The British Army Command, Leadership & Management Programme

The army is committed to ensuring that soldiers have the training and skills required for promotion. A command, leadership, and management (CLM) program is mandatory for those selected for promotion to the rank of Non-Commissioned officer.

The aim of the soldiers' education program is to improve the performance of soldiers both in barracks and on operations and the CLM courses prepare soldiers for the tasks that they will undertake during their military careers. This is supported by skill for life package.

The CLM program develops leadership and management skills as soldiers progress through the ranks, including basic skills support and the development of professional military knowledge. The skills and qualifications that soldiers gain are accredited and transferable to civilian life when they leave the army.

CLM training is developmental and provided at four levels:

• Pre Non-Commissioned Officer (PNCO)
• A junior Non-Commissioned Officer (JNCO)
• A senior Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO)
• Warrant officer (WO)

Each training course is provided in three parts as follows:

• Part one is provided by Arms and Services Director (A&SD), either in units or by the Army Recruiting and Training Divisions.
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  Depending on the individual A&SD, part one courses may be embedded within existing courses, run separately, or be a combination of the two.

• Part Two is work-based learning (not for PNCOs) provided by the A&SD with assistance from Educational Training Service-Learning Development officers.
• Part Three consolidation training (not for PNCOs) is provided by Army Education Centres (AECs).

Successful completion of part one is a key element of qualifying the individual for immediate promotion, while completion of parts Two and three qualifies the individual for subsequent further promotion.

The education elements of the CLM program are delivered in AECs. They are designed to prepare a soldier for promotion to the next rank by giving them the skills and knowledge they will require in order to operate effectively when in command. Each course builds on the previous one while introducing new material as appropriate. The program of course cover:

1. Leadership;
2. Management;
3. Professional knowledge; and
4. Personal development.

All levels of the CLM program count as credits for civilian qualification, whereby soldiers can gain:

1. Professional and vocational qualifications in management;
2. Degree-level modules and credits; and
3. Membership of professional institutions.

A soldier’s career will begin at the rank of private and may rise to Warrant Officer Class.

Problems Associated With the British Army

There are various challenges facing the British Army as an organization amongst which include pay, the pace of life, accommodation, training, and equipment, leave amongst others. The military as an institution often faces many of these problems because of the nature of leadership management in the organization. Gen Dannatt (2018), reported that the different method of payment in the British army is divisive and deserves an urgent restructuring. The payment system is such a complex one that the organization finds it difficult to comprehend.

Also, the reports by the general states that the "current level of operational commitments is "unsustainable". It adds that the "work-life balance is a growing concern", and "the high level of operational commitment, high activity levels between tours and a dearth of time for personal interests and career development all contribute to a sense of being undervalued and overworked."

It should be noted that this area is one of the areas that worries many of the defense chiefs most. The young, single men and women tend to enjoy the ferocious pace of life in today’s British army, also older married men and women are almost fed up and leaving. The defense general also states that most soldiers enjoy operations but the morale of the soldiers is undermining by serious inspections and pointless tasks back home.

According to General Danntt (2018), he describes the demanding pace of life in the British army as mortgaging the goodwill of the British people and therefore accepts that the long term of the pace of life in the British army is highly damaging.

He, however, pointed out that various operations in Iraq and Afghanistan last for several months in recent times, because soldiers spend nearly three months away from home training for the various missions but this is not recognized by the chain of command.

Furthermore, many people in the British army strongly believe that much of the accommodation they get is very poor. Many soldiers have to routinely complain about how they live in damp houses without a proper heating system or insulation. The number of military police has also been cut therefore allowing gangs of youths to roam military estates.

Theoretical Framework: A Critique Systems Approach and Structural Functionalism

A theory is said to be a set of ideas used in explaining something. Therefore a theory gives the insight to understand the subject matter of every issue in a better way. However, for the sake of this work, the system theory of organization will be used to enhance a better understanding of the subject matter. The systems approach is part of the theories of an organisation that aims at addressing the question ‘the best way to organize’’. This relates to the issue of structuring, functioning, and the performance of organizations as well as the behavior of individuals and groups that participate in production (Farnham, 1990).

