Strategic Leadership Under Uncertainty

How Agile Decision-Making Enhances Organizational Resilience In Military High-Risk Environments

Abstract

Military organizations operating in volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) environments face decision-making challenges demanding adaptive leadership. This conceptual paper examines how agile decision-making, operationalized through the OODA Loop and Mission Command doctrine, can strengthen organizational resilience in military high-risk settings. Integrating Strategic Leadership Theory, Dynamic Capabilities Theory, and Organizational Resilience Theory, the paper develops the Military Agile Leadership–Resilience (MALR) model and four theoretical propositions. The model links commander cognitive agility, doctrinal competence, and emotional intelligence to decentralized authority, rapid sense-making, adaptive planning, and disciplined initiative, which are theorized to support anticipatory, adaptive, recovery, and transformative resilience. Organizational culture and technological enablement are proposed as moderators, while shared mental models and organizational learning capacity serve as mediating mechanisms. Illustrative discussion of Ukrainian military adaptation and NATO-oriented Mission Command informs the conceptual synthesis but does not constitute empirical validation. The framework offers directions for leadership education, organizational design, technology integration, and future empirical testing.