Recommendation for an Organisation PDF

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Recommendation for ADFA PT program...

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William Samios Z5165491

Single Service Fitness Tests can better prepare ADFA TOs for work in the ADF The Organisation: The Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) is a tri-service military academy in Canberra. The Academy has a body of 1000 Trainee Officers (TOs) from the Australian Defence Force’s (ADF) three services; Navy, Army, and Air Force. The TOs complete either a bachelor or honours level degree in either Arts, Business, Science, Cyber Security, or Engineering. In addition, TOs undergo continual military training to prepare them for their roles in the ADF.

Mission: “To serve Australia by providing the Australian Defence Force (ADF) with tertiary graduates who have the attributes, intellect and skills required of an officer.” (Australian Defence Force Academy)

Recommendation: ADFA should introduce Single Service Fitness tests to allow its TOs to become more accustomed to the fitness requirements of their respective services and imbue a positive attitude toward fitness.

Rationale: Firstly, increasing fitness standards to match Defence Service level standards lowers the number of personnel who fail the tests and thus attend Remedial Physical Training (PT). Higher standards incite greater effort as evidenced by Goal Setting Theory which states that “Goals that are difficult to achieve and specific tend to increase performance more than goals that are not.” (O’Neill, Dillings, 1994, p.146) Thus, the ADFA TOs are pushed to remain committed to their fitness, reducing the likelihood of injury or failure during the actual tests. Furthermore, Remedial PT is run six days a week. During working days, it begins at 0600 h and on Saturday at 1000 h running for one hour. This totals six hours a week, during inconvenient times of the day thus detracting from both the TOs and the Physical Training Instructors’ (PTIs) time. With the absence of remedial duties, PTIs can be freed up to aid trainees with their individual training and create more appropriate PT sessions for the remainder of the trainee body. Secondly, physical fitness extends beyond a requirement for an officer. It is a defining aspect of how they are perceived by their subordinates, particularly when considering Charismatic Leadership Theory. Having to attain a lower 1 | Page

William Samios Z5165491 fitness standard embeds the idea of adequacy being at the satisfactory level, which at an institution that prides itself on its motto, “to lead to excel”, is both paradoxical and toxic. For personnel in the wider ADF, a significant gauge for competency in junior officers by their subordinates is their fitness level. Thus, low fitness levels of graduates reflect poorly on ADFA’s ability to achieve its own mission and on those officers being judged.

Figure 1: Causal Sequenc e

Further, ADFA as an organisation implicitly experiences the ‘unwritten rules of the game’. Whilst the procedures and rules of an organisation might imply one action, co-workers expect another. An organisations shared norms, values, and beliefs are vital aspects of its daily function. In the context of physical fitness testing, lower standards imply lower acceptable levels of achievement. Having recently lowered the standard of fitness at ADFA to the Navy requirements, was to lower the standard of effort and achievement expected of TOs. A 2013 study on exercise and cognitive abilities concluded that “aerobic fitness enhances cognitive strategies enabling to respond effectively to an imposed challenge with a better yield in task performance” (Fernando, Hillman, 2013, p.403). In addition, a study conducted in 2006 revealed that “increases in habitual physical activity are cross-sectionally associated with lower depressive symptomatology and greater emotional well-being” (Galper, 2006, p.1). Good mental health is a necessary attribute for an officer and can be improved through greater emphasis on fitness as evidenced by Figure 1. Thus, a reduction in Figure 2: The correlation between fitness levels and mental health (CR = Cardiorespiratory)

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William Samios Z5165491 physical fitness has a destructive effect, a contradiction to ADFA’s purpose of producing graduates with “attributes, intellect and skills required of an officer” but rather producing graduates lacking in stable mental health and willing to accept minimal effort.

