Will the Addition of the Basic Officer Leader Course to the Officer Education System Prepare Better Small-Unit Leaders.

摘要

This study examines how the Officer Education System (OES) prepares small-unit leaders. The research design for this thesis proposes to answer the overarching question: Does the addition of the Basic Officer Leader Course (BOLC) produce better small-unit leaders than the current OES. To analyze the over-arching question, the subordinate questions were developed to focus the analysis of available literature, define criteria for evaluation, select the data within each criterion, evaluate the data, and to examine the results. The criteria for evaluation was the Leadership Framework (Be, Know, Do) as defined by FM 22-100, Army Leadership. Be represents the Army Values and leader attributes, Know represent the technical and tactical skills, and Do represents the leader-actions. Programs of instruction from the precommissioning sources and Officer Basic Courses (OBCs) provided the data for evaluation, ultimately comparing the results with and without the addition of BOLC. These results were intended to provide recommendations for the problem identified by the Army Training and Leader Development Panel (ATLDP): 'Officers are concerned that the officer education system (OES) does not provide them the skills for success in full spectrum operations' (ATLDP, OS-5, 2000).