Managing Militarily

Abstract

In this article, the authors aim to apply well-known concepts of managerial work to the military. The concepts and methods used are derived from Henri Mintzberg, who paved the way in discovering the “nature of managerial work.” The data are based on closely observing two commanding officers at Kabul International Airport, operated by the International Security Assistance Force. Those managers play different managerial roles, and the ability to develop three types of roles—informational, interpersonal, or decisional— depends on their hierarchical level, their own functional area, and the complex environment of the military compound. Compared to conventional managers, military managers during multinational deployments have to cope with specific features such as the importance of language and communication skills (information roles), boredom among the workforce (interpersonal roles), as well as suddenly occurring emergencies and multiple (“political”) authority lines inside and outside the mission area (decisional roles).