Hierarchy or Network in Military Command Organizations? Preliminary Results from Experiments with the NCW Learning Lab

摘要

In environments that demand a high degree of flexibility together with rapid and accurate decision-making, network centric command structures have been promoted as "the" organizational solution to meet these demands. Network centric command structures, arguably, enhance the situation awareness and the understanding of the situation. The NCW (Network Centric Warfare) Learning Lab was developed to allow systematic, simultaneous experimental manipulation of structural and individual varibles, in order to observe the effects on dependent variables such as actual and perceived operational effectiveness. The Learning Lab was designed to particularly stimulate the dynamic aspects of decision making. Our preliminary results show that a network centric organization does not necessarily lead to higher perceived situation awareness or better understanding of the situation. Although our findings are in contrast to contemporary writings on the organization of military operations, we find them to make sense in light of basic theories about information processing in organizations.