A Study on Human Relations in a Command and Control System Based on Social Network Analysis

Teamwork is the basic feature of command and control tasks. There are a large number of information communication and exchange actions. Smoothness of human relations directly affects the overall effectiveness of the system. Social network analysis is a common method of studying the human relations, which combines complex network theory with sociology, using mathematical statistical features to quantify and visualize social group behavior and information dissemination mechanisms. In view of the characteristics of human relations in a command and control system which are constrained by both task (ambiguity) and equipment (human-computer interface such as communication media) factors, a social network model is constructed in this study. Three main social network characteristics are proposed, along with a measurement method for the coupling effect of communication media and task ambiguity. The calculation is demonstrated with two simulated submarine command and control tasks.