Resource Allocation and Army

¶ … Force Development Process and Organizational Model

The article on "General Odierno AUSA Winter Symposium" presents pertinent issues that affect the actual force development process. The force development process takes place in five phases. These five phases include development capabilities, design organization, organization model development, determining organization authorizations and organization authorization documentation. Among the last three stages of the force development process, the article greatly addresses issues that affect determining organizational authorization (General Odierno 2012). The issues of the Army force discussed in the reading greatly affects the various aspects of determining organizational authorizations compared to the other phases of force development process.

Determining organizational authorization is the resourcing phase of the development process. The force development and operations require resources to operate effectively. The various areas of the organizational model within the force compete for a substantial share of resources from the planning stage through to the programming and budgeting process to the final execution stage. This development phase brings together various organizational factors that form a balanced and cost-effective force structure. Moreover, this phase includes a procedure of Army guidance that outlines the authority that is responsible for providing guidance on resource allocation and Army guidance. Another important aspect relates to the total Army analysis during this phase. The process determines the proper army budget and the specific functions within the force that requires priority in support and funding and ensures that critical functions within the army operate effectively.

The "General Odierno AUSA Winter Symposium" article influence this phase of the army development process in several ways. Firstly, the reading highlights the great financial constraints within which the American government is operating. Such an aspect constrains the monetary resource allocated to the force (General Odierno 2012). Normally, determining organizational authorization deals with resource allocation within the force. Therefore, the constrained monetary resource allocated to the force ultimately affects the process of resource allocation (F103RA-1, 2014). Secondly, this phase of the force development process deals with budgeting for the force. The budget that the force does is largely dependent on the resource allocated to it. Reduced funding from the federal government to the force ultimately reduces the budgetary allocations to different functions within the force. In the end, it affects the efficiency with which each of the army functions operates. For instance, Gen. Odierno notes that the budgeting process had great challenges because of the limited resource allocated to the army.

The reading explains how constrained budgetary allocations affected strategic guidance of the force (General Odierno 2012). As already highlighted, strategic guidance is a significant process in the fourth face of force development. It ensures that the force is well equipped to deal with the priorities of their operations. It explains how low budgetary allocations to the army ultimately affected the strategic guidance of the force. Strategic guidance enables the force to prioritize and execute its core security mandate (F103RA-1, 2014). However, the limited resource and low budgetary allocations affected the force's ability to deal with the security threats and executing its core mandate of securing the country.

The reading also explains the importance of coordinating different functions of the force in creating one unified force. General Odierno notes how such coordination will be critical in building the future of the army that he envisions in 2020 (General Odierno 2012). The proper coordination and articulation of functions within the phase of developing force authorization influences development and success. As such, this coordination greatly affects this phase of force development compared to the other phases.