An Analysis of the Perceptions of Division Senior Combat Arms Leaders of the Tactical Competence of Division Signal Officers and Assistant Division Signal Officers.

This study is a descriptive analysis of the perceptions of active component division commanding generals, chiefs of staff, and G3s of the tactical competence of their Division Signal Officers DSOs and Assistant Division Signal Officers ADSOs. This study sought to answer four questions a how to division commanding generals, chiefs of staff, and G3s perceive the essentialness of tasks that DSOs and ADSOs should perform b how do divisions senior leaders perceive the effectiveness of their DSOs and ADSOs in performing the surveyed tasks c what is the difference between the perceived essentialness of the surveyed tasks and the perceived effectiveness of the DSO and ADSO in performing those tasks and d what relationship exists between respondents duty positions and perceptions of the DSOs and ADSOs effectiveness in performing the surveyed tasks. This study was designed to use a mail survey of all 54 officers in the target population. A list of 20 tasks that tactically competent DSOs and ADSOs should perform was extracted from Field Manual 101-5 Staff Organization and Operations and Field Manual 100-5 Operations. A researcher-developed instrument was used to collect data about the perceptions of the essentialness of DSO and ADSO tasks and the effectiveness with which those tasks were being performed by the DSOs and ADSOs. The instrument employed the semantic differential item technique.