Below is the uncorrected machine-read text of this chapter, intended to provide our own search engines and external engines with highly rich, chapter-representative searchable text of each book. Because it is UNCORRECTED material, please consider the following text as a useful but insufficient proxy for the authoritative book pages.
1 This Airport Leadership Development Program research report and curriculum guidebook is the culmination of research performed by the Ohio State University Center for Aviation Studies, with Direct Effect Solutions, Inc., the Columbus (Ohio) Regional Airport Author- ity, and HNTB, Inc. This research was performed in response to a need from the airport management industry for a program curriculum to develop future airport industry leaders. The research project was performed in two phases. Phase I of the research focused on identi- fying currently existing leadership programs, both within and outside of the aviation industry. This phase of research found that while executive leadership programs outside of the avia- tion industry are very common, such programs are not widely available within the aviation industry, particularly for airports, where the focus of professional development programs has generally been more on the technical elements of the industry. Based on this finding, a needs assessment was performed to determine the gap between professional development programs in the airport industry and what the industry desires in further developing executive-level leaders. The needs assessment consisted of a series of focus groups with airport leaders from throughout the industry. Findings from the needs assessment confirmed the gap between existing technical development programs and needed executive leadership programs and furthermore identified specific topic areas of need when developing such programs. These topic areas mirrored that of leadership development curricula found outside of the airport industry, such as understanding personal leadership characteristics, leadership fundamentals such as communication strategies, conflict resolution, decision making, negotiations, and building a business case, as well as strategic execution skills such as strategic planning, change management, and crisis management. Phase II of the research focused on the development of a leadership development program curriculum based on the findings from Phase I. The program, consisting of three primary modules covering topics associated with leadership concepts, leadership fundamentals, and leadership execution, was developed and tested in the format of a 3-day short course, attended by approximately 15 current airport executives and senior managers from around the United States. Feedback from the course participants was then used to refine the cur- riculum and develop this report. The developed curriculum establishes a baseline for leadership development programs that may be adopted in various formats to developing leaders of airports of all sizes and management structures. The materials associated with the curriculum include a program facilitator guide, participant workbook, suggested annotated presentation slides, a bibliog- raphy of supplemental reading and viewing materials, and a 360-degree leadership perfor- mance evaluation tool that may be used by current and emerging leaders to gain a better understanding of their performance and potential when it comes to airport leadership. S u m m a r y
2 airport Leadership Development Program This report concludes with suggestions for further research and development, including an evaluation of this base curriculum when applied to airport organizations, as well as the need to further collect case studies and best practices associated with success and challenges with developing the next generation of airport industry leaders. The team of the Ohio State University Center for Aviation Studies, Direct Effect Solutions, the Columbus Regional Airport Authority, and HNTB would like to thank the many con- tributors to this research, not the least of which were some of the industryâs most widely respected executive leaders. It is hoped that this curriculum may serve as a suitable base for cultivating the future leaders of our industry.
