Leader Development: TTPs for Working with Union Employees
2002; The MIT Press; Volume: 82; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0026-4148
Autores Tópico(s)Education and Military Integration
ResumoWriters of military leadership usually couch their discussions in abstractions: honor, duty, courage, sacrifice. However, this collection of leadership articles differs a bit from that norm. Holly O'Grady Cook, first-- place winner of the 2002 MacArthur Leadership Award, points out pitfalls for military who lead union employees. Steven Hart argues that lieutenants should be enrolled in unit-run schools for platoon to better prepare them to lead platoons. Jonathan Negan considers how foster unit cohesion. Martha Granger considers the challenge the Army faces in developing who can think strategically despite years of honing tactical warfighting skills. David Wisyanski argues that cannot lead effectively or honorably if encumbered with relativistic thinking. Scott Murrayy believes that information systems given senior commanders such an encompassing view of the battle field that subordinate commanders might be stifled from exercising initiative. Last, Jeffrey Drushal discusses how to develop team cohesion among widely dispersed information-based logistics teams. CONGRATULATIONS! You just become the corps commander at Fort Snuffy, a large Army installation. You are now responsible for 41,000 soldiers and 8,000 civilians assigned to the corps. As an officer with more than 30 years of military experience and schooling, you are confident in your ability to lead and develop your officers and enlisted personnel, but what about your civilian employees, 4,000 of whom elected to a union representative speak on their behalf? Substitute a garrison commander, a sergeant major, or a brigade executive officer for the corps commander in this scenario and the question still exists: How prepared are commanders and senior to lead and work with federal civilian employees represented by a labor union? In most cases, the answer depends on how much effort devote to personal leadership development in the area of labor-management relations. Army leaders must be appropriately developed before assuming leadership positions and have a certain level of knowledge to be competent.1,2 Part of that knowledge includes developing technical, conceptual, and interpersonal skills that enable them to know their people and how to work with them.3 To develop leadership and occupational skills, Army officers and noncommissioned officers progress through a formal leader development system.4 Throughout their careers they receive extensive institutional training at military schools.5 They advance to operational assignments where they plan and execute complex missions worldwide, using the most technologically advanced equipment and technically skilled personnel available.6 They carefully manage their careers, and as they progress in the ranks, they learn to develop subordinate officer and enlisted personnel-the uniformed side of the milltary services. There is a void, however, in leader development for military who work with federal civilian employees represented by unions. The Army does not teach the rules involved with labor-management relations as part of its traditional military training. While military can learn the rules at operational assignments, this is not a good alternative. Mistakes pertaining to labor relations often legal consequences. They can also adversely affect mission accomplishment and the command's relationship with its employees and their elected union representatives. To avoid these mistakes, must therefore focus on the self-development part of leadership development.7 At a minimum, Army must learn the basic rules for working with union employees and ensure that other milltary and civilian personnel understand them too. How many civilian employees actually union representatives? As of 1999, the Army had 121,302 union employees, or 59 percent of its civilian workforce, working at over 300 Active and Reserve Component (AC and RC) commands or facilities. …
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