|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
THIS book is edited by three eminent scholars from the Netherlands Defence Academy who have carefully selected writings of 34 authors (most of them from their own institution), out of which a large number have background of armed forces and others are academicians who have worked in different military organisations. The book explores how the military can apply the conventional management and organisation theory to develop its own insights for managing present-day organisations. As expected, most of the authors site examples of current missions and operations from Iraq and Afghanistan. This has helped the editors in stressing theories and concepts which work in today’s world. The basic idea, which various authors have stressed, is that managing and organising are more important than management and organisation.
Military organisations are expected to handle multiplicity of tasks across the spectrum of fighting while performing different types of tasks in different situations with a variety of desired benefits. The editors term this as the challenge of heterogeneous value creation. In fact, the book is concerned with how military organisations define, redefine, and integrate their capabilities to deliver this "heterogeneous value". In today’s operations, creating value refers not only to a violent power struggle, as it is generally believed to be, but also influencing organisations and communities within a theatre. The concept of total control by one of the parties is no more valid, as the existing literature takes into account underlying causes and ongoing interactions of problems which are responsible for paradox, chaos and dialectics. General McChrystal of the US speaks of "collaborative warfare" to describe the nature of operations in Afghanistan, "relying on communication intercepts and human intelligence as well as military force". This view may not have been acceptable earlier, but it seems appropriate in today’s missions because such views have started to influence military doctrines. The first part of the book puts emphasis on the contextual, external and strategic aspects of military organisations. It depicts the arena in which today’s military organisations have to operate. Globally operating terrorist networks and "failed states" in the Asian and African regions are a reality and, therefore, military organisations are required to tackle such complex issues under the aegis of international institutions such as the UN, NATO and European Union in a highly sophisticated technological environment. The second part discusses issues related to "internal coordination and the preparation of operations". One chapter focuses on today’s growing importance of efficient organisational boundaries. Modern militaries think that it is economical to outsource part of their activities such as accounting and finance, catering, housing, operational transport, and maintenance to market organisations. Another chapter deals with actual planning of operations, including logistics, resource management, information technology and intelligence. The third part of the book focuses on "Military Organisations in Action", i.e., actual operations and conduct of people participating in those operations. Many issues like leadership, moral professionalism and military law have also been discussed. The fourth and final part focuses on "monitoring operational effectiveness and (secondary) outcomes". One chapter deals with controlling part of military organisations and another with the way military organisations try to become learning organisations. The authors also analyse the problems of measuring performance of military operations in the background of the Effects–Based Approach to Operation (EBAO) that is currently implemented by the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. Given the rather complex political and business needs and environment of different nations, the measurement of performance of military organisations has always been a very complicated issue. All armed forces are, in fact, an executive instrument of any government and as such are accountable to the citizens of that nation for functioning according to policies laid down by their government. They are as much answerable to the political, managerial and administrative scrutiny as some other organisations like police and fire services. The last chapter shows that approximately three to 25 per cent of the service members and their families encounter serious hardships due to the very nature of the employment of the soldier. The authors of the chapter analyse the well-researched Bliese and Castro’s Soldier Adaptation Model in great detail in relation with its four components — military stressors, individual, unit and organisational factors — and the outcomes that result from being deployed. On the whole, the book can
prove to be of immense use to policy makers, military commanders and
students of military studies, organisational studies and security
studies.
|
The
editors set the tone of the book right in the introduction when they
consider the five key characteristics of military organisations such as
politics and society; permanency and lack of clear goals; multi
(-tasking, -service, -national, -partnering); bureaucracy; and fear and
violence as the soul or very essence of today’s military organisations.