Using a Functional Simulation of Crisis Management to Test the C2 Agility Model Parameters on Key Performance Variables

Abstract

Increasingly, military and security organizations face the challenge to develop organizational structures and technologies that promote the agility required to deal with today's complex operational environment. Organizational agility (or command and control (C2) agility) has been defined as transitioning from one governance and management (GM) approach (or C2 approach) to another as required by situational complexity (SAS-065, 2010; SAS-085, draft). This paper describes a study that aimed to test key concepts of the Organizational Agility model (Farrell, 2011; Farrell & Connell, 2010; Farrell, Jobidon, & Banbury, 2012). The study focused on two approaches -- deconflicted and collaborative -- and tested the model's parameters of resistance and size under varying levels of complexity. C3Fire, a forest firefighting simulation, was used as the task environment. It allowed varying contextual and organizational characteristics to create conditions in which a transition can arise, and the emergent behaviors displayed by participants can be observed. Teams of four and six participants were trained in the two GM approaches and completed experimental scenarios, including combinations of resistance and complexity. Several metrics were used to assess the teams' response, how they adjusted their GM approach, and how situational changes and approach transition affected team performance and teamwork. Initial findings are presented and discussed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA587020

Entities

People

  • Isabelle Turcotte
  • Marie-eve Jobidon
  • Philip Farrell
  • Sebastien Tremblay

Organizations

  • Laval University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • C4I

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Applied Psychology
  • Cognitive Systems Engineering
  • Cognitive Workload
  • Command And Control
  • Crisis Management
  • Environment
  • Fuel Tanks
  • Group Dynamics
  • Military Operations
  • Organizational Structure
  • Psychology
  • Simulations
  • Social Networks
  • Social Psychology
  • Standards
  • Steady State
  • Teamwork

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Systems Analysis and Design

Technology Areas

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