Army Leader Development Model Paper

The United States (U.S.) Army is one of the best leadership institutes in the world. This paper seeks to analyze the effective practices and cornerstone doctrine that allows the Army to produce effective leaders across the entire duration of a soldier’s career. The analysis begins with a review of the Air Force’s traditional, more centralized leadership approach providing contrast with the Army’s decentralized approach called “Mission Command.” An explanation of Mission Command and review of behavioral traits associated with the organizational culture provides insight into why the Army’s approach is superior for its purposes. Finally, the paper reviews the Army Leader Development Model, identifies shortfalls of the model, and makes recommendations
Vertical leadership provides a clear structure that is visible and predictable. Employees and management acknowledge the chain of command; they recognize the hierarchy and reporting relationships within the organization. Vertical operative organizations require considerable effort to maintain power and balance. The more levels in the hierarchy, the more decision-making authority rests at the top of the organization. The flatter an organization, the lower the participation of management in the decision-making process (Morel, 2011).
Supplementary research shows that the utilization of centralized control necessitates the elimination of the intermediate levels of hierarchy to expedite the transfer of messages directly from top managers to nonsupervisory employees. In other words, increasing the vertical division of labor requires centralization of authority and its distribution throughout an organization (Meyer,
One of the most important principles that new personnel learns at their initial entry training is that they must be prepared to take charge and accomplish the mission should the need arise for any number of reasons. In this way, leadership can appear to be naturally occurring, but this behavior is the result of the immediate indoctrination that encourages behaving in this manner. This sets an important foundation for implementing Mission Command.
Beyond initial entry training, the Army published a supporting doctrine that focuses on developing an organizational culture that influences behavior to maximize Mission Command. Specifically, Army Field Manual (FM) 6-22 Army Leadership focuses on what makes the Army a “profession” versus an institution as well as the types of behaviors that the Army expects of leaders, required leader traits and skills, and how to develop Army organizations and others. The pillars of the Army profession are trust, military expertise, honorable service, esprit de corps, and stewardship (The Army Profession,