A systems analysis of the Army's tactical evaluation process

Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, 2017. === Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. === Includes bibliographical references (pages 88-90). === In preparation to fight and win the nation's...

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Main Author: Caddell, John D
Other Authors: Bryan R. Moser.
Format: Others
Language:English
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2017
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112060
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spelling ndltd-MIT-oai-dspace.mit.edu-1721.1-1120602019-05-02T16:30:54Z A systems analysis of the Army's tactical evaluation process Caddell, John D Bryan R. Moser. System Design and Management Program. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Engineering and Management Program. System Design and Management Program. Engineering and Management Program. System Design and Management Program. Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, 2017. Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 88-90). In preparation to fight and win the nation's wars, the United States Army spends a lot of time and money on tactical training. While few doubt that the Army produces some of the world's finest tactical units, there is still room for improvement. The Army's current tactical evaluation process utilizes a series of subjective and uncalibrated metrics that describe the capability of military units. Leaders fail to see the value in the provided evaluation forms and formats and have begun developing alternative methods to evaluate and provide feedback to their units. The abandonment of a standard evaluation process has added to the inability to objectively or accurately compare units across formations and time. The current evaluation system depends almost entirely on one set of humans to monitor safety, performance, and provide feedback to the training unit for improvement. Humans in this system fatigue and fall prey to natural pressures to reduce standards and push units through training exercises regardless of undesirable performance. Additionally, internal pressure, organizational structure, and competition encourage units to exaggerate or inflate their tactical readiness reports. While this situation is widely recognized in the Army, the current evaluation system results in unreliable, and possibly inaccurate, outputs that are unusable for decision making. As a consequence of this system, the Army maintains very few ways to distinguish between the training levels and capability of tactical units. By examining the organizational structure, individual and unit incentives, and evaluation methods available for the Army to adjust, this document provides a method to compare and evaluate the possible alternatives. by John D. Caddell. S.M. in Engineering and Management 2017-10-30T15:29:44Z 2017-10-30T15:29:44Z 2017 2017 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112060 1006512019 eng MIT theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed, downloaded, or printed from this source but further reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 98 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
collection NDLTD
language English
format Others
sources NDLTD
topic Engineering and Management Program.
System Design and Management Program.
spellingShingle Engineering and Management Program.
System Design and Management Program.
Caddell, John D
A systems analysis of the Army's tactical evaluation process
description Thesis: S.M. in Engineering and Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, School of Engineering, System Design and Management Program, 2017. === Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. === Includes bibliographical references (pages 88-90). === In preparation to fight and win the nation's wars, the United States Army spends a lot of time and money on tactical training. While few doubt that the Army produces some of the world's finest tactical units, there is still room for improvement. The Army's current tactical evaluation process utilizes a series of subjective and uncalibrated metrics that describe the capability of military units. Leaders fail to see the value in the provided evaluation forms and formats and have begun developing alternative methods to evaluate and provide feedback to their units. The abandonment of a standard evaluation process has added to the inability to objectively or accurately compare units across formations and time. The current evaluation system depends almost entirely on one set of humans to monitor safety, performance, and provide feedback to the training unit for improvement. Humans in this system fatigue and fall prey to natural pressures to reduce standards and push units through training exercises regardless of undesirable performance. Additionally, internal pressure, organizational structure, and competition encourage units to exaggerate or inflate their tactical readiness reports. While this situation is widely recognized in the Army, the current evaluation system results in unreliable, and possibly inaccurate, outputs that are unusable for decision making. As a consequence of this system, the Army maintains very few ways to distinguish between the training levels and capability of tactical units. By examining the organizational structure, individual and unit incentives, and evaluation methods available for the Army to adjust, this document provides a method to compare and evaluate the possible alternatives. === by John D. Caddell. === S.M. in Engineering and Management
author2 Bryan R. Moser.
author_facet Bryan R. Moser.
Caddell, John D
author Caddell, John D
author_sort Caddell, John D
title A systems analysis of the Army's tactical evaluation process
title_short A systems analysis of the Army's tactical evaluation process
title_full A systems analysis of the Army's tactical evaluation process
title_fullStr A systems analysis of the Army's tactical evaluation process
title_full_unstemmed A systems analysis of the Army's tactical evaluation process
title_sort systems analysis of the army's tactical evaluation process
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
publishDate 2017
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/112060
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