Summary

A common challenge organizations face is how to remain successful in a competitive
arena that is becoming increasingly turbulent. Resourcefulness and adaptability are presented
as crucial organizational abilities to strive for. This study introduces the contemporary
military organization as a typical example from which commercial organizations could
learn. After all, in order to repetitively conduct crisis response missions all over the globe,
under all kinds of climatic and operational circumstances, resourcefulness and adaptability
have become basic elements for successful expeditionary deployment. The study assumes
that giving insight into the way in which military crisis response organizations apply
commonly accepted organizational determinants to activate learning and reconfiguration
abilities, could serve as an interesting case for commercial organizations to take advantage
of. For most contemporary military organizations modular organizing has become an
important approach to increase operational adaptability. The cover photo presents a
typical outcome of this approach. It shows a combined arms team, from the Netherlands
armed forces, on its way to the village of Ferocia to search for improvised explosive devices.