US Army Cultural Obstacles to Transformational Leadership
Abstract
"The premium on tomorrow's battlefield will be the ability to quickly analyze a situation and come up with innovative solutions. The speed at which events occur and their complexity will require leaders with agile minds who can think through a problem logically, [determine] a viable course of action, and translate that concept into clear, simple language to his subordinates." Although these words sound like a direct lift of the current 2007 Army Posture statement, which discusses the "pentathlete" leader, they were written by the 33rd CSA, General Dennis Reimer, in 1999. Therefore, although these leader attributes have been discussed for over eight years, there appears to be little substantive change to the Army's Leader Development Program. This essay explores how cultural and organizational elements impede the Army's efforts to develop agile, innovative, flexible, imaginative, and creative transformational leaders. The first section of the paper (background) discusses the attributes of the transformational leader, why the Army needs such leaders, and the interdependence of culture and leadership development. The second section examines how four cultural elements hamper the Army's efforts to develop transformational leaders: leadership composition; the "by the book" and "by the numbers" operational culture; the "cookie cutter" linear progression/assignment system; and the short-term, performance-based officer evaluation system. The paper concludes with recommended changes to minimize the impact of these cultural obstacles.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 30, 2007
- Accession Number
- ADA469199
Entities
People
- Peggy C. Combs
Organizations
- United States Army War College