Category: Leadership

Leadership: Civilian vs Military

Civilian vs. military: Who leads better, By M.Z. Hemingway, Federal Times March 6, 2007

In an OPM study that compared civilian vs. military leadership and management capabilities, the military services rate higher on leadership and defense agencies higher on management.

Researchers studying the management styles of top Defense Department executives discovered a curious thing: The heads of Army, Navy and Air Force agencies run things quite differently than their counterparts at other Defense agencies.

Senior managers in the military services — be they uniformed or civilian — are more respected by their employees and generate higher levels of motivation and commitment than their counterparts at support agencies within the Defense Department.

But top managers of those support agencies do better than their military service counterparts at managing their organizations to meet long-term goals, according to a new study by two Princeton University researchers.

Executives with higher levels of education and private-sector management experience at both military and civilian agencies scored higher on both leadership and management evaluations. Executives with private-sector experience rated five to 10 points higher on all questions.

“Ideally we want great leaders and we want great managers. We need to combine the best practices of both the service and nonservice portions of the Defense Department,” he said.

DoD: Business Transformation

CACI Wins Defense Deal, Washington Post, October 21, 2008, Pg. D4

CACI International, an information technology company in Arlington, said it received a Defense Department contract worth up to $260 million, calling for the company to support the department’s effort to provide “thought leadership and change management.”

The Business Transformation Agency, which CACI will be working with, is charged with guiding the “transformation of business operations throughout the Department of Defense.”

"Whole-of-Government" Approach

Army unveils new Stability Operations manual

“The Army’s new Stability Operations doctrine establishes a common, shared frame of reference to help define and coordinate military engagement activities within a larger paradigm … FM 3-07 talks about common purpose, the use of common language and the importance of unity of effort.”  GEN Wallace

The new doctrine aims to bring the efforts of military forces together with other instruments of national power to form a whole-of-government approach to engagement in an era of persistent conflict.

Quality for Life Initiative

ASQ Announces Quality for Life Initiative.

Members Encouraged to Submit Stories of How Their Quality Skills Impact Lives

Milwaukee, Wis., October 7, 2008 – Quality is more than a profession. For many, quality is a skill that can be used to serve a higher purpose: to improve the lives of others. To recognize these individuals and countless others in the quality community for their contributions, the American Society for Quality (ASQ) has developed a Quality for Life program. As part of the new initiative, ASQ members are encouraged to submit stories detailing their community involvement to qualityforlife@asq.org.

“Quality for Life extends beyond the office, lab or plant floor; it’s encompassed in everyday life,” said Roberto Saco, president of ASQ. “This initiative is designed to share the stories of quality professionals who use the passion, commitment and skills they use in the workplace and apply them to volunteer efforts.”

National Security Strategy Must Combine Diplomacy, Might And Strong Alliances
(Philadelphia Inquirer)…Rudy deLeon and Winny Chen, Sept 28, 2008.

…But our 44th president will have a unique opportunity and a clear duty to steer the United States toward new and progressive national-security priorities. That effort should begin with a new National Security Strategy – one that integrates a strong U.S. military posture with diplomacy, economic assistance, and cooperation with U.S. allies.

Iraq: The Story behind the surge

The War Within. The inside story of how President Bush’s team dealt with its failing Iraq strategy.  About this series ….

This series of articles is drawn from Bob Woodward‘s “The War Within: A Secret White House History, 2006-2008.” Woodward, an associate editor of The Washington Post, interviewed more than 150 people, including the president’s national security team, senior deputies and key players responsible for the intelligence, diplomatic and military operations in the Iraq war. Other officials with firsthand knowledge of meetings, documents and events, employed at various levels of the White House, the departments of Defense and State and the intelligence community, also served as primary sources.

 

Social Sciences In The Military

Social Sciences In The Military, Special Report With Brit Hume (FNC), 6:00 PM,  September 8, 2008

JIM ANGLE: The U.S. is spending billions every year to improve its weapons and medical technology, but defense leaders recognize there is also value in another type of science – social science: understanding cultures, religions and other factors that affect war and national security.

Correspondent Caroline Shively has this story about the military and professors.

CAROLINE SHIVELY: The Pentagon has its share of soldiers and tanks. Now it’s looking for new weapons in the war on terror: eggheads and ideas. And Defense Secretary Bob Gates, a former university dean and president, has $50 million to pay for it.

GEOFF MORRELL [Pentagon Press Secretary]: He is a strong believer in the notion that social scientists can help us in our efforts in Iraq, in Afghanistan, elsewhere – help us gain a better understanding of the culture and make adjustments to how we do things.

SHIVELY: The Pentagon program is called the Minerva Research Initiative, studying war and the conditions that can lead to it. Despite assurances that Gates respects their intellectual independence, some academics are wary of the idea, saying it could set up an old-style Soviet partnership with the Pentagon paying for research to justify military action and pushing academics to skew their results.

Prof. David Vine calls it the creeping militarization of universities.

DAVID VINE [American University]: Pentagon has insisted on funding it. Unfortunately, it’s sort of stacked the deck to – asked to determine what questions will be asked about U.S. national security policy, and then to determine what research will be selected and funded.

SHIVELY: The initiative focuses on four key issues: China’s military and technological advances; terrorist groups that have formed in Iraq; the role of religion and ideology in jihadist extremism; and something called the new discipline’s project – using social sciences to study the threats of war.

STEPHEN FLANAGAN [International Security Expert]: The military cannot win many of these struggles, particularly the struggle against extremist violence, on its own – that it has to be a much more integrated application of many elements of U.S. governmental and un-governmental capabilities.

SHIVELY: The U.S. military already has smaller partnerships with university scholars. The Army’s Human Terrain System embeds social scientists will soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to help the military better understand local customs and how cultural and religious differences can turn into terrorism.

Secretary Gates is using the 1950s model of historian Arthur Schlesinger, who said the U.S. should employ eggheads and ideas to meet the Russian challenge of the Cold War. While some academics say they worry about a repeat of the best and the brightest leading the U.S. into another Vietnam, that hasn’t stopped their colleagues from applying for the grants, the first of which is said to be awarded later this year.

 

Fall-Out: Russia’s conflict with Georgia

 Georgia War Shows ‘Weak’ Russia, U.S. Official Says,(Washington Post)…Glenn Kessler

Russia’s conflict with Georgia is the sign of a “weak” Russian nation, not a newly assertive one, and Moscow now has put its place in the world order at risk, the top U.S. diplomat for relations with the country said in an interview yesterday.

 

    China’s Unease With Russian Actions Strains Ties
    (Wall Street Journal)…Gregory L. White, Andrew Higgins and Andrew Osborn
    Russia’s efforts to redraw the map of the Caucasus received a frosty reception from China, a further sign of how Moscow’s conflict with Georgia is scrambling diplomatic alignments in place since the end of the Cold War.

Getting it right

Charlie Wilson’s Peace, (Washington Post), Aug 28, 2008, pg.19…by Charles Wilson

…Defense Secretary Robert Gates was spot-on when he said last month, “The Foreign Service is not the Foreign Legion, and the U.S. military should never be mistaken for a Peace Corps with guns.” We’ve got to get this right.

The writer, a Democrat, represented Texas’s 2nd District in the U.S. House from 1973 to 1997. He is an adviser to the Center for U.S. Global Engagement.