Congruence of Human Organizations and Missions: Theory versus Data

In this paper, the authors present a methodology for quantifying the degree of fit between a mission and an organization based on the closeness between the task structure (i.e., resource requirements and task interdependence) and the Decision Maker-asset (DM) allocation across the organization (i.e., amount and distribution of resource capabilities among DMs and organizational processes). This closeness is based on three main characteristics of organizational performance: workload balance, communication requirements, and DM-DM dependence. These characteristics are affected, in turn, by the interactions and interdependencies of the organizational processes and the demands of the mission scenario. Invariably, coordination is essential to achieve good performance because the information required for decision making is often distributed. However, excessive DM-DM communication and coordination are harmful to performance, since they increase the processing workload/overhead that delays task execution. Performance improvements can be obtained by changing the structure and processes of an organization to decrease the requisite coordination, while balancing the levels of workload across the organization and reducing inter-DM dependence. Prepared in cooperation with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT. The original document contains color images. Presented at the Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium.