Recreating brigade command and control ability

Authors:

  • Per Wikberg
  • Peter Berggren
  • Henrik Allberg

Publish date: 2016-06-16

Report number: FOI-R--4260--SE

Pages: 47

Written in: Swedish

Keywords:

  • Organizational development
  • staffing
  • socialization
  • organizational effectiveness
  • agility
  • dynamic measurement

Abstract

During the 2012-2014, the project Agile Assessment Of Command (AVALO) was executed. The project collaborated with the 2nd Brigade Staff. When the collaboration began the staff of the 2nd Brigade consisted of the Chief of Staff and Project Manager for the implementation of the new brigade command capability. When the project ended the brigade staff was in principle fully staffed according to the plan. During this period, a series of studies were carried out within the framework of the cooperation in which the staff efficiency and command agility were assessed. Consequently, the project had a unique opportunity to closely follow the process during the first years when the Armed Forces' ability to lead brigade were regained. In a broader sense, the results and experiences might be valuable for the Armed Forces transformation process. In summary, the results failed to show any increase in terms of command efficiency between the exercises that followed from 2012 to 2014. This was not in line with what was expected. The result were discussed in a series of workshops with staff members within the framework of four different themes: Personnel Staffing, design of individual work tasks, organization and consequences for the individual and the organization. The report outlines the views and experiences expressed during the workshops. Two possible explanations for the obtained results emerged from the workshop: 1) Staff Mobility has been higher than was expected when the process began. Partly because of difficulties in obtaining a long-term plan for the recruitment and staffing. Furthermore, it has been difficult to retain staff, particularly those who have had temporary staffing assignments. Finally, the brigade commander was exchanged several times during the period. 2) Many planned exercises were cancelled or given a different focus than was planned for. The results above are further processed in the context of the project Longitudinal study of GSS/T. This as the results pointed to problems concerning staffing. The outcome of this in-depth analysis is discussed in a final section in which a number of proposals for action put forward.