group. The intervention involved the teams taking in part of three workshops spread over an approximately six-month period. The researchers worked with the Senior Leadership Team (SLT) and then the SLT delivered the same session to the whole group. The results of this study indicated that the ‘Leading for Resilience’ programme increased the social identification of the team members, which has been shown to influence resilience in the previous study. These studies highlighted a range of practical implications for practitioners. This thesis adds to the current knowledge by emphasising the role of positive group memberships in strengthening resilience, by highlighting how SIL influences resilience indirectly when serially mediated by relational and social identification, and how the 5R programme enhances social identification.