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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

THE CONTEXT OF
MILITARY ENVIRONMENTS

An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and
Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units

Committee on the Context of Military Environments:
Social and Organizational Factors

Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences

Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education

NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL
                         OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS

Washington, D.C.

www.nap.edu

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES PRESS    500 Fifth Street, NW    Washington, DC 20001

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine. The members of the committee responsible for the report were chosen for their special competences and with regard for appropriate balance.

This study was supported by Contract/Grant No. W911NF-12-1-0514 between the National Academy of Sciences and the Department of the Army. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-0-309-30684-3
International Standard Book Number-10: 0-309-30684-1

Additional copies of this report are available from the National Academies Press, 500 Fifth Street, NW, Keck 360, Washington, DC 20001; (800) 624-6242 or (202) 334-3313; http://www.nap.edu.

Copyright 2014 by the National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

Cover credits: Top: U.S. Army Pfc. Amy Alexanders dresses in her Marne Standard battle gear before taking part in a physical demands study, February 2014, photo by the Associated Press. Bottom: Army graphic from the Army Doctrine Reference Policy–P. 1-10, ADRP 3-0.

Suggested citation: National Research Council. (2014). The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Committee on the Context of Military Environments: Social and Organizational Factors, Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES

Advisers to the Nation on Science, Engineering, and Medicine

The National Academy of Sciences is a private, nonprofit, self-perpetuating society of distinguished scholars engaged in scientific and engineering research, dedicated to the furtherance of science and technology and to their use for the general welfare. Upon the authority of the charter granted to it by the Congress in 1863, the Academy has a mandate that requires it to advise the federal government on scientific and technical matters. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone is president of the National Academy of Sciences.

The National Academy of Engineering was established in 1964, under the charter of the National Academy of Sciences, as a parallel organization of outstanding engineers. It is autonomous in its administration and in the selection of its members, sharing with the National Academy of Sciences the responsibility for advising the federal government. The National Academy of Engineering also sponsors engineering programs aimed at meeting national needs, encourages education and research, and recognizes the superior achievements of engineers. Dr. C. D. Mote, Jr., is president of the National Academy of Engineering.

The Institute of Medicine was established in 1970 by the National Academy of Sciences to secure the services of eminent members of appropriate professions in the examination of policy matters pertaining to the health of the public. The Institute acts under the responsibility given to the National Academy of Sciences by its congressional charter to be an adviser to the federal government and, upon its own initiative, to identify issues of medical care, research, and education. Dr. Victor J. Dzau is president of the Institute of Medicine.

The National Research Council was organized by the National Academy of Sciences in 1916 to associate the broad community of science and technology with the Academy’s purposes of furthering knowledge and advising the federal government. Functioning in accordance with general policies determined by the Academy, the Council has become the principal operating agency of both the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering in providing services to the government, the public, and the scientific and engineering communities. The Council is administered jointly by both Academies and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Ralph J. Cicerone and Dr. C. D. Mote, Jr., are chair and vice chair, respectively, of the National Research Council.

www.national-academies.org

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

COMMITTEE ON THE CONTEXT OF MILITARY ENVIRONMENTS: SOCIAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS

REID HASTIE (Chair), Chicago Booth Business School, University of Chicago

CATHERINE H. TINSLEY (Vice Chair), McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University

BURT S. BARNOW, Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration, The George Washington University

CORINNE BENDERSKY, Anderson School of Management, University of California, Los Angeles

EDWARD J. COSS, U.S. Army Command and General Staff College

LESLIE A. DECHURCH, School of Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology

JONATHAN GRATCH, Department of Computer Science, Psychology, and Institute for Creative Technologies, University of Southern California

DOUGLAS H. HARRIS, Anacapa Sciences, Inc., Santa Barbara, CA

LEE D. HOFFER, Department of Anthropology, Case Western Reserve University

ALAIR MACLEAN, Department of Sociology, Washington State University, Vancouver

CHARLES F. MANSKI, Department of Economics and Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University

ROBERT S. RUSH,1 Office of the Surgeon General of the Army

JEFFREY SANCHEZ-BURKS,2 Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

WILLIAM SCHULZE, Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management, Cornell University

CHERIE CHAUVIN, Study Director

TINA M. WINTERS, Associate Program Officer

RENÉE L. WILSON GAINES, Senior Program Assistant

__________________

1Resigned April 2014

2Resigned April 2013

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

BOARD ON BEHAVIORAL, COGNITIVE, AND SENSORY SCIENCES

JOHN T. CACIOPPO (Chair), Department of Psychology, University of Chicago

RICHARD J. BONNIE, Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, University of Virginia

JENNIFER S. COLE, Department of Linguistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

ALICE H. EAGLY, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University

SUSAN T. FISKE, Department of Psychology and Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

ROBERT L. GOLDSTONE, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University

