Promotion Criteria
The military is a secret organization that does not disclose its activities to the public, mainly because of the strict rules and regulations. However, some of how things are conducted ought to be changed because they are unfair to the officers and the country’s development. One of the things that should be changed or adjusted is the promotion criteria since the current system is unsupportive of the hard-working officers, which ends up benefiting those who are not devoted to the service. Currently, the military employs three major systems in deciding who among the enlisted officers ought to be promoted. The main system is the decentralized promotion system where the commander has the power to decide who should be moved to a higher rank.
There is no quota for promotion, meaning that the commander should simply grant promotion to any officer that meets the promotion criteria. The service has a clear decisive factor as far as promotion is concerned to ensure that a steady flow is maintained. The scenario is different in case an individual joins the service at an advanced stage or if a person serves in the Special Forces. Semi centralized promotion is an additional system where the unit in which an officer belongs plays an important role in the promotion selection process, even though the military rules are applied in deciding who should be promoted in the long-run. Under the primary zone, all officers are expected to be considered for promotion while the secondary zone gives exceptional performers an opportunity to be promoted before their time comes.
What is wrong?
Instead of following the established rules and regulations governing the promotion exercise, members of the panel vetting the officers usually employ other tactics that aim at advantaging their friends and cronies and kicking out the best-qualified officers. Upon the determination of various points stipulated in the military manual on promotion, each officer must face the promotion board, and each member is allowed to ask questions. Personal appearance is one of the aspects that the panels look at when deciding on whether the officer will be promoted. It should be understood that an individual might be pleasing to one person, but he or she might be unattractive in the eyes of the other person. Measuring attractiveness is an elusive issue that brings about biases, and this serves to block the best soldiers from being given a chance to serve their country at an advanced level. The military is an organization that focuses more on actions, and the idea of measuring the suitability of officers based on their oral expressions and conversational skills is misplaced because actions speak louder than words.
Many great soldiers were known to be reserved, and their reasoning was never understood easily. The panelists are allowed to ask soldiers many questions that test their understanding of the world affairs, something that challenges many soldiers given the fact that most of them are usually concerned with guarding the interests of their country and they might not have ventured much on understanding what takes place in other states globally. For an individual to be acquainted with the world affairs, he or she has to be taken through various courses on global studies and the service has never provided this form of training. Somebody wonders why officers would be tested on issues that they have never come across in their lifetime. Finally, those seeking promotions are assessed based on their attitude. Again, the panelists are likely to be biased since human values, aspirations, wishes, and culture is not understood in one day meaning that extensive research that employs qualitative methods has to be commissioned to understand the attitudes of an individual and this cannot be achieved in a single day.
Solution
Creation of promotion zones where the administrative points are applied in establishing the performance of a soldier is the main issue of contention that has forced many officers to quit the service. Through this system, an officer will only receive promotion through an assessment of the administrative points for a variety of events, including military adornments and physical fitness test achievements. The military rules suggest that promotions have to be based on the duty performance of the officer, meaning that his or her hard work is factored in when making decisions. Moreover, the competence of the soldier is assessed to ensure that he or she will deliver the best results since some might have been recruited at the time of crisis where knowledge of the job was not considered.
The service underscores the fact that leadership is an important aspect, and officers should posses skills related to it for them to be promoted. If an officer proves that he or she has gone through various training programs, the chances are high that he or she might be considered for promotions. Accountability or responsibility is another aspect that military rules and regulations deem necessary, and officers seeking to be promoted should have observed it. This entails taking care of military facilities and using resources in the right manner. In terms of education, an individual has to possess sufficient civilian education, as well as military education because such officer would have the ability to make sound decisions when promoted to positions of influence.