Boot Camp Organization

It was the end of June 2014, I just graduated from college, feeling my bright future is awaiting me. Well… that sense of victory didn’t last too long. Three days later, I was on the bus which takes privates to the boot camp: it was the compulsory military service that every man in my country has to fulfill. That summer turned out to be the worst summer I’ve ever had.

The boot camp was a 30-days orientation for new recruits. The squad leader showed us how their organization, Army, works, and rules were clearly given to us. Follow the rules then you are free from troubles; break the rules then not only you but all squad will be punished. Sounds fair enough to follow the rules, however, some privates were preferred to try some bold moves and we were punished consequently. That was the time I realized how people are insanely irrational in the real life. I bet those privates haven’t learned Economics before, not to mention prisoner’s dilemma of game theory. What we did was like a game of complete information. We knew payoffs that we could expect and could communicate with all participants, which means all privates should know that we could maximize payoffs by following the rules. So why people would want to break rules? I believe that is because squad leaders had different goals with privates. Squad leaders didn’t want troubles so they set up rules, privates wanted to be free to do whatever they like instead. When an upper-level supervisor has different goals with lower-level workers, the consequence could be significant. Just like what I experienced in the boot camp: privates kept braking rules and squad leaders kept punishing privates. It was totally waste of time.

In fact, Army organization structure is more complicated than just squad leaders and privates. For example, there are some commanders who sit in command centers and know nothing about boot camps. The third week in the boot camp, we were informed that commanders decided to do a drill in the boot camp regardless there was a typhoon. Squad leaders and we worked hard together tried to satisfied commanders’ high expectation. However, commanders suddenly changed plan one day before the drill because they thought the typhoon could jeopardize the drill. As a private, I couldn’t even believe that how commanders could change their decisions so easily. It seemed like they didn’t consider that the typhoon could affect the drill; if they did, they shouldn’t even ask us to prepare for the drill. Again, people in different position have different goals and different goals could cause conflicts between managers and workers. Without well communication and consensus, organizations can never achieve their goals. For example, managers want to maximize profit but workers prefer less workload and work inefficient.

 Though many unpleasant things happened during the time I was in Army, I am not saying that commanders do not care about soldiers. As supervisors in Army organization, commanders sometimes go through some critical decisions related to us, such as: should smart phones be allowed in military camps? This issue doesn’t sound critical but it does. Most of privates cannot bring devices with camera, such as smart phones, into boot camps since commanders are afraid that privates may leak some sensitive pictures to public. As a result, privates always line up waiting for using public telephones. This ridiculous situation didn’t last long, commanders considered that smart phones were becoming prevailing and should be allowed to bring into military camps. It was quite a shock to us when we knew that smartphones are allowed. A lot of privates suddenly took out their devices; I didn’t even know how they smuggled their phones into the boot camp. I considered that what commanders did was a great policy changing and it did receive positive feedback. Privates (workers) appreciated this change that commanders (managers) did and were willing to work harder for Army (organizations).

To conclude the time I spent in Army organization, let me recap what I experienced during the boot camp: (1) irrational decisions caused by lacking of communication between privates and squad leaders. (2) Unbelievably wrong decisions made by commanders due to the unawareness of what privates want. (3) Motivation gave by commanders could encourage privates to work harder. All three points are related to transaction costs. First and second point are obviously increases transaction costs; privates, squad leaders and commanders wasted a lot of time and labor resource because of the bad communication, and all those waste are considered as the increment of transaction costs. The third point’s connection with transaction costs is rather unclear: the time that commanders took to pass new regulations of smart phones should be considered as transaction costs. What I learned from my experience is that organizations with better communication between managers and workers are easier to achieve goals together. Though the process of communicating may be costly, sometimes the action is still needed; just like the action of allowing using smart phones.