DANIEL R. ILGEN, Department of Psychology, Michigan State University

NINA G. JABLONSKI, Department of Anthropology, The Pennsylvania State University

JAMES S. JACKSON, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan

JANICE KIECOLT-GLASER, Department of Psychology, The Ohio State University

MARCUS E. RAICHLE, Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology, Washington University in St. Louis

ALLAN R. WAGNER, Department of Psychology, Yale University

JEREMY M. WOLFE, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Departments of Ophthalmology and Radiology, Harvard Medical School

BARBARA A. WANCHISEN, Director

JATRYCE JACKSON, Program Associate

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

Preface

Near the end of 2011, the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI) approached the National Research Council (NRC) to establish a committee to synthesize and assess basic 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.

In response to the request from ARI, the NRC established the Committee on the Context of Military Environments: Social and Organizational Factors, under the oversight of the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences. This report is the work of that committee. To some extent, this report is a follow-up to the 2008 NRC report, Human Behavior in Military Contexts, which also was requested by ARI. Whereas the 2008 report focused on individual attributes that affect human behavior, the current study and its report focus on contextual forces, specifically social and organizational factors, that influence individual and small unit behavior.

Members of the committee were volunteers, carefully selected by the NRC to cover a spectrum of relevant academic specialties and to bring expertise in both basic research and practical applications in diverse settings, including private organizations, government, and the military. Several committee members have had significant experience with military environments, including overseas deployments and longer-term assignments.

The study extended over a 24-month period, during which the committee met a total of four times. In its data-gathering sessions, the committee received briefings from current and former military service members (representing a wide range of ranks, occupational specialties, and experiences),

Page viii Cite
Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

as well as from researchers with military expertise and expertise in parallel areas of research with potential relevance to the committee’s charge. These briefings provided the committee with critical context to assess a potential research agenda to address military needs, given the unique missions, challenges, and environments of military units.

Throughout its deliberations, the committee considered multiple military environments within which service members are regularly required to operate—and within which they are likely to continue to operate, well into the future. The recommendations developed in Chapters 1 through 7 and compiled in Chapter 8 of this report propose a research agenda that is both important and feasible, given the future environments the military is likely to face.

Reid Hastie, Chair
Catherine H. Tinsley, Vice Chair
Cherie Chauvin, Study Director
Committee on the Context of Military Environments:
Social and Organizational Factors

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

Acknowledgments

This study was sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences (ARI). The committee is grateful to the many ARI staff members who made valuable contributions during committee meetings and provided informative materials to assist the committee’s data-gathering process. Special thanks are due to Gerald (Jay) Goodwin, chief, Foundational Science Research Unit, ARI, for his vision, passion, and assistance in making this study a reality. Also special thanks go to Paul Gade of George Washington University, and formerly at ARI, for his expertise and guidance throughout the development and course of this study.

The committee benefited tremendously from expert presentations during its first two committee meetings by the following invited guests: Noshir Contractor, Northwestern University; Jessica Gallus, ARI; LTG Hank Hatch, U.S. Army, retired; Arwen Hunter, ARI; Robert Love, National Research Council; Betty Maxfield, Office of Army Demographics; David Segal, University of Maryland; MAJ John Spencer, U.S. Army G1; and LTC Eric J. Weis, U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The committee also had the unique opportunity to engage in roundtable and small group discussions with active and recently separated military service members. Their practical expertise living and working in various U.S. Army military environments provided crucial perspective to the committee’s work. We thank the following individuals for their time, insight, and candor: from the U.S. Army, MAJ Brian Gellman; CWO4 Dwayn Hanford (retired); 1SG Donald Ingels (retired); CPT Patrick Jones; CPT Kelley Keating; CPT Kristin Marin; CPT Barron Moffitt; CPT Everage B. Robinson; MAJ John Spencer; SFC Paul Stier (retired); CPT Gerald Wynn; and LTC William Zana; as well as

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

CSM Alan Ferris of the U.S. Army National Guard and SMS Rob Hicks of the U.S. Air Force. We also thank CPT Andrew Miller, former U.S. Army, and MAJ Benjamin Tupper, U.S. Army National Guard, for their written contributions to assist the committee in understanding the operations of military teams across different environments. The committee also benefited from the expertise of Andrea B. Hollingshead and Peter J. Carnevale, University of Southern California, who authored a paper on emerging technical advances for application in behavioral studies of teams. And finally, we thank Susan T. Fiske, Princeton University, appointed as an external consultant to the committee, for her contribution to the committee deliberations and for review of early drafts of the report.

