A Guidance-Based Interpersonal Leadership Skills Program for Maritime Cadets

Interpersonal Leadership Skills is crucial in the maritime field but only a few program caters to all students in Maritime Higher Education Institution (MHEI). This study used a mixedmethod research design to investigate the Interpersonal Leadership Skills (ILS) of the first to third year cadets of NYK-TDG Maritime Academy (NTMA). The purpose is to create a GuidanceBased Program to enhance the ILS of the maritime cadets. The Leadership Skills Questionnaire by Peter G. Northouse (2014) and a Focus-Group Discussion were utilized to the 375 respondents. One-Way ANOVA revealed that majority (59.73%) of the total respondents of the three year levels have high ILS, while a significant number (33.87%) got very high range of ILS. The ILS between first year and the two senior year levels were significantly different, but there is no significant difference between second and third year levels. The results support previous findings that there is an upward trend of ILS as the year progresses, however, groups tend to adapt differently to problems. A developmental Guidance-Based Interpersonal Leadership Skills Program was designed with an increasing scope and level of difficulty of the activities covering the three ILS components (Emotional Intelligence, Social Perceptiveness and Conflict Management), to address the needs of all maritime students. All MHEI must consider to implement a Guidance-Based Interpersonal Leadership Program for the benefit of their students.