Span of Command and Control in US Army Organizations

Abstract

An important aspect of designing any organization is the concept of span of command and control (SOCC). No where is this situation clearer than in military organizations. This paper describes research designed to examine the relationship between factors that have been identified as affecting the effectiveness of SOCC and the difficulty of command and control in Army organizations. The project team interviewed 11 Army General officers regarding issues involving SOCC during operations that occurred in unconventional environments and 44 officers from Captain to Lieutenant General regarding war fighting operations. The interviews were structured around seven factors: Task Characteristics, Organizational Structure, Complexity of the Environment, History or Unit Contiguity, Technological Innovation, Individual Differences, and External Organizations. The data collected consisted of the comments made during the interviews, the results of a content analysis of those comments, and, for war fighting operations only, ratings on the impact of each factor on the difficulty of command and control. Both sets of data were examined as a function of the respondent's position in the organizational hierarchy and the type of unit to which the respondent was assigned. The results show an interacting effect of SOCC factor, echelon, and type of unit on the difficulty of command and control. A report, in preparation, will summaries these results and present conclusions and recommendations for organizing Army units based on the results.