ABSTRACT
Military teams share many characteristics with teams in other application areas. They differ, however, in critically important ways, such as the life-and-death nature of their work, the high levels of uncertainty, the farreaching consequences of their decisions and actions, and the complexity and dynamics of the military context. Crisis response operations, antiterrorism operations, peace support operations, humanitarian aid operations, and warfare are so diverse in nature that they require a range of qualities and skills of the military involved. Mission effectiveness has become multifaceted and is defined differently by various stakeholders. Operations with multiservice, with multinational military forces, and with ad hoc teams even at lower command levels have brought forward issues such as cultural diversity, communication, and leadership (Essens, Vogelaar, Tanercan, & Winslow, 2001). Effective teamwork is a critical mission success factor. In our interactions with the military, we identified the need of commanders to gain and maintain better insight into the effectiveness of their teams. Commanders need to assess, control, and adjust the qualities of their teams before and during the mission to achieve intermediate and end goals and to learn from the experience after the mission for future missions. To meet this need, a North Atlantic Trade Organization (NATO) research panel was formed under the auspices of the NATO Research & Technology Organization for the purpose of developing a theoretically grounded diagnostic instrument for commanders to assess the effectiveness of their command teams. The primary development of
this instrument was completed in 2005 (Essens et al., 2005), with further refinement and validation progressing under the auspices of a follow-on NATO research panel. This chapter describes the theoretical basis for this diagnostic instrument that was developed and provides insights into the unique aspects and considerations of teamwork in modern military command environments.
