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Women in Combat

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Central Michigan University

Master of Science in Administration (MSA) Program

Course Title: MSA 600 Administration Research and Report Methods

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Research Project Title: LITERATURE REVIEW EXAMPLE

Global War on Terrorism Policy Analysis on the Implications of Removing Assignment Limitations OF Women to Army Combat Units

CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP:

I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I receive in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in this paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas, or works, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course.

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Instructor’s Comments:

Note: This literature review is from a completed MSA685 project so it is a little longer than what you might produce as a preliminary literature review in MSA600. But it demonstrates how to synthesize literature in a way that best relates to your research questions.

Global War on Terrorism Policy Analysis on the Implications of Removing Assignment Limitations OF Women to Army Combat Units

MSA 600 Administrative Research and Report Methods

Submitted by:

Daniel Akeredolu

Project Instructor:

Dr. Thomas Kessler

December 2008

Table of Contents

Page Number

List of Tables ii

List of Figures ii

Chapter 1 Problem Definition 1

Chapter 2 Literature Review 7

Chapter 3 Research Methodology 15

Chapter 4 Data Analysis [Future]

Chapter 5 Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations [Future]

Terminology and Definitions Page 18

References Pages 19-22

Appendix A Permission to Conduct Study

Appendix B Transmittal Letter/Survey Instructions

Appendix C Survey/Interview Questions

Chapter 2 Literature Review

Background

The literature review that follows discusses information written about in five main areas of the women in combat debate: (a) the policy evolution, (b) the state of the current policy, (c) the pro/con arguments, (d) contemporary GWOT implications and (e) attitudes surveyed from select groups. This review focuses on discussions surrounding US Army combat units in the aggregate sense with the issues raised applicable to any specific unit.

The Policy Evolution

During the post Vietnam era Congress first re-examined the issues of women in the Armed Services. They did this within the context of and discussions surrounding the establishment of the All Volunteer Force (AVF). During his period, it is apparent that lawmakers simultaneously advanced and restricted the roles of women in the services. For instance, the 2% ceiling was eliminated on total numbers allowed to serve, while the restrictions prohibiting direct land combat was codified but left to the Secretary of the Army to interpret the Congressional intent (CMR, 2003). In 1977, the Secretary of the Army did just that by issuing a Combat Exclusion Policy prohibiting women from serving in Infantry, Armor, Cannon Field Artillery, Combat Engineer, and low altitude Air Defense Artillery units of battalion/squadron size or smaller (Putko & Johnson, 2008).

In 1988, the Department of Defense established the “Risk Rule.” Ostensibly the purpose of the “risk rule” was to clear barriers for women to volunteer for military service and not have to be concerned with the dangers of serving in front-line units (CMR, 2003). The Risk Rule read as follows: “[R]isks of direct combat, exposure to hostile fire, or capture are proper criteria for closing non-combat positions or units to women, when the type, degree, and duration of such risk are equal to or greater than the combat units with which they are normally associated within a given theater of operations” (CMR, p. 2, Para 4 April 2003). This rule proved to be confusing to some and troubling to other military leaders as it made ‘proximity’ the standard for where a female could be assigned. The rule also purported to capture the sentiment of the majority of the enlisted soldiers, by quoting a 1988 GAO survey suggesting 90% of female enlistees did not want to be treated just like men (CMR, 2003). Thus this prohibition was made official Department of Defense policy.

The next major revision would not occur until after the first Gulf War.

In the fall of 1991, Congress passed an amendment introduced by then Representative Patricia Schroeder to repeal the law exempting women from combat aviation (CMR, 2003). With the arrival of a new administration following the 1992 fall elections additional changes would follow.

. President Clinton’s Secretary of Defense Les Aspin issued new regulations eliminating the DoD “Risk Rule,” and thus it had the effect of exposing women in support units to the same risk of capture as men in close combat units. However, some restrictions did remain. They were allowed exemptions where retrofitting cost; unit collocation doctrine, special operation missions, and physical qualification considerations were previously established and vetted as bona fide (CMR, 2003).

As a response to the Secretary of Defense’ new guidance, Army leadership sent him a memorandum that specified their intentions. In essence, the Army was going to open the following units and occupations (listed below) to women as reported on page 5 of National Defense Research Institute’s monograph Assessing the Assignment Policy for Women:

· maneuver brigade headquarters

· division military police companies

· chemical reconnaissance and smoke platoons

· divisional forward support battalions (FSBs)

· engineer companies

· military intelligence collection and jamming companies

· Washington DC stationed ceremonial units.

This change in DoD policy also granted the Army the flexibility with regard to opening positions within its headquarters along with other type of units such as the Special Forces Group. Currently, there are over 48,000 active duty women in the Army who have the opportunity to serve in over 92% of the Army Military Occupational Specialties (Harrell et al., 2007).

The US Army has been looking and re-looking at all angles of this issue from the onset of the AVF. Their first step was to develop a full understanding of all the potential issues with an expanded role for women—which by the way, was a necessity as the draft ended in favor of the All-Volunteer Force concept. Studies sponsored by the Army Research Institute (ARI) for the Behavioral and Social Sciences sought, as a baseline understanding, to look at gender integration in the Combat Service (CS) and the Combat Service Support (CSS) career fields with the premise of “What percentage of women will it take to degrade unit performance (Harris, Simutis & Gantz, p. 1, Para 2, 2002)?”ARI functions as the Army’s preeminent laboratory for personnel/training research, studies and analyses (Harris et al., 2002). In this spirit, the Army asked ARI to study Army Basic Combat Training (BCT) which lends itself as the obvious logical starting point when considering increased gender integration throughout the service.

In 1976, ARI began its work by conducting a survey of BCT participants. Bottom line; the findings from this survey suggested that trainee attitudes and motivations were positive both at the beginning and end of training. Using the results from this survey along with other performance data the conclusion was reached that the best effect for men and women would be achieved if BCT were gender integrated at the company level instead of at the previously specified higher battalion levels (Harris et al., 2002).

In 1982, the US Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) appeared to abruptly end gender-integrated BCT while other advanced gender-integrated training continued i.e. Advanced Individual Training (AIT) for Combat Support and Combat Service Support trainees. In 1992 the Commander, TRADOC requested another study performed at Fort McClellan on three battalions. One integrated at the squad level (see Table 1) and the other two at the platoon level. The findings again recommended to the Army to “train as we fight” by gender integrating BCT at the lowest level possible (Harris et al., 2002).

Table 1: The Notional USA Organizational Structure/Breakdown

Designation	Number Assigned
Army	50,000 +
Corps	20,000 – 45,000
Division	10,000 – 15,000
Brigade	3,000 – 5000
Battalion	300 – 1000
Company	62 – 190
Platoon	16 – 44
Squad	9 – 10

However, another subsequent study conducted at Fort Jackson arrived at different results…thus their recommendation to the Army Chief of Staff (CSA) was to remain with the current system and not to integrate units at lower levels. The CSA sought additional assistance from ARI to resolve these conflicting views (Harris et al., 2002). This next study would serve as the unofficial “tie breaker” thus signaling to senior Army leadership which direction they should ultimately endorse.

ARI conducted a 1993 study with one all-male company, one all-female company, and one that was gender integrated. The results indicated that performance decreased slightly for males within gender integrated units but increased for females when comparing both to their respective single gender units (Harris et al., 2002). Subsequently, the CSA directed BCT gender integration for CS and CSS specialties at the squad level (Harris et al., 2002). The key finding here was that the performance decrease for males was not as significant as the decline for females relative to their respective control groups. However, the overall average of gender integrated units was lower when compared to exclusive males units but higher when compared to those consisting of only females.

In 1997, Secretary of Defense, William S. Cohen commissioned another study Chaired by former Senator Nancy Kassebaum Baker to assess gender integrated training and related issues for the Armed Services. This commission’s findings suggested that studied newer recruits were arriving with a lower proclivity towards discipline among other things and as such the Army should segregate the sexes at the platoon level during BCT to mitigate potential discipline issues and other distractions from the training environment (Harris et al., 2002). The Army did not agree and stated the recommendations of the Kassebaum-Baker committee were in essence a step backwards (Harris et al., 2002).

Finally, ARI reported findings that indicated the overall attitudes regarding the integration of women throughout the Army have become more favorable especially in the CS and CSS specialties and with male senior level commissioned and Non Commissioned Officers (Harris et al., 2002). One of their findings reported that over 70% of men stated females in the unit have no negative impact on cohesion. Additionally, most of the surveyed males disagree that women lack the strength, stamina, or mental toughness to be effective in combat situations. ARI research indicates that excellent leadership and training have more impact on unit effectiveness than does the gender mix of soldiers within the unit (Harris et al., 2002). Thus Army senior leadership believes the supremacy of this emphasis will overcome any marginal performance degradation brought forth by gender integration.

State of the Current Policy

In 2005, Representative Duncan Hunter introduced a bill prohibiting women from serving in any company size unit that provided support to combat battalions or their subordinate companies. In effect, if this bill would have been adopted, it would have increased the number of assignments restricting women by prohibiting many fields previously opened (Stone, 2005). Representative Hunter believed he was representing the will of the American people by proposing this legislation. However, senior Army leadership, led by its Vice Chief of Staff stated “The proposed amendment will cause confusion in the ranks, and will send the wrong signal to the brave young men and women fighting the Global War on Terrorism.” (Bender, p. 1, Para 3, 2005). In essence he was trying to communicate that this bill would cripple their efforts with effectively supplying the on-going GWOT with the right manpower mix.

Intervention was required by Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld who met with Representative Hunter in a successful effort to get him to modify this legislation. The resulting “amended” bill simply required DoD to notify Congress within 30 days if women are going to be assigned to or collocated with ground combat units (Donnelly, 2008). Congress also directed a review on how the Army is deploying women as it works through transformation and implements its new Brigade Combat Team construct (Putko & Johnson, 2008). It is from this point the debates have again resurfaced.

The Pro/Con Debates

Opposition to further expansion of the use of women in the Armed Forces seems to fixate on certain central themes. The first argument is an attitudinal one suggesting the American public is still not and never will be ready to deliberately expose it’s “daughters” to violence unless said violence association with women becomes an accepted societal norm beyond the military environment (Glazov, 2003). The second argument invokes the physical strength and endurance argument by suggesting “women are not “little men” and men are not “big women” (Kirkwood, Para 18, 2003). Lastly the unit cohesion/morale angle is often cited as becoming irreparably disrupted by the introduction of the opposite gender—in essence turning “a band of brothers into a gaggle of competing chimps” (Glaznov, Para 15, 2003).

The American public argument from the opposition’s perspective is by and large a traditional viewpoint on the roles of women in our society. This opposing view is best summarized in an article by Cort Kirkwood of LewRockwell.com when he argues that the debate ought consider two questions from the American public ‘s perspective; can women handle the rigors of combat with the second question being should they have to (Kirkwood, 2003)? He answers both questions succinctly when he states “no” because it is un-American, un-Christian, and immoral (Kirkwood, 2003). While some would point to the ordeal endured by PFC Jessica Lynch as evidence of a ‘can-do spirit’…others such as Kirkwood see it differently asking whether she should have been placed in a combat zone to begin with (Kirkwood, 2003). This perspective rallies around the notion that just because women have been placed in harm’s way in the past doesn’t mean they should be in the future. The only leeway some opponents give when considering whether to utilize females in combat is if the scenario dictated that national survival depended upon it (Kirkwood, 2003). Otherwise their thinking holds that using women in combat will require training women and men to regard violence upon and utilized by women as normal and acceptable. A concept always considered an anathema to our American mores (Kirkwood, 2003).

The American public support argument against also has proponents that view the discussion from what some might suggest is another traditionalist viewpoint. FrontPage Magazine held a symposium whereby four individuals were invited to debate their perspectives on the wisdom of “G.I Janes” as they called it. One of those participants, David Gutmann (Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Medical School) stated that it is an obscene notion to him to place a woman’s body in front of machine guns or under shell fire because they are the “bearer of mystery with the power to bring forth life (Glazov, Para XX, 2003).” He goes on to argue that the history supports the notion that the lives of men are more expendable than women (Glazov, 2003). His rationale being that due to our low birth rate and the female’s relatively brief window of fertility, that for a society to place its women into the fighting ranks is tantamount to population extinction (Glazov, 2003).

The next major opposition theme goes to the heart of the biological differences between men and women. That women and men are built differently is not a point of contention. What these differences mean and how relevant they are to the modern battlefield is where there is a wide diversity of opinion. On this issue the proponents for women in combat tend to be on the defensive.

The baseline opposition argument states that the strongest woman is only as strong as the weakest man and it is the weakest man that is “weeded out” of most training programs (Kirkwood, 2003). Additionally, they are quick to introduce empirical data bolstering the claim that women suffer higher skeletal stresses leading to fractures along with having to contend with the other physiological factors such as menstruation and pregnancy (Kirkwood, 2003). Adding to this argument a FrontPage Magazine symposium panelist Anthony Mirvish (Naval and military analyst member of the US Naval Institute) posits there are some standard military tasks that have been failed by 100% of the women attempting them. Some of those tasks include carrying another soldier, digging a foxhole in hardened ground, and lowering a P250 pump into a compartment (Glazov, 2003). All this to suggest the physical limitation evidence alone is fairly conclusive.

Finally, the cohesion/lower morale argument rounds out the major opposition position for using women in combat. This argument is also the most difficult to quantify as it is highly subjective and relies heavily on establishing a common core understanding for defining cohesion and morale. The ARI study looking and gender integration for BCT evaluated data from an all-male unit, an all female unit, and then an experimental gender integrated unit. The results did corroborate one notion of increased single-gender cohesion in that they reported that the all-male units having the highest cohesion while the all female units had the lowest (Harris et al., 2002).

The afore mentioned Anthony Mirvish offered a more colorful example as to why and how unit cohesion/morale can be affected. He recalls a personal observation from the Israeli War of Independence when he trained with an Israeli Marine commando unit that included women. His observation was that the “Alpha Males” were quickly linked to these women and the other not so fortunate males were left to foment a hatred he believes might’ve been expressed in friendly fire incidents had the unit actually gone into battle (Glazov, 2003).

The counter debate or proponents for expanded use of women in combat units address each point head-on using contemporary (with anecdotes) evidence to blunt such concerns. Addressing the attitudinal argument one researcher offered statistics showing a marked increase in the American public’s acceptance of women placed in combat positions. Opinions in favor appear to have risen from 19% in 1979 to 72% in 2005 (Putko & Johnson, 2008). The strongest counter argument against the physical strength notion is best captured with assertions that many of the so-called physical standards are arbitrary in nature and where they are not then the logic doesn’t follow that all women should be precluded from even competing. Additionally, it is noted that even fitness standards for men are age-normed to some extent thus sometimes standards are not absolute.

The unit cohesion/morale theory is where the proponents of expanded utilization of women in combat go on the offensive. First, they’d ask for a common understanding of the term “cohesion.” One theory breaks the term cohesion into the subcategories of social and task cohesion (Harrell & Miller, 1997). According to this theory social cohesion deals with the quality of the emotional bonds experienced between members. The task cohesion concept refers to a shared commitment of assigned members toward accomplishing unit goals (Harrell & Miller, 1997). Proponents offer research suggesting an over- emphasis on high social cohesion (the male bonding variety) can have a negative effect on performance (Harrell & Miller, 1997). This rationale has it that members will be more concerned about the social aspects than the task the unit was assembled to perform. The military establishment also recognizes the inherent dangers of too much social cohesion by virtue of its enforcement of various regulations prohibiting its defined inappropriate relationships. These types of relationships are universally known as fraternization. Lastly, RAND’s 1997 monograph on New Opportunities for Women offers findings that rebuke the notion that gender differences are at fault when there are any performance issues attributable to a lack of cohesion. In fact, they report that cohesion is reported highest where the command emphasized unity and the important role all members have toward goal accomplishment (Harrell & Miller, 1997).

Bottom line for cohesion and morale, it is the supremacy of military training, discipline, and leadership that trumps mere gender differences (Harris et al., 2002). On writer posits ‘In order to maintain cohesion, experts agree that all members of the military must be treated equally. A standard must be maintained to make every member feel as if he/she is part of one single unit, not separated by gender’ (Willens, Para 9 1996). In fact, the 1997 RAND monograph reported that when there was division along the lines of gender, it was found to have been introduced by male commanders warning junior members to stay away from female members in the unit (Harrell & Miller, 1997). Perhaps in attempt to eliminate the potential for misunderstanding but in this instance such preventative medicine actually hastens the introduction of the malady.

