Organization is Flat: An Integrated Model for Strategic Communication within the Combatant Command

摘要

The 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) for the first time acknowledged the critical importance of strategic communication (SC) as a primary strategic concern for the Department of Defense (DoD). The subsequent guidance in the QDR Execution Roadmap for Strategic Communication laid out the basic objectives for DoD strategic communications and placed primary responsibility for executing SC in the field with the Combatant Commanders (CCDR). However, the guidance did not discuss how the CCDRs should reorganize their commands to address SC. During the past two years, the CCDRs have established various SC organizations with various degrees of satisfaction and success. To help the CCDRs structure their SC processes more effectively, this paper reviews the advantages and disadvantages of four standard organizational models. It compares these to the current practices of the current CCDRs and the planned Africa-based combatant command. Finally, it proposes for the CCDRs consideration an integrated organizational model based on the most relevant elements of the core competency, matrixed, and process/horizontal models. It concludes with several recommendations that discuss how the CCDRs can maximize the proposed model's effectiveness.