Leaders' Guide for Contingency Operations: The Human Dimension - Thirteen Recurring Issues Impacting Soldier Attitudes About Deployment Experiences, Somalia, Haiti, Bosnia, Recommendations

Professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction, this guide represents a synthesis of research findings from a number of contingency operations. The objective of this guide is to provide Army leaders with a succinct guide of leadership lessons learned and recommendations based on feedback from soldiers and leaders who have participated in recent contingency operations. Interviews and surveys were conducted to examine the attitudes and opinions of soldiers deployed in support of Operation Restore/Continue Hope in Somalia, Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti, and Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia. This guide identifies 13 recurring issues that impacted on soldier attitudes and opinions regarding their deployment experiences. These included: Mission Clarity, Situation Stability, Amount of Threat/Lethality, Complexity of the Force, Complexity of the Environment, Specificity of Advanced Preparation, Quality of Leadership, Duration of Deployment, Media Visibility, Range of Job Tasks, Quality of Life, Amount of Family Support, and Quality of Rear Detachment. The issues and their descriptions allow leaders to anticipate issues likely to occur in contingency operations. Recommendations are included with each of the issues. Together, the issues and the recommendations represent leadership lessons learned that can be used both before and during contingency operations.

The U.S. Army Research Institute conducted research examining the attitudes and opinions of soldiers who deployed in contingency operations to identify people issues impacting effectiveness. Data were collected from soldiers participating in support of Operation Restore/Continue Hope in Somalia, Operation Uphold Democracy in Haiti, and Operation Joint Endeavor in Bosnia. This guide identifies recurring issues that impacted leader
effectiveness and unit success.