These arguments are viewed from three main perspectives of the debate while incorporating the various corollaries to these main point/counterpoints. First there is the view of politicians who’d claim to speak for the American public. However, in the literature reviewed for this analysis it was largely inconclusive as to how much they were synchronized with the contemporary public opinion. Next there is the objectively obtained unbiased view of the American public that has seen a dramatic increase in utilization of its female service members to include their very placement into “harm’s way.” The collective American public shift in attitudes is most telling post Gulf War I. Finally, there is the viewpoint from the field (focus on the US Army) that appears increasingly amenable to the fullest utilization of women within their ranks. Admittedly, the true nature of senior Army leadership attitudes proves to be ambiguous as to whether it is driven out of a genuine attitude of acceptance; or a temporary marriage of convenience when faced with current manpower challenges. There is evidence in support of both possibilities.

Implications for the GWOT Going Forward— Challenges

If the US Army is to successfully transform itself into its desired lighter and leaner agile force it must finally resolve the issue of restricting the utilization of nearly 15% of its force structure. To follow the current policy to the letter, female service members should be precluded from serving in any conceivable role where combat action is possible. The question is how to determine and predict what combat roles are to look like. Unlike previous conflicts, the modern battle is noncontiguous and highly ambiguous. That is, there are no clearly defined front and rear areas anymore (Putko & Johnson, 2008). As a result, female soldiers are indeed exposed to combat on a fairly routine basis. The implication here is that the Combat Exclusion Policy is becoming less effective in achieving its intended goals of allowing females to serve in the military without exposure to direct combat. RAND’s National Defense Research Institute (NDRI) put together a monograph assessing the assignment policy for Army women to address differences between the Army and the Department of Defenses’ rules of engagement.

The first consideration is to understand that the DoD policy does restrict the assignment of women to units whose primary mission is direct ground combat. However, the Army merely restricts the assignment to units that have a routine mission of direct combat. Secondly, the Army also restricts assignment to units that collocate with direct combat units. Finally, this same RAND monograph reports that the Army and the DoD define combat differently. The Army’s definition adds as a requirement that there must be a risk of capture, and it also includes “repelling the enemy’s assault.” Curiously, the Army chose not to update its policy when the legal restrictions against women serving in combat aircraft and on combatant ships were repealed in 1994. Additionally, they didn’t even change or update their policy when Secretary of Defense Les Aspin revised the DoD policy in 1994, decisions they are perhaps regretful of today (Harrell et al., 2007).

As a result of DoD’s 1994 policy change, more Army units and occupations were opened to women resulting in positions for women within the headquarters unit and at various other organizational levels. As a result of the Army’s recent modularization efforts, which seeks to adapt it forces for the current GWOT and beyond, concerns were arising among certain congressional members and other interested parties as to defined roles for female soldiers. Of particular concern to some is how women are being utilized in Iraq in relation to Public Law 109-164 (Harrell et al., 2007). To become better prepared to deal with these questions, NDRI’s research compiled a monograph looking at these issues and provided the results to senior DoD leadership.

To help meet the existing congressional intent as currently understood, the Army had long ago developed a coding system to implement the current policy. Essentially there are two classifications. A coding containing a “P1” designation represents closed to female soldiers while a “P2” code denotes open. Next, in order to determine how to properly code a unit/position there are four questions to be considered:

1. Does the specialty/position require routine engagement in direct combat?

2. Is the position in a unit with a mission of routine engagement in direct combat?

3. Is the position in a unit that routinely collocates with a unit whose mission is to engage in direct combat?

4. Is the position in part of a unit that routinely collocates with a unit whose mission is to engage in direct combat? (Department of the Army, p. 3, 1992)

A “yes’ answer to any question will code a position as P1, closed to females. This coding system has been in effect since 1992. When it was first adopted, it allowed females to serve in over 67 percent of the Army’s specialties (Putko & Johnson, 2008).

As combat operations commenced in Iraq, there was widespread belief that these codes went largely unnoticed and unchallenged (Putko & Johnson, 2008). In the final analysis, it appears that legislators and senior Army leaders, were either unaware or chose not consider the limitations associated with this policy (Putko & Johnson, 2008). However, not everyone was silent. There were journalists who did raise awareness of the unique nature of female soldier involvement during the earlier days of Operations in Iraq (Putko & Johnson, 2008).

The organization known as the Center for Military Readiness (CMR) has been an outlet for vocal critics of any policy liberalization. They allege that the Department of Defense has blatantly violated the Combat Exclusion Policy by using semantical distinctions as a method for defining direct combat areas. Elaine Donnelly President of the Center of Military Readiness sums it up well when she states:

“All deployed soldiers, men and women, are serving ‘in harm’s way.’ But even without a ‘front line,’ the missions of direct ground combat units have not changed. Infantry, armor, and Special Operations Forces attack the enemy with deliberate offensive action under fire. These fighting battalions, and support units that ‘collocate’ with them 100% of the time, are required by Defense Department regulations to be all male.

If the Army wants to change the ‘collocation rule,’ the Secretary of Defense must approve and formally report the change to Congress approximately three months (30 legislative days) in advance. (Para 3 & 4, 2008)

The current conflict has introduced many unanticipated challenges with “winning the peace” to enable a decreased military presence. Insurgent populations claiming resentment of the US military presence have become increasingly belligerent and destructive. They have even proven not to have any compunction about utilizing women in the service of their “combative” activities. Female soldiers have played critical roles in preventing the exploitation of the indigenous female population by these combatants. Their story is just now being told.

Directors Meg McLagan and Daria Sommers produced a documentary on five female soldiers deployed to Iraq. They were deployed in support specialties but then re-assigned to male US Marine patrol teams to conduct house-to-house searches. Women in such units were affectionately dubbed “Team Lioness.” This documentary discussed their experiences adjusting to a role they claim they were ill-prepared for along with their lamentations for the lack of acknowledgment/recognition for their efforts as they too have coped with issues of post traumatic stress (2008).

This documentary led to the post-film discussion surrounding the main arguments for and against increased combat roles for women. Arguments against were best summarized as: physical differences, romantic disruptions, lack of aggression, sexual assault potential, and our social traditions. Arguments for can best be summarized as: unwarranted sexual discrimination, proven capabilities, additional troop strength, non-linear battlefield, and the universal nature of POW experienced sexual abuse. This discussion ended in a stalemate as members left comfortable in their willingness to agree to disagree.

Implications for the GWOT Going Forward—Benefits

Currently the Army struggles to fill its ranks with qualified soldiers thus the notion that every person counts is beyond cliché and a distinct reality. The literature reviewed for this analysis showed a distinct aversion for fighting domestic ideological battles along with foreign terrorist from the Army senior leader perspective and even within the DoD at-large.. Fact of the matter is the Army does not have enough male soldiers qualified in the necessary skills to fill all of the approximate 22,000 soldier positions in the forward support companies (Eberhart, 2004). Additionally, the Army states they have been moving forward with plans to fortify their warrior ethos by shifting the thought process away from “tribe identification” (cooks, clerks, infantryman etc) to a more collective warrior mindset of all members considering themselves a soldier first (Putko & Johnson, 2008). Legislation and policy changes that mettle with this endeavor they’d claim confuses and confounds the force at the most inopportune times.

Furthermore the literature reviewed in this analysis has uncovered evidence suggesting this exclusion policy is fraught with many potential contradictions and unintended consequences. Women are indeed needed to serve as MPs in various locations throughout Iraq and as part of Combat Patrol Teams (CPT) seeking to ferret out insurgents (Schult, 2003). This duty has exposed and is exposing them to hostile fire and at times placed them squarely in the midst of fire-fights with enemy combatants. One of the major benefits of their presence has been their ability to perform culturally sensitive duties such as searching the indigenous female populations who have been increasingly utilized by terrorist groups in many subversively destructive ways. The emerging truth is that there are some duties where it is politically untenable to have a male soldier perform in a Muslim country. Lastly, though not popular to discuss but as Abu Grahib incident has shown us, the potential for sex inspired misconduct has to be factored as a challenges toward “winning the peace.” Using males to perform certain task are highly problematic in bringing about those desired effects. By all accounts, making progress winning the “hearts and minds” battle is truly the best method for bringing about a sustainable victorious ending to GWOT operations, in Iraq for starters.

When viewed from the lens of what women are doing and have done, proponents suggest the current combat exclusion really fosters little more than a culture of exclusion. This term is commonly used to reflect “a group which has its own culture maintained through the establishment of barriers impeding access for others (Putko & Johnson, p. 33 Para 2, 2008).” In the Army, a female cannot serve in any capacity in a combat arms battalion, not because of her proven ability but rather due to gender (Putko & Johnson, 2008). Thus, in this instance and according to the accepted definition the combat arms units are appropriately perceived as “cultures of exclusion (Putko & Johnson, 2008).” The combat exclusion policy, originally intended to protect females, has an unintended consequence of fostering a sense of alienation of women by men based on the mere existence of an all male bastion.

Perspectives from the Pentagon and in the Field

Any changes to the policy will of course require a clear understanding at the various execution levels. As part of the NDRI’s 2007 monograph, semi-structured interviews with 11 senior DoD, Army and Joint Staff (JS) leaders were conducted. The purpose of these interviews were to determine the extent to which they held a common understandings of the policy; their opinion on the objective of the policy; and finally whether they felt those objectives were appropriate (Harrell et al., 2007). The participants were the five senior civilian DoD members and six general officers listed in Table 2.

This collection of senior DoD leadership was asked a series of specific questions that sought answers on their perspectives of the assignment policy for women. First, members were asked whether there was a shared interpretation of this policy relating to female soldiers (Harrell et al., 2007). They were next asked if they thought the Army was complying with this assignment policy…as they understood it to be (Harrell et al., 2007). This question was followed up with two additional clarifying inquiries. One question asked if women were assigned to direct combat units below the brigade level (Harrell et al., 2007). The second question asked if women were assigned to units that collocated with direct combat units (Harrell et al., 2007). Finally, the last broad based question sought their opinion on whether the language and concepts in the assignment policy were appropriate to future Army operations (Harrell et al., 2007).

The answers reported provided this research team the necessary insight for basing the following conclusions. First, their finding suggested that neither Army nor the senior DoD persons interviewed had a clear understanding of the assignment policy for women (Harrell et al., 2007). There appeared to be semantically based misunderstandings. The terms: enemy, forward, and collocation proved to be the primary sources of confusion (Harrell et al., 2007). The researchers suggested this disconnect fell under the classification of understanding the “letter” of the policy distinction whereas the additional questions spoke to the “spirit’ of the policy (Harrell et al., 2007).

The follow up questions designed to gather additional clarifying data shed the most light on where the source of tensions arise for proponents and opponents alike. Consistent with the policy intent, women are not assigned to units below the brigade level. However, the researchers found instances where some of the support units that women were assigned to had connectivity (Harrell et al., 2007) with such units that was tantamount to being assigned to them. Additionally, they found it could be argued that women were in fact collocated with direct combat units if one leans toward the proximity definition for collocation (Harrell et al., 2007).

Another aspect of valuable insight from findings in this NDRI monograph came from the opinions on the way forward for perhaps a revision, rescission, or other suggestion in regard the assignment policy for female soldiers. The NDRI research verdict states that current policy for assigning women is not appropriate for operations in Iraq because of the many ambiguities involved in that theatre of operations (Harrell et al., 2007). Furthermore, they add as an example that missions such as self-defense would need much greater levels of clarity. Finally, other aspects speaking to the appropriateness of the policy they’d claim are inherently subjective and well beyond the scope of this evaluation (Harrell et al., 2007).

Table 2: NDRI Senior DoD Survey Respondents

Name	Title
David S. Chu	Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness
Paul W. Mayberry	Dpty Under Secretary of Defense for Readiness
Kathryn A. Condon	Asst Dpty Chief of Staff, Office of the Dpty Chief of Staff for Operations
Mark R. Lewis	Dpty Chief of Staff, Office of the Dpty Chief of Staff for Personnel
Mark D. Manning	Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Army
LTG Walter L Sharp	Director, Joint Staff
LTG James L. Campbell	Director, Army Staff
MG Rhett Hernandez	Commander, US Army Human Resource Command
Brig Gen KC McClain	Commander, Joint Task Force for Sexual Assault Prevention & Response
RADM Donna Crisp	Joint Staff Personnel
BG Robert H. Woods	Director, Enlisted Personnel Management Directorate

At the mid-grade officer level there is also an acute need for understanding DoD policies for executing the congressional intent. At this level, feedback should be encouraged in order to provide that information back up to senior DoD leadership and ultimately lawmakers on how well “congressional intent” is being met or if there are any major unintended consequences impeding the military missions set forth. Each of the three military departments has a “War College” for providing a venue for select military officers and government civilians to reflect on and use their career experience toward exploring a wide range of strategic issues.

As part of the US Army War College class of 2006, a compendium report was assembled by two editors (COL Michele Putko and Douglas Johnson) with seven other contributors, looking at the very subject of Women in Combat. This compendium came about as a request from Colonel Michele Putko to obtain sponsorship for a “Women in Combat Study” to be used as a multi-student elective fulfilling an academic requirement. The researchers were granted permission with the caveat to make a point of including the perspectives of male officers who had commanded units with women.

From this compendium comes a survey of their classmates which sought to sample the perspective of mid-level officers identified by their respective service as “on-target” for future senior leadership assignments. Additionally, a paper included by Colonel Mark Lindon buttresses this report by documenting the progressive change in American public opinion.

As the extent to which women should be employed in combat roles, continues to be debated, the reality endures daily in the Iraq and Afghanistan theatres of operation. The Combat Exclusion Policy ought to mesh with the reality of the Army’s transformation initiatives and best fit the war in which the nation is engaged and projected to fight into the near future. This presumes an acute need for the United States is to maximize fullest utility of its armed forces in support of national security objectives.

The Army and DoD may have suffered a minor set-back in early 2006 in their cause to revise the policy into a doctrine that could be more easily understood and used in the context of the current GWOT. January 2006, the 1994 Combat Exclusion policy was made law (Putko, & Johnson, 2008). What this means is that congressional oversight is now required for any revisions to the policy. This elevates the debate above the realm of the pragmatic into the body politic.

References

Ackmann, M. (2003, April). Restricting women's military role hurts all .

Retrieved September 2, 2008, from http://www.mtholyoke.edu/offices/comm/oped/Military.shtml

Bender, B. (2005, May). Combat Support Ban Weighed for Women [Electronic version]. Boston Globe, p. 1, 2. Retrieved November 13, 2008, from http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2005/05/18/combat_support_ban_weighed_for_women/ ?

Carlson, D. K. (2005). Do Americans Give Women a Fighting Chance?. In The Gallup Poll Tuesday Briefing (pp. 16-17). Princeton, NJ: The Gallup Organization.

Center for Military Readiness. CMR analyzes 1997 RAND study. (2006, Mar).

Retrieved September 2, 2008, from http://www.cmrlink.org/WomenInCombat.asp?docID=263

Center for Military Readiness. Disrespect for regulations, Congress, and Army

women. (2008, Mar). Retrieved September 2, 2008, from

http://www.cmrlink.org/WomenInCombat.asp?docID=331

Center for Military Readiness. Grim toll of military women killed in war. (2008,

Aug). Retrieved September 2, 2008, from http://www.cmrlink.org/WomenInCombat.asp?docID=335

Center for Military Readiness. The definition of "cohesion" in close combat units

(2008, Jan).Retrieved September 2, 2008, from http://www.cmrlink.org/WomenInCombat.asp?docID=323

Center for Military Readiness. Why American service women are serving at

greater risk: women in land combat. (2003, April). Retrieved September 2, 2008, from http://www.cmrlink.org/CMRNotes/M38V8CCMRRPT16.pdf

Department of the Army. (1992, April 27). Army policy for the assignment of female soldiers (Department of the Army). Retrieved November 15, 2008, from http://www.army.mil/USAPA/epubs/pdf/r600_13.pdf

Department of the Army. (1994, June 14). United States Army chain of command (Department of the Army). Retrieved November 14, 2008, from http://www.apd.army.mil/pdffiles/p10_1.pdf

Donnelly, E. (2008, March 3). Co-ed combat on William F. Buckley’s Firing

Line team. Retrieved September 2, 2008, from

http://www.cmrlink.org/WomenInCombat.asp?docID=328

Donnelly, E. (2006, June 16). Rumsfeld dithers on women in combat.

