How the Army Resists Change
Abstract
Many authors in recent years have written about the Army's reaction to change. They have explored the topic from various perspectives; some look at bureaucracy, others at culture, and still others look at the increasing speed with which the Army's strategic environment is evolving. However, few researchers have assessed the concurrent interaction of these factors. Even fewer have identified a common thread that might help to explain the Army's resistance to change beyond the factors themselves. In this monograph, the author attempts to explain the Army's resistance to change from a new perspective, one that identifies "organizational hypocrisy" as an anti-catalyst to change in the Army. The monograph recommends that the Army's strategic leaders adopt a more critical, measured posture on change. This is not necessarily a call for slowing the pace of change. Rather, it requires Army leaders to approach change from a perspective of healthy skepticism. This skepticism begs to question one's efficacy in directing strategic change (transformation), the authenticity in one's change messages, and whether or not practicable changes -- those that strategic leaders can directly affect -- are occurring to facilitate real transformation. It realizes the transactional expense in proposing transformational change and measuring rhetoric as one form of currency, and asks leaders to spend that currency wisely. Most importantly, it recognizes that perceptions of hypocrisy, be it a disconnect between words and actions or a negative assessment of sincerity in change utility or necessity, undermines whatever change is currently associated with it and builds institutional cynicism to further change in the future.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 2009
- Accession Number
- ADA506189
Entities
People
- Jason M. Pape
Organizations
- United States Army Command and General Staff College