Communications and cohesion: a comparison between two command and control paradigms

This article negotiates a path between the ecological validity of field trials, the
precision of mathematical modelling and the formality of lab-based experimentation. It does this by taking a longitudinal approach to comparing two types of command and control organisations. The object of the study was to use social network and simple time series analysis to test the assumption that organisational design factors can lead to systematic changes in the quantity, structure and type of communication. Further that these changes lead to corresponding improvements in team cohesion over time. The longitudinal design enables novice teams to become expert in their task, for critical task variables to be preserved and controlled, and for effects to emerge over time. It is apparent that contemporary advances in command and control architectures may not be merely technically effective (in terms of enhanced communications) but also jointly optimised (in terms of greater team cohesion).