I__. - International Military Testing Association

interviews to groups of*soldiers in a company. All the platoon
leaders in a company were one group; all the platoon serge,ants
were a second group; two thirds of the squad leaders were a third
group; and all squad members from one squad in the ccmpany formed
a fourth group. Post-rotation questionnaires, along with the
subsequent group interviews, were usually conducted in an office
or dayroom setting.
The base and pre-rotation questionnaires contained scales
measuring cohesion and other job related and organizational
constructs along with various demographic items. The postrotation
questionnaires focused on soldier perceptions (self
ratings) of mission performance during their recent rotation. In
addition, for the two battalions which rotated through the JRTC,
ratings on leader and platoon performance were provided just
after the rotation by the observer/controllers who observed each
platoon'during the rotation. In other words, the base and prerotation
questionnaires contained the home station determinants
(predictors) of performance: the post-questionnaires and ratings
from the observer/controllers functioned as criterion measures of
that performance. The total sample from the 5 light infantry
battalions was 60 platoons: 45 line platoons, 5 scout platoons,
5 mortar platoons, and 5 anti-tank platoons.
Questionnaire items were structured to form scales measuring
the constructs investigated. Scales addressed the following
aspects of cohesion: squad member horizontal bonding, platoon
leadership team (platoon leader, platoon sergeant, and squad
leaders) horizontal bonding, vertical bonding between the squad
members and the platoon leaders, platoon pride, and Army
identification. Squad member horizontal bonding (SMHB) items
measured whether squad members felt they cared about one another
and worked together well as a team. Platoon leadership team
horizontal bonding (LHB) items measured the extent to which the
platoon leaders cared about one another and worked well together
as a team. Vertical bonding (VB) items measured the extent to
which subordinates felt their leaders were skilled and looked out
for the needs of their subordinates. Platoon pride (PRIDE) items
measured the extent to which members were proud of being in their
platoon and played an important part in it. Army identification
(AI) items measured the extent to which soldiers felt a part of
the Army and that its successes were their successes. Soldiers
responded to the cohesion questionnaire items using a five point,
strongly agree to strongly disagree response scale.
Scales also addressed constructs such as job motivation (job
involvement), JRTC/NTC motivation, expectations of the value of
JRTC/NTC training, job satisfaction, company learning climate,
and level of task and mission training. As examples, the co-mpany
learning climate items measured whether soldiers were given a lot
of responsibility, got feedback on how they were doing, and were
helped to learn from their mistakes; the job satisfaction items
measured whether soldiers felt their work was interesting and
useful. Most of the scales, or earlier versions of them, had