Learning Organization: Military Organization

Learning Organization: Military Organization

Introduction

Leading teams and organizations, is the most comprehensive part of the course. Building on what cadets have learned about themselves and others, the instruction dissects teams and organizations so that leaders can better understand their role in leading them. Using the group as an open systems model, cadets begin to understand the factors involved in the input, throughput, and output processes of group development. They see the critical role that a leader plays in the socialization process of a team, establishing goals, and then using transformational processes to meet those goals. After considering the socialization process, cadets assess a group's stage of development and determine the appropriate leader actions required to move the group forward. Finally, group cohesion and conflict are discussed, requiring cadets to understand the determinants or causes of cohesion and conflict, predict the potential consequences of either dimension, and recommend various options available to a leader to increase or decrease both group characteristics. The topics of group-think and leading in times of trauma are also discussed to provide awareness of two common phenomena that occur within groups and the job of a leader when either one arises (Kolenda, 2001).

Military leaders have to be able to give purpose, motivation, and direction to people who are afraid of physical harm and who are living in extreme conditions that include the threat of death. Such threat can have a powerful influence on human behavior and places unique demands on leaders. In psychological terms, an individual's enhanced awareness of death—mortality salience—has been manipulated in experimental studies by asking subjects to imagine, in detail, the circumstances of their physical death (Sweeney, 2009).

In terms of military organizations there is a notion of self-learning and proving to be the ultimate resource at various levels of difficulties.

Discussion

Military leadership, across all services, is developed through systems that blend self-development, some institutional or educational experiences, and a sequential pattern of job experiences to increasingly challenge and develop leaders. All services, for example, have educational sequences for their noncommissioned officers—the sergeants. It is this progressive sequence of experiences and events, integrated by training developers, human resource professionals, and the military member themselves, that produces the net effect—a developing military leader. Dozens of such programs exist in all services, at all levels from private to general. FM 6-22, the Army's manual on leadership (Center for Army Leadership, 2006), explains leader growth with a simple expression: “Be. Know. Do”.

However, the be aspect of development signals a focus on each individual's core character, not only on behavior. It is the internalization of institutional values that is critical in large, constantly moving organizations such as is seen in the military. In the army, these values are loyalty, duty, respect, selfless service, honor, integrity, and personal courage. Adoption of these tenets is a key aspect of the professional development of every soldier regardless of rank. Following be, know emphasizes the various technical, tactical, and procedural skill sets necessary to lead people efficiently, manage resources, and control complex ...