The Profession of Arms:
The Role of the Human Resources Sergeant
All soldiers in the United States Army have quoted the Soldiers Creed. We have all said, “I am an expert and I am a professional.” Have you ever thought about what those words mean? In order to address the importance of the Human Resource Sergeant’s role we need to know what it means to be a profession, balancing role of the profession’s leaders, and understand the Army’s professional culture. A profession is not just a job. Professionals do not just clock in and out of work, they are experts with years of training, knowledge, and experience. A profession has to earn loyalty and trust. The military demonstrates that trust to America. As soldiers, we are always striving to better ourselves through constant training. We go to basic training, AIT, and do correspondence courses and SSD, etc. We are trained to defend the constitutional rights, serve and protect our country, and fight. As a HR Sergeant, we have to constantly train and stay up to date on every
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We lack being able to Charlie Mike, continue mission, if we are off balance. The role of leaders and leadership plays a critical part in the balancing role. If we do not have leaders and guidance we could fall short. If we fall short, we lose trust in the American people and our comrades. The Army’s culture and climate also play an important role in balance. Junior leaders learn from sergeant majors and general officers. If we do not have balance and structure from our leaders we lose confidence and motivation. Human Resource sergeants are trusted to get accountability, maintain soldier records, and help with soldier development. When we do our jobs right everything runs smoothly, therefore, we look better in the overall picture. Our military culture and climate build us and make us that small but important percent of Americans who fight for
The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief analysis of the United States Army’s organizational structure and its culture and how these two elements impact its workers, associates and affiliates. This paper will first examine the Army’s history, development and structure to highlight the origins of the Army’s culture. Secondly, a brief history of the Army’s organizational development will be followed by a close examination of its philosophy and supporting beliefs. Lastly, this paper will discuss the role of the Army’s leadership, their response to critical issues and the organizational structure of the Army. An analysis of the army’s top leaders will help the reader to understand the Army culture more thoroughly in the context of the Army’s organizational structure. More specifically this section of the paper will examine the Army leadership’s response to the current geo-political environment and other related issues. In conclusion, this paper hopes to highlight the Army’s overall functioning from an organizational standpoint and emphasize that idea that the Army is like a functional corporation. This will be accomplished by addressing various key questions throughout this text.
What it means to be a professional soldier The first things you think about when you hear about a soldier is that we are clean brave dependable have a lot of respect and disciplined but that is only a look at the cover of the book they are fathers mothers sisters brothers and friends we are the ones that want to make sure that our land is safe for our brothers in arms and everyone at home that we love being a soldier is more than just a name to most to the professional it's a way of life from there house being the standard of living to their attitude being spot on so that people want to learn and be just like them not only are we an example to the world but also the person who thinks about joining the ranks of the United States Army because
"A young man who does not have what it takes to perform military service is not likely to have what it takes to make a living." When joining the military you must perform your best to protect our country. Tons of men and women around the world fight for the country and make a career out of it. There are three major branches and many different jobs to go with each one. Each have many specific tasks. (Robbie Hughes Interview)
We can identify three major cultural dimensions that help us to understand what leaders must focus on as they guide the transition of the Army. First, professional Identity, which is guided by Soldiers at all levels who are striving for excellence in their functional specialty, i.e., HR Sergeants. Soldiers who have goals and ideals of the Army to ethically put service and duty first. HR Sergeants are trained and well educated in their field. They are taught to put Soldiers first and have great customer support skills. Second, community, the sense in which Soldiers stop thinking about “I” and start thinking “we”. The bond among units who not only believe in cohesion with Soldiers, but their families too. The HR Sergeants are there to take care of Soldiers when financial issues arise with them or their families and don’t back down until the situation is solved. Last, hierarchy, which leads to order and control and provides Soldiers with moral reference and a sense of direction. The HR Sergeant has the mentality of mission first, knowing who to contact at the next level for assistance helps get the mission
Webster’s dictionary defines the word profession as a type of job that requires special education, training, or skill. Many Soldiers would not consider the Army as a profession but a way of life. Some think the word profession belongs to everyday jobs like a plumber, mechanic, or doctor. Dr. Don M. Snider stated “the Army is a profession because of the expert work it produces, because the people in the Army develop themselves to be professionals, and because the Army certifies them as such” (Snider, D. M. 2008). In October 2010, the Secretary of the Army directed the Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) to lead an Army wide assessment of the state of the Army Profession. We have been at war as a Country for over a decade and the Army wanted to know how to shape the future of the Army as a profession and the effects the past decade had on our profession.
