Communication effectiveness in the Submarine Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet.
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Authors
Reagan, Louis L.
Subjects
Advisors
Date of Issue
1964
Date
Publisher
Monterey, California: U.S. Naval Postgraduate School
Language
en_US
Abstract
Having observed the friction periodically occurring at the interface between the staffs and fleet operating units, it was the purpose of the student to uncover any evidence symptomatic of the nature of the problem, if there were one. It was hypothesized that if there were substantial disparity in the meanings to officers in the Force of certain words in common usage then day to day interpersonal communication effectiveness would suffer. And, if the level of communication effectiveness were low it would indicate that inversely proportional levels of frustration, confusion, and heterogeneous behavior would detract from the ability of the organization to perform in an optimal manner. The meanings of fifty concepts to a sample of sixty- four officers were measured by the Semantic Differential, a highly reliable device with high face validity. The set of measurements for each officer was compared to that of every other officer, yielding a total of 2,016 comparisons, and counts were made in each comparison of the number of concepts out of fifty whose deviations in meaning fell into ranges of communication effectiveness or deficiency. In addition, counts were made of the number of times the deviations in meaning for each concept fell into the same ranges. Results showed that on the average, for the fifty concepts used, any two officers were able to communicate effectively with each other on about twenty-two, less than half. And, on the average, serious obstacles to communication existed on about eleven out of fifty, more than a fifth. In addition, it was found that on the average communication effectiveness existed for each concept in about 44% of the comparisons while^ serious obstacles to communication existed in about 22%. Presentations of results included breakdowns according to the positions in which officers were serving or had served, their educational preparation for staff duty, their ranks, and the sources of their commissions. The results for the individual concepts were tabulated and they were rank ordered according to their relative levels of effectiveness or deficiency. It was concluded from the results that an interpersonal communication problem definitely does exist in SU2PAC which, while not necessarily being a problem source, could be expected to impede effective interaction of personnel. It, therefore, seems probable that the demonstrated level of general communication effectiveness is sufficiently low to fully prevent optimal performance of the organization as a whole.
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Management
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.