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Company leaders' jobs are difficult due to demands

• Company leaders are focused on mitigating job demands.
• There is overtasking by higher echelons.
• There are competing taskings from multiple higher echelons.
• Senior leaders lack understanding of time requirements.
• There is a hyperfocus on details rather than substance.

Company leaders' jobs are difficult due to a lack of appropriate resources

• There is a lack of resources at the company level.
• There is a lack of skills and experience at the company level.
• There is a lack of personnel at the company level.

Company leaders' jobs are difficult due to the job environment

• There is a lack of commitment to reducing the time burden.
• There is an unwillingness to accept prudent risk.
• Company commanders are reluctant to report honestly.

Company leaders in the U.S. Army—company commanders, executive officers, and first sergeants—have long been recognized as overworked. Company leaders implement Army and Department of Defense (DoD) requirements through the careful management of the training and duties of their frontline soldiers. Their jobs are burdensome in part because of the number of requirements imposed on them by higher headquarters. These requirements also include garrison tasks that compete for company leaders' time, such as providing personnel for installation support, participating in community events, and coordinating the visits of distinguished guests.

This report aims to help the Army identify ways to reduce and manage the time burdens on Active Component company leaders in garrison. The authors adopted the Job Demands-Resources (JD-R) model from the work design literature. The model considers two levers—job demands and job resources—to address the challenges of reducing time burdens at both organizational and individual worker levels. Through this model, the problem was organized into three categories for analysis: mitigating job demands through clarity of purpose and task; enhancing job resources with capital improvements to training and resources; and facilitating cultural changes to highlight leaders' awareness of time burdens and improve the productive use of time.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Company Leaders' Job Demands and Resources

• Chapter Three

  Strategies for Managing Time Burdens

• Chapter Four

  Recommendations to Reduce Time Burdens

• Chapter Five

  Conclusions

• Appendix A

  Survey Administered During Focus Groups