Military Management Structure
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Most Americans have a general idea on how the United States Armys Organizational Structure is managed. The consensus of most civilians is that when an Officer tells a soldier “Enlisted Personnel” what to do and they do it no questions asked. In a sense they are right to a degree, in fact most branches of the Armed Forces of America are organized as a differentiation.
The U.S. army is a very good example of the division of labor concept each specialization M.O.S. “Military Occupational Studies” having their own Corps.
To understand what the corps are you must first break down the basic Army organizational set up. At the very top you have the Commander and Chief which is the President of The United States then there is the Vise President, the Secretary of the Army, the Assistant secretary of the Army, and the last civilian chain is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army.
Now that we have the civilian aspect out of the way we go into the highest military aspect the Field Army. Each Field army is comprised of two to five Corps. Every corps is comprised of two or more Divisions. A division is made up of anywhere from 10,000 to 18,000 soldiers divided between three or more brigades.
Command responsibilities at a corps level however includes the responsibility in efficiently using and acquiring all available resources for planning of missions I.E. deployments of each organization, with coordinating, and controlling but not direct control for the success of all assigned missions for the deployment or training period. Other responsibilities also include the management of troop health, and welfare, also known as morale.
The Corps level is responsible for the assignments of personnel; this is where the Army becomes an integration organization. A soldier may belong to say the Signal Corps but his or her next assignment is to an Infantry Unit as a radio operator, they then are integrated into that unit as a support M.O.S. This can be true for a soldier in the Medical Corps to the Corps of Engineers and so on.
More and more the U.S. Army has moved to become more of an integrated Organization but still maintain their standing as a differentiation organization.
Inside the United States of America the U.S. Army uses the National Guard and Reserves to cover the hole of America Geographically, making quick responses easily manageable, and attainable. Very few people outside of a military life style do not understand that the National Guard is in fact a militia controlled by the state the unit resides in. This in turn makes the combined forces of the National Guard and the Active Army a Network organization.
For a foot note if a governor of a state does not use their National Guard Units (militia Units) their federal funding is dramatically decreased.
The Army also maintains reserve components overseas. There Are reserve units in Germany, Japan, and South Korea. The Active are commands are also broken down into territory commands mostly done by Divisions. An example of this is South Korea all units fall under the U.S.F.K. (United States Forces Korea). We even have elements of the R.O.K.A. (Republic of Korea Army) integrated into our ranks making a global Network organization.
There are significant differences however between Military verses Civilian companies organization and structural operations.
Military:
Hierarchy structure
Specific rules of conduct
Defined roles and rank.
Assigned M.O.S.
Consistency
Defined career advancement
shared bond and beliefs, strong traditional beliefs, and values
Corporate:
Matrix structure
implied rules of conduct
ambiguous roles & status
Variations
Little defined career advancement
Corporate culture imposes corporate values on the organization
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