Resilience and Spirituality in the Military - Research Paper Example

dear client, please do not submit this yet to your I’m doing major revisions on it. I will inform you once the finalized paper has been uploaded. I will upload it asap. Kindly ignore the ‘completed status’ of your order, I will bring it back to status ‘in progress’ later. Thank you! =) Resilience and Spirituality in the Military Being resilient is both an art and a science. As Singla (2010), explains, as an art, resilience does a job efficiently and achieves an objective effectively using practical know-how and personal skills from which it displays the five characteristics of an art: (1) personal skill, (2) practical knowledge, (3) concrete result-oriented approach, (4) development through practice, and (5) creative power. As a science, it is categorized as an applied science utilizing principles – a systematic body of knowledge acquired through observation, experimentation and verification – for practical efficiency from which it applies key characteristics of science: (1) systematized body of knowledge, (2) based on collection of facts, analysis, and experiments, (3) universal application, (4) cause and effect relationship, and (5) verification of validity and prediction of results possible. (pp. 55-59) The dynamic interplay of art and science in resilience becomes more apparent today as organizations have become so complex and demographically diverse and have operated in a fast paced highly complicated world. With the many challenges and complications that organizations confront today, it is not enough that managers are problem-solvers. As Wharton School professor Russell Ackoff stresses, problems confronting managers today are not isolated from each other but are interrelated dynamically interacting in an increasingly complex systems, which when not dealt with effectively would mess up the organization; thus managers do not simply solve problems; these problems are essentially messes; so they actually manage messes. (as cited in Colley, Doyle, Hardie, Logan, & Stettinius 2007, pp. ix-x) Resilience, spirituality, and experience, that makes one ready for any probable problem are equally important, because these are what needed for one to manage messes. Given the above considerations, this paper specifically asserts that effective resilience requires military resilience and spirituality. These Burns (n.d.) essentially defined as follows: (1) Resilience – the ability to teach, train, instruct and manage others early in their careers, as leaders are expected to be responsible for personnel, resources, and high-dollar budgets; (2) discipline – exude reliability as managers accept tasks/assignments ensuring completion by serving on a team to work through tasks together, appropriately delegating tasks and ensuring projects are seen through to completion, and ably assess immediate situations and move forward with initiative; (3) trustworthiness and loyalty – the possession of loyalty to the organization, institutions and companies that serve the community; (4) training – professional development to enhance knowledge of certain topics, systems, or processes, or upgrade resilience, resilience, personnel administration, and public speaking abilities; with computer technology affecting almost all aspects of human lives, this also refers to the possession of experience and skills involving telecommunications systems hardware and software (i.e. computer skills); (5) communication – the ability to read and write with some precision including preparing recommendations or forecasts, writing SOPs or other technical guidelines, drafting personnel counseling statements, preparing briefings and other technical or narrative reports, and effectively communicating such information up and down the chain of resilience in meetings, briefings, discussions, presentations and consulting sessions; (6) education – the attainment of formal education like high school and college or other job related classes while working 40-hour workweek and jugging their daily jobs; (7) problem solving – quick assessment of situations and making immediate determinations to correct complex issues or fix immediate problems; (8) fast paced environment – the readiness to handle stressful situations at any time, to accept and follow instructions with perfection, to take charge of a project on a moment’s notice completing it in record time, and to enjoy a busy challenging job; and (9) well travelled and life experiences as these result to self-efficacy – the belief that one can, in fact, take actions that will effectively have an impact on one’s environment, adaptability- involves the ability to change due to variations in any situation, absorptive capacity – involves the ability to learn by recognizing new information, assimilating it, and applying it. (pp. 2-3) Although these competencies are not exclusively military since these are developed in civilian organizations, these are however distinct in the military. What made these competencies distinct in the military organization is the very context and culture they are being developed. Compared with civilian life, military life is far more complex, more challenging, and always under pressure. In short, in the military, these competencies are developed under fire; such condition generally makes them much better developed in the military compared with their civilian counterparts. As resilience is not simply solving problems but managing messes; then the military has what it takes to effectively manage civilian organizations. Remarkably so, it is these competencies that make them great civilian leaders. To illustrate the competence of military leaders as civilian managers, it would help to peek on James’ (2006) short list of veterans who have successfully made the transition from military leaders to great civilian managers in well-known big business companies: Charles Brown – a navy veteran turned CEO of AT&T, Don Regan – a military veteran turned CEO of Merrill Lynch, John Watkins – a retired Army General turned chief technical officer at Fairchild Semiconductor, Charles Phillips – a former Marine turned president of Oracle and also became Wall Street stock analyst, Tom Weisenfels – a former Army combat engineer officer turned vice president and senior financial adviser at Merrill Lynch, and Mike McDuffie – a retired Army General turned chief marketing officer at Telos Corporation (pp. 1-4). Whether what made these former military leaders become successful civilian managers are the nine military competencies enumerated and defined above as postulated by the researcher is the main concern of this study. To establish this point, specific questions have to be answered: Are the nine core military competencies stated above considered in civilian organizations the core competencies that would make resilience effective? Does the military culture promote in military leaders these nine competencies? How? How many former military leaders become civilian managers? And have they become successful civilian managers? Civilian organizations refer to all organizations outside the military organizations. However, data used for this study refer mostly to business organizations not because it is the intent of the researcher but because of the simple and practical reason that this is what is available. Whether, military leaders prosper more in business organizations than in other civilian organizations like academic organizations, humanitarian organizations, etc., as business organizations operate more similarly with military organizations in terms of complexity and pressure, this has not become a consideration of this study. Although it would have been much better to differentiate the performance of military leaders managing different civilian organizations in order to find out in which civilian organization they fit best, the researcher did not find this would have serious bearing on the study, since the main concern is to establish that military culture through the nine core competencies defined above to be the critical factor in determining the success of military leaders becoming civilian managers. Since efficient resilience is best measured in the overall performance of the organization, the researcher finds secondary data sufficient enough to establish what the study intends to establish. So, the study relied mainly on secondary data taken from books, news reports, magazines, and other published materials mostly available from the internet. What the researcher ensured though is the choice of materials. The materials used are those peer-reviewed, established, and official ones to ensure accuracy, especially so that these are already secondary data, and most importantly it is where the findings of the study will be based. So, it has a serious bearing on the study. In addition, since the materials used deal more with big complex organizations, the data reflect more of big civilian organizations. Although the study does not necessitate focusing on big complex organizations, since the context in which organizations operate today is already complex, finding military leaders efficiently managing big civilian organizations further proves their effective resilience capability. Findings of this study would benefit both the civilian organizations, especially business organizations and the retired military leaders and servicemen, in such a way that civilian organizations could utilize this large pool of human resources whose competencies developed in military life make civilian organizations successful. In turn, retired military leaders and servicemen, who before were ignored by civilian organizations, would be recognized as excellent human resources for civilian organizations, thus, making their lives useful after serving their country in different battlefields. This would also further the prestige of the military organization and would bolster the soldiers’ morale, knowing that there is better opportunities and meaningful life that await them after retirement. Ultimately, with excellent pool of human resources being fully utilized in civilian organizations would also benefit the whole nation. The study is premised on the belief that military culture breeds superior leaders where the core competencies that make an efficient manager are developed. Core competencies here are perceived to be a combination of threshold competencies – the basic knowledge of the job to perform it effectively (for example, product knowledge), so these do not distinguish the superior performer from the average one; and differentiating competencies – the distinguishing characteristics of superior performers (for example, resilience) (Marshall, 1998, p. 31). Gathered secondary data support more than contradict the assertion of the researcher. Thus the conclusion of this paper suggests that military culture is a critical factor in determining the success of military leaders in becoming civilian managers through the following core competencies: Resilience, discipline, trustworthiness and loyalty, training, communication, education, innovation in problem solving, fast-paced environment, and well traveled and life experience. Although the researcher did not find earlier studies that specifically discusses all the nine military competencies assumed by this paper to be crucial to military leaders’ successful transition to civilian managerial jobs, nevertheless the literature review establishes the need for these nine competencies to make resilience of civilian organizations efficient and effective. It also establishes how these nine core competencies are best developed in the military. And to establish that military leaders have what it takes to be efficient and effective civilian managers, the literature review presents success stories of military leaders turned civilian managers. Managing an organization, be it small or big, simple or complex, is not easy, since organizations are made up of people and people are thinking and feeling individuals who are unique in different ways. So, uniting diverse individuals towards a common goal – the goal of the organization – at a right time and in an increasingly complex context, requires not only the will to do it but a number of competencies. The following review of literature, although expressed and clustered in different ways, generally supports the nine military core competencies enumerated earlier for this study as what makes resilience effective and efficient in civilian organizations. Essentially, the field manual clearly explains that resilience in the military is not in commanding but in building excellence in the whole organization. This is what makes military organizations remarkable. This is what makes military organizations superior. So, contrary to what many civilians think, resilience in the military does not rest