The Alabama Air National Guard is an Air Force resource that supports the active duty military mission as well as working in support of the Governor and state of Alabama. This organization focuses heavily on proper management and leadership to ensure the mission is met as effectively and timely as possible. After approximately three and one-half years in the Air National Guard, every enlisted member is sent to Airman Leadership School to become educated on supervisory and leadership roles that encompass the proper management of people and resources. In Airman Leadership School, Air Force Airmen are taught proper decision making tactics and are given a better idea of how the force structure is run. They are also made aware of their place in the chain of command and the proper use of it. One of the most important parts of the curriculum taught in the school, however, is not only how to be a great supervisor or manager, but also how to become a strong leader. There are blaring differences in managing people and leading them, as explained by the Air Force. Management deals with the proper usage and treatment of people and resources. Proper management could be referred to as the oil in a machine that keeps everything running smoothly. Leadership is most effective approach to managing those people and resources. This approach sounds simple, but is a character trait not commonly found in most individuals. Proper leadership motivates others to complete tasks and perform those tasks as well as possible. Unlike management, leadership can come from anyone, no matter his or her status in the chain of command. In the Air National Guard, management is most prevalent and systematically executed from the enlisted personnel, whereas the leadership role is executed more frequently on the officer side of the house. Officers are typically those “in command”, but as stated before, leadership traits can be seen from anyone, no matter his or her role or status.
The enlisted force structure within the Air Force consists of airmen, non-commissioned officers (NCO) and senior non-commissioned officers (SNCO), in order from lowest to highest in rank. Organizational management is maintained at the lowest supervisory level, between airmen and their superiors, the non-commissioned officers. This structure allows for those with little rank and experience to be able to reach out to those with experience directly. This is designed to create a more comfortable working environment and allow for the all important “on the job training.” In efforts to maintain proficiency, discipline and workplace order, the Senior NCO’s have been given a small amount of managerial control over the immediate work environment. Within the enlisted force structure, there are many ways the personnel can gain recognition by their supervisors and peers. Enlisted personnel reviews (EPR’s) are a way for enlisted members to bring to light their contributions to the organization to be reviewed by their supervisors to be given a rating, which is then reflected upon when applying for other positions within the organization. Members are also given many opportunities to be seen by higher-ranking members for the hopes of a greater position when participating in the Honor Guard.
The officer side of the Air National Guard is given the Bureaucratic control. As officers gain higher rank, they are also given an equivalent amount of control over their respective career fields.
The proliferation of international business made its largest gains after the invention of the nuclear warhead and its subsequent detonation a few years later near the end of World Ward II. It was then that the international community realized the importance of mutually assured destruction, also known as “MAD”. This mutually assured destruction was intended to avert any nuclear or otherwise warring threats to any country around the world. The increased sharing and trading of goods across borders to further the socio-economic need among cultures, industries and countries accomplished this idea. Trade routes around the world began opening and goods that had never been seen in many parts of the world were becoming necessities in other regions, such as the widespread trading of coffee, which is incidentally the second largest traded good in the world now. As the world became more reliant on goods from different parts of the world, the risk of war began to die down. One of the new problems being faced was breaking through the cultural barriers to properly communicate and trade professionally.
Business began seeing the growth potential that the new idea of mutually assured destruction had to offer. The opportunity to reach out to six times the size of the current populous was an incredible new path that would strengthen any company’s bottom line. In the Air National Guard, this new globalization made cross-cultural communication an imperative part of the Airman’s curriculum. The ability to effectively communicate with allies and even enemies to gain information was not just a luxury in the search for information, but it was basically mandatory. In todays military, every member is sent through a month long training not only to strengthen their knowledge in his or her career field, but to also learn how to properly negotiate with and understand the local culture of the country to which they will soon be deployed. This education and employment thereof is well accepted and respected around the world by the many cultures and countries the military comes into contact with. This act of respect toward another’s culture gains the United States with increased allied forces and sources of information to be used against the enemies.
Within the United States’ borders there are many military installations in which members and their families live. Many of these bases have been in use for more than twenty years before the proliferation of globalization. Now, with the increased global visibility of corporations within the United States and its allies spreading around the globe, there is also an increase of those enemies that would like to harm them and disrupt their ways of life. That being said, the United States government has built dozens of bases around the world to act as an immediate action force used to quell the uprising of terrorists and combat those that have declared war on its allied forces. The management of the Air National Guard and Air Force has altered the way in which it conducts business overseas. As warring in the Middle East has carried through for over a decade, members have experienced suicidal tendencies, poor workplace behavior and decreased morale. The Air Force management realized this situation could become more widespread throughout the military if action was not taken immediately. Today, Air Force members do not typically serve for more than six months before being brought back home from their tour. This has shown a great rise in morale across the board and a greater value for the role in the workplace took effect.
One of the many ways in which management and leadership could create and maintain a healthy organizational culture is through the increased use and greater proficiency in communication throughout the entire organization. Communication is more accessible through technology, but this is not always the answer to solving communication issues. Small changes can sometimes be the most advantageous, such as allowing increased power to trickle down to section supervisors. This will typically enforce increased communication within the workplace by having the subordinates acknowledge the need to communicate with his or her supervisor or order for the success of the operation.
Another way to increase communication is through the use of weekly PowerPoint presentations that accurately project the current situation of each section within the organization. These slideshows will be very brief, but will show what changes have taken place on a week to week basis, their plans for the following weeks to come and what solutions they recommend to solve any current problems. These briefings need not last more than five to seven minutes per section. What these briefings do is to create cross talk amongst the departments and increase the understanding of how each section impacts the overall organization and what difficulties they might face.
A second strategy that organizational managers and leadership could create and maintain a healthy organizational culture is through the employment of an upward mobility program. This program is typically run by the Human Resources department and shows employees how they can directly impact their future within the organization. This better understanding of how the employee could raise their status in an organization for which they are already employed can increase happiness in the workplace. This strategy inadvertently increases communication between the supervisor and subordinate, as well. When opening the conversation as to how an employee plans for upward mobility, he or she must better understand how their work ethic and quality of work is being recognized in the workplace. As a supervisor, knowing when an employee is interested in increasing his or her status in the workplace, it makes communicating to them an easier task by conveying the impact that their work quality may have on the overall production or service.
Management and leadership have a very important role in the success or failure of an organization. The job can be tedious and frustrating at times, but the goal at the end of the day is by knowing that his or her decisions truly do impact the organization as a whole.