Reducing the time burdens of Army company leaders / Lisa Saum-Manning [and 12 others].

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Saum-Manning, Lisa, author.

Contributor:

Arroyo Center. Personnel, Training, and Health Program.

Rand Corporation.

United States. Army.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Command of troops--Time management--United States.

Command of troops.

Leadership--United States.

Leadership.

United States. Army--Personnel management.

United States.

Place of Publication:

Santa Monica, Calif. RAND Corporation 2019

Summary:

Company leaders in the U.S. Army—company commanders, executive officers, and first sergeants—have long been recognized as overworked. Company leaders implement Army and Department of Defense (DoD) requirements through the careful management of the training and duties of their frontline soldiers. Their jobs are burdensome in part because of the number of requirements imposed on them by higher headquarters. These requirements also include garrison tasks that compete for company leaders' time, such as providing personnel for installation support, participating in community events, and coordinating the visits of distinguished guests. This report aims to help the Army identify ways to reduce and manage the time burdens on Active Component company leaders in garrison. The authors adopted the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model from the work design literature. The model considers two levers—job demands and job resources—to address the challenges of reducing time burdens at both organizational and individual worker levels. Through this model, the problem was organized into three categories for analysis: mitigating job demands through clarity of purpose and task; enhancing job resources with capital improvements to training and resources; and facilitating cultural changes to highlight leaders' awareness of time burdens and improve the productive use of time.

Contents:

Introduction

Company Leaders' Job Demands and Resources

Strategies for Managing Time Burdens

Recommendations to Reduce Time Burdens

Conslusions

Appendix: Survey Administered During Focus Groups.