Transformational Change in US Army

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Guidance on Models of Organizational Change and Transformation: Burke-Litwin Model

Burke-Litwin Model
The Burke Litwin model explains how the transformational change occurs in the organization. This is reflected from the linkages between external environment and leadership wherein the transformational change occurs as a result of changes in external environment (Burke & Litwin, 1992). The inputs such as external environment leads to an impact on the leadership, mission and strategy that has an impact on the outputs in the form of individual and organizational performance (Burke & Litwin, 1992). This model can be applied to U.S Army also in the following manner:
External Environment
Burke-Litwin's model proposes that the external environment factors leads to initiation of transformational change in the organization (Burke & Litwin, 1992). US Army has also changed with the external environment forces wherein when the terrorist attack of 9/11 happened, the army had a radical change from its strategy of bombing and use of heavy armoury to a strategy of commando strikes, manhunts and intelligence collection (Scarborough, 2011: Sept. 8). The manhunts of terrorists such as Osama bin laden was done along with Pakistan's army to find and kill him (Baker, Cooper & Mazzetti, 2011: May 1). Similarly, monarchs like Saddam Hussain were found and imprisoned (Dreazen, Fassihi et al.). The attacks on World Trade Center and Pentagon instigated U.S Army to proactively conduct ground wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and send the military troops to the sensitive hotspots across other countries to deal with terrorists (Scarborough, 2011: Sept. 8). This depicts that the changes in environmental circumstances has led to transformational change in US Army.
Mission and Strategy
The US Army has developed a vision of 2025 and beyond wherein the US Army aims at "effectively employing lethal and non-lethal overmatch against any kind of adversaries in order to prevent, shape, win conflicts and achieve national interests leveraging cross cultural and regional experts to operate among populations, promotional of regional security and be interoperable with other military forces. Leveraging the total force, it will consist of a balanced, versatile mix of scalable and expeditionary forces that can be employed across the globe and conduct sustained operations with full range of military operations. Composed of agile and innovative institutions, civilians and soldiers, the US army shall provide strategic advantage for the nation with the trusted professionals who strengthen an enduring bond with the people it serves" (US Army, 2016).
The mission of US Army is "to fight and win the nation's wars by providing prompt, sustained land dominance across full range of military operations and spectrum of conflict in support of combatant commanders" (US Army, 2016).
Therefore, vision and mission of US Army is aimed at protecting the national interests with global operations employing the lethal and non-lethal weapons ensuring the national and regional security of the people. Therefore, the US Army has a very proactive approach in dealing with terrorists and securing the people rather than a reactive approach of responding to any attacks.

Leadership
The U.S Army has a very strong leadership as is reflected from the fact that 83% of the U.S personnel has approved the leader - the US Army secretary John McHugh on glassdoor.com, an employer rating website and this means there are very good perceptions and strong belief by the personnel in their leader (Glassdoor, 2016: n.d). The acceptance of the leadership of US Army is higher as compared to the British Army wherein its Chief of General Staff have been approved by 77% of its ...