An Organisational Interoperability Agility Model

Recently, there have been significant changes in the nature, scale, scope and diversity of military operations. There is an increased tempo of operations as Defence Forces are now often involved in multi-agency and concurrent operations ranging from relatively benign national or regional support activities through to high intensity coalition war fighting activities. Unilateral operations are rare; joint, combined and coalition operations are now the rule. Coalitions are often formed on an ad hoc basis and ostensibly at short notice. They are often fluid, with partners joining and leaving or scaling their commitments during the course of the collaboration or operation. There are many implications for military organisations flowing from these trends and this requires the development or modification of modelling and measuring techniques to assess the impact on military roles. This paper focuses on the development of an Organisational Interoperability Agility Model that aims to capture the dynamic aspects of working in coalitions including the ability of an organisation to contribute to the rapid formation and reformation of coalitions, including novel ones. It builds on the Organisational Interoperability Model developed by Clark and Jones (1999), and draws on the organisational literature, the agility literature, and the authors’ experiences within Defence.