Conflict and Ambiguity: Implementing Evolutionary Acquisition

Abstract

In October 2000 the Secretary of Defense announced that a new policy of revolutionary acquisition would become the preferred approach to acquiring defense systems. Implementation of the new policy has been far from automatic. Today - two years after issuance of the evolutionary acquisition policy - the Department continues to struggle to adopt a consistent approach to policy implementation but also to achieve the kind of lasting cultural change that is critical to long-term policy success. The roots of this implementation struggle are explored paying particular attention to the concept of policy ambiguity and how such ambiguity can drive organizational conflict. Organizational conflict is inevitable but not necessarily counterproductive. In fact the original policy can be improved as the organization undergoes an iterative process of interpretation conflict and refinement.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2003
Accession Number
ADA423546

Entities

People

  • Joseph A. Ferrara
  • Richard K. Sylvester

Organizations

  • Defense Acquisition University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Business Administration
  • Command And Control
  • Defense Industry
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Military Acquisition
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Political Science
  • Public Administration
  • Public Policy
  • Software Development
  • Spiral Development
  • Systems Engineering
  • Test And Evaluation
  • United States

Fields of Study

  • Political science

Readers

  • Strategic Security Studies
  • Systems Analysis and Design