Military Review English Edition November-December 2015 | Page 108

consequences for an individual’s social skills and
interactive abilities. These negative consequences can
directly affect the U.S. Army because it relies heavily
on interpersonal communication and relationships
when conducting operations.
The Army is organized to maximize the effectiveness of cohesive teams so they can achieve their
objectives. The force’s emphasis on the team dynamic
is understandable because only through teamwork can
it accomplish its fundamental mission—to protect
and defend the Nation and its interests. Army leaders
need to carefully manage various skills, personalities,
and emotions in the stressful circumstances that
soldiers are likely to endure so they can protect their
people and accomplish their assigned missions. This
means leaders should give priority to communication
technologies and techniques that enhance interpersonal relationships. They must never allow technology to supplant those relationships. Leaders should
emphasize the use of active communication channels as
the bedrock for unit cohesiveness, developing interpersonal relationships, and accomplishing missions.
For the purposes of this article, active communication
channels are those most likely to deliver a message
immediately to its intended recipient and to elicit immediate confirmation that the recipient has received
and understood it. Active channels (e.g., face-to-face)
tend to facilitate prompt, interactive feedback for
establishing context and clarifying the message because the sender is more able to require the attention
and feedback of the receiver.1 At the other end of the
continuum, passive communication channels (e.g., text
messaging) are those less likely to provide prompt reception and confirmation of the message because they
require less attention from the receiver.

Communication Technology
Research
Advanced communication technology (such as the
Internet, social media, e-mail, and text messages) has
been a topic of psychological and sociological research
for at least twenty years. Many researchers explore
the effect technology has on social skill development
and the social well-being of children and adolescents.
A research project called the HomeNet Project (a
study of how families use the Internet) demonstrated
that Internet use correlated with a decline in social
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well-being among ten- to nineteen-year-old participants.2 Authors Kaveri Subrahmanyam et al. cite
research from David Krackhardt that supported the
theory that social relationships created online provide less support than those developed face-to-face.3
Additionally, the HomeNet project results demonstrated that online communication correlates with
loneliness and depression when involving “weak-tie”
relationships.4 Weak-tie relationships are formed
through online communication, without prior connections between the acquaintances. The relationships are
deficient in supportive interpersonal interaction. The
HomeNet data showed these patterns over one- and
two-year studies; Subrahmanyam et al. maintain that
more research is needed into the long-term effects of
Internet use on social relationships and well-being.5
Other research has yielded a disturbing association between antisocial personality traits and social
media use. For example, Laura E. Buffardi and Keith
Campbell conducted a study of narcissism and its
relationship to the frequency and content of a person’s social media site (such as a Facebook page, which
is a primarily passive communication channel). The
research took self-reported narcissistic ratings of webpage owners and compared them to the ratings of an
unbiased observer for narcissistic traits. Higher narcissism ratings correlated with higher levels of activity
in the online forum as well as more self-promoting
content.6 While a causal relationship between social
networking sites and narcissism was not established,
the correlation is worth noting.
Lt. Col. Joe Doty, U.S. Army, retired, and Master
Sgt. Jeff Fenlason, U.S. Army, discuss the problem of extremely narcissistic leaders in a 2013 article in Military
Review.7 Citing leadership research, they assert that
toxic leaders tend to exhibit excessive narcissistic traits.
When toxic leaders exhibit extreme narcissism, they
negatively affect relationships within the team. The
implication for communication is that leaders who
communicate mainly through passive communication
channels might tend to be satisfied with promoting
their message to as many people as possible, rather
than ensuring that any one recipient understands it in
depth. At a minimum, if leaders are emphasizing social
media or other passive communication channels, they
likely are not developing effective communication skills
or interpersonal relationships. On the other hand, any
November-December 2015  MILITARY REVIEW