Decision making in military command teams: an experimental study

Abstract

This study examines the role of resource allocation in naval command teams. The experiment is based on the Composite Warfare Commander - Distributed Dynamic Decision-making (CWC-DDD) paradigm and investigates the impact of uncertainty in neutral/enemy discriminability, team information structure, and leader's involvement in resource coordination. Seven four-member teams, consisting of military officers, used the CWC-DDD to combat a preprogrammed air threat to a naval battle group. Results show that increased average resource effectiveness and higher average identification confidence lead to higher final team strength. However, increased upward communications lead to lower final team strength. Functional (tactical vs. non-tactical) variation is military background have a significant impact on team performance. Teams that are predominately tactical develop more coherent strategies, more effectively utilize their resources and have better team performance. Teams that are non-tactical develop limited strategies, assign lower confidence to their target identifications and have more upward communications.