Running head: CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 1
Change Management: Transformational Leader
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Date
‘
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 2
Abstract
Nature is an evolving phenomenon, and as such, the processes that operate within it are
always bound to change. Even though change is a constant component within most people's lives,
preparing for change and subsequently accepting its, is incredibly challenging. The military, as an
organization, deals with numerous challenges. However, the most difficult challenges proving hard
to overcome revolve around change management. Irrespective of the branch within the military,
resistance to change is a recurring theme. Acceptance and adoption of change by military leaders
and higher-ranking officials is the major challenge the military faces with respect to change
management. I believe the reason for this is the fact that organizational leaders do not possess the
requisite skills to instigate changes within the military. Organizational culture is another major
reason why military leaders are very hesitant to accept and implement changes. This is majorly
because the culture is familiar to them, and thus, they do not feel comfortable getting rid of the
culture. The best way to overcome this challenge is to adopt transformational leadership.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 3
Introduction
Change is one of the elements in society that are perceived as inevitable. Nature is an
evolving phenomenon, and as such, the processes that operate within it are always bound to
change. Even though change is a constant component within most people’s lives, preparing for
change and subsequently accepting its, is incredibly challenging (Van Marrewijk, 2018).
Generally, when a person gets into a comfort zone of some sort and then later required to change
their normal mode of operating, often, the person instigating the change will face some resistance
(Van Marrewijk, 2018). Working in the military allowed me to see this phenomenon play out
numerous times. In line with this, my paper will discuss in detail the various challenges my
organization faces with respect to change management. In addition, I will also look at a theory that
might explain how organizational behavior influences change management in the military. The
paper will culminate by providing recommendations the military might adopt to deal with the issue
of change management.
Part I
Summary of the Organization: The United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces, or what people commonly refer to as the military, is made
up of six core forces, the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, the Space Force, and finally, the
Coast Guard (Council on Foreign Relations, 2020). The President serves as the commander-in-
chief of the Armed Forces, and as such, oversees the formulation of military policies within the
Department of Defense (DoD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The United
States military played a crucial role throughout the country's history, ever since the fight for
independence from the British. The modern structure of the military was adopted courtesy of the
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 4
National Security Act enacted in 1947, after the culmination of World War II (Council on Foreign
Relations, 2020).
The country’s armed force is one of the largest in the world, with regard to personnel.
Enlistment into the military is largely through a volunteer concept, whereby any individual aged
seventeen years can join the military if they obtain parental approval for such an endeavor. Besides
this, any person over eighteen years can join and serve in the United States military, as long as
they meet other entry requirements (Council on Foreign Relations, 2020). Even though the military
no longer uses conscription to get Americans to join it, the Department of Defense still uses the
selective service system, whereby all male Americans living in the country and aged between
eighteen and twenty-five years register with this service.
The military has a strict chain of command system that flows downwards from the
President of the country, then to the Secretary of Defense, and then further downwards according
to rank, up to the unified combatant commands (Council on Foreign Relations, 2020). The various
military departments within the six forces of the United States Armed Forces oversee the
organization, training, and provision of requisite equipment. Even though the Joint Chief of Staffs
do not typically factor into the military's operational chain of command, they serve as the senior-
most, and as such, the most powerful body within the country’s military (Council on Foreign
Relations, 2020). The head of the armed forces acts as the chairman of this body and gets deputized
by the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Besides the chairman and the vice-chairman, the
rest of the members are chief of staff of the Army, commandant of the Marine Corps, chief of
naval operations, chief of staff of the Air Force, chief of space operations, and the chief of the
National Guard Bureau.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 5
Organizational Challenges
The military, as an organization, deals with numerous challenges. However, the most
difficult challenges proving hard to overcome revolve around change management. Irrespective of
the branch within the military, resistance to change is a recurring theme. Most people, both in the
United States and outside the country’s borders, agree that our military is one of the finest across
the globe. Despite this, the military continues to struggle with changing its doctrines, training
programs, and approaches and, operational procedures and processes, and largely its leadership
approaches and styles. The general feeling from within the military, especially amongst the lower-
ranking service members, and the general American public, is that the country’s military needs to
implement various changes to bring it to per with the expectations of the military held by the most
members of the American society and the globe at large.
