Generational Gaps in the United States Military - Case Study Example

Name : xxxxxx Tutor : xxxxxxx Title : Military for Millennials Institution : xxxxxxx @2012 Contents Essay 1: 3 Generational gaps in the United States military 3 The observable differences 3 Essay 2: 4 Openness and lack of secrecy 4 Essay 3: 6 Comparisons with past generations 6 Essay 4: 8 On the need to change leadership 8 Essay 1: Generational gaps in the United States military The decision by the United States Department of Defense to ban the use of some social networking sites and popular websites highlighted a major issue that is prevalent even in major corporations worldwide; generational gaps. The military’s official reason was that they were concerned about saving on bandwidth and security issues but still the generational differences between junior and senior officers was evident. Senior officials were unable to understand how the millennial generation could be using civilian social networking sites for matters concerning their work. To them such actions represented serious security concerns. The issue at hand is that Generation y has a high affinity for online interactions among other conspicuous traits that previous generations do not approve of or are not conversant with. As an example, the military has had to strictly define its dress code and decent appearance to cope with the adoption of traits such as baggy clothing, piercings and tattoos. The generation is quite tolerant to issues that have caused a stir with generations of the past such as race ethnicity and sexual orientation. But off course this tolerance could be attributed to naivety and youth among a minority of the generation. It is of importance to understand whether these traits are natural or whether they will pass with time as this generation has come of age to take up positions of leadership in the military and elsewhere. The observable differences Generational gaps are not new to the scene and have been there in the past. The Vietnam era was dodged by indifferences and inability to coexist between the 20 year old draftees and the older more senior officers. More recent reports indicate that the level of voluntary attrition has gone up among junior officers, main reason being generational differences between them and their seniors. Fritzson, Howell Jr & Zakheim cited a U.S. Army report(2000) which remarked that “Senior officers think they understand the world of lieutenants and captains, but many junior officers and others are convinced that they do not.’’ Some of the notable differences between the juniors and seniors included dog loyalty of seniors to the military as opposed to the junior’s dedication of equal time to work and life. Such an attitude was evident through the difficulties the military was experiencing in recruiting and retaining the millennial generation despite its large numbers. Estimates suggest that the population of generation y is 75 million, which would translate to a larger pool to recruit a work force from for both the military and corporate world. This generation has no specific archetype and only generalizations exist hence making recruitment all the more cumbersome. One researcher however has dedicated his efforts at defining this generation’s attitudes and aptitudes as they relate to the U.S. military. It is evident that this generation is equipped with different talents and as such will provide distinct challenges and opportunities to their employers. The military will have to adopt strategic reforms that bring out the best out of this generation in order to capitalize on its strengths. Essay 2: Openness and lack of secrecy Generation y possesses certain natural characteristics that conflict with the organizational structures and communication strategies of the military and major world corporations. This generation spends most of their time on the internet where as opposed to earlier television watching generations that mostly absorbed information passively, they absorb and share information on the internet. They also use other means of communication to share information such as text messages, homemade videos, weblogs and personal pages. It is such characteristics that suggest that this generation is more likely to be effectively managed through encouraging them to be creative and to work in teams. They are likely to be effective decision makers as compared to previous generation. Such a trait would suit the military where various teams are deployed and expected to function independent of one another and in various operations where there is decentralization is necessary. This generation would also be suited in intelligence work as they are naturally good at gathering and sharing information amongst themselves. Large corporations struggle at making their employees work together cohesively. This would not be a problem with this generation as they value teamwork and enjoy sharing information irrespective of functional, regional and operational boundaries. Such habits of openness and teamwork would thus help to overcome some of the barriers that the current workforce is experiencing in the military and in private and public corporations. While this trait of openness and a seeming lack of privacy and secrecy is good, it poses a great challenge to traditional command and control methods of management that are currently in place in the military and in many corporations. To such organizations, knowledge is power and thus has to be protected while to generation y, knowledge belongs to everyone and therefore has to be shared. This generation has no specific people with whom to share knowledge; they use it to create new relationships and initiate dialogues and conversations. Generation y uses the internet and many of its forums to share information with people they don’t know and may never meet. This countless number of interactions with a lot of people has an impact on how they serve and carry on with their work. Sharing of information may have a great impact on their attitudes towards their work. Such an issue needs to be addressed when this generation is undergoing training. Multitasking is another issue of concern with generation y members. It is a site to marvel at for previous generations whenever a millennial is at work due to their seeming ability to handle various tasks at once. It might seem hip and stylish to manage such a thing but it also highlights a casual approach to analysis and also an inability to deeply focus on complex