Control or Chaos: Centralized Military Management

The most important single factor governing the effectiveness and efficiency of the armed forces is the quality of its management to include command. Management of any system is extraordinarily difficult, but the management of the armed forces is particularly so because of their tremendous size, and the complexities inherent in their missions. A verbal model of a management system indicates quite clearly that a large system is a dynamic entity greater than the sum of its component parts. Its nature is dependent on the interrelationships and interactions of its elements, and the resulting structure is beyond the comprehension of any individual or organizational entity. There is no sound management theory for large systems, and, as yet, no real management science has been developed. Yet the exponential growth of science and technology has increased the urgency for establishing a viable management science. Those who believe that the answer to better management is simple decentralization are mistaking the symptom of centralization for the real problem, which is our inability to manage well in the absence of better management techniques. Centralization leads to rigidity, uniformity, and high overhead costs. Decentralization on the other hand results in undesirable suboptimization and slow response to changing conditions. In the absence of a sound management science, the tendency is for over centralization to result in decentralization. This trend is reversed when decentralization results in the inability to attain objectives.