A Decision Aid for Addressing Supervisor Span of Control Problems
Abstract
In 1982, the Fort Sill Field Unit of the Army Research Institute (ARI) developed a method for estimating how many launchers a Corps Support Weapon System (CSWS) platoon leader will be able to control. The Director of the CSWS Special Task Force was concerned with the tradeoff between number of launchers controlled and platoon leader workload. Although having each platoon leader control many launchers would conserve resources, it would also increase workload. At some point, the number of launchers would exceed what the platoon leader could adequately control, he would fall behind in completing his tasks, and the performance of the platoon would suffer. The Field Unit developed a computer-based simulation model that can be used to predict the platoon leader's ability to keep up with his work. The simulation model consists of two components. The first component is a task library, the second a computer program that operates upon the data contained in the library. This report describes the development of the simulation model, some findings generated when we ran the model to estimate the span of control for CSWS platoon leaders, and the uses to which the model could be put by system developers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1984
- Accession Number
- ADA148332
Entities
People
- B. D. Greene Iii
- J. S. Coke
Organizations
- U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences