Using communication patterns in the design of an adaptive organizational structure for command and control

Abstract

What type of analysis should be used to inform design when both the future organizational structure and the experimental simulation are tenuous? Neither the application of a qualitative process tracing method nor low-level quantitative organizational designs are warranted. We hypothesized the analyses of high-level communication patterns in a role-playing exercise of a future organization structure would yield results that could both inform organizational design and shape iterative experimental designs. This study summarizes the comparison between communication patterns in an envisioned organizational structure and the actual patterns of information exchange of experienced military participants role-playing staff members in a future organizational design. The comparison between the hypothesized and actual communication performance indicated a different distribution of communication interaction from the expected. These results help guide both the future organizational concept as well as next iteration experiments.

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