Retrieved September 2, 2008, from http://www.cmrlink.org/WomenInCombat.asp?docID=273

Eberhart, D. (2004, December 10). Pentagon wants women in combat. Retrieved

September 2, 2008, from

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/12/9/133043.shtml

Gallup, G.H. (1980). Public Opinion 1979. In The Gallup Poll (p. 151).

Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc.

Gallup, G. H. (1993). Public Opinion 1992. In The Gallup Poll (p.198).

Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources Inc.

Glazov, J. (2003, September 1). G.I. Janes. Retrieved September 2, 2008, from

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=9D0DBC00-

2577-4F55-8A96-7B084ACE45DC

Harrell, M.C., Becket, M.C, Chiaying, S.C., & Sollinger, J.M. (2002). The status of gender integration in the military. (Document MR-1380-OSD). Sata Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Retrieved September 2, 2008, from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR1380/index.html

Harrell, M.C. & Miller, L. (1997). New opportunities for military women: effects on readiness, cohesion and morale. (Document MR-896-OSD). Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Retrieved September 2, 2008, from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monograph_reports/MR896/

Harrell, M.C., Werber L.C., Schirmer, P., Hallmark, B.W., Kavanaugh, J., Gershwin, D., Steinberg, P., (2007). Assessing the assignment policy for Army women. (Document MG-590-1-OSD). Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Retrieved October 29, 2008, from http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/MG590-1/

Harris, B. C., Simutis, Z.M. & Gantz, M.M. (2002, May). Women in the Army: an annotated bibliography. Retrieved September 2, 2008, from http://www.hqda.army.mil/ari/pdf/WomenInTheArmy-DrHarris.pdf

Kirkwood, C. (2003, April). What Kind of Nation Sends Women Into Combat? Retrieved: September 2, 2008, from http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig3/kirkwood3.html

Putko, M. & Johnson, D.V. (2008, January). Women in combat compendium.

Retrieved September 2, 2008, from

http://www.strategicstudiesinstitute.army.mil/pdffiles/PUB830.pdf

McLagan, M. & Sommers, D. (Directors). (2008, October 12). Lioness

[Television Broadcast]. Washington DC: PBS

Sagawa, N. & Campbell, N. D. (1992, October). Women in the military issue

paper: women in combat. Retrieved 5 November, 2008, from

http://www.nwlc.org/pdf/Combat.pdf

Schult, M. (2003, March). Female Soldiers Assist with Cultural Sensitivities.

Retrieved November 17, 2008, from http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/mar2003/a033003b.html

Stone, A. (2005). Panel's decision reheats women-in-combat debate. USA Today.

Retrieved November 17, 2008, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-05-19- women-combat_x.htm

Willens, J. (1996, August 7). Women in the Military: Combat Roles Considered.

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(Dept of the Army, 1994)

(Harrell et al, 2007)

PAGE

2_LitRevExample-LeadershipEffStudy.doc

Leadership Effectiveness Study

PAGE

Central Michigan University

Master of Science in Administration (MSA) Program

Course Title: MSA 600 Administration Research and Report Methods

Submitted to: [Professor’s Name]

Submitted by: [Student’s Name]

[Street Address]

[City, State and Zip Code]

Work Phone: [703-555-1234]

Home/Cell Phone: [804-555-1111]

Email: name@yourserviceprovider.com

Course Location: MSA600 Online

Submission Date: [Month, Day, Year]

Research Project Title: LITERATURE REVIEW EXAMPLE

Leadership Effectiveness Study

CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP:

I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I receive in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in this paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas, or works, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course.

Student’s Signature:

Instructor’s Comments:

Note: This literature review is from a completed MSA685 project so it is a little longer than what you might produce as a preliminary literature review in MSA600. But it demonstrates how to synthesize literature in a way that best relates to your research questions.

LEADERSHIP EFFECTIVENESS STUDY IN THE

OFFICE OF THE CHIEF, ARMY RESERVE

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE DEPUTY, CHIEF OF STAFF

MSA 600 Administrative Research and Report Methods

Submitted by:

Nora Rentillo

Project Instructor:

Dr. Thomas Kessler

December 2008

Table of Contents

Page Number

List of Tables ii

List of Figures ii

Chapter 1 Problem Definition 1

Chapter 2 Literature Review 7

Chapter 3 Research Methodology 15

Chapter 4 Data Analysis [Future]

Chapter 5 Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations [Future]

Terminology and Definitions Page 18

References Pages 19-22

Appendix A Permission to Conduct Study

Appendix B Transmittal Letter/Survey Instructions

Appendix C Survey/Interview Questions

Chapter 2 Literature Review

References were reviewed with interest in studies surrounding the leadership effectiveness and job satisfaction of Soldiers in the Office of the Chief, Army Reserve, Arlington, Virginia. A brief analysis is included in this literature review of research studies, journals, articles and website.

Leadership Effectiveness Studies

Doty and Gardes (2000) article indicate that the characteristics of humility are often purposely left out in leadership discussions because it is considered a weakness. The authors believe that this characteristic is ultimately more important than competence because it is the foundation of the quality of that leader. Humility does not have a face and is not a permanent characteristic. A leader can lose or gain humility because this virtue is imperfect in the human makeup. Individuals are taught humility by a parent, friends, mentor, teachers or coach. Leaders who are not selfish and direct their full attention to their subordinates will enhance effective group performance. The fact of the matter, humility should not be regarded as a weakness. It is quite the contrary; a leader who maintains a level of unassuming personality is likely to instill a sense of camaraderie and esprit de corps within his organization.

In an article by Doty and Gardes (2008), defines command climate as the moral foundation of the Army and the climate of a unit. Leaders at all levels are responsible and accountable for establishing the climate by their actions as to what they say and do; which can fail or succeed. There have been questions in isolated command climate resulting in behaviors that are not in line with the military ethics or a result of leadership believing that his unit was only conducting the mission based on what the situation required. Apparently, the leadership factored this behavior into their command climate and Soldiers will follow as to what they did and why they did it. The leaders must change negative command climate, they must set and enforce the standards. Leaders can set the climate for an open and honest communication within the organization. They can also include the core values; which are nonnegotiable doctrine that is essential to the unit success or failure. Overall, ethical and moral leadership will positively profit in Soldiers’ commitment and loyalty, which benefits the organization and their goals for a positive command climate.

A study by authors Sasnett and Ross (2007), examined the following: leadership frames, the number of leadership frames used by directors and the relationship between leadership frames and their perceptions of their effectiveness as a manager and as a leader. In addition, the study also identified that directors knew what their greatest strengths and weaknesses were based on their leadership frames and their effectiveness. Their greatest strengths were in the human resource area and structural skills and the use of political and symbolic skills were not used regularly. The management and leadership in this organization primary strength are in the human resource skills and this may explain how they perceive themselves as leaders rather than managers. The study had limitation identified on the three weaknesses. The first weakness study was general and limited based on response bias rate of 40.4 percent as to those individuals willing to respond to an online survey may not necessarily reflect the beliefs of all directors in the organization. The second weakness relied entirely on director’s self-perceptions of their own effectiveness. The evidence of 75 percent clearly indicated that the respondents placed themselves in the top 40 percent as effective managers and leaders. To improve this measure, the study should use either a subjective measure of effectiveness by surveying superiors or subordinates or developing a more objective measure of effectiveness. The final weakness indicates that there was a lack of pertinent information as to the length of the training program, the program size, and the background of the program in order to acquire a true response. The study found that human resource training was commonly used in orientation of the directors, along with the number of leadership training used by managers and these results varied widely throughout other industries.

Authors Sashkin, M. and Sashkin, M.G., (2003) research focused on transformational leadership (charismatic) behaviors which has a positive effect on employees productivity and job performance to include their lives. In addition, organizations with transformational leaders are an important factor for organizational productivity, performance, and perhaps even survival of the organization. Empowerment comes into play because transformational leaders must establish challenges and opportunities for employees to learn how to successfully deal with situations they may face in their work environment. There are many tools such as globalization and democratization of information and technology that will assist the transformational leader to empower employees. The authors know that there are many books written about leadership but they have their own views on how to describe leadership. First, they used an extensive range of researched-based and theory information sources. Second, they focused on areas involving leadership behaviors, leadership characteristics, and the social context of leadership. And third, they realized that other author’s views will be different than theirs. Their views on leadership involve more than motivating your employees to succeed at their goals and to have them validate certain goals they wish to achieve. Leaders will also develop an initial vision that will include a positive future state for their employees. The ultimate goal for leaders is to have the employees attain the leaders’ vision.

Madlock (2008), studied the influence of supervisor communicator competence and leadership style on employee job and communication satisfaction. A total of 220 (116 men and 104 women) full-time employees from various companies in the Midwest were involved in this research. The research found a strong relationship between supervisors’ communicator competence and their task and relational leadership styles, with supervisor communicator competence being a stronger predicator of employee job and communication satisfaction. In addition, other findings indicated that supervisor communicator competence accounted for 68% of the difference in subordinate communication satisfaction and 18% of the difference in subordinate job satisfaction, to include that there is a connection between communication, leadership, and employee job and communication satisfaction. Further research indicated that leaders that communicate competently and effectively to their employees are seen as positive leaders and this may contribute to employee job satisfaction and rewarding to the organization.

In Covey’s (2001), book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, his vision was to apply these habits in companies. The seven habits are being proactive, beginning with the end in mind, putting first things first, thinking win-win, seeking first to understand, synergizing, and sharpening the saw. Leadership, by contrast, primarily deals with influence. Leaders must base their actions on values instead of using their emotions. Next, leadership must have a mission statement in place in order to provide meaning, purpose, and direction for employees. An important element for a leader is time management, in order to remain organized, set essential priorities, and undertake important decisions immediately. An effective leader must be able to communicate, coordinate, and negotiate with a variety of individuals, seek, respect other ideas and perspectives, and continually improve themselves and their employees through training and experience. According to Covey, a leader who pursues these key concepts will appreciate the positive outcome of management-employee relations, job satisfaction, and company success.

In a study by Kouzes and Posner (2003), they discovered that your average individuals, who paved the way for others, follow similar paths and experiences. The authors included a few historic figures that were considered exemplary leaders, based on a situation or context that they were known for: Susan B. Anthony – Women’s rights; Mahatma Gandhi – National independence; Abraham Lincoln – Civil War; Florence Kelly – Fought for child labor laws; Martin Luther King, Jr. – Civil rights; Nelson Mandela – National liberation movement; and Mother Teresa – Served the poorest of the poor. The researchers can ask the question, what do these individuals have in common? The answer may vary because each challenge that they faced, whether grand or not, had a significant impact because they stood up for their beliefs during times of intense challenges and radical changes. They also had a clear set of principles and a vision to guide them through these challenges. Regardless of the time period, each case Kouzes and Posner studied, leadership was unique in each aspect about these historic figures mentioned above, some relation to their patterns of action also marked their course. Personality does not play into being a leader; it’s about practicing leadership. The attempt for this study is to offer guidance for leaders to practice as they attempt to keep their own style and guide others to achieve their goals. They took a deeper look into the complexity of the process of leadership, through case analyses and survey questionnaires, and they uncovered five practices common to personal-best leadership experiences. The five practices of exemplary leadership are: model the way; inspire a shared vision; challenge the process; enable other to act; and encourage the heart. A company or organization does not privately own these leadership practices; they are available to anyone in any organization or situation, who wants to accept the challenge. These practices are nothing new; they are just as much relevant to today as they were when they first began their investigation over two decades ago.

An article written by Taylor (2000), researched over 150 articles and essays that were written on military leadership since 1995. In reviewing this literature, he found that the articles provided him the foundation to have a better understanding of leadership in the military. He defines leadership as a process of human interactions and behaviors with an endless number of personalities and situations. Regardless, of how much research is gathered, Taylor concludes that there is not one right answer in defining leadership. There is not one book or text that can provide a checklist of teachable skills that will ensure that the individual will be effective as a military leader.

Historically, the military is constantly changing based on missions continuing to emerge in diverse parts of the world. Because of this, there is a constant impact on the military and this requires a need to search for a philosophy and to understand how leadership increases. Taylor addresses several important points that a leader should focus on to be effective and successful. They are, develop and share your vision, skill in communicating, motivating your subordinates (team and team-building), take charge when needed and timing is imperative (assess the situation) and trust (ensuring adequate training, constant communication, and clearly defining goals).

Kellerman (2004), journal explores the dark side of leadership in the human condition. She describes how leadership exercises power, authority, and influences in ways that can harm individuals or organizations. The harm is not necessarily deliberate but the results consist of carelessness or neglect. In some cases, these results can be disastrous. Leaders have a tendency to project that they are all-powerful but in reality they do not act alone and are not totally responsible for bad leadership. Leadership can be so complex, that the process can entangle other individuals to follow the same path the leader intended to have them initially follow. It is almost compared to a spider (bad leadership) stalking their prey (followers) and influences them to get tangled into the web. Leaders cannot survive alone; they need followers to either follow passively or actively regardless of the consequences. Kellerman questions, what does “bad leadership” mean? Do followers see bad leadership in shades of gray or in black or do they see it in another way that was approach from the past? Or does it have underlining standards of immoral or unethical behaviors? Or does incompetent and ineffective play a significant role? Lastly, what about the word bad leader itself? These questions do not have a definitive answer because of the complexity of defining “bad leadership”. Kallerman quoted Harlan (2003) an author of a dozen books on leadership and public policy. Harlan refers “bad leadership as the “untidy” world of human relations. Bad leadership may be even untidier than good leadership”. Kellerman researched hundreds of contemporary cases involving bad leaders and bad followers. She used a wide spectrum in private, public, and nonprofit organizations that were domestic and international, and found evidence that bad leadership falls into seven groups. They are: being incompetent; rigid, intemperate; callous; corrupt; insular and evil. Leaders have a certain advantage because they have the ability to distinguish some of these seven groups in an untidy world where the idea of bad leadership is as confusing as it is universal. The seven groups may serve a practical purpose because it may make it easier to detect where the infection points are and at which time an intervention might be able to stop bad leadership or at least stop it short of spreading. Finally, based on the research, we can at least have a clear understanding of what bad leadership consists of and come to the conclusion, it does not stand alone.

Zenger’s and Folkman’s (2002), research collected data from over 200,000 individuals who evaluated over 25,000 leaders to reveal how leaders can go from being good to being excellent; from being average to being exceptional. In addition, the researchers collected perceptual data with hard, quantitative business results, including unit profitability, retention statistics, customer satisfaction, and employee commitment measures. Stakeholders have a valuable part in this research because these leaders are the ones to set the standard to which others strive to attain. Their intent is not to present quick fixes that do not last, but to propose a leadership science that will offer values that will continue and last a lifetime. Analysis revealed there is a successful link between attributes and results, which are required for leadership to be effective. The combination of these two approaches identifies how the attributes make a difference to subordinates and peers are exactly the ones that produce better results for the shareholders. The author’s offer extensive data to enhance your thinking about leadership based on both research and experiences noted throughout the book. The researcher suggested the following ideas will assist leaders and help the organizations become more competitive: display high personal character; start small; excel at something; connect competencies and leverage combinations; use a nonlinear approach to becoming a better leader; build on your strengths and remedy fatal flaws. These ideas may have an impact on future leaders so they can be in the top ten percent in a 360-degree feedback environment.

Kolenda (2001), dedicated his book to the men and women of the United States Armed Forces world-class warriors who deserve world-class leadership. The purpose of his work is to enhance the education of military leaders. He was very fortunate to fill the pages of his book with the experiences received from the finest Army’s soldiers; his leaders, peers, and subordinates. You cannot erase their legacy; they will carry on to the next generation of men and women in the armed forces. According to Plato, “education is not the practice of putting sight into blind eyes; it is the art of turning the soul from the shadows of ignorance toward the light of truth”. Plato’s theory of education offers profound wisdom on the study of leadership. Aspiring new leaders do not take the time to assess the complex leadership problems, instead the leaders turn to quick fix formulas. They would rather use a template that was developed for general situation and take them out when the need arises. It sounds easy, but it is an inappropriate method for leadership development or educating. The key to educating a military leader requires an extensive view of the challenges of leadership in the military. Experience is a valuable tool for leaders but not all leaders reach that level of completeness. They fail to find a meaning of their experiences and are unable to draw a conclusion. The education of a leader requires the leader to utilize unlimited resources and the experiences and insights of others. The resources for education are endless and are imbedded in military history books, philosophy, theory, revealed from the past and contemporary to combat leaders. Leaders have to search their inner core, which requires the courage and humility to absorb oneself in the ideas and experiences of others; that is the true art of leadership. Kolenda expresses the fact that the art of leadership does not stand alone, leaders need to comprehend the processes that provide certain guidelines, fundamental skills, and principles or rules that make it understandable as a concept for effective military leaders.

