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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3 Environmental Transitions
3 Environmental Transitions
Pages 41-56
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From page 41... ...
Can one deactivate individual habits that were learned and functional in one environmental context but are dysfunctional in another? • Can advanced simulation technology be informed by, and help inform, a science-based understanding of how transitions and con textual cues interact with learning and performance?
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From page 42... ...
military careers may enjoy a sense of stability from a career trajectory within a single large organization with well-defined career paths and promotion processes, many other factors conspire to make military careers extremely unsettled. Military downsizing, attrition, increased mission tempo, relocations through deployments and permanent changes of station, continually morphing units, and new communication and transportation technology both enable and incentivize military leaders to demand unmatched flexibility, adaptability, and mobility from today's soldiers.
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From page 43... ...
. The committee can imagine severe psychological implications on soldiers separated from their loved ones and expecting to transition home within a few weeks or months, only to find themselves deployed to a war zone for the next year.2 Each of these transitions can undermine unit effectiveness and undermine the performance and health of individual soldiers.
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From page 44... ...
For example, the disruption of healthy habits may partly explain why transitions increase stress. In this chapter, the committee reviews research that addresses both local and global consequences of military transitions, and we offer specific recommendations for a basic research agenda to advance the state of knowledge in these areas.
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From page 45... ...
. For example, at the individual level, habits can be seen as a behavioral manifestation of the status quo bias -- a preference for the current set of behaviors rather than making a change.
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From page 46... ...
For example, individuals more easily adopt beneficial habits following environmental transition, at least when strong internal or organizational values help motivate the desire for behavior change (Verplanken et al., 2008; see also Chapter 2)
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For instance, rather than focusing on improving all aspects of simulation fidelity, fidelity should be prioritized by an understanding of which cues are minimally necessary to ensure that appropriate habits and routines are elicited in the actual operational environment. In addressing these research questions, simulation technology may actually serve as an important methodological tool to advance science-based understanding of how transitions and contextual cues interact with learning.
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From page 48... ...
Whereas research on routines and habits emphasizes the local and specific negative consequences of environmental transitions, other research has emphasized that the mere occurrence of transitions, especially repeated transitions, can produce broad and generalized deficits to individual and organizational performance (see, for example, Kline et al., 2010)
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From page 49... ...
Army's Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness program is informed by resilience research and claims the stress of transitions can be mitigated by inculcating emotional, social, family, and spiritual fitness (Algoe and Fredrickson, 2011; Cornum et al., 2011)
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From page 50... ...
Despite these early promising findings, there are fundamental limitations in resilience research that must be overcome to increase the relevance of the concept to military contexts. Much current research on resilience treats psychological resilience as a trait individuals possesses, albeit one that can be improved with training.
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The committee believes research on resilience is a promising direction for alleviating the stresses of environmental transitions; however, the current focus of recent research on individual antecedents and traits, why certain individuals are resilient to obstacles, and the consequences of resilience limits these potential benefits. Further research in this area could help to address the following questions: • What are the contextual limits of resilience and how can they be overcome?
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From page 52... ...
Research that combines these two perspectives could help to address the following questions: • Does the disruption of healthy habits following transitions help explain why transitions increase stress? For example, does an envi ronmental transition lead to a general (albeit temporary)
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From page 53... ...
individual habits and organizational routines that are disrupted by environmental transitions, including research into the posi tive and negative consequences of these disruptions within specific military contexts and that examines how these con sequences might be proactively managed to increase unit and soldier effectiveness; 2. the interaction between individual characteristics and features of groups and organizations, with the aim of predicting resilience; how this interaction may differ across types of environments; and groups and organizations, as well as individuals, as the unit of analysis; and 3.
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From page 54... ...
. Comprehensive Soldier Fitness: Building resilience in a challenging institutional context.
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From page 55... ...
Army Comprehen sive Soldier Fitness program: The Global Assessment Tool. American Psychologist, 66(1)
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From page 56... ...
. Authentically leading groups: The mediating role of collective psychological capital and trust.
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