Fall of the General Staff Model: Towards a Third Generation U.S. Army Staff Theory.

摘要

Although the United States Army made significant strides in the last decade reorganizing its deployable forces to better respond to an uncertain operating environment, the Army retained the echelons-above-brigade headquarters with an old-fashioned organization staff structure. This monograph argues that the internal staff structure within division and corps headquarters is not designed to achieve its purpose in the current environment. The first section details the unchanging fundamental principles and the change in context from that which originally drove the current headquarters design during World War I to the current context. The second section describes the inefficiencies inherent to using the current modular staff structure. The third section crosses the newly identified contextual understanding and current staff inefficiencies with organization theory to identify an alternate candidate for the Armys staff structure. In conclusion, a recommended operations process- oriented horizontal staff structure that focuses on informing, influencing, and creating and maintaining a shared understanding of the environment addresses the current context with a whole-of-staff approach; while newly established redundant teams within each section enable rapid adaptation and partner integration. The internal staff structure within corps and division headquarters is ill-designed to achieve its purpose in the current environment, and a restructuring of internal staff relationships and functionality is necessary for future success.