Four Decades and Five Manuals: U.s. Army Strategic Leadership Doctrine, 1983-2011

This monograph analyzes the history of United States Army leadership doctrine from 1983 through 2011 to identify the evolution of strategic leadership theory and practice in Army doctrine. Using leadership doctrine, the focus is on the analysis of the articles, reports, opinions, studies, and research papers surrounding each doctrinal publication. This research uses an analytical approach across the timeline of leadership doctrine by understanding each approved doctrine, reviewing the intellectual debate within the Army institution and across other leadership disciplines, examining the doctrinal changes in the published documents, and exploring the future of proposed strategic leadership doctrine. Beginning with the renewed emphasis on tactical, direct leadership attributes published in 1983, the omission of operational and strategic leadership in the doctrine identified a gap in addressing leadership at all levels within the Army. Following executive level leadership discourse in the 1980s, the publication of FM 22-103, Leadership and Command at Senior Levels in 1987 established the first doctrinal framework for command and leadership above the direct, tactical level for the Army. Coupled with the 1993 AR 600-100, Army Leadership, Army leadership policies became a better codified part of training and leader development, specifically in recognition of different levels of leadership including: direct, senior and executive. The consolidation and reorganization of Army leadership doctrine in 1999 placed the three levels of leadership together in one doctrinal reference; however, differences still existed between definitions of the levels. FM 22-100, Army Leadership: Be, Know, Do used direct, organizational and strategic, while the 1993 regulation used direct, senior and strategic. By 2007, the newly published documents finally agreed, providing clarity of purpose and better understanding for all Army leaders as they progressed through the different leadership levels. Strategic leadership thought and its importance to Army leaders continued to evolve and remained a much discussed, researched, and published topic into the twenty-first century. National military and government leaders addressed the need to improve strategic leaders? ability to understand and prepare for future conflicts while presenting the ways strategic leadership fits into overall leadership doctrine. The planned forthcoming updates to the 2006 Army Leadership: Competent, Confident and Agile manual continues those linkages for strategic leaders. The monograph concludes that strategic leaders must understand the strategy of the organization, where the organization fits in the complex environment, and what the organization must do to be successful. Through inclusion of strategic leadership references in consolidated Army doctrine, the academic theories and methods surrounding strategic leadership became more widely spread across the force, further improving the understanding necessary for a successful organization. The leadership traditions of the United States Army, better known for the direct leadership examples executed in every conflict, continues to have a codified description of the strategic leadership attributes necessary for continued success, accessible to all leaders, from the newest to the most senior.