The United States Army has an effective way of delegating work and organizing the chain of command; they do this by categorizing the levels of leadership in to three main groups: Direct, Organizational, and Strategic. All three levels are extremely important, one level cannot stand without the other. While Direct level leaders tend to deal with people on a more personal level, the Organizational and Strategic level leaders need to be able to organize entire organizations indirectly and delegate the work load to the appropriate personal and do so
As being a military officer, society will expect a great deal from us. We have professional standards that ever...
The human resource doctrines describe the contribution of the sergeant in the operation of the forces. In addition, the principle shows the role played by the professionals and systems (Snider, Oh, & Toner, 2009). The sergeant assesses, plans, and executes the mission of the army to make sure that the profession has constant support and readiness. Through competency-based strategies and performance-oriented styles, the sergeant fulfils the requirements of the mission and defines the profession of arms. Six enduring principles guide the profession, and they include accuracy, integration, anticipation, timeliness, responsiveness, and synchronization (Army, 2010).
For any successful relationship, there is one common trait and that is trust. After the Army conducted a study in 2011 on the difference between the Army profession and the Army professional and results revealed a lack of common understanding throughout the Army.1 Since 2011, the Army has created doctrine that clearly explains the essential characteristics that constitute a Profession. In ADRP 1-0, it mentions the five essential characteristics that legitimize the Army profession: trust, esprit de corps, honorable service, military expertise, and stewardship.2 These five characteristics are all necessary for the Army profession, but throughout my military experience, trust is the most influential and important characteristic because without trust the other characteristics could not exist.
The United States Military have a vast variety of Military Occupational Skills (MOS). Human resource (HR) has one of the most critical MOS in the United States army. Human resources sergeants has one of the most difficult tasks when dealing with Soldiers issues, and guidance. Establishing the commanders intent, to adapting and evaluating, manning the force, integrating policies that benefit the force. Human resources has to overcome professional roles and adapt to make it a profession. HR needs to excel, develop, trust, expertise, service and values that contributes to our professional skills. Manifesting different qualities into our careers, will enhance our interpretation of our profession.
To be a profession of arms means to be the very best at what we do as Soldiers. Because there are many different facets of Soldiering, occupationally speaking, there are a lot of different varieties of what it means to be a profession of arms in our specialties. With that being said, there is a set standard of the basics of what it means to be a profession at arms as far as Soldiering skills are concerned. How we develop and hone those skills are up to our leadership and the initiative of each individual to develop further. Due to the rapidly changing environment has presented many challenges for all Soldiers but it’s not what it used to be. Everyone, no matter their chosen military occupational specialty, is expected to execute basic
Every profession, so determined by the uniqueness of the work completed, requires stewards to guard that profession. The Profession of Arms is especially distinct because it rests on the American people’s trust to use government sanctioned force, up to and including lethal force, to protect the physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being of the American nation. And thus, the stewards of such an important profession must hold themselves to rigorous high standards in order to complete the mission and maintain the trust of the American people. The Human Resources Sergeant (HR NCO) is that steward.
When you stand in formation and are asked “What does it mean to be a Profession of Arms?” do you stop and think to yourself, how does it play a role in what I do? The military is a calling – not a job (General, 2010). Much like other professional fields in the military we get paid, receive numerous benefits, and can move up the chain to be promoted! In the Human Resource profession we also seek much of the same opportunities along with providing an irreplaceable service to those among our ranks.
When people first join the military they’re placed in a specific work area that is their responsibility. With this, other people have other specific responsibilities that they must take care of, this is an example of organised work. A few examples of organised commands are Generals, Colonels, Lieutenants, Majors, and Captains, these people also help keep everything running properly and not become unfastidious. People in the workforce might say there's no need for any complicated command system, but the way to a well working job is by setting people there to help organise and run the business properly. Also in the military there's no such thing as slacking off, because when people become lazy and not do your duty things get out of hand and a mess occurs, whereas in the workforce laziness is everywhere and some situations get out of
As stewards of the Army Profession, they are the epitome of what Soldiers aim to be. Through professional and personal experiences, Sergeants Major (SGM) acquires necessary skills and tools to effectively deal with adversity. It is for this reason that in the midst of challenges, chaos, and difficult situations Sergeants Major are the beacon of light, the common sense in the equation, the “Go To” person for guidance and hope, or the solution for all issues. Applying positive psychology, Sergeants Major are able to provide sound judgment and advice to commanders, staffs, and subordinates. Additionally, the application of positive psychology fosters camaraderie, builds a healthy work environment, and creates a positive culture within the organization. The purpose of this paper is to describe the concepts of positive psychology, positive leadership, and master resilience training (MRT) and how Sergeants Major promote these factors to enhance organizational