Perkins (2000), book Leading at the Edge, compared Ernest Shackleton’s experiences as the explorer, his expedition, difficulties that he and his team endured, and remarkable triumphant. Perkins stated Shackleton’s experiences as, “this is the true essence of effective leadership”. Perkins journal also serves to the fullest extent as a unique and inspiring example of how great leaders can bring order to chaos and achieve success when faced with the most horrifying misfortune and stretched to the limits of human endurance. This story echoes in the world of business today, ruthless competition, constant change, and unrealistic demands for new innovations have forced even thriving companies to the edge of survival. His journal is an exceptional tool for exploring leadership and teamwork through the lens of business. This literature also revealed ten lessons on what it takes to be a great leader: vision and quick victories; symbolism and personal example; optimism and reality; stamina; the team message; core team values; conflict; lighten up; risk and tenacious creativity. These powerful lessons are closely interwoven and will help leaders achieve new professional heights and the success of teams and organizations.

According to an article by DePree (2004), he centered on the art of leadership: allowing individuals to do what is required of them in the most effective and humane way possible. The art of leadership can also contain mentoring as an important part of any leader. But being a mentor is both challenging and rewarding. DePree addresses three fundamental areas that are important and connect to artful leadership as being integrity, building and nurturing relationships, and community building. Integrity is an essential principle that serves society, not simply a concept to the whim of a single person; it involves all leaders. Leaders have to learn the ability to create and develop human connections with the individuals that they mentor or lead. It is crucial for leaders to also involve themselves in their community. Communities provide them with the independence and opportunities to set meaningful goals and measure their performance.

In a journal by Bossidy and Charan (2002), their main point was to get to the heart of a new theory of leadership and organization and provide crucial advice about how to improve the links between people, strategy and operations. By offering leaders ways with which they can improve individual processes, the authors create a detailed process by which leaders can master the discipline of execution. Without proper execution, even the best strategies fail. Execution needs to be part of a company’s strategy and its goals. It is the missing link between objectives and results. To understand execution, you have to keep three things in mind: execution is a discipline and integral to strategy; execution is the major job of the business leader and execution must be a core element of an organization’s culture. The heart of execution lies in the three core processes: the people process; the strategy process and the operations process. Most efforts at cultural change fail because they are not linked to improving the company’s outcomes. To change a business’s culture, you need a set of processes; a social operating mechanisms that will change the beliefs and behavior of people in a way that is linked to bottom line results. The people process is making the link with strategy and operations. If you do not get the people process right, you cannot fulfill the potential of your business. The strategy process is crating the link with people and operations. The basic goal of any strategy is simple enough: to win the customer’s preference and create a sustainable competitive advantage, while leaving sufficient money on the table for shareholders. It defines a business’s direction and positions it to move in that direction. A good strategic planning process also requires the utmost attention to the “hows” of executing the strategy. The operations process is creating the link with strategy and people. The strategy process defines where a business wants to go, and the people process defines who’s going to get it there. The operating plan provides the path for those people. It breaks long-term output into short-term targets. The assumptions on which the operating plan is based are linked to reality and are debated among the finance people and the line leaders who have to execute them.

Covey (1991), discusses the principle centered leadership effectiveness and its realistic application for any organization. According to the journal, it is realistic to believe that balance among personal, family, and professional life is possible. Principle-centered leadership is a long-term, inside-out-approach to developing people and organizations. The key to dealing with the challenges of individuals and organizations is the recognition of a principle-centered core within both ourselves and the organization. Covey understands the particular challenges of business leaders by applying his natural laws (security, guidance, wisdom, and power), or principles, of life to organizations. He also offers insight and guidelines that can assist the individuals and organizations in applying these principles both at work and at home. Leaders should make a mental note that leading is not just a new understanding of how to increase quality and productivity, but also it is a new applicaiton of importance of building personal and professional relationships in order to enjoy a more balanced, more rewarding, and more effective life.

An anonymous article (2008), emphasizes leadership is one of the most freuently studies topic in the organizational sciences. The author stressed that there has been thousands of leadership studies that have been published and thousands of pages on leadership have been written in academic books, journals, business-oriented, and general-interest publications. Regardless of all the studies and publications written, the exact nature of leadership and its relationship to the crucial elements such as subordinate satisfaction, commitment, and performance is still uncertain, to the extent that leadership consistently stays in that ”black hole”, is an unexplainable or unpredictable concept.

Job Satisfaction Studies

In Meta-Analysis by Judge and Bono (2001), they studied the four traits of self-esteem, generalized self-efficacy, locus of control, emotional stability and the correlations with job satisfaction and job performance. Their studies indicate that self-esteem; generalized self-efficacy; locus of control and emotional stability are significant predictors of both job satisfaction and job performance. However, there are questions that remain about the exact nature of the traits; whether or not they are indicators of the core self-evaluations that are in place and the processes by which they affect these outcomes. In considering the traits with job satisfaction and job performance that were observed in this study, and the high correlations among the traits, they suggested when considering these traits together it warrants further research.

Trevino and Nelson (2004) in their journal discussed why does the corporate world need another business ethics text? The reasons for writing this book came directly from complaints and suggestions by students, employees, and corporate executives. They questioned why ethics is so obscure and a mystery and they wanted to be told how to effectively manage people. This book started out with assumptions that ethics is all about human behavior in organizations. These behaviors may be influenced by managers and from the organization themselves. Another point may involve managers pressuring their employees and in turn they compromise their personal ethical standards on the job. This behavior can cause a negative effect on employees’ job performance and satisfaction. There are managers at the lower levels who compromise their ethical standards by blaming the lack of reinforcement of ethical behaviors by their peers, competition, the existence of accepted unethical practices and not enforcing the organizations ethics codes. The Ethics Resource Survey conducted a National Business Ethics Survey in 2000; a nationally representative survey of 1,500 United States employees. The results found that more than one in eight employees felt pressured from supervisors and top management to compromise ethical standards. The study recommended that top management be more involved in ethics training programs. In addition, local management conduct ethics training by using real ethical issues that employees face every day in their own work environment. In order for ethics training to be effective, organizations must have training on a regular basis because employees have a tendency to forget, changes in the ethic law, technology, etc., and conduct frequent training sessions because organizations want to send a message to their employees that ethics awareness is important to all. The authors addressed the eight steps to sound ethical decision making in business are to gather the facts, define the ethical issues, identify the affected parties (the stakeholders), identify the consequences, identify the obligations, consider your character and integrity, think creatively about potential actions, and check your gut. The fact that ethical decision making does not have one dimension, these tools are important for managers to help them make the best possible ethical decision to include, how to respond to an ethical dilemmas.

A study by Saari and Judge (2004), focused on the three major knowledge gaps between Human Resource (HR) professionals and managers in an organization regarding the causes of employee attitudes, the results of positive and negative job satisfaction, and how to measure and influence employee attitudes. The researchers reviewed each gap and provided recommendations to the related HR professionals and managers. They also provided additional recommendations and suggestions on how to enhance and implement their organizational practices in the area of employee attitudes and job satisfaction. Further research indicates that the HR professional’s and the organization have to have an understanding and be educated on what is the definition of employee attitudes and job satisfaction. The answers to those questions are unlimited because of the complexity of the human being because our cognitive, psychological and biology are involved. The HR professionals have to be more involved in the employee work situation through organizational programs and management practices. There is also research finding that there is a relationship between personality and job satisfaction. Organizations do not have an impact on employee’s personality but they can try to match and place employees in positions that are appropriate for them, and this will enhance their job satisfaction. There have been debates and confusions on the results of positive or negative job satisfaction whether satisfied employees are productive employees. Researchers and studies conducted found that the literature was weak and presented somewhat inconsistent relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. In addition, there have been various studies and the conclusion was that some managers and HR professionals indicated that the relationship between job satisfaction and performance was a “management fad, illusory and trivial. Apparently, the researchers were not satisfied and further research did not agree with this conclusion. They suggested the failure to find strong evidence in the relationship between job satisfaction and performance is based on the limited scope on defining job performance.

Kim (2002), studied the relationship between participatory management in the context of the strategic planning and job satisfaction was evaluated. The researchers distributed a survey to 4,097 employees; 1,576 employees responded to the survey, for a response rate of 38.5 percent. Response rates among departments ranged from 30 percent to 80 percent. The researchers found managers' use of a participatory management style correlated positively with job satisfaction and a participative strategic planning process. As expected, effective communication with supervisors was positively correlated with job satisfaction and a participative strategic planning process. Accordingly, the authors stated when agencies implement leadership development programs or other training for managers and supervisors, they should consider including participative management and employee empowerment techniques as key components of the programs. In addition, the study's findings demonstrate that a participative strategic planning process positively affects employee job satisfaction. To the extent that job satisfaction reduces absenteeism and turnover and the study's findings suggest that employee participation in strategic planning contributes to organizational effectiveness.

Payne and Cooper (2001), two main points of their article described the processes of emotions in the work environment and to do the same for emotional/affective occurrence in the work environment. The authors stated that this book should have read “Emotions, moods, and temperament at work”, because many of the chapters that were written tried to shed some light on the difficulty of maintaining the visual distinctions that differentiate them, and the need to consider them all in any serious forms to understand emotional processes, or the outcomes of them in the work environment. They also observed that there is a constant reference to the complexity of understanding emotional life and its relationship to cognitive experience and behavior. Another constant point that was brought up is the importance of achieving better understanding, both for improving people’s physical and emotional health, and for improving the management of people in the work environment. There are many references in this book for the need to acknowledge that the health of the workforce and the health of the work environment are intimately connected.

Branham (2004), wrote an article on the hidden reasons employees leave and how to recognize the subtle signs and acts before it is too late to stop them from leaving. Managers believe employees leave because they are persuaded by more pay or better opportunity. The underlying factor related to poor management practices or negative cultures that drove them to leave. This inequity between belief and reality keeps organizations from addressing the costly problems of employee dissatisfaction and regrettably turnover with on-target solutions. Managers need to face the facts as to why employee turnover is not an event. Employee turnover is a process of disengagement that has an unlimited scope of time when the employee actually makes the decision to leave. In addition, managers must discover how to re-engage employees who lose their motivation and learn how to institute the best practices to make their workplace a place where an employee has a choice to work there. Managers must make the decision to create a positive work environment where employees want to work, even though they control the costs of attracting, hiring, and retaining committed employees.

Perry and Mankin (2007), studied the relationships between chief executive trusts, organizational trust and work satisfaction were examined. There is an indication that trust and work satisfaction was established by different criteria, and is not necessarily related to one another. The study used five criteria to assess trustworthiness of the chief executive: degree of employee orientation, technical ability, fairness, honesty and forthrightness. Furthermore, they compared government organizations and the private sector. In government organizations, trust in management was high, employee orientation was considered important, and they trusted managers that had the quality to lead and the ability to display fairness. In the private sector, trust in executives was low, and the criteria that dominated managerial trustworthiness were honesty and forthrightness. Further studies indicate that there is a link between organizational trust and executive trust, which seems to lie in employee work satisfaction. The only time work satisfaction reaches the highest levels is when managerial trust is high. The connecting link to managerial trust, organizational trust and work satisfaction is so complex that further study is required and these three issues are related and have an effect on each other.

Getahun, Sims, and Hummer (2008) case study derives from prior research that was conducted on job satisfaction and organizational commitment among probation and parole officers from a state located in Northeast united states. The results indicated that the employees are extremely satisfied when they were able to exceed their job performance and had input and ongoing feedback from their supervisors. The two important factors in explaining employee satisfaction and possible retention of the officers was organizational culture and management style. Another interesting assessment was analyzing employee low level job satisfaction that may stem from on-the-job behavioral consequences. These undesirable behaviors may involve using work time to perform personal business, withdraw mentally from the job, higher rate of turnover, early retirements, not being totally involved in their job, and behavioral changes that impose a negative impact on their work environment. The study suggests that it is extremely important that criminal justice personnel require a supportive relationship with their supervisors to remain satisfied with their jobs. Another important point that is essential in improving the working environment and to increase the overall job satisfaction of employees is for supervisors to focus on establishing continual training programs with the emphasis on effective supervisory practices and effective communication. Finally, the study indicated that there are many employees in the criminal justice field who encounter many stressors in their work environment. They can function better if the following factors exist: effective training programs; reinforcing support from their supervisors, decision–making factors (policies and procedures) where their job is involved; and have flexibility in performing their job.

Petter, Byrnes, Choi, Fegan and Miller (2002), article looked at how important employee empowerment has grown in business and public administration. This study questioned employee’s value empowerment. They conducted inquiries through open-ended interviews with 36 street-level bureaucrats (employees who have direct interactions with citizen-consumers and who have no supervisory authority) in a public human service agency. The results of the interviews revealed that there were six dimensions of empowerment which are reflected in the views of these participants. Two of the dimensions showed values by each participant: first, the participants perceive to be adequately skilled and have the tools to perform their job; second, that they are given sufficient independence and the remaining four dimensions varied greatly on how participants valued the dimensions or not. The dimension that showed concern was decision making. Mixed results were identified. However, some of the participants placed little if any value on such involvement in decision making and some were openly negative. The study suggests that the agency reevaluate their empowerment programs by considering each employee individually rather than as a group and to include employees in the same office. To have an effective empowerment program, the organization has to have an understanding of their employees and tailor the program to accommodate all because it cannot be one size fits all.

Sharbrough, Simmons, and Cantrill (2006) conducted a study on employees of the southeast regional division of a Fortune 500 company that uses motivating language (ML). The definition of ML is verbal expressions that can occur in leader-to-worker talk. They also explored the relationship between the supervisory staff that used the following: ML; communication competence; communication; employees’ job satisfaction and perceived supervisory effectiveness. The samples consist of 136 employees who participated in the survey out of 400 person organization via an interactive Internet survey. The results supported the reliability and validity of the two ML scales. These results also measured perceived supervisory effectiveness and perceived supervisory communication competence that can be added to the ML toolbox. The results also provided additional tools for evaluating supervisory ML effectiveness. The study had an advantage by using the sample population from an industry division that extended to five levels of management, different levels of education, lengths of service, both genders, various career fields, increased the possibility of more widespread of ML application across the entire group and entire organization. Leaders can become more effective by using three types of communication: making communication (explains the rules, structures, and values of the culture of an organization); direction-giving or uncertainty-reducing communication (clarifies instructions and clears up confusion); and empathetic communication (expresses the emotions of a leader through shared feelings, praise, and criticisms). The study also addressed the need for future research concerning the context of generalization of ML and the application of leader-subordinate communications for group and organization level.

Nuff (2002), survey centered on lawyer job satisfaction, the impact of stress on lawyers, and the public’s perception of lawyers. After testing 35 lawyers and staff members, the study revealed that perceptions were different when it came to overall staff motivation and job satisfaction. The discrepancies existed in the areas of respect, having an enjoyable work environment and rapport with other employees. Another discrepancy was in whether firm gatherings included support staff. Salaries and medical benefits were most important to the lawyers that were surveyed; staff members surveyed indicated what was most important to them was respect and positive recognition from the lawyers and salary and retirement benefits were almost as important. An organization’s top priority is employee motivation and job satisfaction. In addition, it is essential for an organization to make changes on how to successfully motivate employees and understand the psychology behind employee motivation. The articles also examined the importance of employee motivation and job satisfaction to increased productivity and maintain stronger client relationships with law firms. There are many pressures in the legal profession and these can affect lawyers’ relationships with their staff and members. Furthermore, there are several factors that create occupational hazards that lawyers must contend with which includes: maintaining focus on their analytical skills and suppress any personal feelings; separate their feelings and values in order to be an objective advocate for their clients; and the negative public perception of lawyers. The combination of these factors can definitely have an impact on lawyers’ relationship with others and certainly effect employee satisfaction levels.

A journal by Hammer (2001), goal was to present a set of nine emerging business concepts that underline how the best companies around are mastering today’s turbulent environment. The nine emerging business concepts stand largely on their own merit and are the following: make it easy for your customers to do business with you; add more value for your customers; create a process enterprise; tame the beast of chaos with the power of process; base managing on measuring; end the tyranny of the organizational chart; distribute for, not to, the final customer; redesign and streamline inter-enterprise process; and embrace the radical vision of virtual integration. These tools are the new ideas and new techniques to develop an action plan for the twenty-first century. Hammer stated this phrase so eloquently in a raw sense of form, “Just as you build on the work of your predecessors, it is your responsibility to leave your successors a better platform on which they can build”. Companies must be prepared to respond and cope with tomorrow’s agenda for change that never ends.

