Program Manager Decision-Making in Complex and Chaotic Program Environments

Abstract

Our project focuses on the decision-making process of a program manager (PM). A defense program manager is routinely exposed to chaotic and complex environments that require skilled leadership and decision-making. Exploring the decision-making process in these environments may help current and future defense programs to better project the outcome of future decisions. Through our research, we identified five categories as decision-making pitfalls for PMs: overly optimistic, risk aversion, stovepipe design, strategic networking in the acquisition environment, and communication skills. We recommend conducting future research to validate the findings of our study. Once validated, we recommend refining PM training to focus on the decision-making categories we identified to help PMs navigate programs more successfully.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2023
Accession Number
AD1213580

Entities

People

  • Brian P. Sexson
  • Keith P. Hantla
  • Mathew H. Morales

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Human Systems
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artificial Satellites
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Business Administration
  • California
  • Case Studies
  • Cognition
  • Department Of Defense
  • Fixed Wing Aircraft
  • Health Services
  • Judgment
  • Law
  • Littoral Combat Ships
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Acquisition
  • National Security
  • Organizational Structure
  • Program Management
  • Psychology
  • Radio Equipment
  • Satellite Communications
  • Self Propelled Guns
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Systems Management
  • Thinking
  • United States
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Enterprise Information Systems Architecture and Joint Command Capability Interoperability Support.
  • Team-Based Human-Centered Cognitive Task Decision Making and Information Performance.