Mixing methods for improving understanding of defence policy and its impact on a defence organisation's strategy and operations

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) in the United Kingdom is an evolving organisation, attempting to implement a defence policy, which focuses on capability delivery. The defence industry in the UK is faced with the challenge of providing these requirements. It is envisaged that this policy initiative will change the roles, responsibilities and interrelation of stakeholders across the Users, Customer, Prime Contractors and wider supply chain. Yet, one of the vital prerequisites for developing and delivering successful ???capability??? is a robust understanding of the concept and its implications for defence organisations and their interrelations. The research presented attempted to capture and feedback, stakeholder???s understanding of the policy concept and its implications at the strategic and operational level of defence organisations ???primarily MoD and contractor. This study was carried out through a combination of: 1) causal mapping, to capture key stakeholder???s perception of the policy concept and its implications to their oganisation???s way of working ???strategic level; 2) social network analysis, to capture stakeholders??? knowledge sharing in relation to the policy concept ???strategic and operational level; and 3) a grounded theory approach, to analyse the data from the operational level to understand how policy initiatives influence action and structure. Preliminary results show how policy initiatives influence and shape organisational structures and actions/interactions and how these feedback to policy/institutional level.