Split Personality: Assessing the Potential for Organizational Identity in Reinforcing U.S. Military Jointness
Abstract
America s experience in the Second World War was to fundamentally transform how it would understand, prepare for, and prosecute war in the future, stemming from a remarkable conjoining of intellectualism, innovation, scale of production, and commitment of manpower not witnessed in any earlier conflict. The integrated joint nature of major combat operations figured prominently in this transformation, and the National Defense Act of 1947 sought to institutionalize such jointness through legislation as a permanent characteristic of the American military establishment. The Goldwater-Nichols Defense Reform Act of 1986 was in large measure a response of continued inter-service organizational inefficiencies which culminated in a series of fatal and embarrassing military fiascos. Many saw Goldwater-Nichols as the logical and necessary next step in a transformative process begun in 1947; others see willful resistance to joint reform on the part of the military services, undermining both the spirit and the letter of the law. This thesis seeks to uncover insights about the nature of the services and joint force through the application of organizational identity theory. Identity theory offers the potential not only for understanding, but for shaping the identity relationship between the services and joint force so that improved joint organizational efficiency will result in greater joint force effectiveness.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 17, 2015
- Accession Number
- ADA621663
Entities
People
- Christopher L. Larrabee
Organizations
- National Defense University