The Fall of the General Staff Model Towards a Third Generation U.S. Army Staff Theory

The internal staff structure within division and corps headquarters is not designed to achieve its purpose in the current environment. The first section details the unchanging fundamental principles and the change in context from that which originally drove the current headquarters design during World War I to the current context. The second section describes the inefficiencies inherent to using the current modular staff structure. The third section crosses the newly identified contextual understanding and current staff inefficiencies with organization theory to identify an alternate candidate for the Army's staff structure. In conclusion, a recommended operations process-oriented horizontal staff structure that focuses on informing, influencing, and creating and maintaining a shared understanding of the environment addresses the current context with a whole-of-staff approach; while newly established redundant teams within each section enable rapid adaptation and partner integration. The internal staff structure within corps and division headquarters is ill-designed to achieve its purpose in the current environment.