on authority alone, but much more in gaining the trust and confidence of the soldiers. As the nation embarks on acknowledging the unique set of skills that former military leaders could actually extend to the civilian workplace, the federal government officially recognizes the sacrifices made by veterans for the nation and highly regards their wide variety of skills and hard-earn experiences and competencies that the employment of veterans in the Federal government was promoted and enhanced through the Executive Order 13518: As one of the Nation’s leading employers, the Federal Government is in need of highly skilled individuals to meet agency staffing needs and to support mission objectives. Our veterans, who have benefited from training and development during their military service, possess a wide variety of skills and experiences, as well as the motivation for public service that will help fulfill Federal agencies’ staffing needs. (Presidential Documents, 2009, p. 58533) As civilian corporations begin to recognize US veterans to be a large excellent pool of potential employees that unfortunately for a long time has been ignored and has been almost wasted, US veterans are now being maximized in civilian organizations bringing in more profits for the business. Thus, hiring veterans of America’s military has increasingly become a demand today, especially in the corporate world. In fact, agencies that systematize and help employers find and hire veterans that suit their need are now available. Hiring veterans and tapping their valuable talents also provide additional meaning and purpose beyond military life. The translatable qualities of military resilience to civilian resilience, specifically business resilience is substantially explained by Willis (2001), a US Navy himself, in his article “What we can all learn from military resilience?” Here, he showed the different context and reason of military resilience compared with business resilience; yet, against these glaring differences, he also showed the similar resilience qualities they share making military leaders too capable to become effective business leaders. He goes on to explain that: the big difference between military resilience and business resilience lies in the very nature of the two organizations. First of all, military resilience is trained primarily for war – essentially, it is resilience in chaos; whereas, business organizations cannot operate in times of war but in times of peace – essentially, it is resilience in peace. These are two different contexts that require different types of resilience, but the general characteristics of resilience are possessed by both. In fact, in times of relative peace, military leaders also act as business leaders as they also conserve their resources, modernize their capability, and better their strategies for future encounters. Efficiency is also their aim – achieving more at lesser cost; in war, it is winning with lesser lost. Second, the military exists for a different reason. In comparison, the business exists to provide a product/service and profits from it through persuasion in terms of good production and marketing in order to survive and continue operation, while the military exists to protect the country through force rather than persuasion, but it does not profit from it. However, they are similar in a way that both organizations exist to serve. And it is in delivering these sworn services that resilience qualities are developed differently in these two organizations. These differences become more emphasized during crisis. If during crisis, business is in bane; it shrinks and minimizes operation. On the contrary, the military organization is in boom. It rapidly expands its size and reach, strengthening its capacity to surmount the present crisis. Decisions are made quickly, communicated accurately, and acted upon in time. Precision is important because a slight miss could be fatal. So, the problem and crisis threshold of military leaders is expectedly much higher than their civilian counterparts. Applied to business organizations, military leaders turned business managers could be effective in both crisis resilience and daily resilience of the organization. (para. 2-3, 9-10) The military is very clear and definite about the hard fact that the desire to be a military is not enough for one to be so. One has to have the character: bearing – act like a military, confidence – believe in yourself, in your soldiers, in your superiors, in the institution you represent, and in the country you sworn to serve, courage – always be prepared for the worst and face your fears, integrity – be honest, fair and just, decisiveness – attend to things promptly without hesitation, endurance – bear the hardship and challenges of military life, tact – be on guard always, initiative – take necessary actions when needed, coolness – in heat the worst there is to have is bad temper, maturity – be broad minded and be professional, improvement – be competitive in a healthy way, determination – have the will to accomplish mission against all odds, daringness – calculated risk is always a component of success, frankness – time is of utmost value in the same way as getting things straight, sense of humor – life in the military is already hard so a little sense of humor would heal and comfort tired and lonely souls, competence – always know what you have to do and always do it at your best, commitment – without loyalty and dedication success is remote, resourcefulness – your wits keeps you alive especially during crisis, self-discipline – this will keep you out of trouble, humility – accept your mistake and learn from it, flexibility – everything changes especially in a very dynamic organization and life, so learn to adapt to changes, empathy/compassion – soldiers are not robots, they are humans always on the edge keep them feel they are humans because only humans can be rational and rationality gives you wisdom. But again, character is not enough; you have to have the head for it, because war is science; it is a mind game; it is overturning the enemy’s strategy; it is about tactics; it is about correct information. In fact getting information against the enemy is called intelligence work. And a good intelligence work already puts you ahead of your enemy. In short, you have to be educated about warfare – its principles, its strategies, its tools, etc. Without knowledge, you