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Moving mountains through simple directive
Author(s) -
Neal Derrick J.,
Naylor Quentin W. M.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
strategic change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.527
H-Index - 16
eISSN - 1099-1697
pISSN - 1086-1718
DOI - 10.1002/jsc.807
Subject(s) - infantry , directive , terrorism , navy , banner , political science , management , restructuring , public administration , law , operations research , engineering , economics , computer science , history , archaeology , programming language
On 1 July 2004 the Secretary of State for Defence (SofS) released the Defence White Paper (DWP) ‘Delivering Security in the Changing World’, in which he set out his strategy to deliver security into the 21st century. The announcement followed a thorough analysis of the emerging security environment and was conducted in the aftermath of 11 September 2001, and amidst a continuing Global War on Terror. The DWP announced major changes to the structure, size and organization of Defence generally, with significant changes to the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy (RN). Changes to the Army were presented under the banner of ‘Future Army Structures’ (FAS), which primarily represented a rebalancing of capability to ‘meet the new threats . . . of international terrorism’ (MoD, 2004) through the provision of a ‘truly robust and expeditionary Army’ according to the Chief of General Staff (2004). FAS was part of the response by the Army to increasing budgetary pressure to save money and within this the Army decided to restructure the Infantry in a programme designated Future Infantry Structures (FIS). However, in delivering FIS the Army runs the risk of ignoring some of the key tenets of change management. This paper presents examples of how the Army has not recognized issues of establishing a guiding coalition, stakeholder engagement and the role of communications. However, the prime concern is that the Army appears to believe that major change (culturally significant) can be achieved without giving due attention to appropriate resourcing of change.Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.