Transformative change in Army training: A case study

Today's Army is transforming concurrently as it is involved in 2 major conflicts in the Middle East. Communicating change at any time is difficult for an organization, but communicating change while involved in combat operations on 2 fronts is made even more difficult. A primary change that the Army is now facing is how to change transformatively to be successful in the current operations. One element of this transformational process is the communication of the need cultural awareness training in preparing soldiers for deployment into combat. Cultural awareness training plays a very important role in modern warfare. How the Army vision and mission statements communicate that change by placing cultural awareness as an integral part in the conduct of stability and counterinsurgency operations is important. Is this message being communicated to the proper levels of leadership as soldiers prepare for deployment into the combat theater? This case study is about the transformation required in Army training and how the Army has transformed its cultural awareness training based on the mission and vision statements to meet the needs of the tactical-level leadership by deploying into the theater successfully. Based on the data analysis, one can conclude that training in cultural awareness is being emphasized and conducted by the strategic-level leadership; however, it is not meeting the needs of the tactical-level leadership nor is it receiving the in-depth knowledge required.