Impact of Organizational Culture on KC-135 Combat Education and Training

摘要

While many of the challenges associated with the combat employment of the KC-135 are well documented and understood, Air Mobility Command's education and training response, a KC-135 Weapons Instructor Course, became a source of conflict both within AMC and between AMC and outside organizations. Because a KC-135 WIC was a new concept, conflict was often based on beliefs and assumptions best explained by organizational culture. This project's hypothesis is that mobility weapon systems adopt tactical or operation combat employment paradigms (assumptions and beliefs) that dictate subsequent combat education and training cultures. Cultural assumptions are a powerful force and govern attitudes and perceptions over organizational purposes, student attributes, graduate roles, and ultimately, proper combat employment skills, knowledge, and mindsets. This project establishes if combat employment paradigms are integrated into AMWC's respective education and training cultures and also assesses organizational culture's impact on KC-135 combat employment education and training. The research results indicate MAF combat employment paradigms are integrated into respective cultures. Additionally, cultural conflict can constrain innovation and adaptation if individuals, offices, or units, are organized in countercultural structures. The project recommends an organizational structure that arranges education and training elements in culturally organized structures rather than functionally organized structures.