Lateral coordination of interdependent U.S. Army information tasks

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether the U.S. Army is adequately prepared or organizationally structured at the operational and tactical levels of warfare and command to execute synchronous information operations in light of recent doctrinal changes. Implementation of the new Army Field Manual (FM) 3-0, Operations, will significantly affect the conduct of information and influence operations in the U.S. Army at the operational and tactical levels of warfare and command. Field Manual 3-0, published February 27, 2008, revised how the Army views information operations and the staff responsibility for the tasks associated with them. U.S. Army information operations is now doctrinally divided into five Army information tasks, with the responsibility redistributed to different staff functional cells, ultimately to be synchronized by the operations process. The five Army information functional cells possess a reciprocal interdependence with each other, each providing inputs and feedback to the others. This study concludes that a lateral coordination process should be applied to the functional structure of the staff organization to accomplish information tasks. A direct liaison or full-time integrator role should be applied to the organization to integrate IO elements' capabilities and related activities and in order to synchronize information activities. The combined performance and effectiveness of the staff organization requires a lateral process of coordination to synchronize the highly-interdependent information tasks.