by Patricia A. Harris and Kenneth W. Lucas
U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences
March 1991
This report describes the investigation of work and skill requirements for three- and four-star general officers. It is based on content analysis of tape-recorded interviews of eight of the then-available four star general officers in the U.S. Army. This work was part of a larger project designed to test Stratified Systems Theory application to military organization and processes. Interviews were intended to learn the nature of three- and four-star assignments, career paths, and developmental patterns. Requisite skills included consensus building, envisioning, climate setting, self-evaluation, sharing frames of reference, risk taking, and dealing with uncertainty. Implications for executive development are described in terms of level-specific organizational and individual requirements.