Military and Leadership

Military and Leadership

In any environment whatsoever , the main targets , the paraphernalia , the products and team-leadership are all great aspects of running a business , all of which require talent , energy and a considerable amount of insight . The article When Good Companies Do Bad Things ' by Peter Schwartz highlights the importance of these aspects through the crucial significance of companies being `good ' and having the reputation for it as well . Schwartz states that there is a growing importance of reputation in the competitive world of global branding . We all like to believe

that we 're working for good companies and that our systems are ethical , humanitarian and in the interest of the betterment of people However , with the rising complexities in the globalization of the market , he draws from the examples of big companies such as Shell , Nike Microsoft and Texaco , all finding themselves paying the price for a task as simple as to paying too little attention to the importance of reputation

The comparison of the aforementioned multi-billion dollar businesses with a military unit may not be high in terms of product and sales strategies , yet the aspect of units of men working for a certain target with a certain image before people is highly common between both these instances . A military unit , much like a corporate unit , works on the principle of task-orientation . It also believes that its goals are ethical and in sync with the good of mankind . The simple personal experience that I had of watching the troops walking , saluting and parading in formation is a clear-cut example of the height of conformity within its set up . However , Hawkins (2007 ) reports the research conducted at Los Alamos , recognizing that the behavior of a group of people depends strongly on the interaction of personal (individual traits ) with the collective moods of the group as a whole . This simply means that the high levels of conformity we see in the formation and smooth working of a battalion is also connected deeply with the individual 's interaction with the whole . The same way a platoon is influenced by its unit members ' passion and dedication towards their goals , the corporate set up is also directly influenced by values in the system

Integrity , as interpreted by Schwartz , is : being well-integrated with one 's society and understanding what the society 's expectations are . I agree to this definition as it has the potential to create more aware institutions . Capitalist set ups , by definition , are businesses run for the sole purpose of making a profit (Haralambos and Holborn ,

. 8 . The age of media and technology grows faster today than it ever did - therefore it is better to have emerging corporate culture , which has encoded in its basic structural DNA , empathy and a sense of compassion for its surroundings

It is indeed so in the military that an environment of debate is not encouraged in the military set up . It is the belief of experts that 'saluting without questioning exemplifies the military 's 'can...