Thirdly, testing at ADFA should mirror ADF testing allowing Officer Cadets and Midshipman to become accustomed to the testing conducted in their respective services. A consistent point of feedback given to the ADFA Army cadets during their Single Service Training (SST) is that fitness is a defining aspect of the Royal Military College – Duntroon (RMC-D), where they will study once completing their time at ADFA and must be vigorously maintained. The Army cadets generally find themselves unaccustomed to exercises such as heaves as well as the Physical Employment Standards Army (PESA) upon arrival at RMC-D having only experienced such tests on their SSTs with no reinforcement whilst at ADFA. Specifically, a lack of training in areas such as pack marching becomes a major cause of injury to cadets, a key component of the Army and a tremendously lacking feature of ADFA’s fitness program. To reduce injury is to improve organisational performance, in this case it enables ADFA to achieve its mission of providing graduates with the necessary skills of an officer.

Figure 3: ADFA Fitness Standards Presently, there is no option for a 2.4km run or a 5km walk to supplement the beep test in the Academy Fitness Test. Heaves, chin-ups, and flexed arm hangs are also not assessed. There is no swimming requirement.

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William Samios Z5165491

Figure 5: Air Force Figure Navy Fitness Fitness4:Standards Standards Airforce personnel are not Navy personnel not being tested on their ability to tested on flex arm hangs complete chin-ups, nor and swimming result flexed armmay hangs, andinare failure upon arrival at theirto not given the opportunity attempt un-held sit-ups.

Risks: There is only one risk associated with the implementation of Single Service fitness tests, is the possibility of injury. Shifting from the current ADFA fitness tests may result in injuries to occur due to lack of instruction regarding the different testing standards. To mitigate this, TOs must be instructed with how to conduct their relevant tests using the appropriate techniques. However, there is in fact a greater risk continuing with the ADFA AFT standard as the Services are required to perform tests outside of ADFA of a much higher standard. A study conducted in 1999 on British Army Officer Cadets unveiled that, “The least aerobically fit OCdts (Officer Cadets) sustained more injuries than their fitter counterparts” (Rayson, 1999, p.428). Hence, increasing physical fitness requirements and thus improving overall fitness levels will reduce the likelihood of injury.

Conclusion: By standardising fitness tests at ADFA to the ADF Service fitness requirements, ADFA can serve Australia by providing the Australian Defence Force with capable, intelligent, and fit officers and thereby deliver on the core aspect of its mission.

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William Samios Z5165491

References: Airforce Fitness Poster, Airforce Fitness Standards, table, Royal Australian Airforce. Army Fitness Poster, Army Fitness Standards, table, Australian Regular Army. Articles, E. 2018. Education Articles | St. Thomas University Online, St. Thomas University, accessed 14 May 2018, https://online.stu.edu/articles/education.aspx/. Defence.gov.au. 2018. Home : Australian Defence Force Academy : Department of Defence, accessed 14 May 2018, http://www.defence.gov.au/ADFA/. GALPER, D., TRIVEDI, M., BARLOW, C., DUNN, A. and KAMPERT, J. 2006. Inverse Association between Physical Inactivity and Mental Health in Men and Women. Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise, 38(1), pp.173-178, accessed 14 May 2018. Gomez-Pinilla, Fernando, and Charles Hillman. 2013, “The Influence of Exercise on Cognitive Abilities.” Comprehensive Physiology 3.1, pp. 403–428. accessed 14 May 2018. Hubbard., G., Rice, J. and Galvin, P. 2014. Strategic Management. 5th ed. Sydney: P. Ed Australia. LT COL Chapman, R 2018, ‘Academy Standing Orders’, Australian Defence Force Academy. Navy Fitness Poster, Navy Fitness Standards, table, Royal Australian Navy. O'Neil, H. and Dillings, M. 1994. Motivation. Hillsdale, N.J.: Erlbaum, p.146. Rayson, M.P. 1999, "Fitness, performance, and risk of injury in British Army officer cadets", Military medicine, vol. 164, no. 6, pp. 428-34.

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