Beyond First Stage Effects
Abstract
A first stage effect is something that creates greater efficiency. A Second stage effect impacts how people incorporate technologies into social systems. This incorporation causes changes in traditional organization and thought that result in true revolutionary effects. Today we are moving from the industrial age to the information age. Technology and the ability to process, move, display and interpret information becomes ever more efficient. Many businesses have gone beyond first stage effects greater efficiency-and have reinvented the hierarchical centralized decision making business structure to a flatter structure of decentralized decision making and execution. Technology has also afforded the United States military with ever more efficient weapons and the sane ability to handle information as the business sector. The military has historically been (and remains) a strictly hierarchical organization. The question is what kind of military organization is required to achieve second stage effects from new technologies in a similar fashion to dominant civilian businesses of today? This paper argues that the military can achieve second stage effects from information technologies by changing from a hierarchical organization with highly centralized decision making processes to a flatter, partially networked organization with a highly decentralized decision making process. To do this the paper looks at information age business practices that have allowed some companies to dominate their peers that are armed with similar technologies. How these dominating information age practices might translate into improvements in military organization will then be explored. The paper concludes that second stage effects can be achieved through reorganizing the military and notes any significant risks involved in changing to a flatter organization.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 08, 2000
- Accession Number
- ADA381772
Entities
People
- John L. Ledoux
Organizations
- Naval War College