ABSTRACT

      The main objectives of this research were: i) to study the level of ideal leadership in accordance with the four Brahmavihara (four principles virtuous existence) of military officers attached to National Defence Studies Institute, ii) to compare the ideal leadership in accordance with the four Brahmavihara of military officers attached to National Defence Studies Institute, classified by personal factors, and iii) to study ideal leadership development method in accordance with the four Brahmavihara of military officers attached to National Defence Studies Institute. The sample used in this research were 226 military officers attached to National Defence Studies Institute. The tools used for data collection were questionnaires and in-depth interviews. The statistics employed for data analysis were frequency, percentage, the average and standard deviation (S.D.) and statistical hypothesis testing was done by t-test and then the data collected from the interview was conducted by using content analysis technique.

The findings of this study were concluded as follows:-

The overall level of ideal leadership accordance with the four Brahmavihara of military officers attached to National Defence Studies Institute was ranked at the high level in all four aspects. When considering in each aspect, it is found that the military officers attached to National Defence Studies Institute having opinion about the ideal leadership in accordance with the equanimity most, followed by loving-kindness, sympathetic joy, and compassion, respectively.

The comparison of the opinion on ideal leadership accordance with the four Brahmavihara of military officers attached to National Defence Studies Institute classified by personal factors, it is found that the military officers, who had different statuses such as gender, age, and income, thought that the ideal leadership compliance with the four Brahmavihara had no significant difference. While the commissioned officers who had different educational level, thought that ideal leadership compliance with the four Brahmavihara had significant difference.

The result of the in-depth interview, it is found that the advantage of the four Brahmavihara could be applied to leadership of organizations in which the leaders must have personal characteristics and management qualification to cover all aspect such as administrative command, educational and operational aspects which are necessary for the leaders in today’s corporate who need to focus on loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy and equanimity by specially emphasizing on equanimity. This could be deployed in the organization in a matter of building morale to encourage the subordinators, developing knowledge and ability of the subordinators, considering the merit of the subordinators and being a good role model in guiding, teaching, and transferring knowledge and working experiences to the subordinators. Emphasizing that everyone having the spirit of sense of duty, jointly determining the direction of the organization and participating in the work, leading the organization to be effectiveness.