matters. Another major challenge that comes along with this generation’s heavy dependence on online interactions is their inexperience in handling and solving disputes through direct conversation as well as poor face to face communication skills. Direct conversation skills are quite vital for the military and lack of such skills among military personnel would be of great detriment. The military has in the past dedicated resources to training in order to correct educational deficiencies. It would therefore have to do the same while training members of generation y in order to bring their interpersonal communication skills to date. Essay 3: Comparisons with past generations A closer look at the different generations across the past century might reveal events that shape the millennial generation and why they are distinctly different. At present there are three distinct generations presently working either in the military service or in the corporate world. Generation y is often compared to the generation of their grandparents: overcame the great depression, World War II, and still built a robust economy, and healthy family and community institutions. Millennials likewise heavily prioritize family, community and teamwork. Research indicates that this generation is heavily committed to family and is more civic than all the other generations that presently constitute the workforce. Precaution will have to be taken by the current crop of leaders in the military, private and public corporations in order to harness the full potential of this generation. Adapt a new style of management There is need for the military and business organizations to adapt their traditional command and control operations to accommodate the millennials who are far more comfortable with decentralized flexible and to a far extent, leaderless networks. However, studies conducted on such networks that are heavily decentralized and that rely on common goals and interests show that the more they continue to grow, the more centralized they become and they eventually turn out to be bureaucracies for the sole intent of guarding whatever gains they have consolidated. On the other hand it is quite incapable for the military to operate as such a network. Field operations demand that there be an established command and the flow of command be hierarchal. The military has however adopted a more modern approach to ground combat in the fields. The military is now reliant on Special Forces who are autonomous field units that are trained to operate independent of one another. Such a move has been necessitated by the need to think like the enemy who operates through such decentralized but still interconnected networks. The solution would therefore seem to arise from a blend of the best of both worlds: the military will have to strike a balance between command and control operations and decentralized networks, a move that already seems to be in place through the launch of an internal communications tool called “A-Space” which is a social networking site for its own members. With its enemies taking the war to cyberspace, the military must also step up its efforts to outmaneuver them through the use of blogs websites and other electronic forms of communications that the enemy is using. This it would easily do if it were to harness the potential of generation y, which is by far the most well equipped generation on cyberspace. To be successful however, the military structure will have to be reviewed so as the people in the battlefront have a greater leeway to carry out act autonomously but still under supervision of top leaders. Essay 4: On the need to change leadership Pivotal to this shift would be a change in leadership. All indications point towards the fact that the current leadership is aware that change is necessary. Furthermore, it would be ignorant for the top leadership to assume that their traditional command and control system is not popular among members of generation y. misleading reports that suggest that too much authority has already been delegated are just further indications of necessary change. Such reports point to few mishaps that have happened due to delegation of authority but they fail to highlight such other factors as poor training in leadership, inadequate training and lack of accountability. Needless to say, the majority of military in the next few years will be from this generation hence there is a need to recruit enthusiastic and highly motivational leaders to this generation. The military is facing major recruitment challenges as well as high levels of voluntary attrition among junior officers and low levels of enlistment and retention among African Americans. It would be easy to blame such trends on the continued engagement in Iraqi and Afghanistan but these trends have been existent way before these engagements began. Other reasons that may have led to this attributes include the military not honoring the promises it makes during the recruitment exercise. Such promises include preparations for better ways of life after military service through continuing education, impacting of practical training in useful skills and the development of strong peer relations. As well as relaxing on their wish to fulfill some of these promises, the military is making the servicemen serve more combat tours in dangerous territories. The military needs to regain the trust of generation y by ensuring that it delivers on all its promises and also by providing the right kind of leadership for generation y that will guide and direct them while also making them more cohesive and disciplined. Such kind of leadership will help inspire the millennial generation to fulfill their massive potential. More research needs to be carried out in order to continue defining the attitudes and aptitudes that a millennial possesses. This will be vital in directing military leaders on what to do when confronted with the unique characteristics of this generation. History has shown time and over again that most generations grow up to defy the fundamentals on which previous generations have been built upon so it would be within reality to expect the millennial generation to do the same. The leaders chosen upon to supervise this generation have the daunting task of guiding the millennial generation and also protecting them from leaders who might not understand why they have to be different and unique. This will be vital in order to make the most of this generation. Read More