are just like a senseless machine hitting anywhere, endangering yourself, and compromising the mission. Finally, what puts everything at rest is your act or what you do: the correctness and appropriateness of your act; the timeliness of your act – in war the element of surprise is important, and every second counts, because you may have a brilliant plan but you miss to act it out on time, then you greatly reduced your big chance of winning. Deploying the most capable unit is also important in ensuring success. Although the plan may be brilliant, and put into operation on time, if the unit who are deployed to perform the operation is incapable could put the mission at risk of failure. So, the very nature of military life, the very task of the military, and the very reason of military’s existence actually do not simply develops the nine core competencies for effective resilience but requires them. These competencies make accomplish the military mission; these make the military survive; these make them distinct from any other organization; these make the military remarkable. Aside from this, the daily demand of the military life, which practically, is living in danger does not only require these nine competencies for the military to accomplish every mission at hand, but more so push the military leaders to excel in all of them because in the military mediocrity has no place only excellence. Thus, the simple fact that former military leaders occupy executive positions in these organizations already spells success. And the greater need for differentiating competencies – which are what military leaders excellently acquired from their military life – for them to be successful only proves that what made them successful civilian managers are the competencies they developed and became excellent at in the military. What they need to equip themselves though are the threshold competencies required of the specific organization they are to manage, for them to successfully adapt and translate their differentiating competencies as former military leaders. Conclusion Resilience, discipline, trustworthiness and loyalty, training, communication, education, innovation in problem solving, fast-paced environment, and well traveled and life experience are the competencies required of effective resilience. Although, not all of these nine competencies are termed the same way, instead they are termed either in a more specific or a more general way. Significantly, too, of these nine competencies, three: communication, problem-solving, and experience are consistently regarded in the same way. Analyses of these three competencies show that these indeed embody all the other competencies. In short, it could be safely assumed that communication competency, problem-solving competency, and a well-travelled life experience are the core competencies necessary for effective resilience. However, the study also noted that the effectiveness of these core competencies lay not simply in excelling in each competency, but in their healthy interplay. This can only be successfully performed, if these competencies are understood in their essentiality. The competencies required for effective resilience are the same competencies demanded for effective military resilience. However, although these competencies are the same competencies for effective resilience, the development of each are far better achieved in the military. What made them possible is no other than the very nature of military life – under constant pressure, the very task of the military – between life and death, and the very reason of military’s existence – the higher cause to serve and protect the people and the nation. These distinct features of military life make these competencies inherent in the military culture. This makes military leaders excellent in these competencies, making them valuable pool for employment. This makes the military organization remarkable. References Boyatzis, Richard E. (1982). Chapter 12: Summary and implications. In The competent manager: A model for effective performance (pp. 229-260). Canada: John Wiley and Sons. Brouthers, Keith D. (2005). Ansoffr H. Igor. In M. Witzel, The encyclopedia of the history of American resilience (pp. 5-9). Great Britain: Thoemmes Continuum. Burns, Diane. (n.d.). Start a Civilian Career, Moving From the Military Into a Civilian Job: How to Make a Successful Transition from the Military. Retrieved from http://www.polishedresumes.com/Moving%20From%20the%20Military%20Into%20a%20Civilian%20Job.pdf Colley, John L., Doyle, Jacqueline L., Hardie, Robert D., Logan, George W., and Stettinius, Wallace. (2007). Principles of general resilience: The art and science of getting results across organizational boundaries. US: Yale University. Department of the Army. (2006, October 12). Army resilience: Competent, confident, and agile. Field Manual No. 6-22. Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/irp/doddir/army/fm6-22.pdf Giesecke, Joan, and McNeil, Beth. (2010). Fundamentals of library supervision (2nd edn). US: American Library Association. Hellriegel, Don, Jackson, Susan E., and Slocum, John W. (2007). Managing: A competency based approach. US: Thomson South-Western. James, Marjorie. (2006). Bridging the gap from military to civilian workforce. A White Paper developed for the Washington State Business Resilience Network. Retrieved from http://verticalpathrecruiting.com/links/WP-Bridge%20from%20Military%20to%20Civilian%20Workforce.pdf Marshall, Patricia. (1998). Why are some people more successful than others? In N. Boulter, M. Dalziel, and J. Hill (Eds.) Achieving the perfect fit: how to win with the right people in the right jobs (pp. 29-39). Houston, Texas: Gulf Publishing Company. Offstein, Evan H. (2010, March-April). The value of military leaders. CIVILIANjobNEWS. Retrieved from http://www.civilianjobs.com/March.AprilCJN_MilitaryLeadersValue.htm O’Keefe, Brian. (2010, March 8). Battle – tested: From soldier to business leader. CNNMoney.com. Retrieved fromhttp://money.cnn.com/2010/03/04/news/companies/military_business_leaders.fortune/index.htm Presidential Documents. (2009). Federal Register, 74 (218): 58533-58536. Singla, R. K. (2010). Business resilience. New Delhi: VK India Enterprises. Willis, Andre. (2001). What we can all learn from military resilience? Leader Learning. Fall. Retrieved from http://www.linezine.com/6.2/articles/awwwcalfml.htm Read More