Operational Art and the Clash of Organizational Cultures

<p>As the United States Army stands in the midst of a transitional period it must determine what type of Army it will be. In doing so the Army must come to grips with new realities of the strategic context that demand a capability to use Engagement as defined in the National Security Strategy and an inculcation of Operational adaptability as defined in the Army Capstone Concept. Recently the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC) proposed a change to Army doctrine that would have made Special Operations a seventh warfighting function for the Army. The proposal failed to pass and the Army is now taking a much slower approach to changes. This monograph uses this failed proposal as a singular case study or micro-event that illuminates a macro-phenomenon which could be preventing the Army from meeting its challenges of engagement and operational adaptability. Using key elements of organization theory as a lens for understanding why the proposal failed this monograph applies process tracing and argument mapping. It demonstrates that the fragmented organizational sub-culture of SOF may have influenced not only the failure of the proposal but also continues to prevent the Army from leveraging the institutional strength of the SOF community toward engagement and operational adaptability.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>