Unified Vision 2018 analyses -organizational, cultural, and individual factors

This report describes the results from the statistical analyses of the organizational, cultural, and individual factors measured at the joint intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (JISR) exercise Unified Vision 2018 (UV18). The data analyzed in this report were collected through self-report surveys administered before and after the exercise by the NATO Human Factors and Medicine (HFM) Research and Technology Group (RTG) 276, entitled Human Factors and ISR Concept Development and Evaluation.

The research reported here is deemed useful for military decision-makers and researchers in command and control (C2), intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), organization, and human factors related research. The theory and results contribute to increasing the general understanding of individual, organizational, and cultural issues relevant for improving the effectiveness of military C2 and ISR. The method expands the available metrics for collecting relevant data on human issues related to C2 in ISR operations both nationally and internationally. Human issues includes both organization and processes.

Decision making taps into the perception of the C2 processes in the ISR organization. The results suggested that decision-makers generally had the means and capacity to make timely and good decisions during the UV18 exercise. In line with previous research from military settings, information sharing was found to be positively linked to decision making and shared awareness. This finding underscores the importance of facilitating information sharing and the understanding of roles and responsibilities both within and across the organizational components analyzed (the PED-cells, i.e., the processing, exploiting, and disseminating cells) to assure the effectiveness of the organization’s C2 and ISR decision-making processes.

Trust related positively to the organizational output, in terms of shared awareness and decision making. Overall, the trust scores indicated good trust in other exercise personnel. However, the trust levels were lower post exercise than pre exercise, and lower across than within the PEDcells. Similarly, competence and shared awareness were rated lower across than within PEDcells, suggesting that commanders need to pay special attention to building trust and understanding across organizational components to improve the C2 effectiveness in ISR operations.

The personnel perceived the structure of the organization to be more hierarchic than flat. The results further suggested that there is room for improvement in future UV exercises pertaining to the technological solutions and procedures used. Finally, the results indicated that cultural differences may have an impact on the tendency for the individuals in a society to like to think in depth about issues (in terms of need for cognition, NFC).

The research presented in this report is limited by two main circumstances. First, the sample was limited in size, which restricted the statistical analyses possible. Second, on-site changes were made to the questionnaire, which may have hampered the validity and reliability of some of the measures.