Compare and Contrast Situational Awareness With Situational Understanding

¶ … awareness entails using all available sensory modalities and cognitive processes. The individual who is situationally aware knows what to pay attention to and can make quick decisions based on knowledge and wisdom. Situation awareness requires some understanding also of goals and objectives. Situational understanding is a similar concept to situational awareness. However, situational understanding takes awareness a step further. As Maltz (2010) points out, situational understanding "unlike awareness, requires some useful grasp of the information at hand," (p. 53).

If situational awareness is a state of being vigilant and conscious, then situational understanding is the application of non-contextual variables. For example, a soldier who is practicing situational awareness notices slight changes to the environment such as encroaching shadows or sudden sounds. The same soldier is also aware of where friendly troops are, and can easily determine the source of the sensory input and discern that from potential enemy presence. However, it requires situational understanding to have a broader vision of military strategy and to know how to take action.

Having the power to take action is the next step: the implementation of situational understanding. Situational awareness and situational understanding are related concepts, but situational understanding is a more comprehensive application of knowledge and information. Both situational awareness and situational understanding require an anticipation of problems. However, situational understanding is one step closer to wisdom (Maltz 2010). Therefore, leaders and managers will be required to possess situational understanding as well as situational awareness. Situational awareness is expected of all soldiers.

Both situational awareness and situational understanding mean "gathering the right information (all that is needed, but not too much), being able to analyze it, and making projections based on the analysis," (Toner, 2009). A leader would take situational awareness to another level, by understanding interpersonal communication dynamics, issues related to cultural sensitivity, and other issues that might be more abstract than what typical sensory awareness would involve. Moreover, situational understanding sometimes depends on knowledge of political context.

For this reason, situational understanding is more of a requisite level of experience for senior officers as opposed to junior officers. To be aware of a situation and to understand it can sometimes be radically different states or concepts. Awareness begins with sensory perceptions and proceeds through mental cognitions, and finally onto an analysis and future projection. Situational understanding requires situational awareness, but that awareness could come from another human being.

In other words, a senior officer does not need to be the individual perceiving sensory input but does ultimately need to be the person who grasps the severity of the situation. Situational understanding requires situational awareness but the reverse is not necessarily true. An awareness of a situation means a relatively rudimentary understanding of the situation. For example, situational awareness is sufficient for offering senior offers advice or updates or for anticipating problems before they arise.

With that information -- the information gained via sensory data obtained by the individual or junior officers -- the senior officer has the necessary contextual, political, or cultural understanding to know what actions to take and when. Herein lies the most crucial difference between situational awareness and situational understanding: the latter allows for comprehensive action whereas both are crucial for making on-the-fly decisions. References Maltz, R.S. (2010). Shared situational understanding. Military Review. Sept-Oct 2010.

Retrieved online: http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=shared%20situational%20understanding&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CDIQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fusacac.army.mil%2FCAC2%2FMilitaryReview%2FArchives%2FEnglish%2FMilitaryReview_20101031_art009.pdf&ei=3ZbiTr3uIYqOiALNzfS1Bg&usg=AFQjCNGETZR7XTV5QILqMn_AhHq-sl7t-A&cad=rja Toner, E.S. (2009). Creating.