Leadership in the Army is faced by different challenges some of which are relevant while others require special attention. Some of the fundamental issues that currently affect leadership in the Army are; the policy issues, development issues on army leadership, the future of the operating environment, decision making of leaders within a constrained environment, leader’s roles and responsibilities in creating and maintaining a High Performance System within the army. Other contemporary issues include development strategies, both short-term and long-term, essential in keeping the army ahead in terms of Military strategies, technology, equipment and social changes. Each of these issues has significant implications in the army as well as possible recommendations to resolve and handle the challenges in the most professional way. The paper discusses these contemporary issues that affect leadership in the army, their implication as well as recommendations.
The future of operating environment as one of the contemporary issue affecting leadership in the army is unpredictable and diverse both inside and outside the military. Therefore, very flexible and versatile army leaders are required to deal with this contemporary issue which is uncertain and diverse (Danikowski, 2010). Another issue related to this contemporary issue of future operating environment is high political and public visibility as a result of the media communications among other unofficial means of sharing information present within the military area of operation. The unofficial sources of information within the military areas acts as immediate obstacles for the leaders’ decision making process and military actions (Danikowski, 2010). Other primary issue linked to this contemporary issue of future operating environment are; the complex chain of command within the army, confined urban areas that renders some weapons inapplicable within these areas and the high levels of uncertainty that the army operates under.
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Another contemporary issue facing the army is on leadership policies. Under policy issue, congruent skill development as well as leadership development efforts are needed to realize the digital efforts of the Army (Hunt, Phillips & Steinberg, 2008). Also, the policy issue of combat training is required to ensure that there is maximum training and feedback within the set time frame under a risk-free environment. Another issue under leadership policy is decision-making whereby leaders makes decisions and a computer does information processing to analyze the idea and the essential actions to be taken based on the potential risk factors and success. Also, investment of resources as a measure to increase the cognitive capacity of the leaders is another contemporary issue under leadership policy (Hunt, Phillips & Steinberg, 2008). Leadership policies can create a great gap between the senior army soldiers, ordinary soldiers and the core values on the army.
Also, leadership development issues form another contemporary issue in Army leadership through various ways. For instance, the fundamental skills as well as tactical proficiency required by army leaders across all ranks should be maintained to ensure that the issue of leadership development is solved professionally (Hunt, Phillips & Steinberg, 2008). Another contemporary leadership development issue is the need to raise the Human Judgement in leaders so as to increase the work tempo and reduce the cycle time especially during decision-making. Furthermore, in leadership development, a balance is required between the leader’s social, cognitive and behavioral skills. In most cases, an emphasis is placed on the cognitive skills of leaders but very little on the behavioral as well as the social behaviors. Other contemporary leadership development issues include language skills and also cultural diversity instead of skill specialty as one specific area of study.
Some of the implications associated with Leadership Policies as one of the contemporary issues facing army leadership is modeling of army culture and also management of leadership development (Noble & Fallesen, 2011). Some of the possible recommendations for modeling culture is re-examination of military success, implementation of career paths for the Army leaders and rewarding the best leaders among other recommendations. In leadership management, the possible recommendations are emphasizing on teaching of leadership organization skills, trying modern approaches in solving problems and tracking all leaders at the micro-level not as it is done currently at macro-level.
The possible recommendations on Army Leadership Development are grouped as overall, institutional, operational and self-development. The overall recommendations focus on the development of strategic competences that incorporates cognitive, social as well as behavioral learning for the soldiers. In the institutional development, some of the recommendations includes educating leaders on the ethical and also moral consequences of poor decision making, educating army leaders on the consequences of the technology and formulating curricula that favors the best and rewards them accordingly (Noble & Fallesen, 2011).
In conclusion, the fundamental issues that currently affects leadership in the Army are; the policy issues, development issues on army leadership, the future of the operating environment, decision-making of leaders within a constrained environment, leadership’s roles and responsibilities in creating and maintaining a High Performance System within the army. Other contemporary issues include development strategies, both short-term and long-term, essential in keeping the army ahead in terms of Military strategies, technology, equipment and social changes. The future of the operating environment as one of the contemporary issue affecting leadership in the army is unpredictable and diverse both inside and outside the military. Another contemporary issue facing the army is on leadership policy issues. Also, leadership development issues form another contemporary issue in Army leadership through different ways. Some of the implications associated with Leadership Policies as one of the contemporary issues facing army leadership is modeling of the army culture and also management of leadership development. The possible recommendations on Army Leadership Development are grouped as overall, institutional, operational and self-development.
References
Danikowski, D. A. (2010). The challenges of organizational leader development for the army after next. ARMY COMMAND AND GENERAL STAFF COLL FORT LEAVENWORTH KS.
Hunt, J. G., Phillips, R. L., & Steinberg, A. G. (2008). Army Symposium:'Leadership Challenges of the 21st Century Army'Executive Summary. TEXAS TECH UNIV LUBBOCK.
Noble, S. A., & Fallesen, J. J. (2011). Identifying conceptual skills of future battle commanders (No. ARI-TR-1099). ARMY RESEARCH INST FOR THE BEHAVIORAL AND SOCIAL SCIENCES ALEXANDRIA VA.
