Army Leadership for Combat Arms vs. Army Organizational Management for Combat Service Support (CSS)

All of the mandatory Army leadership training I have attended throughout my career is generally focused on combat arms in combat situations. Although every soldier is supposed to be an infantry man first, I highly doubt that I would ever be selected to lead a charge to “take the hill”. I entered the service as an enlisted soldier and went on to become an officer. My branch is Signal. All of my assignments have been at Brigade HQs level or above in a sustaining base environment. I am currently working on attaining a new functional area in Acquisition Management. Unless one can lead troops through combat with a Program Objective Memorandum (POM) or an obligation plan shown on a power point presentation, we need to start thinking about tailoring leadership training to a soldier’s actual career path. I can almost see myself yelling “charge” with spreadsheet and projector in hand as I lead troops up that hill.
I think it is time the Army considers training CSS leaders to be senior level managers of organizations. Organization management is seemingly an on the job training event for mid-level managers in the Army, otherwise known as Majors. In this context I define “organization” as a Battalion sized unit or larger with a sustaining base mission. An example of the type of training focus I am talking about is a graduate level education in Organization Management as it is offered in civilian universities. A sample curriculum follows:
Foundation Courses
ORSC 209 Management SystemsECON 219 Managerial EconomicsPSYC 245 Seminar: Organizational BehaviorSTAT 104 Statistics in Management, Administration, and Policy Studies
Required Courses
ORSC 216 Theories and Management of Planned Change ORSC 241 Strategic Management and Policy Formation ORSC 242 Organizational Communication and Conflict Management ORSC 243 Seminar: Leadership in Complex OrganizationsPSYC 259 Psychology of Individual and Group Decision Making
Electives (select 3)
ORSC 201 Principles of Management Information SystemsORSC 212 Current Principles in Personnel Testing and SelectionORSC 214 Personnel Training and Performance Appraisal SystemsORSC 217 Productivity and Human PerformanceORSC 220 Organizational Decision MakingORSC 222 Theory and Practice of Compensation ManagementORSC 223 Collective BargainingORSC 246 Comparative ManagementORSC 248 Strategic Human Resources PlanningORSC 249 Human Resources Information SystemsORSC 250 Leadership Coaching: Principles and PracticesORSC 251 Team Coaching and FacilitationORSC 252 Practicum in Leadership CoachingORSC 295 Directed ResearchORSC 297 Special TopicsORSC 298 Directed Reading

The operation of a military hospital, information technology (IT) organization, school house or logistics support organization to name a few, can be approached from a civilian corporate perspective. Although the mission and culture to a degree are different in the military, the principles taught in the civilian world can apply to any organization.
If the military is paying for the graduate level training [i.e. ILE and War College etc.] of combat arms leaders in their field of expertise, then would it not be fair to do the same for CSS leaders? It seems like a win-win situation to me to provide CSS leaders with the tools they need to successfully run our military hospitals, school houses, IT organizations etc. If there is anything going on in the Army like this today, I am unaware of its existence. The senior level managers in the CSS field I have encountered have largely educated themselves at their own expense. I write this as I intend to pursue a Masters Degree in Organizational Management in the very near future. It would have been nice to have it funded completely by the Army…
MAJ Marla Seeman
Student, CGSC
Ft Belvior, VA
"The views expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of the Dept of the Army, Dept of Defense or the US Government.