Spouse Influence in Army Organizational Change

<p>Commanders and other leaders in the Army must constantly consider how their organization is changing and how it must change to remain relevant and effective in its combat roles. When planning and conducting an organizational change these commanders must create readiness for the change (RFC). The Armenakis and Harris revisions to the Lewin organizational change model describe the need for a leader to create RFC through a five-domain change message that includes the domains of discrepancy efficacy personal valence principal support and appropriateness. While all of the domains are important this study will focus on that of principal support which requires that many people in the organization such as both formal and informal leaders must demonstrate their support for the change through their words and actions. Specifically the study examines the principal support role that Army spouses play in organizational change efforts. While there is increasing discussion of family in contemporary literature most of this discussion focuses either on how family problems affect worker productivity or on how companies can offer benefits that will make a worker's family life easier. Recent evidence indicates that Army leadership has recognized this phenomenon through actions such as creating the Army Family Covenant and by renewing emphasis on family programs to help increase commitment from soldiers. Army leaders are taking measures to ensure soldiers'; families are well-cared for especially as soldiers spend more time away from home. Despite this recognition of how important family life is to employees and soldiers there is little research into how spouses influence the organization. Similarly there is far less evidence of direct and deliberate measures to educate spouses about changes that are occurring in the Army in an effort to generate principal support for the changes. The concept of margin in life (MIL) a model used in adult learning is also useful when consider</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>