Of all areas where leadership could be seen as an inalienable part of the core environment and one of the essential attributes thereof, the army should be mentioned first. Typically seen as a highly orderly and rigid setting where compliance with set standards is prioritized, army represents a unique context where participants serve to meet the needs of civilians (Bell, 2022). Since the promotion of public safety and prevention of a nationwide threat to peace and citizens’ well-being represent the essential goals of army members, the army leadership foundation should be seen as a combination of values associated with trust, ethics, and agility.
Purpose Statement
By scrutinizing the nature and foundation of the army leadership, one will locate the means of improving the current approach to managing the army and inspiring the troops. Furthermore, the assessment of the components that constitute the essence of army leadership will guide one in developing the strategy that will ultimately encourage team members to develop the necessary qualities and, therefore, contribute to enhanced safety of civilians and efficacy of the military performance. Thus, dissecting the core principles on which the army is founded is vital for the safety of the state and the well-being of its citizens.
Army Leadership: Foundational Concepts
In the military environment, trust is an essential construct that needs to be deeply entrenched into the army setting so that it can influence the relationships among the troops, as well as between the soldiers and the leaders. The absolute necessity of trust as the foundational principle of leadership in the army can be explained by the extraordinarily high stakes that are present in the specified context and the resulting need to comply with orders without questioning them (Bell, 2022). Indeed, studies indicate that the culture of trust constitutes the bedrock of the army environment and the relationships within it (Bell, 2022). Allowing the leader to control and coordinate the actions of the troops and ensure that the transition from one process to another occurs seamlessly, the presence of trust also helps reduce the amount of time taken to implement orders and perform a specific operation (Bell, 2022). Finally and most importantly, trust is a central notion on the battlefield, where people’s livelihood depends on whether army members can comply with provided orders and implement them accordingly without questioning them.
Ethics is another inalienable and indispensable component of army leadership that must be integrated into the target setting to make the relationships within the military context healthy and effective. Specifically, crucial ethical principles of character, competence, compliance and commitment must be seen as central to the decision-making process and relationships within the army setting. Specifically, commitment represents the willingness to follow the orders issued by the leader unwaveringly, which stems from the concept of trust yet expands to encompass the notion of readiness to act. Therefore, commitment to the core principles of the army and the people that represent it must be regarded as the foundational concepts that constitute the bulk of the army value system. Affecting the troops’ ability to meet the set objective and follow orders, commitment predetermines the extent of safety that the army provides. Similarly, compliance represents the ability to align with the set orders. In turn, character and competence represent the requirements for the troops’ readiness to meet the ethical principles and take the demanded action.
Finally, the role of agility as the third foundational concept constituting the basis of army leadership must be recognized. Implying the leader’s ability to respond to the rapidly changing environment of the military context quickly and introduce the necessary interventions, agility should be seen as the foundational concept of leadership in the military. Specifically, the specified concept informs the strategic and tactical decisions made in the army setting (Murray et al., 2019). Since the specified environment is highly prone to change due to the impact of multiple extraneous factors, including political, sociocultural, economic, and technological ones, being able to introduce rapid and reasonable changes to the set plan and objectives is critical for an army leader (Miruts & Daba, 2022). Therefore, agility as the skill of responding to changes promptly, ought to be deemed as the foundational component of army leadership.
Conclusion
Since ensuring civilians’ safety and preventing the associated threats can be interpreted as the principal objectives of army members and leaders, the foundation of its leadership should be seen as an amalgamation of trust, ethics, and agility. The specified components represent the core values allowing army leaders and members to make decisions that prioritize the safety of others and lead to their benefit, as well as ensure nationwide security. The described characteristics of leadership in the military also suggest that an army leader should possess a range of relevant traits and characteristics that allow implementing the specified values and principles in the target setting. Therefore, leadership in the army should be described as the process represented by unique characteristics emblematic of the environment in which the army is expected to operate and the needs that it seeks to meet. However, the three values outlined above incorporate the generalized principles that any army should strive to engage with and pursue, therefore, providing a rather accurate portrayal of what constitutes the bulk of leadership in the military.
References
Bell, A. (2022). Combatant socialization and norms of restraint: Examining officer training at the US Military Academy and Army ROTC. Journal of Peace Research, 59(2), 180-196.
Miruts, G., & Daba, N. (2022). Change army: the new face of modernizing civil service in Ethiopia. Global Journal of Political Science and Administration, 10(2), 44-62.
Murray, E., Berkowitz, M., & Lerner, R. (2019). Leading with and for character: The implications of character education practices for military leadership. Journal of Character and Leadership Development, 6(1), 1-10.