Military Review English Edition July-August 2016 | Page 12

Promote a culture that fosters great
leadership and management
Communicate
a shared
vision
and
organizational
strategy

Optimize your processes
and supporting informationtechnology systems
Organize to achieve
your goals

Track
costs and make
resourceand
risk-informed
decisions

Improved
outcomes

Routinely assess and benchmark
your performance
(Graphic from AR 5-1, Management of Army Business Operations)

Figure. The Army Management Framework
impetus comes from the need to assure a perpetually
skeptical American media and Congress that the Army
is truly a good steward of the money provided.
However, there are some promising signs.
The Command and General Staff College at Fort
Leavenworth, Kansas, offered a 2016 spring elective called “Leading and Managing High Performing
Organizations,” and the Army Management Staff
College is pursuing modifications to its curriculum to
include more coverage of traditional management- and
business-operations topics. Additionally, as the demands of long-term conflict ease, more Army officers
are electing to attend graduate education in management and business.4 Also, the program of continued
education for Army general officers and senior executive service members includes short seminars at leading
graduate business schools.

Army Management Framework
Perhaps most encouragingly, with the publication
of Army Regulation 5-1, Management of Army Business
Operations, in November 2015, a useful framework has
been approved for the application of management techniques in Army organizations (see figure).5
The Army Management Framework (AMF) is
neither absolute nor immutable. It will undoubtedly
change as the understanding of what is required for
success advances. But, it provides a conceptual model
that relates best Army management practices that,
when paired with great leadership, have consistently
proven to result in improved outcomes.
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Significantly, the AMF is not just applicable to
the institutional force. Its principles have repeatedly
proven their value to operational formations as well.
Today, the six tenets of the AMF, referenced in the
figure, are used in many Army organizations, driving
increased levels of performance. What makes up these
tenets of the AMF and how have Army organizations
found them useful? The remainder of this article will
address each tenet to answer those questions.
Promote a culture that fosters great leadership
and management. Because of its pervasive influence,
the first tenet appropriately addresses culture. To
employ the elements of effective management, Army
culture must value it. However, this is not a universally
accepted attribute in the Army today. By way of illustration, imagine the reaction if a division commander,
attempting to pay a compliment to one of his battalion
commanders, publicly exclaimed, “Smith, you are the
best damn manager in this division!” How might Smith
feel? What is likely is that his or her fellow battalion
commanders would silently say to themselves, “I’m glad
he didn’t say that about me!”
The impact of such institutional aversion to being
a labeled a good manager vice leader is evident in the
previously discussed 2016 Army Management Staff
College survey. Students often cited a culture that does
not value business acumen as a primary reason why
they felt professionally unprepared for that domain.6
What are some of the tangible manifestations of a
culture that does not value management in our Army
today? We will discuss a few below.
July-August 2016  MILITARY REVIEW