The first indication that the military needs to integrate change management processes into
its operations came after the September 11 terrorist attacks, which caught most security agencies,
including the military, unawares. Courtesy of the attack, the military was forced to adopt radical
changes, with respect to its structure and mode of operations, as a measure to prevent what took
place from ever taking place in the future. Even though the military maintained its commitment to
making requisite changes for a few years after the attack, nature and the pace with which these
changes were being introduced slowed down tremendously. Such a situation reverted the military
back to its static nature. Like most employees, when I joined the military, I was exposed to an
intensive training program aimed at teaching us the value of always being resilient and flexible to
change. Doing this allows employees to not only be ready for anything but also adapt to the
situation and make the most out of it.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 6
Even though these skills prepare employees for changes, the same cannot be said for the
leaders within the military. Acceptance and adoption of change by military leaders and higher-
ranking officials is the major challenge the military faces with respect to change management. I
believe the reason for this is the fact that organizational leaders do not possess the requisite skills
to instigate changes within the military. These leaders struggle or at times even fail to come up
with a vision of how the military should operate and the direction it should take. Courtesy of this,
gaining the trust of employees and subsequently getting them to buy into the changes they might
propose becomes quite challenging.
The fact that our leaders change every two years, from wing, group, squadron, down to the
flight level. Such a situation means that leaders coming in have a limited time frame to come up
with a vision, get service members to trust them, and as such, buy into the direction they want the
military to take. Eventually, most of them no longer see the value of attempting to change anything
since they are aware they will not be there long enough to implement these changes. Consistent
exposure to a rotating pool of leaders is very stressful for service members, considering they are
forced to try and adapt to the various changes introduced by one leader and then ignore these
changes when a new leader comes on board and proposes a new way of doing things.
Individuals and the roles they play within the Change Management Process
For any change to take place within the United States military, the high-ranking individuals
at the top of the command structure must first recognize that changes are needed within the
military. Only when they do this can they adopt the changes needed to transform the military. As
mentioned earlier, the President serves as the commander-in-chief of the country's Armed Forces.
Courtesy of this, the President gets briefed on what is going on within the military, an aspect that
means he can be the first driver of change within the military.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 7
Even though this might be the ideal situation, the fact that the President is not in touch, and
to some extent, precluded from being involved in the day-to-day operations of the military is a
major encumbrance to overcome. Such a situation means that the President is not aware of the
various problematic elements, procedures, and processes within the military that should be
subjected to change. Despite such a limitation, the general public can put pressure on the President
to instigate changes, especially when the public learns of the problematic aspects within the
military. The need to stem down public frustrations coupled with the desire to maintain the good
reputation of the military within the public might prompt the President into action.
Organizational culture is one of the major reasons military leaders are very hesitant to
accept and implement changes. According to Tsai (2011), culture in an organization denotes a
pattern of common assumptions engrained into employees as they solve problems associated with
external adaptation and internal integration. In addition, the fact that these patterns work for an
organization means that they are inculcated into new employees as the most effective approach to
solving problems. The military has a different perception of what organizational culture entails.
Leaders within the military define organizational culture under FM 6-22 as "the set of long-held
values, beliefs, expectations, and practices shared by a group that signifies what is important and
influences how an organization operates” (Council on Foreign Relations, 2020).
Heads of the various military departments are so engrained in the country’s military
structure. The fact that these departments are responsible for training new recruits means that such
individuals will always be exposed to a very strict ideology of what the military is and how it
should operate. Some of these recruits eventually make it to leadership positions, and since the
problematic culture works for them, they are not motivated to change anything. Such a situation
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 8
creates a phenomenon whereby a continuous cycle of leaders who believe the military's culture is
ok and, as such, should not be subjected to change.
Part II: Theory
One of the organizational behavior theories that stood out to me is the acquired needs
theory. According to Kinicki (2021, p.166), the key drivers of employee behavior are three vital
needs employees endeavor to meet. These needs are achievement, affiliation, and power. This
theory came into existence courtesy of David McClelland, who argued that employees would be
motivated to change their behavior based on the desire to meet any of these needs. In addition,
every employee’s motivator for behavioral change will be different, depending on the culture they
embrace and their personal experiences.
According to Lasrado and Kassem (2021), organizational culture has an influence on
organizational excellence. In addition, leaders play a vital role in helping foster a particular culture
at an organization. The fact that they have the requisite power and authority means that they can
use these factors to come up with a vision of the direction the organization should take. The
Interpersonal skills these leaders possess will then enable them to get employees to trust in the
vision and the direction they hope the company takes. Once this happens, employees will buy into
their leaders’ plans. From their study, Lasrado and Kassem (2021) concluded that coming up with
an involvement culture centered on all-inclusive participation and holistic engagement from
employees, an aspect that then creates a viable environment for organizational excellence to foster.
