Kendall Hubbard

Comm 4391

25 Feb 19

Dr. Howard

Literature Review

Nitin Nohria said that, “communication is the real work of leadership.” There is no

question that communication is a crucial part of military mission survival and success.

Despite this, however, there are a shocking few number of articles and research done

on it. As someone who has been in the military and witnessed every possible interaction

(officer to officer, officer to enlisted or enlisted to enlisted) I can attest first hand to how

crucial proper and effective communication is not only for our own military, bit for

interacting with foreign governments and military organizations. It is clear that Paul J.

Meyer’s quote that, “communication- the human connection- is the key to personal and

career success,” is demonstrated every day in the military.

In this literature review I am going to introduce five of the articles I found that

touch on a wide range of aspects when it comes to communication in the military. The

first is ​The Role of Communication in Military Leadership​, then ​The importance of

civil-military dialogue​. The third article is ​Improving Communication Between Senior Air

Force Leadership and Troops in the Field​, after that is ​Human Behavior in Military

Contexts: Nonverbal Communication​, and last will be ​The Importance of

Communication in Multinational Military Operations​. I will give a brief abstract if each,

what the strong points of the article/journal was, and what improvements they can

employ to make it more impactful.

The first journal, ​The Role of Communication in Military Leadership, ​was written

by Monika Lewinska. This journal talks about the importance of communication and the

understanding of interpersonal relationships. Lewinska also points out that comparing

the role of communication in a military organisation to its role in civilian leadership and

management differ because motivation to participate in a business project (even if

associated with a risk) cannot be compared with motivation to participate in the military

operation where a life or health can be lost.

This journal is fabulously written and organized. Lewinska breaks it up into five

main parts for easy reading. She uses terms that anyone can understand, making it a

piece that can be used and taught in virtually any situation. She breaks up the long

paragraphs with bullet points that further explain her points, and a few diagrams that

demonstrate them as well. The only change I would make is that Lewinska often went

into lengthy definitions and origin stories that did not necessarily benefit the conveying

of the important points she was giving. I found it a little distracting when I went from a

discussion of the topic to a long definition and origin, back to the discussion.

The second is an article titled ​The importance of civil-military dialogue, ​written by

Amelia B. Kyazze. This article takes a look at how important proper communication

between the military and the civilian sector is. Kyazze specifically talks about military

involvement during times of natural disaster. She touched on a few key problems such
as the military being enigmatic about it’s resources and capability. This can foster a

distrust from the very people they are trying to help. The article is easy to read. Also, not

only does she point out the problems, but she offers ways that they can be potentially

remedied. I really do not have any critiques for Kyazze’s article. I really enjoyed reading

it.

Next we will take a look at ​Improving Communication Between Senior Air Force

Leadership and Troops in the Field ​by USAF Major Manson O. Morris. In this journal

Morris takes a look at the main problem that inefficient communication presents in the

Air Force: members are generally unaware of their leaders‘ vision and are similarly

ignorant of key issues. This results in not being able to build a shared vision between a

leader and their subordinates.

Morris does a good job of breaking down his thoughts into separate sections and

subsections. He also proposes a solution at the end to efficiently distribute the

information needed to fix his identified communication problem. He also uses an

appropriate number of graphs and pictures to help demonstrate some of the statistics

that he gives. However, the language is sometimes not as professional as a military

published journal would normally call for. His solution could also use a little help, as his

proposed method may be ineffective due to leaving it up to the airmen to be responsible

for teaching themselves the material rather than being taught.

Let’s move on to the ​Human Behavior in Military Contexts: Nonverbal

Communication ​that was published by the National Academies Press. This article

focuses on more than verb communication, it examines how crucial proper nonverbal
communication (body language, tone of voice, etc.) can be. They go on to talk about

how leaders who demonstrate confrontational or closed off non-verbals often have less

trust from their subordinates. On the other side, leaders who show open, vigilant, and

interested non-verbals have much more honest backing from their subordinates and are

able to develop appropriate interpersonal relationships with them, which leads to more

support for the success of the mission.

Something unique that this book had was a breakdown of different parts such as

cultural fluency, negotiations, and persuasions. They also use appropriate language that

is easily understandable. The critique I have for this one is that they list several sources,

but don’t use them or explain them as fully as they could have to reach maximum

usefulness.

The last article we will be talking about is ​The Importance of Communication in

​ ublished in the iHLS journal. This is a short article, but

Multinational Military Operations p

a very important one. It is one of the few that focuses on the importance of

communication in foreign relations. It points out that, when working with foreign armies

and military, the primary goal is usually to give a show of force rather than giving actual

force itself. It is a very thin line between the two, and without proper communication and

being on the same page as your allies, can go disastrously wrong. The article is well

written, however it needs to be expounded upon. This is such an underrepresented

problem area, I think they should have continued it.

We have looked at several very good articles and journals in this literature

review. An abstract of each was given, and we examined the strengths and weaknesses
of all of them. It is important to be well informed, especially when there might be people

who look up to you and follow you. You cannot expect them to care and be

knowledgeable about their field if you do not hold yourself to the same standard.
 Works Cited

Ben-Dov, M. (2015, July 13). The Importance of Communication in Multinational Military

operations. Retrieved February 25, 2019, from https://i-hls.com/archives/64173

Blascovich, J., & Hartel, C. R. (2008). ​Human behavior in military contexts​. Washington, DC:

National Academies Press.

Kyazze, A. B. (2015). The importance of civil-military dialogue. ​Humanitarian Practice

Network.​ Retrieved February 25, 2019, from

https://odihpn.org/blog/the-importance-of-civil-military-dialogue/.

Lewińska, M. (2016). The Role of Communication in Military Leadership. ​Journal of Corporate

Responsibility and Leadership,2(​ 1), 37. doi:10.12775/jcrl.2015.003

Morris, M. O. (2002). Improving Communication Between Senior Air Force Leadership and

Troops in the Field. ​AIR COMMAND AND STAFF COLLEGE AIR UNIVERSITY.​

doi:10.21236/ada407266