Menell (1974) defined a system as a complex whole, set of connected things or part, organized body of material or immaterial things. Walton (1993), similarly defined a system as an ensemble of parts whose action can be explained only in their relation to other parts of and a whole governed by specifiable relationships. We, therefore, need to identify the important features that may define a system. These include interrelatedness or interconnections, interdependence, or reciprocity, a network of roles, and or interactive relationships.

However, an implication of the above on the British Army is such that the effectiveness of the system and the degree of its sustenance, as well as its survival, depend largely on the level of compatibility of the parts with one another. This, therefore, implies that there must be a minimal degree of integration in the British army between the parts if there must be harmony in the British army.

Considering its general applicable, Scott (1994), rightly observed that the system concept is applicable to any scientific inquiry where a researcher is concerned with the understanding of the pattern or structure between any sets of parts or units. The major objective of this work is, therefore, is to examine the application of the system concept in relation to the British army. I shall, therefore, proceed on the analysis of the various leadership management issues in relation to the British Army.

It should be noted that functionalism and system concepts go hand in hand. Functionalism predates the industrial-organizational systems thinking. Brown (1992), for instance, identified functionalism as the main theoretical framework for system approach in the sociological analysis of the industrial organization.

Functionalism has always treated the social world from a systematic viewpoint. We can say it sees the British Army as a social system possessing such inevitable subsystems or institutions as the family, the polity, the economy that exists due to their function for the sustenance and survival of the entire system. The structural-functional perspective derived its reputations from relating the various roles, groups, statues, institutions, and personalities in a social system to the needs of the social system as a whole.

Functionalism emphasizes the systemic feature of social wholes by treating them as characterized by differentiated but interdependent units (Cohen, 1968). With the observation that behavior in society is structured, it posits that such a relationship between members of the society is organized in terms of roles- patterned.

For instance, it is expected that the British Army which is a very important organization in the United Kingdom isn’t really performing up to an expected task. It is the task and function of the military to provide the basic training, Development centers that are needed for its personnel’s, but taking a critical look at the problems associated with the British Army like accommodation, training and equipment’s, pace of life amongst others, one can easily note that the organs of the military as postulated by the functionalist and system approach theories has shortcomings. It is expected that the British Army has various organs that are expected to perform various functions that are not living up to expectations.

The major parts of society, which is its institutions such as the economy, the family, and the educational and political systems are important components of the social structure that insignificant relationship with it. Thus, an institution can be seen as a subunit of the social system, made up of interconnected roles and interrelated norms. For example, such relations within the British Army are structured in terms of a set of related norms. However, there is the need for all the various units of the British Army to work together as a whole as a malfunction in part may eventually lead to the total collapse of other parts of the society as a whole. The underlying assumption is that the social system ascertains basic needs that must be met if it’s to survive. These needs are known as functional prerequisites. The function of any part of the society is its contribution to the maintenance of the society such as transformational leadership, Development at the top, Development centers, LMD Audits, performance management including feedbacks. The major functions of the social institutions are those which help to meet the functional prerequisites of society. Since society is conceived as a system, there must be some degree of integrations between its parts. A minimal degree of integration is, therefore, a functional prerequisite of societal existence (Haralambos & Holbron, 1995).

Nevertheless, there is a need for us to know that a malfunction in any of the parts or organs of the British Army may lead to the total collapse of the entire system. However, the same explanatory framework within the systems and functional concept can be pursued at different levels so that the parts of the British Army as an organization can be treated as a subsystem of the system. That is, each level of analysis of the system or subsystem can be treated as having relative anatomy while exploring how its parts meet the functional requirement of the British Army as an entity.