Authors Barrick and Ryan (2003), based their book on the notion that every human being has personalities, and those personalities affect our behavior at work. This notion is widely accepted by psychologists, managers, and employees. Because of this, there is a considerable interest in the field of industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology on the topic of personality and its influence in the work environment. Today, you can pick up a current research journal in human resources, organizational behavior, I/O psychology, or the in the general area of management and find at least one article dealing with personality at work. But while there is an overabundance of information related to the narrow area of personality testing and employee selection, there has been no definitive source offering a broader perspective on the overall topic of personality in the workplace. The authors researched a array of expert authors that discussed the connection of personality to a wide range of outcomes beyond performance, including counterproductive behaviors, contextual performance, retaliatory behaviors, retention, learning, knowledge creation, and the process of sharing that knowledge. Throughout the book, the authors present theoretical perspectives, introduce new models and frameworks, and integrate and synthesize prior studies in ways that will stimulate future research and practice.

Summary

This chapter presented a review of selected published studies, journals, articles, and websites which appear to make some singular or significant contribution to various aspects of leadership effectiveness area which were useful for this research project. The selected topics do not represent any specific area of leadership activity, but rather cut across a number of areas; business, education, military, explorers, “bad leadership”, concepts and strategies and strengths and weakness of an effective leader. The most striking thing about defining leadership is it a term that identifies an increasingly greater extent as one of the significant aspects of human activity and is still in a state of flux and confusion. Trying to define leadership is an endless process and ultimately will get lost in infinity, but further investigation of leadership can be beneficial for the next generation of researchers. Selected published studies, journals, articles, and websites were review on job satisfaction. The review found literature available on the elements of the research topic, for example, Employees Attitudes, Behaviors that Affect the Work Environment, Poor Leadership, and Employee Empowerment. The analysis reveals, regardless if the company is a Fortune 500 company or a law firm, there will always be changes in organizations. These changes do affect job satisfaction and employee performance. Organizations have the ability to make the change process smooth and more effective in order to gain the satisfaction from their employees and customers. Job satisfaction is a product of the events and conditions that people experience on their jobs.

References

Anonymous. (2008, August). Leadership Theories and Studies. Reference for Business, 9.

Army Regulation 600-50. (1988, January). Standards of Conduct for Department of the Army Personnel. Washington, DC: Headquarters, Department of the Army.

Army Regulation 600-100. (2007, March). Army Leadership. Washington, DC: Headquarters, Department of the Army.

Barrick, M. R., & Ryan, A. M. (2003). Personality and work: Reconsidering the role of personality in organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 113-124, 262-270.

Bossy, L., & Charan, R. (2002). Execution: The discipline of getting things done (1st ed.). New York: Crown Publishing Group.

Branham, L. (2004). The hidden reasons employees leave: How to recognize the subtle signs and act before it’s too late. AMACOM, 87-99, 128-142.

Cleveland, H. (2003). Nobody in charge: Essays on the future of leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 123-130.

Covey, S. R. (1991). Principle centered leadership: Strategies for personal and professional effectiveness (3rd ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster.

Covey, S. R. (2001). The seven habits of highly effective people. New York: Simon & Schuster, 70-78.

DePree, M. (2004). Leadership is an art. New York: Doubleday, 11-15, 113-115.

Doty, J., & Gerdes, D. (2000). Humility as a leadership attribute. Military Review, 80 (5), 89-90.

Doty, J., & Gelineau, J. (2008), Command climate. Army Arlington, 58 (7), 22-24.

Getahun, S., Sims, B., & Hummer, D. Job satisfaction and organizational commitment among probation and parole officers: A case study. Retrieved August 19, 2008, from http://www.libraryjournal.com/article/ca6483878.html

Hummer, M. (2001). The agenda: What every business must do to dominate the decade (3rd ed.). New York: Crown Business.

Judge, T. A., & Bono, J. E. (2001). Relationship of core self-evaluations traits-self-esteem, generalized self-efficiency, locus of control, and emotional stability with job satisfaction and job performance: A meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(1), 80-92.

Kellerman, B. (2004). Bad leadership: What it is, how it happens, why it matters. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing, 15-25, 117-119.

Kim, S. (2002). Participative management and job satisfaction: Lessons for management leadership. Public Administration Review, 62 (2), 231-241.

Kolenda, C. (2001). Leadership: The warrior’s art. Carlisle, PA: The Army War College Foundation Press, 65-72, 251-259.

Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2003). Leadership challenge. The leadership practices inventory (Series, #53) (3rd ed., pp.1-496). New York: Wiley, John & Sons, Inc.

Madlock, P. E. (2008). The link between leadership style, communicator competence and employee satisfaction. The Journal of Business Communication, 45 (1), 61-68.

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productivity and stronger client relationships. Journal of Law and Health, 17 (2), 385-425.

Payne, R. L., & Cooper, C. L. (Eds.). (2001). Emotions at work: Theory, research and applications in management. Chichester, England: John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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Perry, R. W., & Mankin, L. D. (2007). Organizational trust, trust in the chief executive and work satisfaction. Public Personnel Management, 36 (2), 165-200.

Petter, J., & Byrnes, P., Choi, D. L., Fegan, F.,& Miller, R. (2002). Dimensions and patterns in Employee empowerment: Assessing what matters to street-level bureaucrats. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 12 (3), 377-425.

Saari, L. M., & Judge, T. A. (2004). Employee attitudes and job satisfaction. Human Resource Management, 43 (4), 395-407.

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Sharborough, W. C., Simmons, S. A., & Cantrill, D. A. (2006). Motivating language in idustry: Its impact on job satisfaction and perceived supervisor effectiveness. The Journal of Business Communication, 43 (4), 322-363.

Taylor, R. L., & Rosenbach, W. E. (Eds.). (2000). Military leadership: In pursuit of excellence. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Trevino, L., & Nelson, K. (2004). Managing business ethics: Straight talk about how to do it right. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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3_LitRevExample-OutsourcingIT.doc

Outsourcing IT

PAGE

Central Michigan University

Master of Science in Administration (MSA) Program

Course Title: MSA 600 Administration Research and Report Methods

Submitted to: [Professor’s Name]

Submitted by: [Student’s Name]

[Street Address]

[City, State and Zip Code]

Work Phone: [703-555-1234]

Home/Cell Phone: [804-555-1111]

Email: name@yourserviceprovider.com

Course Location: MSA600 Online

Submission Date: [Month, Day, Year]

Research Project Title: LITERATURE REVIEW EXAMPLE

OUTSOURCING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WITHIN

THE DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP:

I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I receive in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in this paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas, or works, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course.

Student’s Signature:

Instructor’s Comments:

OUTSOURCING INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WITHIN

THE DEPARTMENT OF THE NAVY

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE UNITED STATES MARINE CORPS

MSA 600 Administrative Research and Report Methods

Submitted by:

James J. Richards

Project Instructor:

Dr. Thomas Kessler

December 2008

Table of Contents

Page Number

List of Tables ii

List of Figures ii

Chapter 1 Problem Definition 1

Chapter 2 Literature Review 7

Chapter 3 Research Methodology 15

Chapter 4 Data Analysis [Future]

Chapter 5 Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations [Future]

Terminology and Definitions Page 18

References Pages 19-22

Appendix A Permission to Conduct Study

Appendix B Transmittal Letter/Survey Instructions

Appendix C Survey/Interview Questions

Chapter 2 Literature Review

There is a tremendous amount of research data available on the subject of military organizations outsourcing information technology. This chapter presents a summary of the information and concepts derived from published articles and text findings concerning NMCI and the DoN. The study investigates the effects of commercial outsourcing on a large military IT network that if compromised has the potential to produce devastating consequences on the United States populace. Specific issues addressed are client reactions, change and uncertainty in future IT Management for the Navy and Marine Corps, and strengths and weaknesses of commercializing a military infrastructure.

A Single Reliable, Robust, and Useful Network

During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, most Marines and Sailors to include the author of this paper hand wrote letters home that took weeks for recipients to receive. Mission orders were flown to troops in the field from carriers eating up valuable hours before actually being executed. Today, in the Arabian Sea, crew members on carriers read and write 60,000 e-mails a day, troops electronically receive orders in a matter of seconds and missions are executed on the fly (Clemins, 2004). What contributed to the culture change in the way the military today perform their management daily duties? In an analysis of reactions to the sudden advance in IT since the Gulf War, factors include: 1) birth of electronic mail on the internet and its use as a information gathering tool; 2) battle spaces digitally linked to deliver voice, video, and data to aircraft, surface ships, unmanned aerial vehicles and satellites (Clemins, 2004); 3) collaboration software products, such as Microsoft SharePoint, and web based tools like wikis and portals (Hardy, 2008); 4) development and introduction of the intranet for private industry and Department of Defense (DoD) information sharing; 4) communication security such as firewall implementation, cryptographic and decryption hardening, and secure shell tunneling; 5) wireless technology; 6) commercial companies developing products to facilitate collaboration needs and shaping their marketing messages to capitalize on client areas of interest (Hardy, 2008).

The Navy has confirmed that at the beginning of the NMCI program it was to leverage the purchasing power of the department and increase overall performance by state of the art technology both in assets and security to include up-to-date software installments. Kevin Durkin, EDS Vice President for NMCI client advocacy and customer satisfaction states “The Navy and Marine Corps are doing a great job of balancing usage with security,” (Thuermer, 2008). Yet, the Navy points out that when the decision was made to purchase the NMCI contract all security aspects were covered at the time, the problem now is the need for supporting a wireless architecture. The Navy needs a system that can incorporate wireless technologies efficiently, securely, and in a cost effective manner (Thuermer, 2008).

As the information age progressed, the Navy acknowledged having a hard time relying on old incompatible, unsecured networks. What they sought was a robust and reliable secure network that combined voice, video and data connecting all 360,000 computers (this data is for shore-based only; more research is required for ship platform systems) into a single coherent intranet. NMCI eliminated over 200 gateways, formed “server farms” to reduce access and vulnerabilities, and took a security depth layered defense. Perhaps the defining moment for NMCI was right after the September 11 attacks when the General Accounting Office echoed by the FBI asserted that

“A clear risk exists that terrorists or hostile nations could launch computer-based attacks” (Clemins, 2004).

Research on Armed Forces Level of Satisfaction

The NMCI caters to more than 660,000 Marines, sailors, and civilian contractors in 620 locations in the United States, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and Japan. Regardless of the budget for IT, the question remains; “Are the majority using NMCI satisfied or not?” Congressional lawmaker Representative Mark Kirk, Republican from Illinois during a March 8, 2006 House Military Quality of Life appropriations subcommittee meeting called the contract “a waste of money” (Hoellwarth, 2006). Kirk criticized the Navy for spending money to fix a system that is “fundamentally hostile to people communicating” (Hoellwarth, 2006). Chief of Naval Operations Admiral Mike Mullen defended NMCI during the hearing advising that NMCI provided well in a secure environment withstanding viruses and “where there was severe intrusion and damage, in that regard it’s very strong” (Hoellwarth, 2006). In the article, Kirk points out that NMCI’s strength is also it’s weakness, restricting authorized software and limiting the size of files over the intranet. Interesting is that while the Navy finds NMCI functional, the Marine Corps Commandant at the time of the hearing General Hagee disagreed, saying “We have to balance the security versus being able to communicate with one another” (Hoellwarth, 2006). Perhaps a better solution would be a web based communication network?

According to an EDS news release on 29 July 2008, NMCI reached it’s highest ratings conducted from an online survey with a 87.5 customer satisfaction rating. A total of 5 major organizations achieved over 90% satisfaction, they were: 1) U.S. Marine Corps Logistics Command; 2) Navy Supply Systems Command; 3) Assistant for Administration, Office of the Under Secretary of the Navy; 4) Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education; 5) Commander Navy Installations Command (source). If such levels of satisfaction are being reported accurately, there must be a survey conducted from an unbiased uniform member to compare with EDS findings. EDS did report that respondents were least satisfied with Outlook e-mail performance, accessing authorized web sites, log-on performance, and broadband remote access service (source). They used random sampling generated from 7,000 comments, with a series of questions rated on a 10 point scale.

Budget Restraints

The military is constantly trying to get the best bang for the buck as commercial vendors compete for DoD contracts. Paul Strassmann notes that “the proposed fiscal year 2009 information technology budget does not convey a sense of urgency to fund more rapid migration to network-centric systems” (Strassman, 2008) . Even with the $33 billion dollar DoD budget, which depicts a spending reduction of 3.9 compared to fiscal year 2007, the Air Force, Army and Navy budgets have been reduced by 9.5 percent, whereas the IT budget has increased by 9 percent” (Strassman, 2008). After reviewing the overall budget, it was determined that the IT budget was actually greater than funds allotted to the Warfighter (armory, weapons, body armor, etc..). The following depicts the total DoD budget:

image1.png

After reviewing numerous articles, one must draw upon his or her own conclusion as to whether the DoD budget is enough for IT resources. The U.S. Army appears to be facing the same technology challenges as the Navy and Marine Corps with their LandNetWar 2008 (IT collaboration program) as Lt. Gen Jeffrey A. Sorenson, U.S. Army Chief Information Officer (CIO) is quick to point out that “the focus of Army IT modernization, is fragmented, unsecure, expensive and not standardized” (Ackerman and Boland, 2008). General Sorenson states, “the Army is entering a period of tremendous uncertainty in terms of budget, with only half of the IT programs currently funded” (Ackerman and Boland, 2008).

The central theme on budget restraint readings is that there is a concern on how, why and when the DoD will be able to transform the current $14.9 billion incompatible infrastructure into a reliable, robust and useful network? The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) statistics identify 2,193 DoD IT projects. The following chart depicts proposed 2009 IT projects:

image2.png

The Navy and Marine Corps were the first to incorporate all shared resources into a single network. However, it did come with a hefty price of about 9 billion dollars with much going towards the typical stand-alone requirements that come along with an IT project such as “prototyping, architecture, project planning, initial design, detail planning, design reviews, coding, code inspections, independent verification and validation, configuration management, unit testing, function testing, acceptance testing, quality assurance, installation/training and project management” (Strassman,2008). Strassman listed the top 20 IT Projects in a table with NMCI having top priority at $1.6 billion budgeted for FY09. Highlighting the large costs associated with the 2,193 projects, it was mentioned that “ a shared infrastructure could offer significant price reductions” especially after maintenance fees are thrown in, “while accelerating progress to an environment that looks more like Google than NMCI” (Strassman, 2008).

Thomas Kessler and Patricia Kelly emphasis in their text, Federal IT Capital Planning and Investment Control that “the practical way for an agency to maximize return on its IT investment is to treat its collective set of IT assets as a portfolio and to actively analyze, strategize, monitor, and manage the entire portfolio so that it achieves optimal performance” (Kessler and Kelly, 2008). Kessler and Kelly go on to explain that in the past most organizations opted for a decentralized budgeting process and failed with this management approach because the program may have benefited more than one system. Regardless of the approach in managing the IT budget, all authors seem to agree that a cost-benefit analysis must be conducted and the risks must be weighed against performance.

Ever Changing Technology

Naval ships would arrive into port only to have to pull optic fiber cabling over the ship’s side and connect to a black box somewhere located on the pier in order to receive secure voice and data transmissions. The cables sometimes frayed by corrosion, mishandling and pier damage often caused outages and high maintenance fees (Meredith, Blanche, Mastin, and Watson, 2008). The answer to the problem according to Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center (SSC) is new technology – the Wireless Pier Connection System (WPCS).

All services within the military have struggled to find a common means to deal with management of large data while efficiently utilizing the IT budget. Bottlenecking due to high amounts of bandwidth streaming through insufficient pipelines would not only cripple networks but more importantly delay vital information needed to accomplish missions. In 2006, the Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) awarded contracts to industry if they provided a “utility computing solution” that solved streamlining, storage failures, and server management (Gerber, 2008). Nortel Government Solutions (NGS) using virtualization, letting software do the work of hardware, has implemented a process called cloud computing “a layered approach, which is computing services, over data, over storage, to create a stack of cloud services in line with industry developments like Google and Amazon” (Gerber, 2008).

