Will the Addition of the Basic Officer Leader Course to the Officer Education System Produce Better Small-Unit Leaders?

This study examines how the Officer Education System (OES) prepares small-unit leaders. The research design for this thesis proposes to answer the overarching question: Does the addition of the Basic Officer Leader Course (BOLC) produce better small-unit leaders than the current OES? To analyze the over-arching question, the subordinate questions were developed to focus the analysis of available literature, define criteria for evaluation, select the data within each criterion, evaluate the data, and to examine the results.





The criteria for evaluation was the Leadership Framework (Be, Know, Do) as defined by FM 22-100, Army Leadership.