Standing Orders is a unique genre presented by the commanding officer of a ship to his watch standers. This genre has four distinct communicative purposes.
- First, it establishes and reinforces the relationship between the commanding officer and his or her watch standers.
- Second, it serves the function of making tacit, experiential knowledge explicit.
- Third, Standing Orders issue the commanding officers watch standing philosophy.
- Fourth, Standing Orders facilitate watch stander action.
Understanding these four Standing Order purposes leads to a deeper and more meaningful understanding of the document’s importance. Deeper knowledge of communicative purpose allows both writers and users to examine effectiveness. In other words, understanding the nature of the role Standing Orders play aboard ships is the first step in determining the effectiveness of these orders in playing that role.
Kyle Hugh Turner
Masters Thesis
Naval Postgraduate School
Standing are orders are a perfect example of an effective traditional naval leadership technique.
ReplyDeleteI sincerely hope that a promising Young Turk at NPG school will make a comprehensive study of all such traditional methods, figure out how to adapt them to the modern navy, systematize them coherently, then present them as an indigenous solution to improve naval leadership and management.
Far better this than attempting to adapt the latest faddish utterances of some ambitious "B" school efficiency expert type trying to make a name for himself in the corporate world.