Field Grade Officers and Ethical Leadership in Army BCTs
This paper examines critical leadership failures within the 4th Armored Brigade Combat Team (ABCT) and proposes a comprehensive improvement plan from the perspective of a Brigade Commander. Drawing on the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) report and a 360-degree leadership assessment, the paper identifies organizational leadership as the root cause of the brigade's problems, including poor communication, lack of alignment, and a dysfunctional culture. The proposed remedy follows Kotter's 8-stage model for organizational change and addresses three core areas: reforming leadership practices, developing personnel at all levels, and improving mission execution. The role of field grade officers in extending ethical leadership beyond the formal chain of command is emphasized throughout.
- Introduction: BCTs, field grade officers, and essay scope
- Critical Leadership Problem: Diagnosing 4th ABCT's organizational leadership failures
- Improvement Plan: Kotter's 8-stage change model as the framework
- Leadership Reform and Field Grade Officers: Replacing failing leaders and leading by example
- Personnel Development: Long-term individual and team development strategy
- Achieving Mission Objectives: Planning, execution, and assessment for consistent mission success
- Conclusion: Summary of diagnosis and organizational change proposal
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- The paper grounds its argument in concrete evidence — the CALL report and a 360-degree assessment — giving its diagnosis of leadership failure credibility rather than relying solely on abstract theory.
- It maintains a clear first-person perspective throughout, which is appropriate for the case-study format and keeps the proposed remedies actionable and personal rather than vague.
- The structure logically moves from problem identification to solution design to implementation, mirroring the real-world planning cycle used in military command contexts.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper effectively bridges theoretical frameworks and practical application. It invokes Kotter's 8-stage model not merely as a label but maps its stages explicitly onto the brigade's specific circumstances — urgency of active deployment, cultural anchoring, coalition building — demonstrating how to operationalize an academic model in a professional context.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with context on Brigade Combat Teams and the field grade officer's role, then diagnoses the 4th ABCT's leadership failures using multiple assessment sources. An improvement plan follows, subdivided into leadership reform, personnel development, and mission execution. The conclusion synthesizes the diagnosis and proposed remedy. Each section builds on the last, making the argument cumulative and cohesive. Approximately 900 words at the undergraduate-to-graduate boundary.
Introduction
The building blocks of the American Army are Brigade Combat Teams (BCTs). They are large formations — blunt instruments of national military power — tasked with the responsibility of fighting and winning the nation's wars. To accomplish this duty, BCTs and their subordinate battalions must move on the same axis of progress, march to the same beat, and reach their objectives simultaneously in order to deliver the success required on the modern battlefield.1 Key to ensuring this success is the field grade officer, who is tasked with maintaining an accurate and enforced duty roster, ensuring the training schedule is followed, and seeing that regulatory tasks are completed.2 This essay discusses, from the perspective of a Brigade Commander, how field grade officers lead in the development of ethical organizations. It analyzes and responds to a provided case study through critical analysis and the application of relevant theories to the field grade officer's role.
Bibliography
de Almeida Serapião, Flavio. "Leadership Effectiveness in the Army: A Perspective from the US Army War College." Ph.D. diss., University of Pennsylvania, 2020.
Hernandez, Daryle J. Building Strategic Leader Competencies into Army Officer Development and Career Progression. 2011.
Lee, Sam-Joo, and Sang-Hyuk Park. "The Effect of Modern Leadership Style on Organizational Effectiveness: Focusing on Army Commander's Leadership." The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology 6, no. 1 (2020): 201–207.
Lis, Andrzej. "The Manifestations of Positive Leadership Strategies in the Doctrinal Assumptions of the US Army Leadership Concept." Journal of Corporate Responsibility and Leadership 2, no. 1 (2015): 51–76.
McLean, Gregory W. Leadership Principles for the New ADP 6-22. 2012.
Miller, Billy, and Ken Turner. "Leading Organizational Change: A Leader's Role." Curriculum Reading, 2016.
Create your account
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.