Evaluating the effectiveness of an armoured brigade staff

• The purpose with this chapter is to present a study of the effectiveness of an Armoured Brigade Headquarters (HQ) in some specific respects. Important issues were (1) how is the HQ Staff dimensioned in relation to its tasks, (2) how does the three staff processes work (Planning, Execution and Coordination / Decision) and (3) how well does the HQ’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) and Battle Rhythm  function in the light of the HQ’s organization and work processes? The study was designed as a survey study and was based on the following four instruments: (1) Military Command Team Effectiveness Instrument (CTEF 2.0; Essence, Vogelaar, Baranski, Berggren, Van Buskirk, Goodwin & Myller, 2008); (2) Measurement of workload according to the Borg scale (Borg, 1998); (3) Subjective assessments of quality of the Brigade HQ’s orders and reports, and (4) verification that the Brigade HQ followed it’s Standard Operating Procedure. Fifty-four staff members of an Armoured Brigade HQ volunteered as participants. In the study, the HQ was challenged with a peace support / peace keeping operation exercise.The overall result regarding the CTEF and quality measurements on orders and reports indicate that the HQ worked well during the entire exercise and that the SOP and Battle Rhythm worked rather well. However, through the CTEF, four problem areas were identified. These areas regarded (1) the level of uncertainty in the mission, (2) the high complexity of the task, (3) the perceived instability of the objectives that were supposed to be attained in the mission environment, and (4) a high level of workload in some staff sections. Three of these areas are not under the control of the Brigade HQ (high level of uncertainty, high task complexity and unstable objectives of the operation). However, the fourth area, workload, could be influenced. Some staff sections seem to be undermanned in the current organization and that problem needs to be handled, by increasing some staff sections or by moving some duties to other sections. 

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SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Psykologi -- Tillämpad psykologi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Psychology -- Applied Psychology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Command team effectiveness

CTEF

Krigsvetenskap

Krigsvetenskap

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