Application Paper CMST 303

I am a soldier in the Kentucky Army National Guard. The National Guard is like being a part time solider for your state. I've been serving in the Kentucky Guard for a little over four years. We report to our unit one weekend a month where we train or complete state missions. For example this weekend I drill, and we will be doing our Sargent major challenge which is a opstical course that test our knowledge on basic combat survival skills. I hold the rank of specialist which is at the bottom of the ranking scale. This can be a big problem in the military, which I'll explain more later. My MOS or job in civilian terms is 25U which is signal support specialist. Its a big fancy term for radio operator and IT field. As a 25U it is my job to make sure that we have communication at all times. We work with a lot of equipment in the IT field radios, computers, printers, satellite transmitters, etc.

The military uses a classical approach of management for interacting with its employees or soldiers. Classical approach is a way of looking at businesses and organizations as a machine. With all the right parts working together toward a common goal. During the Industrial revolution the way Americans worked and thought about work changed from an agricultural aspect to an industrial one. Machine metaphor became essential to the classical organizational theories. Katherine Miller (2012) explains “ the notion of a metaphor in a organization theorizing suggest that we can learn something about organizations by considering a disparate object that an organization is like.” For example a organization is like a bicycle it must have workers (the person on the bike), communication (the handle bars that steer the bike), a goal (the chain that rotates the tiers). Anything can be broken down into a simple description of an organization. There are three parts to this metaphor, one is specialization using the military as my example every unit, platoon, and section has to have a specific function in order to carry out the mission. The second is standardization the military trains more than one soldier to a specific job in the event that the solder needs to be replaced someone else can step in. This helps with moving soldiers around from one unit to the next it make the process easier and more efficient. The last part is predictable.the army has rules and procedures that are put in place across the board. Every battalion and company may have different jobs and responsibilities but share the same structure.
Of the three leading theorist I thought the best example to describe the way of the military was to use Henri Fayol's “ Theory of Classical Management.” Fayol's had two components to his theory the elements of management and principles of management. Both are key to operating an organization. Katherine Miller (2012) “elements of management deal with what managers should do, principles of management deal with how managers should enact these elements.”
His elements of management breaks down into five parts. The first is planning, this part deals with looking ahead to best attain an organizational goal. For example in the military battalions that deploy are not just chosen by random there has to be a need for your unit. When I deployed overseas the government needed air support in Iraq to complete air missions. Since I am in an aviation unit we were selected to go provide air support with our black hawks and maintenance crew. The second fundamental element is organization in the example used this would be how the military arranges soldiers needed to complete the mission. For instance we had to have “x” amount of pilots and maintenance guys to support air operations. The third command in the military we have a chain of command that information is pushed through all tasks come from your section leader or direct manager. Fourthly coordination is combining separate parts of an organization together.