Creating such a culture requires employees to buy into the organizational culture their
leaders are attempting to introduce (Kroeger & Thuesen, 2002). This is the point where acquired
needs theory comes into play as a mechanism for figuring out how to motivate leaders to embrace
and implement this all-inclusive participatory culture. In order to institute the required changes
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 9
within the military, leaders and service members have to come together and work in tandem to not
only identify the potentially problematic aspects within its culture but also come up with changes
to address these problematic aspects. Doing this requires every stakeholder to take part in this
process (Kroeger & Thuesen, 2002). For instance, the need to attain power within the military
might motivate a certain class of leaders to change their previous behavioral patterns and embrace
this culture. As such, the military can take advantage of this by using it as a selling point to these
leaders to get them to embrace and adopt this culture.
Part III: Recommendations
As mentioned in Part I of this paper, the culture embraced within the military is one of the
major reasons the Armed Forces is very resistant to change. Unlike most organizations, whereby
organizational leaders can be brought in from other organizations, the majority of leaders within
the military were at one point recruits and then service members. As such, the fact all these leaders
are exposed to the same culture pertaining to how the military should operate during their training
and subsequently from the experiences they garner working in the military means that they are
quite hesitant to change the culture. This is majorly because the culture is familiar to them, and
thus, they do not feel comfortable getting rid of the culture.
The best way to overcome this challenge is to adopt transformational leadership. The
leadership style came into existence courtesy of James McGregor Burns. According to Burns,
transformational leadership is composed of four different components (Lai et al., 2020). The first
component revolves around intellectual stimulation. Often, transformational leaders take it upon
themselves to challenge the status quo. Doing this enables them to push employees to become
more creative, and as such, not only come up with new ways to do things but also embrace the
learning opportunities they might come across (Lai et al., 2020). Unlike other leadership styles,
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 10
transformational leadership is very personal in nature. What this means is that a transformational
leader takes time to build supportive relationships with their employees.
These relationships then act as the steppingstone for them to stay connected to their
employees, which then allows the leaders to figure out effective ways to motivate their employees
to adopt particular conduct. Regularly communicating with employees by keeping open lines of
communication is the best way to foster such relationships. Transformative leaders are also
visionaries (Lai et al., 2020). Courtesy of this, they are able to not only come up with a vision for
what they hope will happen within their organization but also articulate this new direction to
employees and get them to buy into what they are trying to do. The final component that
underscores transformational leadership is idealized influence. Under this model, transformational
leaders should act as role models for their employees (Kroeger & Thuesen, 2002). The fact that
employees respect and trust their leader, they will feel inclined to emulate their leader’s actions,
behavior, and guiding ideology. As a Christian, the Scripture acts as my main guiding framework,
especially when I am dealing with difficult or otherwise seemingly difficult situations.
Conclusion
Changing the culture within the military through the introduction of transformational
leadership will be incredibly challenging. Just as I always do, I will lean on the Scripture to give
me the strength and motivation needed to overcome this challenge. The Lord tells us in Philippians
4:13, "I can do all things through him who strengthens me." God has given me excellent
interpersonal skills, and as such, I will take advantage of these skills to not only approach various
leaders but also convince them of the benefits adopting transformational leadership will bring to
the military, especially when used as the foundation upon which change management in the
military should be anchored on.
CHANGE MANAGEMENT AND TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP 11
References
Council on Foreign Relations. (2020, July 13). Demographics of the U.S. Military. Retrieved from
https://www.cfr.org/backgrounder/demographics-us-military
Kinicki, A. (2021). Organizational Behavior: A Practical, Problem-Solving Approach (3rd ed.).
McGraw-Hill Education: New York.
Kroeger, O., & Thuesen, J. (2002). Type Talk at Work: How 16 Personality Types Determines
Success on the Job (Rev. and Updates ed.). New York: Dell Pub.
Lai, F.-Y., Tang, H.-C., Lu, S.-C., Lee, Y.-C., & Lin, C.-C. (2020). Transformational Leadership
and Job Performance: The Mediating Role of Work Engagement. SAGE Open.
https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019899085
Lasrado, F., & Kassem, R. (2021). Let get everyone involved! The Effects of Transformational
Leadership and Organizational Culture on Organizational Excellence. International
Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, 38(1), 169-194.
Tsai, Y. (2011). Relationship between Organizational Culture, Leadership Behavior, and Job
Satisfaction. BMC health services research, 11(1), 1-9.
Van Marrewijk, A. (2018). Digging for Change: Change and Resistance in Inter-organizational
Projects in the Utilities Sector. Project Management Journal, 49(3), 34–45.
