The Context of Military Environments An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units (2014) / Chapter Skim
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1 Introduction and Framework for Research Agenda
1 Introduction and Framework for Research Agenda
Pages 5-22
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From page 5... ...
This report describes innovative research programs that can be implemented to increase fundamental scientific and practical knowledge of Army soldiers and small units -- and of the social and organizational factors in environments in which the Army operates -- to enhance soldier and unit performance and capacities. Study Overview Recognizing the need to develop a portfolio of research to better understand the influence of social and organizational factors on the behavior of individuals and small units, the U.S.
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This report presents Box 1-1 Statement of Task for the National Research Council Study An ad-hoc committee of inter-disciplinary experts will synthesize and assess ba sic research opportunities in the behavioral and social sciences related to social and organizational factors that comprise the context of individual and small unit behavior in military environments. The committee will focus on tactical operations of small units and their leaders, to include the full spectrum of unique military environments including, for example, major combat operations, stability/support operations, peacekeeping, and military observer missions, as well as headquar ters support units.
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Through the study process, the committee learned about the experiences of Army soldiers and small units, but the committee did not conduct a scientific assessment of the Army or the military environments in which it operates. However, through its assessment of possible social and organizational factors relevant to Army small units that could be topics of a basic research agenda, the committee expects that the research topics identified in this report are relevant to entities outside the Army that also operate in military environments -- to include, for example, other U.S.
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: Basic Research is defined as systematic study directed toward greater knowledge or understanding of the fundamental aspects of phenomena and of observable facts without specific application of processes or prod ucts in mind. The ARI's Foundational Science Research Unit manages the Basic Research Program and maintains close contact with ARI's applied scientists and other relevant agencies within the Army.
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The Basic Research program is a critical link between the military and the scientific community within the behavioral and social sciences. ARI's researchers within the basic research program maintain close contact with ARI's applied research units as well as the foundational research orga nizations within the Department of Defense.
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. Second, basic research efforts are needed to develop unit-level measurements of social and organizational factors to enable the Army to better understand the context that influences individual and small unit behavior.
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With these challenges and others, many of which are identified and discussed in this report, comes the urgent need to better understand how contextual factors influence soldier and small unit behavior and mission performance. The formality of the military as an organization, combined with the uniqueness of military environments, fosters the development of a culture in American soldiers distinct from most civilian environments, a culture that is further defined by the Army's specialty branches and a soldier's unit assign 2 Descriptions of the Seven Core Army Values are available at http://www.army.mil/values/ [April 2014]
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The Army Small Unit In accordance with the statement of task, this report focuses on the social and organizational factors that influence individual and small unit behavior. Through the course of this study, the committee made a great effort to understand the importance and dynamics of the Army small unit.
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To be maximally effective, the committee's proposed research agenda requires that the general mission of ARI's Foundational Science Research Unit should be adjusted so that it serves as a gateway facilitating research, by external (mostly academic) researchers and internal ARI staff researchers, on active duty soldiers in their natural military environments (to include military training or simulated operational environments experienced by small units)
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Furthermore, the committee believes ARI is well positioned to serve as a key connection between researchers and soldiers -- conveying to researchers the challenges and opportunities faced by troops and conveying to soldiers the value of scientific research targeting those challenges and opportunities and facilitating access to soldiers for research purposes. And the committee encourages ARI to seek creative ideas to gain access to soldiers in efficient ways, such as potentially leveraging junior and senior officers assigned to the academic faculty of military academies, to include senior faculty who have regular short-term rotations into operational units.
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As the reader moves to the body of the report where the committee provides details of the contextual factors recommended for future research, an important general point to keep in mind is that there are many "key contextual factors" in military environments. The factors on which this report focuses emerged through committee deliberations as especially relevant, in the committee's expert opinion, to increase basic knowledge of the social and organizational factors that influence soldiers and small units in military environments.
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The committee's discussions with Army soldiers facilitated committee deliberations on the hypothesized applicability of findings developed from existing, primarily academic, research to Army soldiers and on the potential benefit of future research to develop better understanding of Army soldiers and the uniqueness of the environments in which they operate. This study was not intended to understand all factors that shape Army small unit behavior, and the social and organizational factors presented here are not the only relevant contextual factors.
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INTRODUCTION AND FRAMEWORK FOR RESEARCH AGENDA 17 Context of Military Environments Social Individual Factors AƩributes OrganizaƟonal Factors Individual Behavior Unit Behavior Small Unit Performance FIGURE 1-1 Context of military environments: interactions between contextual factors and behaviors that contribute to small unit performance.
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These remarks are not intended to provide funding justification for specific research programs, but their value is in highlighting important considerations to develop a cohesive and effective research strategy to develop fundamental knowledge in areas the committee judges to have enduring importance to the Army across military environments. First, it would be unproductive to make small allocations of funds across several of the initiatives featured in the committee's research recommendations.
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Although we cannot estimate the funding level required in exact dollar amounts, we can say that, to effectively implement the proposed research agenda without decrement to existing programs of research, the ARI budget would need to increase to levels of "double digit" millions of dollars per year. The basic research program proposed in this report is intended to advance understanding of fundamental behavioral phenomena.
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military funding agencies. In Chapters 2 through 6, the committee presents its assessments and recommendations for future research on five key types of social and organizational factors that warrant study at the unit level of measurement: norms, environmental transitions, power and status, contextual leadership, and multiteam systems.
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. Human Behavior in Military Contexts.
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