New Research on Span of Command and Control: Implications for Designing Army Organizations.
Abstract
From September 1993 to March 1994, a team of two behavioral scientists and a retired general officer interviewed 55 Army officers on factors that affect the span of effective command and control. The interviews were structured around seven factors: Task characteristics, Organizational Structure, Complexity of Environment, Unit Continuity, Technology, Individual characteristics, and External Organizations. The first section of this report presents recommendations on forming a joint task force for contingency operations. These recommendations are keyed to comments made during the interviews by 11 general officers who held senior positions in contingency operations. The second section presents conclusions and recommendations for organizing Army units for warfighting operations. These conclusions and recommendations are based on ratings and comments made by officers at echelons from company to corps and from combat, combat support, and combat service support units. Ratings on the impact of each factor as well as comments made during the interviews suggest that the impact of the factors varied as a function of both echelon and type of unit. Recommendations for design are drawn from the study conclusions about each factor as well as directly from those made by some officers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA358571
Entities
People
- J. P. Ford
- Richard E. Christ
- William J. Mullen Iii
Organizations
- Braddock Dunn & McDonald