Nato's Quest for Greater Operational Effectiveness: Concordance Theory and Civilian-Military Personnel Relations

Many defense organizations are comprised of both military and civilian personnel working in partnership towards the realization of defense goals. Civilian personnel in defense organizations often work closely with their military counterparts. The issue of civilian-military personnel collaboration within defense organizations is an important issue that affects both operational and organizational effectiveness.

Personnel collaboration also has significant impact on civil-military relations theory. Civilian and military institutional separations has been the hallmark of the civil-military relations field since the post-World War II era. Focusing on the need for greater collaboration among civilian and military personnel in defense organizations challenges the traditional focus on separation. Objective civilian control  does not exist at all levels of the civil-military relationship spectrum. The reality is that civil-military relations may call for broad institutional separations as well as more fluid and collaborative roles within defense establishments. Personnel relationships in defense organizations, often warrant more integrative dynamics and directly affect the development and execution of military strategy as well as operational and organizational effectiveness. Enhancing collaboration between military and civilian personnel points to a theoretical model, such as concordance theory, which embraces broader institutional separations as well as cultural conditions requiring more flexible civilian and military relationships. This presentation is created within the context of a NATO Human Factors and Medicine Research Task Group (HFM RTG-226) and a cross-national survey initiative.