New technologies such as WPCS, cloud computing, wireless BlackBerry’s, software development, and information processing have made cyberspace complex and vital to manage. “Cyberspace is not an AOR [area of responsibility] issue”, states Anthony Bargar, a senior policy analyst at the Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Information and Identity Assurance (Adams, 2008). With new technologies come new threats and Bargar points out that “the cross-cutting cascade effects of a cyber attack cannot be ignored” (Adams, 2008).

Security A Major Piece of the Puzzle

Vice Admiral Nancy Brown, USN, director for command, control, communications and computer systems (J-6) Joint Staff, quotes “not everything needs protection…building a “moat around everything” is not the solution to providing the necessary protection (Adams, 2008). The Navy and Marine Corps must decide what assets are critical to defend and are in need of mechanisms to protect. Information Assurance (IA) depends largely on three things availability, integrity, and confidentiality (CISSP, 2007). Enemies attacking the network are growing more sophisticated and “in 2008 alone, moreover, 72 percent of networks with more than 100 PCs have been infected” (Adams, 2008). Furthermore, studies reveal by the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team (U.S.-CERT) claim a 55 percent incident increase from 2006 to 2007 (Adams,2008). Yes, there may not be a need for a moat in place but that does not mean a gate guard is not a necessity.

John Grimes, the assistant secretary of defense for networks and information integration, describes the need for security due to the ever increasing Global Information Grid (GIG). Grimes states that the GIG “embraces 21 satellite communications gateways, 120,000 commercial telecom circuits, some 15,000 networks, 7 million computers world-wide and thousands of warfighting and support software applications, 34 mainframes, 6,100 servers and 1,700 terabytes of storage” (Adams, 2008).

In 2006 the Air Force had their network compromised and the hacker obtained 33,000 Air Force personnel Personal information (PI). “This prompted the Air Force to conduct a pilot study that used source code analysis tools to analyze different applications” (Garcia, 2008). Gregory Garcia, a member of the Senior Executive Service, Headquarters 754th Electronic Systems Group (ELSG), Maxwell Air Force Base- Gunter Annex, Alabama, in an interview by MIT Editor Harrison Donnelly says “that the source code found potential vulnerabilities in all nine of the applications” tested (Garcia, 2008). After the Air Force teamed up with Homeland Security, Garcia states that “we decided to start with the area of code analysis, penetration testing and application shielding, combined with a focus on helping individual program offices understand the importance and process of addressing security throughout the life cycle of code” (Garcia, 2008).

According to the readings, NMCI will face major obstacles within the realms of security.

Managing a Military Network

Lt. Cmdr. David T. Purkiss describes managing the GIG like “the six blind men in the famous Indian legend each describing an elephant very differently, defining such concepts depends largely on one’s perspective” (Purkiss, 2008). Indeed, depending on who and how you approach the subject of information management depends largely on the past experiences of the individual involved and very rarely is there a consensus on the complexities and overall idea on how the network should be ran. Purkiss does go on to say that most should agree on basically three ideas or concepts: 1) delivery and support of secure and reliable communications is extraordinary complex; 2) information professionals and technicians are entrusted to transform concepts into reality; 3) and most importantly, we can and must do better! “(Purkiss, 2008). Brigadier General Susan Lawrence, USA, the commanding general of Network Technology Command (NET-COM)/9TH Signal Command warns that data is multiplying at a very rapid rate and “the Army must manage data smartly and efficiently” (Ackerman and Boland, 2008). Gen. Lawrence states that today “the young soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan use traditional forms of communication such as email much less than they do Web 2.0 aspects such as wikis and blogs” (Ackerman and Boland, 2008).

The Clinger-Cohen Act of 1996 has yielded great improvements in IT management, significantly with large-scale projects. However, this seems to work better for private industry with the implementation of a chief information officer (CIO) and not so much the military. Kessler and Kelly note that even after the passing of the Clinger-Cohen Act, “federal agencies were still struggling to implement IT investment management principles, largely because of resistance to changing long-standing approaches, power arrangements, and organizational culture” (Kessler and Kelly, 2008). Pukiss opts for the Information Infrastructure Library (ITIL) developed in the United Kingdom in 1992 and serves as a set of “guides and techniques for managing an organization’s IT infrastructure, development, operations and maintenance in concert with the business objectives of the organization” (Purkiss, 2008). Other authors place their trust for performance in software management tools such as SolarWinds, NetQos, IBM Tivolia, and SMARTS fault tolerance and configuration programs. It must be reckoned that after NMCI is phased out, some sort of situational awareness or network common operational picture (NetCop) is paramount for the Navy and Marine Corps not only in managing their IT assets but for the health and survival of the network.

The Effects of Outsourcing

To source or not to source, that is the answer. There is a recent joke filtering around about outsourcing. President Bush doesn’t want to fund the road construction bill, saying it is too expensive. He’s looking at possible outsourcing – having our roads built in China or India, where it can be done cheaper.

The Navy and Marine Corps tried to manage their infrastructure on its own accord and then realized that outsourcing full control of assets and technicians to the private sector to include administration rights, helpdesk procedures, troubleshooting, and maintenance was the solution for management satisfaction. Eight years later they have come to the idea that outsourcing so much was a mistake. But why? And what next, a hybrid approach?

Planning for the next generation enterprise network (NGEN) has top brass reconsidering the best way to manage the IT network and searching for any and all possible solutions. Kessler and Kelly stress “agencies can easily become too dependent on a single contractor [EDS in this case] and lose their ability to control and manage their own systems…the practical way to do this is not by outsourcing all knowledge of the underlying design, software, and operational characteristics to a single contractor” (Kessler and Kelly, 2008). For doing so would cripple the competitive advantage for the organization when dealing with other vendors on advance technology.

References

Ackerman, Robert and Boland, Rita (2008). “Army Programs Face Daunting Challenges.” Major communications elements deal with budgetary, cultural and technological issues. Signal (November 2008). p.95

Adams, Charlotte (2008). “Securing Information Vexes Defense Planners.” Signal (November 2008).p.107

Clemins, Archie (2004). “Back Talk: NMCI Best Hope for Spreading Digital Revolution.” Navy Times.

Garcia, Gregory (2008). “Information Enabler: Driving War-Winning Decisions Through Responsive Solutions.” Military Information Technology. (November 2008). Pgs. 27,28,29

Gerber, Cheryl (2008). “With Its Agile, Scalable Structure, Cloud Computing Can Deliver On-Demand Quality of Service on Existing Enterprise DoD and Intelligence Networks.” Military Information Technology. (November 2008). pgs. 13,14,16,17

Hardy, Michael (2008). “Initiatives Create Fresh Market for Tech Companies.” Washington Technology. (March 2008).

Harris, Shon (2005). Exam Guide, Third Edition. P. 228

Hollwarth, John (2006). “NMCI Unfriendly and Running Late.” Navy Times. (March 2006).

Kelly, Patricia and Kessler, Thomas (2008). Federal IT Capital Planning and Investment Control. Vienna: Management Concepts, Inc. pgs. 17, 309

Meredith, Heather, Blanche, Greg, Mastin, Jackie, and Watson, Chris (2008). “Navy Ship-to-Shore via Wireless Connection.” SPAWAR Systems Center Atlantic and Commander, Navy Installations Command collaborate with Joint Interoperability Test Command, CHIPS (November 2008). pgs. 58,59

Purkiss, David (2008). “Empowering the Information Systems Technician and Information Professional Workforce with an ITIL Framework.” CHIPS (September 2008). pgs. 16,17

Raduege, Harry (2008). “Change Is a Requisite for the Future of Network-Centric Operations.” Signal (November 2008). P.140

Strassman, Paul (2008). “Does the 2009 Budget Support Network-Centric Missions?” Signal (November 2008).

U.S. Dept of Navy, Navy Wire Service, Better Decisions Faster (Washington D.C.: GPO, 2001), 2.

Dept of Navy, NMCI Management Office, Agreement on Contract Modifications, (Arlington, VA: 2005)

PAGE

_1289980865.xls

Chart1

Logistics (7%)

Warfighter (35%)

All Other (3%)

Medical (4%)

Finance & Accounting (2%)

Human Resources (3%)

Communications Infrastructure (28%)

Other IT Infrastructure (18%)

DoD FY09 Budget

DoD FY09 Budget: $33.031 B

Sheet1

	DoD FY09 Budget
Logistics (7%)	7
Warfighter (35%)	35
All Other (3%)	3
Medical (4%)	4
Finance & Accounting (2%)	2
Human Resources (3%)	3
Communications Infrastructure (28%)	28
Other IT Infrastructure (18%)	18

_1289980866.xls

Chart1

Army	Army	Army
Navy and Marine Corps	Navy and Marine Corps	Navy and Marine Corps
Air Force	Air Force	Air Force
Federal Agencies	Federal Agencies	Federal Agencies

Series 1

Series 2

Series 3

216

973

466

538

Sheet1

	Series 1	Series 2	Series 3
Army	216
Navy and Marine Corps	973
Air Force	466
Federal Agencies	538
	To resize chart data range, drag lower right corner of range.

4_LitRevExample-ArmyReset.doc

Army Equipment Reset Program

PAGE

Central Michigan University

Master of Science in Administration (MSA) Program

Course Title: MSA 600 Administration Research and Report Methods

Submitted to: [Professor’s Name]

Submitted by: [Student’s Name]

[Street Address]

[City, State and Zip Code]

Work Phone: [703-555-1234]

Home/Cell Phone: [804-555-1111]

Email: name@yourserviceprovider.com

Course Location: MSA600 Online

Submission Date: [Month, Day, Year]

Research Project Title: LITERATURE REVIEW EXAMPLE

A Program Evaluation of the Army’s Equipment Reset Program in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)

CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP:

I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I receive in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in this paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas, or works, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course.

Student’s Signature:

Instructor’s Comments:

A Program Evaluation of the Army’s Equipment Reset Program in Support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)

MSA 600 Administrative Research and Report Methods

Submitted by:

Alton Walton

Project Instructor:

Dr. Thomas Kessler

December 2008

Table of Contents

Page Number

List of Tables ii

List of Figures ii

Chapter 1 Problem Definition 1

Chapter 2 Literature Review 7

Chapter 3 Research Methodology 15

Chapter 4 Data Analysis [Future]

Chapter 5 Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations [Future]

Terminology and Definitions Page 18

References Pages 19-22

Appendix A Permission to Conduct Study

Appendix B Transmittal Letter/Survey Instructions

Appendix C Survey/Interview Questions

Chapter 2 Literature Review

The purpose of this chapter is to research and present scholarly work that experts have presented with regards to strategic planning, transformation, acquisition, technological modernization and industrialization. This review addresses similar challenges throughout the corporate industry that promotes strategic planning, readiness, and the transformation of the Army in the 21st century. Funding is one of the Army’s major challenges, procurement of funds from the Department of Defense and the prioritization and distribution plan across the industry.

Shoemaker (2006) stated that requirements to reset our equipment and return our units to full readiness upon their return from operational deployments is fundamental to t he Army`s ability to do core tasks: (1) to sustain the full range of our current global commitments (which extend well beyond operations in Iraq and Afghanistan) and, (2) to continue to prepare for emerging threats. In and of itself, resetting the force is a major undertaking. Resetting the force - while simultaneously fighting the Global War on Terror and transforming to become a more powerful, more flexible, and more deployable force - is a dramatically more complex task - that necessitates a sustained national commitment and a careful balancing of resources.

To fully appreciate AMC’s reset challenge, it is important to establish a common set of definitions. Terms like recapitalization, refurbishment, repair, and replace are often used interchangeably; however, they have very different meanings. Reset includes a series of actions taken to restore unit equipment to a desired level of combat capability after returning from contingency operations.

The reset process brings unit equipment to full combat-ready condition, either for its next rotation in support of current operations or for other, unknown future contingencies. Reset actions include repair of equipment and replacement of equipment lost to combat operations or worn to the point of being uneconomically repairable. Reset also includes recapitalization of equipment where feasible and necessary.

Shoemaker (2006) stated that resetting the force takes time, money, and the full cooperation of our joint and industrial partners. We seek to do this as efficiently and effectively as possible in order to use resources wisely and maintain preparedness for future deployments. Resetting units is not a one-time event. It is required for all redeploying units. In simplest terms, our reset program is designed to reverse the effects of combat stress on our equipment.

Shoemaker (2006) Amidst the constant demands of war, higher operational tempo, rough desert environments, and limited depot maintenance in theater, our deployed fleets are aging about four years, on average, for every year deployed in theater - dramatically shortening their life. Only through a fully funded reset program can we extend the life of the operational fleet and remain ready for protracted conflicts. Where necessary we reset our forces forward to future modular designs, thereby leveraging the opportunity to accelerate Army transformation. Rather than returning them to legacy configurations, we are increasing preparedness for future challenges. Every dollar we spend to restore our current capacity actually serves as an investment in future capabilities. We will require a sustained national commitment to complete this essential work.

Casey (2007) stated that the Army must continue to reset their units and to rebuild the readiness consumed in operations, to prepare them for deployments and future contingencies, and they must add equipment reset in all future redeployment operations. Relevant studies for this research project would include the presentation of problems with equipment density, equipment standards that are affected by the operation tempo (OPTEMPO).

Strategic Planning

Andrew Taylor (2007) concluded that the latest estimates come as support for the war in Iraq among [Bush]'s GOP allies in Congress is beginning to erode. Senior Republicans such as Pete Domenici of New Mexico and Richard Lugar of Indiana have called for a shift in strategy in Iraq and a battle over funding the war will resume in September, when Democrats in Congress begin work on a funding bill for the war.

The $12 billion a month "burn rate" includes $10 billion for Iraq and almost $2 billion for Afghanistan, plus other minor costs. That's higher than Pentagon estimates earlier this year of $ 10 billion a month for both operations.

Two years ago, the average monthly cost was about $8 billion. Among the reasons for the higher costs is the cost of repairing and replacing equipment worn out in harsh conditions or destroyed in combat. To overcome the unprecedented stress placed on equipment, reset funding will be needed for two to three years, or more, beyond the duration of the current conflict.

Covell (2008), he found that a debate in which occurs frequently in companies, especially during budget time or periods of performance pressure, is about whether a given overhead function or activity is "strategic" or not. The relevant questions are: Is this activity or investment essential to the firm's strategic success? Is it a "must have" for the company to deliver its source of advantage, whether framed as responsiveness to the customer, flexibility, service or product breadth, product innovation and quality of care? Only "must-have" activities should be considered strategy-enabling assets, and these assets should be regularly evaluated for their contribution to specific competitive outcomes.

AMC has managed these changes in the external and internal environment through four major avenues of change: organizational change, building a culture of innovation, focus on complex services and knowledge management. Their goal is to transform Army Materiel Command from an organization that is production-based, commodity-focused and platform-centric to one that is service-based, capabilities-focused and unit-centric.

Morland (2008) believed that once its captains are aware of the ethical risks their organization faces, the corporate ship will retrieve its moral compass. The overhaul of an organizational culture is therefore largely seen as a top–down affair, with leadership setting the tone, implementing ethics management initiatives and leading by example. That high-level individuals can and do play an important role in articulating priorities and shaping the sensibilities of employees within organizations is not to be disputed. However, if the role of such individuals is not to be denied, it is also not to be overestimated.

As the cost for equipment repair continues to rise, the Army needs a sustained level of investment to replenish its capital equipment. Although the Army knows this intuitively, minimal attention is given to this growing problem when making resourcing decisions. Rather than set aside the funds to replace a certain percentage of our assets each year, the Army focus on what they need today. When resources are less than requirements-that is, when money is less than mission-the Army focuses on paying soldiers and training with existing equipment before we invest in tomorrow's requirements. Often, that leads to penny-wise, decisions on what’s needed in the future.

Transformation

Management innovation is defined as the invention and implementation of a management practice, process, structure or technique that is new to the state of the art and is intended to further organizational goals. Adopting an intra-organizational evolutionary perspective, AMC’s role as the Army executive change agents inside and outside the organization in driving and shaping four processes - motivation, invention, implementation, and outsourcing are examples that define a model of how management innovation comes about.

Gen. Benjamin Griffin, (2007), Lean Six Sigma (LSS) made its Army debut with AMC. Lean Six Sigma was officially introduced in 2002 by the then AMC commanding general, Paul Kern. Gen. Kern subsequently directed a transition to LSS in late 2003. LSS allows AMC to increase the number of vehicles and systems repaired, improve delivery times and reduce repair cycles-while decreasing costs. LSS achieved $110 million in savings in 2005.