Among the National Research Council (NRC) staff, special thanks are due to Barbara A. Wanchisen, director, Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences, who provided oversight and support of the study from its initial development through to the release of this final report. Tina Winters, associate program officer, also provided critical support to the committee’s data gathering, deliberations, and development of the final report. Additionally, Renée L. Wilson Gaines, senior program assistant, provided administrative and logistic support over the course of the study to ensure the needs of the committee and its guests were fulfilled without exception. And Jatryce Jackson, program associate, provided valuable assistance through the final stages of report preparation. Ellen Kimmel and Rebecca Morgan, of the NRC Research Center, contributed extensive research support throughout the entire study process. And finally we thank the executive office reports staff of the Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education, especially Kirsten Sampson Snyder, who managed the report review process; Robert Katt (consultant), who performed preliminary and final editing of the report; and Yvonne Wise, who provided valuable help with production of the report.

This report has been reviewed in draft form by individuals chosen for their diverse perspectives and technical expertise, in accordance with procedures approved by the NRC’s Report Review Committee. The purpose of this independent review is to provide candid and critical comments that will assist the institution in making its published report as sound as possible and to ensure that the report meets institutional standards for objectivity, evidence, and responsiveness to the study charge. The review comments and draft manuscript remain confidential to protect the integrity of the deliberative process. We wish to thank the following individuals for their review of this report: CPT Roxanne E. Bras, Defense Entrepreneurs Forum, U.S. Army; Michael Drillings, MANPRINT, U.S. Army; Alice H. Eagly, Institute for Policy Research, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University; LTC(MP) Eugenia K. Guilmartin, Office of the Provost Marshall General, Policy and Plans, U.S. Army; CSM Michael Hall, retired,

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

U.S. Army, McChrystal Group; Christine Horne, Department of Sociology, Washington State University; Shelly M. MacDermid Wadsworth, Military Family Research Institute, Purdue University; Douglas S. Massey, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University; John Mathieu, School of Business, University of Connecticut; Robert A. Rubinstein, Maxwell School, Syracuse University; Stephen Stark, Department of Psychology, University of South Florida; LTC Eric Weis, Simon Center for the Professional Military Ethic, U.S. Military Academy West Point; and Kelly A. Wolgast, Healthcare Leadership Program, Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.

Although the reviewers listed above provided many constructive comments and suggestions, they were not asked to endorse the content of the report nor did they see the final draft of the report before its release. The review of this report was overseen by Arthur Lupia, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, and Stephen M. Robinson, Department of Industrial and Systems Engineering, University of Wisconsin–Madison (Emeritus). Appointed by the National Research Council, they were responsible for making certain that an independent examination of this report was carried out in accordance with institutional procedures and that all review comments were carefully considered. Responsibility for the final content of this report rests entirely with the authoring committee and the institution. And for their work, we thank the committee members, all of whom took active roles in the study—in drafting chapters and leading discussions, and, most of all, in contributing their knowledge to this challenging task.

Reid Hastie, Chair
Catherine H. Tinsley, Vice Chair
Cherie Chauvin, Study Director
Committee on the Context of Military Environments:
Social and Organizational Factors

Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
×

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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
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Suggested Citation:"Front Matter." National Research Council. 2014. The Context of Military Environments: An Agenda for Basic Research on Social and Organizational Factors Relevant to Small Units. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. doi: 10.17226/18825.
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The United States Army faces a variety of challenges to maintain a ready and capable force into the future. Missions are increasingly diverse, ranging from combat and counterinsurgency to negotiation, reconstruction, and stability operations, and require a variety of personnel and skill sets to execute. Missions often demand rapid decision-making and coordination with others in novel ways, so that personnel are not simply following a specific set of tactical orders but rather need to understand broader strategic goals and choose among courses of action. Like any workforce, the Army is diverse in terms of demographic characteristics such as gender and race, with increasing pressure to ensure equal opportunities across all demographic parties. With these challenges comes the urgent need to better understand how contextual factors influence soldier and small unit behavior and mission performance.

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. Army Research Institute (ARI) requested the National Research Council's Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences to outline a productive and innovative collection of future basic science research projects to improve Amy mission performance for immediate implementation and lasting over the next 10-20 years. This report presents recommendations for a program of basic scientific research on the roles of social and organizational contextual factors, such as organizational institutions, culture, and norms, as determinants and moderators of the performance of individual soldiers and small units.

The Context of Military Environments: Basic Research Opportunities on Social and Organizational Factors synthesizes and assesses basic 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. This report focuses on tactical operations of small units and their leaders, to include the full spectrum of unique military environments including: major combat operations, stability/support operations, peacekeeping, and military observer missions, as well as headquarters support units. This report identifies key contextual factors that shape individual and small unit behavior and assesses the state of the science regarding these factors. The Context of Military Environments recommends an agenda for ARI's future research in order to maximize the effectiveness of U.S. Army personnel policies and practices of selection, recruitment, and assignment as well as career development in training and leadership. The report also specifies the basic research funding level needed to implement the recommended agenda for future ARI research.

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