Developing Junior Noncommissioned Officer Supervisors in the United States Air Force

This thesis examines a possible leadership tool the U.S. Air Force could create to develop junior noncommissioned officers (NCOs) into more effective supervisors. The end-state of this analysis is to identify the reasons there is a demand for this type of product, and the potential components of a tool that shows junior NCOs how to conduct their supervisory roles and responsibilities. In order to assess the requirement for supervisory tool, the researcher sought to analyze the current challenges facing junior NCOs in today's 21st Century Air Force. These challenges divided into two areas for ease of study and examination including, "The Air Force Culture," and "Air Expeditionary Force Spectrum of Operations." To answer the secondary question of what a supervisory tool would look like, this research sought to analyze the gap that exists between the training junior NCOs receive on their supervisory responsibilities and the guidance of how to accomplish those responsibilities. Supervisory responsibilities that would benefit from the development of guidance on how to accomplish them and including this guidance into a comprehensive supervisory tool would answer the question of what it would look like.