The Structural, Training, and Operational Characteristics of Army Teams

Combat, combat support, and combat service support branches within the Army were surveyed to identify teams within each branch and to describe their structural characteristics according to official organizational tables of personnel and equipment. A total of 255 distinct teams were identified and described, with the Infantry, Field Artillery, and Armor branches containing the greatest number of teams. Results on such characteristics as team size, member rank, leaderrank, skill level of members, and equipment used are presented. Teams that perform non-routine tasks were located within the Infantry, Armor, and Engineer branches. Active Army units were also surveyed. These units rated their teams on the amount of team training received and needed, leader satisfaction with training, training constraints, team characteristics, operational problems, and team evaluation procedures. The primary training problems and constraints identified were the turn-over of team personnel, under strength teams, unqualified personnel, insufficient time to train, and unrealistic training. Of team characteristics surveyed, only one was rated as atypical of Army teams -- compensation by one member for inadequate performance by another member. The results provide a data base for future team research within the Army. An appendix contains a list of all teams identified in both phases of the study.