Yauch and Krishnamuthy (2007, 5), suggested that lean is a methodology of developing a value stream for all products that eliminates waste in waiting time, transport, inventories, and defects, and focuses on a level production schedule.

Corpus Christi Army Depot, TX, a subordinate command of AMC, used LSS to reevaluate the T700 engine, used in the Blackhawk helicopter production line. LSS reduced the overhaul cycle time from over 300 hours to a mere 81 hours, reduced production time from 261 days to 100 and increased efficiency by 83%. But perhaps most impressive was the improvement in time between replacement, from 300 hours to over 1,400-tripling the lifespan of the T700 engine.

Yauch and Krishnamuthy studies of lean six sigma methods, transformation theories are equally important in streamlining process, and how they are incorporated in technological innovations. Organizational change must occur quickly, and accelerating change requires extricating antiquated cycles and processes. Rapid acquisition and fielding of new technology, spiral integration of system of systems innovations and exploitation of best business practices demand new ways of thinking and new ways of managing change at every level of Army leadership.

It is probably most important that these kinds of innovations start at the top to prevent us from being "process bound" with staff methodologies that date from the Cold War. This change of mindset must be accompanied by an acquisition and resourcing strategy that embraces joint capabilities from the beginning of a program, with the goal of joint interdependence, a step beyond joint interoperability. AMC’s ultimate challenge is to forge new and innovative management practices at the top echelons of leadership within the command.

Technological Modernization

AMC introduced a program to address the Army's growing supply chain challenges. This program is a state-of-the-art tools that enable the command to send out supplies to soldiers anywhere in the world known as Logistics Modernization Program (LMP). This program replaces a legacy system that’s more than 30 years old. This program is currently in the implementation phase and is expected to continue through 2010.

There are numerous capabilities that are becoming possible as a result of this integration process that will eventually link all activities from one end of the chain to the other including product acquisition, product scheduling, order processing, inventory management, transportation and streamline the process to increase its effectiveness. Not only will this ensure that supply chain management is a well-oiled machine, it will eventually decrease the amount of supplies that the Army purchases because AMC will be better equipped to plan and allocate its resources.

Andersson (1981) concluded that research and development (R & D) is analyzed as an endogenous public investment variable instead of as ordinary capital investment. The emphasis is on structural change analysis, with the stress on balancing R & D for technological development.

Several significant aspects of a dynamic economic analysis have, of necessity, been simplified, namely: 1. lack of basic resource considerations, 2. trading interdependencies between regions, and 3. analysis of consumer behavior. In addition, the labor allocation problem has not been analyzed.

Rosegger (1982) study found that a research project dealing with technological factors in international competition, examines the strategic responses of a number of US industries to technology-based import competition, and offers a more detailed case study of the automobile tire industry. Common elements in adjustments of capacity and production can be readily observed. An analysis of the economic environment in which major corporate decisions had to be taken during the 1970s suggests several explanations for the prevalence of short-run, as opposed to longer-term, considerations in managerial attitudes toward technological innovation.

Strategic responses tended to be generally timid and in most cases quite inadequate. The explanations proposed include: 1. laggardness in innovation and reluctance to adopt innovations already embraced by foreign competitors, 2. uncertainty about the length of time required between initiation of major investment projects and commercialization, and 3. underestimation of system-wide modification costs necessitated from adoption of an innovation.

McMilan (1982) study argued that a company with a strategic initiative that captures control of strategic behavior in its industry has the advantage because competitors are forced into a reactive role. To gain strategic initiative, the company must understand such factors as response barriers, general management challenges, intelligence systems, and infrastructure requirements.

McMilan (1982) found that strategic initiatives that can then be formulated are: 1. the aggressive build role appropriate for the product's rapid growth stage, 2. the gradual build role to steadily improve position starting from a strong position, 3. the selective build role that focuses on growth in selected segments, 4. the aggressive maintain role for maintaining a strong position in a mature market, 5. the selective maintenance role to build barriers to entry in selected segments of a business, 6. the competitive harassment role, and 7. the prove viability and divest roles appropriate to a business with an unsatisfactory position in an unsatisfactory industry.

Acquisition

The Army Materiel Command (AMC) is the Army's premier provider of materiel readiness-technology, acquisition, materiel development, logistics power projection and sustainment-to the total force across the spectrum of joint military operations; these summarize AMC's core competencies.

Brege’s (2004) study contended that, in order to constantly move to new market positions, and at the same time, restructure logistics and improve operational effectiveness, we have identified the dynamic capabilities of an organization to be the key to success in industrial distribution. We define dynamic effectiveness as 'how fast-and-well a company can go from one strategic positioning and productivity frontier to another.' It tells that a frequent interaction between new strategic moves and actions for higher operational effectiveness is required to be in pace with the dynamic and changing business environment and to stay ahead of competition.

As a part of this, best practice logistics performance makes it possible not only to be more agile to new strategic moves, but also to drive strategic development from a high operational level. This is achieved by designing logistics to be a resource base to support and be an enabler for new strategic moves on the market.

Kalpic (2008) stated that the key assumptions and premises of the merger and industry consolidation theory and the Rule of Three concept, and the discussion is enriched by several cases and examples from various industries. Scale does not necessarily bring competitive advantage, improve financial performance, or generate scale-related synergies per se. To develop sustainable competitive advantage, executives must understand the true nature and mechanisms which drive the industry concentration process, value creation through Merger-Acquisition M&A.

In Kalpic (2008) study, he found that the key strategic elements to be considered when formulating effective corporate strategies in a complex business environment and a context of rapidly concentrating industries. The discussion also raises awareness regarding the importance of strategic logic, correct interpretation of strategic concepts and sensitivity toward differences in industries in avoiding false conclusions and poorly-formulated strategies.

Despite the considerable financial challenges the immediate future holds, AMC also has the opportunity to use combat support and reset missions to test and improve transformation plans and programs. The reviews by Kalpic and Breggs depict how AMC’s acquisition decisions in the future, and how quickly they must take action in a timely manner to resource opportunities, whether they are technological, doctrinal or business-related. Our future depends on such decisions. AMC is in a joint and combined arms environment that is also a resource-constrained environment. Future demands thinking outside traditional lines and acting outside old processes and ways of doing business must be the commands first priority.

Industrialization

Partnering is a mutual commitment between AMC and its contractors to work cooperatively during contract performance establishing a working relationship based on open communication, the elimination of surprises, early discussion and resolution of issues, the reduction of paperwork and joint problem solving to meet the needs of the Warfighter

Bolumole (2001) found that outsourcing, the strategy in which organizations employ the services of external providers, has attracted growing interest. Academic and industrial attention has also focused on the role of seamless supply chain processes in achieving and sustaining competitive advantage. This research is based on petrol retailers in the UK that have adopted logistics outsourcing strategies for implementing supply chain solutions to their convenience-goods operations. Its aim is to identify the factors, which influence outsourcing decisions and the nature and supply chain implications of outsourcing strategies.

Bolumole (2001) research findings indicated that the capability of service providers to facilitate supply chain solutions is largely influenced by four main factors, which in turn substantially determine their role in the supply chain: the strategic orientation of the outsourcing organization; its perception of service providers' role within the logistics strategy; the nature of the resultant client-provider relationship; and, the extent to which the logistics process is outsourced.

Sharples (1997) found that by simply by managing the supplies and suppliers more effectively, you create longer, more satisfying and profitable customer relationships. By doing so, you'll not only cut costs, but create revenue. Naturally enough, the customers of major retail chains and manufacturers don't care about supply chains, but what they do care about is customer service. This is also what logistics is all about - how you deliver products, services and value to your customers

Sharples (1997) stated that you may believe that you deliver to a mass market, but each customer sees it differently. As far as each of them is concerned they are your market - a market of one. So how you respond to each of your customers is critical in maintaining what competitive advantage you have. Logistics network design and planning can not only ensure that delivery remains competitive, but it can also have a large effect on your corporate growth and responsibility

AMC ability to meet the Army’s RESET objective relies totally on the commands ability to provide the warfighters with equipment the meets the readiness standards of the Army that allows units to train and plan for their next deployment. Success is measured by the satisfaction of the customer (soldier).

Army Materiel Command’s RESET Mission

Transforming the Army is a critical piece in meeting the demands of the 21st century; it’s a holistic effort and not a destination modernizing the forces and put our Cold War formations and legacy systems behind us. Major combat and stability operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are placing tremendous demands on Army equipment. Amid the constant demands of war, the equipment is aging far more rapidly than projected.

Because of the higher operating tempo, rough desert environments, and limited maintenance available in theater, operational fleets are aging four years for every year in theater, dramatically shortening their expected useful life. To maintain their operational effectiveness and be prepared to deploy when needed, units must ensure that their equipment is returned to optimal condition, or "reset," after they redeploy from a combat or stability operation.

AMC’s overarching mission to restore combat, combat support, and combat service support units to a desired level of combat capability commensurate with mission requirements and availability of resources. AMC’s way ahead is to modernize business systems that provide critical Warfighter support, introduce new and improved technological infrastructures and replaces outdated legacy systems through incremental fielding of modernized capability. As an industrial and acquisition leader, AMC must leverages resources and integrates processes while presenting accurate data and status that is visible anywhere in the world.

References

Academy of Management. The Academy of Management Review . Briarcliff Manor: Oct 2008 . Vol. 33, Iss. 4; pg. 825

Andersson, Ake E. (1981). Structural Change and Technological Development. Regional Science and Urban Economics, 11(3), 351. Retrieved November 13, 2008

Birkinshaw, Julian, Academy of Management. The Academy of Management Review . Briarcliff Manor: Oct 2008 . Vol. 33, Iss. 4; pg. 825

Deierlein, Bob . Fleet Equipment . Palatine: Apr 2000 . Vol. 26, Iss. 4; pg. 55, 4 pgs

Environmental Quality Management . Hoboken: Winter 2007 . Vol. 17, Iss. 2; pg. 81

Griffin Benjamin . ASQ Six Sigma Forum Magazine . Milwaukee: Feb 2007 . Vol. 6, Iss. 2; pg. 44,

Hakan Tarakci , Kwei Tang , Herbert Moskowitz , Robert Plante . IIE Transactions . Norcross: Aug 2006 . Vol. 38, Iss. 8; pg. 671

Kitfield, James Government Executive . Washington: Aug 15, 2005 . Vol. 37, Iss. 14; pg. 65

Lee, Josh, (2008). A strategic approach to overhead management. Strategy & Leadership, 36(2), 40-46. Retrieved November 14, 2008

MacMillan, Ian C. (1982). Seizing Competitive Initiative. The Journal of Business Strategy, 2(4), 43. Retrieved November 13, 2008,

Mats Abrahamsson, Staffan Brege. (2004). Dynamic Effectiveness: Improved Industrial Distribution from Interaction Between Marketing and Logistics Strategies. Journal of Marketing Channels, 12(2), 83-112

Nelson M Ford . Public Manager . Potomac: Winter 2007/2008 . Vol. 36, Iss. 4; pg. 61

Pojasek,Robert B Environmental Quality Management . Hoboken: Winter 2007 . Vol. 17, Iss. 2; pg. 81

Rajesh Krishnamurthy, Charlene A. Yauch. (2007). Leagile manufacturing: a proposed corporate infrastructure. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 27(6), 588-604. Retrieved November 13, 2008

Rosegger, Gerhard (1982). Adjustments of Domestic Capacity and Production to Technology-Based Import Competition: A Case Study. Engineering Costs and Production Economics, 6, 205.

Starks, Glenn L. Defense & AT-L ; Jul/Aug2008, Vol. 37 Issue 4, p28-32

Schoomaker, P., Staff, C., & Army, D. (N.D.). Reset Strategies For Ground Equipment And Rotor Graft. FDCH Congressional Testimony, Retrieved November 11, 2008

Thomas Donnelly , Frederick W. Kagan . Wall Street Journal . (Eastern edition). New York, N.Y.: May 23, 2008

PAGE

5_LitRevExample-FDAProgramAssmt.doc

Melamine Impact on FDA Resources

PAGE

Central Michigan University

Master of Science in Administration (MSA) Program

Course Title: MSA 600 Administration Research and Report Methods

Submitted to: [Professor’s Name]

Submitted by: [Student’s Name]

[Street Address]

[City, State and Zip Code]

Work Phone: [703-555-1234]

Home/Cell Phone: [804-555-1111]

Email: name@yourserviceprovider.com

Course Location: MSA600 Online

Submission Date: [Month, Day, Year]

Research Project Title: LITERATURE REVIEW EXAMPLE

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MELAMINE ADULTERATED FOOD ON FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION RESOURCES

CERTIFICATE OF AUTHORSHIP:

I certify that I am the author of this paper and that any assistance I receive in its preparation is fully acknowledged and disclosed in this paper. I have also cited any sources from which I used data, ideas, or works, either quoted directly or paraphrased. I also certify that this paper was prepared by me specifically for this course.

Student’s Signature:

Instructor’s Comments:

THE ECONOMIC IMPACT OF MELAMINE ADULTERATED FOOD ON FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION RESOURCES

MSA 600 Administrative Research and Report Methods

Submitted by:

Teresa Fox

Project Instructor:

Dr. Thomas Kessler

December 2008

Table of Contents

Page Number

List of Tables ii

List of Figures ii

Chapter 1 Problem Definition 1

Chapter 2 Literature Review 7

Chapter 3 Research Methodology 15

Chapter 4 Data Analysis [Future]

Chapter 5 Summary, Conclusions, and Recommendations [Future]

Terminology and Definitions Page 18

References Pages 19-22

Appendix A Permission to Conduct Study

Appendix B Transmittal Letter/Survey Instructions

Appendix C Survey/Interview Questions

Chapter 2 Literature Review

Since melamine adulteration is a relatively new phenomenon, there are scant resources for data. Most papers that have been published have to do with the veterinary angle which studies the pathology of the effects of melamine on animals. Another source for literature has been the publication of new rapid screening analytical laboratory methods that were developed in response to the melamine crisis. Prior to the pet food recalls, such a method did not exist. A third avenue of research reveals many instances of Congressional testimony on the part of food advocacy groups, food industry experts and FDA officials that address the growing problem. Several articles describe the current food response system within FDA, particularly the Food Protection Plan: a plan put forward by the FDA in November 2007 to address food safety and food borne outbreaks, both intentional and non-intentional. There are also a great many articles written in food chemical publications that provide insight into the time line involved in responding to this emergent situation.

Most of the articles and testimony concluded that FDA has been starved for resources in recent years and that responding to food emergencies has further stretched their ability to perform their myriad tasks which cover a broad range of regulation. The Center for Science in the Public Interest, a health advocacy organization with 900,000 subscribers, provided Congress with testimony on multiple occasions from July 2007 through February 2008 on food safety. Food related illnesses and deaths since 2006 have been related to a variety of products from spinach to peanut butter to melamine. In each of these cases, and others, the FDA has had to determine the source of the illnesses and then remove the product in question from the U.S. marketplace. Melamine is a particularly worrying problem, since it was an intentional adulteration that went undetected until American pets began dying. In the post- 9/11 world, it is events such as those that carry the most weight in the minds of Americans and Congress. The passage of the Bioterrorism Act in 2002 attempted to secure the food supply with the formation of the Prior Notice Center at FDA. This center, co-located with Customs, requires all food growers, manufacturers, shippers and importers to register with FDA and provide prior notice of their arrival at U.S. borders and ports. This is primarily an administrative review and it failed to prevent entry of the tainted products responsible for the pet deaths related to melamine from China, hot peppers from Mexico, Hepatitis A from green onions grown in Mexico or the current melamine adulterated milk products. In light of this, it is clear that further measures are needed to address the health and safety of imported products, particularly food.

Literature Related to Food Safety Structure at FDA

Food safety has always been a pressing issue in the United States. Even before 9/11, the U.S. General Accounting Office wrote a report on agencies having plans to respond to deliberate contamination of the food supply (GAO/T-RCED-99-256, Aug. 4, 1999). This report, concentrated on how effectively food safety agencies could respond to such a scenario. Their conclusion was that, although both the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) and FDA had emergency food safety response systems in place, both agencies would benefit from running various scenarios involving the intentional contamination of the food supply and determine how to improve their systems, based on the results of the exercises.

