The International C2 Journal the Editorial Staff for More Information Enterprise Command, Control, and Design: Bridging C2 Practice and Ct Research

Abstract : Command and control (C2) is comprised largely of activities in the cognitive and social domains. As such, C2 has represented a critical aspect of military planning and execution; time-tested approaches to C2 in military organizations and processes remain prevalent. In contrast, scholarly research in the C2 domain remains divergent; chasm exists between research and continuing C2 practice. This is particularly the case with research in the area of Contingency Theory (CT). The central premise of CT is that no single enterprise design is ideal for all missions, environments, and contexts. Because military organizations will continue to undertake complex missions in diverse and challenging environments and contexts, one would expect to see C2 approaches that have enterprise agility. At the very least, one would expect the military to be exploring non-traditional approaches to C2 vigorously. Given the abundant CT research, one would expect leaders and policy makers to redesign high-performance enterprises to fit shifting mission, environmental, and contextual circumstances better. Instead one sees that remarkably traditional and often ill-fitting C2 approaches predominate. The problem is that few CT scholars understand current C2 practice sufficiently to apply such research directly, and few C2 researchers, analysts, leaders, and policy makers understand CT research sufficiently to take advantage of corresponding enterprise design opportunities. Even the terms used by members of the CT and C2 communities differ. This article takes four steps toward bridging the chasm between C2 practice and CT research: (1) Summarizes the tenets of CT in terms that can inform C2; (2) Bridges several key terminological gaps between the communities; (3) Highlights C2 research that develops new CT knowledge for enterprise design; and (4) Outlines a research agenda to address practical C2 issues. As such, this article can inform the CT researcher as well as the C2 practitioner.