Military Management and the Civilian Sector
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Military Management and the Civilian Sector
The Military Prepares its Managers for the Front Lines
But does it Prepare them for the War of Big Business?
Prepared by: Joseph Foster
Strayer University
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
Context of the Problem
The military recruits thousands of men and women a year and at the same time thousands separate and enter the civilian sector. Some of these former service members have been volunteers for only 2 years while others are retiring with 20 years of service. As these people enter the civilian sector they are becoming managers and leading many companies from small to large. They are managing and leading multi-million dollar firms the same way most of us would. They are drawing solutions to problems from previous life experiences.
For the majority of active service members, their life experience has most recently come from the “War on Terror.” They have spent months deployed to the front lines managing subordinates through what can sometimes life or death situations. They are drawing from experience and training that was given to them through military leadership courses, college degrees, and previous supervisors.
For the purpose of this study military mangers will be defined as commissioned officers. There are a number of levels of management in the military which begin in the middle enlisted ranks and extend upward to the highest commissioned officers. Since the officer holds the majority of the accountability in the military it makes them a more likely comparison to management in the civilian sector.
A service member becomes an officer through a few, sometimes very different avenues. According to www.navy.com/officer, men and women can be commissioned through graduation from the Naval Academy, or equivalent military institution depending on the branch, Officer Candidate School (OCS), the Limited Duty Officer Program (LDO), the Seaman to Admiral Program, and the Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC). For each of the above programs managerial training shows many constants while at the same time exploiting many differences.
Statement of the Problem
Military goals are very different from organizational goals found in the civilian sector. The military operates with entirely different set of rules and diplomatic constraints. The daily missions and strategies of the military usually cant be compared to any in the civilian sector. It is because of these problems that management in the military will never be the same as any civilian organization. It is because of these problems that the question of whether or not a military manager can be easily converted to civilian management arises.
Officers are responsible for the leadership of subordinates that are contracted by the government and fall under the laws of the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ). This creates a considerably different type of subordinate than those that are found in the civilian sector. The militarys goal is to keep the peace, police the world, preserve freedom and democracy, ensure global human equality, and follow the orders of the most senior personnel which extend as high as the President of the United States. More recently the US militarys goal has been described as a mission to provide national security. (Bush, 2006)
The majority of mission statements in the civilian sectors include some type of goal that involves “maximizing shareholder wealth.” They provide a service in order to increase revenue and operate with hopefully a growing net income. The military provides a service that is far different. There is no revenue and the shareholders are the American people. With differences like those listed above, are military managers ready and able to be converted from military to civilian leader?
Significance of the Study
It is very common to see professional complacency in the military today. Service members become comfortable with accountability and responsibility they have and make no further efforts to continue training or education. This problem not only occurs when comfort sets in but also when the decision to separate from the military is made. This study will shed light on the fact that further education and preparation is needed in order for the military manager to convert to an equivalent position in the civilian sector.
The significance of this study extends well beyond the single