In her testimony, (Congressional Hearing, House Energy and Commerce, 7/17/2007), Caroline Smith Dewaal, Director of the Food Safety Center for Science in the Public Interest, deplored the current safety of food in the U.S., particularly imports. She compared import screening methods between FSIS and FDA and her conclusion is that “FDA’s procedures are much less stringent and much less effective” than FSIS’ procedures. She ended her testimony by saying that U.S. food safety laws are over 100 years old and are not equipped to contend with a global market of imports increasing exponentially and, with bioterrorism, a real threat in today’s world.

Congress has held many hearings on FDA’s role in food safety since March 2007. They initiated several congressional investigations as a result of those hearings. One investigation (Congress Daily, 10/11/2007) reported that “Chinese agricultural and seafood imports increased 346 percent between 1996 and 2006” and that “the Chinese food supply chain fails to meet international food safety standards”. Committees ranging from Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to the Senate Agriculture Appropriations Subcommittee to the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Committee on Government Reform and Oversight have recommended various remedies to FDA’s shortfalls in the area of food safety as it relates to imports. The common thread among these recommendations is that FDA needs more resources to fulfill their regulatory oversight responsibilities (Congress Daily, 2/27/2008).

On March 12, 2008, Dr. Sundlof, the Director of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, testified before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations to unveil the FDA’s Food Protection Plan and the Action Plan for Import Safety to the Congress. The first element of the Food Protection Plan is prevention, which includes increased manufacturer responsibility, risk assessments and the expansion of intervention techniques using risk management. The Action Plan for Imports includes information sharing with foreign food regulatory authorities and third party inspections. The agency is also seeking to have increased recall authority as well as better information exchange during emergencies. Lastly, the FDA has committed to increasing foreign inspections and training of foreign food regulatory officials as well as signed a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with China regarding quality standards for Chinese products being exported to the U.S. ( www.hhs.gov/news/facts/foodfeed.html ).

Sadly, the FDA is again dealing with melamine toxicity, this time in milk and milk containing products. Currently, there have been four deaths and thousands of illnesses reported in Chinese children from acute renal failure after ingesting melamine tainted milk and infant formula. This is a shocking development, especially following on the heels of the pet deaths and illnesses in 2007. In a commentary in TheScientificWorldJOURNAL, the authors state that “as we await greater scientific understanding of this new man-made disease entity, melamine should be avoided. Melamine is not a bona fide nitrogen-containing nutritional protein, but a mala fide one.” (Lattupalli et al, 2008).

According to Dr. Yang and Dr. Batlle of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, it appears that melamine and cyanuric acid, an intermediate metabolite of melamine, are non-toxic individually, however, when they are both present, the form crystals that may accumulate in the kidneys and cause renal failure. They also point out that events such as this latest outbreak emphasize the critical role that FDA and other food regulatory agencies play in monitoring and ensuring the safety of our food supply (TheScientificWorldJOURNAL, 2008).

Literature Related to Animal and Human Illnesses and Deaths and Feed Animals

The first alert related to pet illness and deaths was sounded by Menu Foods in Kansas March 15, 2007; they had received reports from customers, of pets developing renal disease after consuming their food. When a pattern became clear, Menu Foods reported this to the FDA in April 2007. Within 24 hours, FDA investigators were at the Menu Foods plant in Emporia, Kansas, collecting samples of ingredients and looking for possible sources of contamination. The Forensic Chemistry Center identified a contaminant, melamine, in the wheat gluten, used to make gravy in many types of moist pet food. (Dr. Steven Sundlof, Congressional Testimony, 4/12/2007). The firm had obtained the wheat gluten from a Chinese supplier. As a result, an import alert and import sampling assignment were issued to detain and sample all shipments of wheat gluten from China or transshipped through China. Numerous pet food companies tested their stores of wheat gluten and performed voluntary recalls of their products that contained melamine. As the event mushroomed, FDA devoted literally hundreds of employees to receiving consumer complaints, inspections, sample collections, sample analyses, veterinary blood and tissue studies and the review of analytical results by compliance officers. Additionally, FDA was responsible for coordinating efforts with FSIS, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Centers for Disease Control (CDC), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). (FDA Veterinarian, Vol. XXII, No. II, 2007). The situation escalated as reports surfaced of “up to 39,000 animals have gotten sick. Others estimate that as many as 3,500 pets have likely died.” (Congress Daily AM, 4/13/2007).

Within a very short time, it became clear, through media reports and sampling, that other plant based proteins, such as rice protein and corn gluten, also contained melamine. At this point, it became clear that melamine may have found its way into animal feed as well as pet foods. This latest alert meant that FDA had to start sampling all animal and fish feed with vegetable based proteins to prevent the melamine from reaching humans (Food Chemical News, 5/7/2007). Advocate groups such as the Food and Water Watch, demanded the recall of meat from animals who were fed melamine, comparing such action with the meat recall following the 2003 diagnosis of a cow with bovine spongiform encephalitis (BSE) in Washington state (Food Chemical News, 5/14/2007). Shortly afterward, FDA released its Interim Melamine and Analogues Safety/ Risk Assessment, done in partnership with FSIS, CDC, EPA and DHS. Their conclusions were that the products of melamine fed animals, fish and eggs were “very unlikely to pose a human health risk.” ( www.cfsan.fda.gov/%7Edms/melamra.html ). That was based on available data, including a study in Food and Chemical Toxicology (Baynes et al, 2007) that stated that melamine in pigs was cleared very quickly from the tissues and that little residue remained to be consumed by humans, and scientific assumptions. This risk assessment was reviewed and concurred with by FDA’s Science Board Advisory Committee, a panel of subject matter experts from outside the agency (Food Chemical News, 6/18/2007). To further follow up on the risks involved with melamine, FDA asked CDC “to use its surveillance network to monitor for signs of human illness, such as increased renal failure, which could indicate contamination of the human food supply.” (FDA Veterinarian, 2007). In addition, FSIS published a notice on May 30 to its stakeholders, soliciting comments on the agency’s responses to melamine and the reasoning behind each of the responses (Food Chemical News, 6/4/2007).

Further research showed that melamine-cyanuric acid compounds were responsible for the renal failure and subsequent death or illness of dogs and cats (Dobson et al, 2008) and that wheat gluten from China was responsible. The research also shows that there was a similar outbreak of renal failure in dogs in Asia in 2004, which showed similar findings on autopsy (Puschner et al, 2007).

In October 2008, FDA released a risk assessment on milk containing melamine that has been ingested by humans (Food Chemical News, 10/6/2008, Chemical and Engineering News, 10/13/2008). Their assessment showed that levels of melamine related compounds of less than 2.5 parts per million (ppm) posed little risk to humans.. They were not able to determine a safe limit for infant formula and, as a result, set the safe level of melamine related compounds at zero for those products.

According to Food Chemical News, Chinese media has estimated that the number of illnesses associated with melamine affected milk has risen to 94,000 (Food Chemical News, 10/13/2008). In light of this data, the FDA has issued an import sampling assignment and import alert for Chinese milk products to screen products entering the U.S. from China ( www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_ia9930.html).

Literature Related to Analytical Methods Developed by FDA and FERN for Melamine and Cyanuric Acid

Throughout the melamine investigations, the aim was to sample products efficiently to allow import districts to release products as soon as possible. To that end, FDA and their state partnerships developed rapid methods for melamine and melamine analogue detection. One such method is described in Agricultural Food Chemistry (Andersen et al, 2008) in which a method was developed to determine melamine concentration in various types of seafood when fish food became a concern.

Another analytical method was established by FDA Pacific Regional Laboratory and Forensic Chemistry Center for the detection of melamine, ammeline, ammelide and cyanuric acid in dry proteins ( www.fda.gov/cvm/gcmsmelamine.html ).

Due to the increased turnaround time of previous methods, FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, Division of Bioanalytical Chemistry, developed a rapid enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for use as a rapid and accurate screening method for melamine in food products (Garber, 2007).

Summary of the Literature

The literature review shows a wealth of interest in this topic for several reasons: Chinese products have caused a host of problems which range from lead in toys to unsafe drugs to toxic elements in food. The fact that the U.S. and other nations import a tremendous amount of Chinese products makes the problem very concerning. The literature and Congressional testimony supports the fact that there was an impact on FDA resources during the melamine investigations of 2007 and 2008. Those impacts include, but are not limited to, increased employee hours, cost of investigations, sample collections, sample analyses and establishing phone lines to tabulate pet illnesses and deaths in 2007.

As summarized in the literature, it wasn’t originally thought that melamine could harm humans but that theory was turned on its head when several Chinese infants died from melamine adulterated infant formula. FDA faces a constantly changing landscape within this global economy and must constantly come up with ways to protect the American consumer. This often requires new methods to be developed, new relationships to be forged and new paths to be forged. The FDA needs all of its resources to be able to fight the battles that are constant in their regulatory world.

References

Robertson, R. (1999). General Accounting Office, Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division, B-283528, October 27, 1999.

Smith, Dewaal, C. (2007). Safety of Food Supply, Committee on House Energy and

Commerce, Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, U.S. House of

Representatives, July 17, 2007.

Leonatti, A., and Edney, A. (2007). “Investigators Pan Chinese, FDA Food Safety

Regulation”, CongressDaily, October 11, 2007, p5.

Edney, A. (2008). “Panel: FDA Needs $375M More To Address Shortcomings”,

CongressDaily, February 27, 2008, p 12.

Sundlof, S. (2008). Statement before Committee on Energy and Commerce,

Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, U.S. House of Representatives,

March 12, 2008.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Press Office, “New Agreement Will

Enhance the Safety of Food and Feed Imported From the People’s Republic of

China”, December 11, 2007.

Lattupali, R., Kolluru, A., and Yee, J. (2008). “Nephrotoxicity of mala fide melamine:

modern era milk scandal.” TheScientificWorldJOURNAL, Vol 8, pp. 949-950.

DOI 10.1100/tsw.2008.134.

Yang, V.L., and Batlle, D. (2008). “Acute renal failure from adulteration of milk with

melamine.” TheScientificWorldJOURNAL, Vol 8, pp. 974-975. DOI

10.1100/tsw.2008.137.

Sundlof, S. (2007). Statement before Senate Agriculture, Rural Development, and

Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, U.S. Senate, April 12, 2007.

Osborne, W. (2007). “Recent Pet Food Recall Extremely Complex”, FDA Veterinarian,

Vol. XXII, No. II, pp. 1-4.

Deehan, M. (2007). “Bennett Suggests Pet Food Safety Regulation Be Reworked”,

CongressDaily AM, p 8, April 13, 2007.

Richardson, Z. (2007). “FDA says meat from melamine-fed animals no threat to humans. (INTERAGENCY).” Food Chemical News 49.12, May 7, 2007: 16(2).

Sugarman, C. (2007). “Food and Water Watch urges recall of meat from melamine-fed

animals. (USDA).” Food Chemical News 49.13, May 14, 2007: 28(1).

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, September 10, 2007, http://www.cfsan.fda.gov/%7Edms/melamra.html .

Baynes, R., Smith, G., Mason, S., Barrett, E., Barlow, B., and Riviere, J. (2008). “Pharmacokinetics of melamine in pigs following intravenous administration”, Food and Chemical Toxicology, Vol 46, pp. 1196-1200.

Murphy, J. (2007). “FDA Science Board blesses agency’s melamine risk assessment. (FDA).” Food Chemical News, 49.18, June 18, 2007: 15(2).

Richardson, Z. (2007). “FSIS solicits comment on melamine decisions. (Food Safety and Inspection Service).” Food Chemical News 49.16, June 4, 2007:17(2).

Dobson, R., Motlagh, S., Quijano, M., Cambron, R., Baker, T., Pullen, A., Regg, B., Bigalow-Kern, A., Vennard, T., Fix, A., Reimschuessel, R., Overmann, G., Shan, Y., and Daston, G. (2008). “Identification and Characterization of

Toxicity of Contaminants in Pet Food Leading to an Outbreak of Renal Toxicity in Cats and Dogs”, Toxicological Sciences, Vol 106, No. 1, pp. 251-262.

Puschner, B., Poppenga, R., Lowenstine, L., Filigenzi, M.,and Pesavento, P. (2007).

Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigations, Vol 19, pp. 616-624.

Huffman, J. (2008). “FDA issues safety limits for melamine in foods, faces congressional pressure.” Food Chemical News, 50:33, October 6, 2008.

Erickson, B. (2008). Chemical and Engineering News, Vol 86, No 41, October 13, 2008, p 9.

Clapp, S. (2008). “Chinese tainted milk toll may have doubled, reaching 94,000.”, Food Chemical News, 50:34, October 13, 2008.

FDA Import Alert 99-30, http://www.fda.gov/ora/fiars/ora_import_alerts.html

Andersen, W., Turnipseed, S., Karbiwnyk, C, Clark, S., Madson, M., Gieseker, C.,

Miller, R., Rummel, N., and Reimschuessel, R. (2008). “Detrmination and

Confirmation of Melamine Residues in Catfish, Trout, Tilapia, Salmon, and

Shrimp by Liquid Chromatography with Tandem Mass Spectrometry”, Journal

of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, Vol 56, No. 12, pp. 4340-4347.

Method for Melamine, Ammeline, Ammelide, and Cyanuric Acid, U.S. Food and Drug

Administration, Center for Veterinary Medicine,

http://www.fda.gov/cvm/gcmsmelamine.html

Garber, E. (2007). “Detection of Melamine Using Commercial Enzyme-Linked

Immunosorbent Assay Technology, Journal of Food Protection, Vol 71, No 3,

pp. 590-594.

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MSA 600 Reserach Paper Three Rubric.pdf

Grading Rubric for CMU MSA 600 Research Paper Paper 3 Literature Review - Submission Week 5, 100pts

Scholar: ____________________________________________________

CATEGORY (100 pts total) Full Points 75% of points 50% of points 10% to 0 points

Literature Review

65 pts ____

*sources of information

clearly relate to the topic

areas.

**paper is exceptionally

detailed

*sources of

information relate to

the topic

**paper is well

detailed.

*information relates to

the main topic, few

details and/or examples

are given.

**shows a limited

variety of responses.

*information has

little or nothing to do

with the topic.

**weak or no link to

the topic.

Paper Overall

Organization

Development of Thesis

(follows guidance)

5 pts ____

*excellent topic with

ideas that impact reader.

**exceptionally clear,

logical, mature, and

thorough development of

thesis with excellent

transitions between and

within paragraphs.

*good summary of

topic with clear ideas.

**clear and logical

order that supports

thesis with good

transitions between

and within paragraphs.

*basic summary of

topic with partial ideas.

**somewhat clear and

logical development

with basic transitions

between and within

paragraphs.

*lack of summary of

topic

**lacks development

of ideas with weak

or no transitions

between and within

paragraphs.

Style/Voice/Sentence

Structure

10 pts ____

*style and voice are not

only appropriate to the

given audience and

purpose, but also show

originality and creativity.

**word choice is specific,

purposeful, dynamic and

varied.

***sentence structures

are clear, active (subject-

verb-object - SVO), to

the point

*style and voice

appropriate to the

given audience and

purpose.

**word choice is

specific and

purposeful, and

somewhat varied

throughout.

***sentences are

mostly clear, active

SVO, and to the point.

*style and voice

somewhat appropriate

to given audience and

purpose.

**word choice is often

unspecific, generic,

redundant, and clichéd.

***sentences are

somewhat unclear;

excessive use of

passive or first person

voice.

*style and voice

inappropriate or do

not address given

audience, purpose

**word choice is

excessively

redundant, clichéd,

and unspecific.

***sentences are

very unclear.

Grammar/Usage/

Mechanics/Proof Reading

10 pts ____

*control of grammar,

usage, and mechanics.

**almost entirely free of

spelling, punctuation, and

grammatical errors.

***no proof reading

errors, {poor proof

reading(PPR)}

*may contain few

spelling, punctuation,

and grammar errors.

**1 – 3 PPR

*contains several

spelling, punctuation,

and grammar errors

which detract from the

paper’s readability.

**4+ PPR

*so many spelling,

punctuation, and

grammar errors that

the paper cannot be

understood.

****No evidence of

proof reading

Citation Format

5 pts ____

*conforms to APA rules

for formatting and

citation of sources are

perfect.

*conforms to APA

rules for formatting

and citation of sources

with minor exceptions.

*frequent errors in

APA format.

*lack of APA

format/numerous

errors.

References/Bibliography

5 pts ____

*entries entirely correct

as to APA format.

**10+ sources.

*entries mostly correct

as to APA format.

** 5 - 9 sources

*frequent errors in

APA format.

**3 - 4 sources

*lack of APA

format, numerous

errors.

**2 or less sources

Additional Comments: