West Point's Impact

Throughout the United States' history, West Point graduates have and continue to play a central leadership role in both the military and business worlds. Although West Point has and continues to be a major development source of our nation s leaders, very little literature exists today that attempts to understand West Point s curriculum impact on the guiding leadership principles of its graduates. With its high entrance requirements, West Point s student body continues to be largely white male while moral and ethical leadership development has and continues to be its primary student development mission. In recognizing that today s volunteer Army is multiracial and that Army leadership must weld together soldiers of mixed race, ethnic background, and sex into effective collaborative units (Bass & Avolio, 2000, p. 2), the purpose of this study was to determine: What are the guiding leadership principles of West Point graduates? How has West Point s overall curriculum impacted the guiding leadership principles of its graduates? How do West Point graduates interpret and carry out the values instilled by West Point s curriculum?