Transforming the Officer Evaluation System: Using a 360-Degree Feedback Model
Abstract
Since 1996 the Army has come to recognize that it has an officer leadership problem, particularly at its field grade and general officer levels. Too many officers run their units, their people (and sometimes themselves) into the ground in the pursuit of short-term mission successes. The Army has an excess of transactional leaders and a deficit of transformational leaders. The effects are many and varied: low morale among the force, rampant cynicism and mistrust, a retention crisis among mid-grade NCOs, captains and lieutenant colonels, officers declining command, and less effective less ready units. This realization has come about at the same time that the Army is attempting to transform not only its equipment and tactical/operational doctrine, but also the way in which units operate and are led in the information age. The Army should take a cue from civilian practice in broadening its understanding of successful leadership from one that currently focuses almost entirely upon mission accomplishment, to one that includes long term organizational health of the unit and its personnel alongside of mission accomplishment. Army leadership doctrine emphasizes transformational leadership and the need to sustain units and individuals over long periods of stress. Army practices, however, ignore this aspect of leadership when it rates officer performance and in how it selects officers for schooling promotion and command. A 360-degree leadership assessment of officer effectiveness, using peer and subordinate input, should be used as a formal part of the officer evaluation system.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 09, 2002
- Accession Number
- ADA401643
Entities
People
- Timothy R. Reese
Organizations
- United States Army War College