Operationalizing Data Culture: The US Army's Engagements With Data Science 1961-2023

Culture frames what an institution values, reveres, and rewards. It emerges over an extended period, sometimes deliberately, often indirectly. As a subset of organizational culture, a common understanding of both data and culture is needed in order to build the data culture the Army desires. This study examines data culture within the context of the US Army and its interactions with data science over the past six decades. It uses Science and Technology Studies (STS) scholarship to analyze Army data culture from the perspectives of leadership, expertise, technology, and structure and practices to better understand how it can be shaped to better support the Army's goals. This study posits that rather than adopting a data culture as something entirely new, the Army would be better served by an understanding of the data culture it already has, made up of entrenched policy and operational approaches perpetuated over decades, some of which are unsuitable for the current and future environment. A second posit is that Army data culture is situated within a broader context and cannot be understood independently of the external cultures and social systems with which it interacts. And third, STS scholarship is uniquely suited to inform this type of analysis. I conclude that the Army should focus resources on educating leaders on how to assess, build and sustain positive data cultures in their organizations.