Personality and the Planning Process

Abstract

Military planning is a logical, systematic process for conducting problem solving and decision making. The planning process exists to support the commander in making decisions. As a part of the operations process (planning, preparation, execution and assessment driven by battle command) military planning uses standard procedures (doctrine) to provide courses of action as solutions and to recommend decisions. Planning is continuous whether it is branch or sequel planning, refinement of an existing plan, or planning for the next operation. The Army process is the Military Decision Making Process (MDMP), which is conducted by people with individual personalities. Personality affects how people think and behave. Individual personality type impels behavior (public and private), drives attitude, and compels cognitive functions. Leadership is a function of command and control and battle command drives the operations process. The extent to which leaders master the domains of the Army leadership framework accounts for some of the consistency among professionals. Fundamental personality types account for some of the differences. These differences affect friendly forces and enemy forces alike. Understanding differences as a function of personality type can facilitate increased competence for commanders and individual staff officers. This paper is based on theories of personality type (C.G. Jung's psychological types, Katherine Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers work on the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and David Keirsey's Four Temperaments) which propose explanations of the phenomena that make up individual personalities. Analysis of historical vignettes (Korea, 1951 and Operation Market-Garden, 1944) illustrates differences in perception and judging functions which effect individual cognition and behavior. The analysis is from the perspective of four hypo

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2001
Accession Number
ADA387122

Entities

People

  • David A. Danikowski

Organizations

  • United States Army Command and General Staff College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • C4I
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Artillery
  • Behavior And Behavior Mechanisms
  • Civil War
  • Cognition
  • Command And Control
  • Doctrine
  • Human Behavior
  • Leadership
  • Mental Processes
  • Military Operations
  • Military Planning
  • Pattern Recognition
  • Personality
  • Psychology
  • Second World War
  • Standards
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Psychometric Testing or Psychological Assessment.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control