“Everything we tried to do was like pulling teeth to get accomplished,” said a former staff member in Iowa, who asked for anonymity. “I’ve never been involved in a job that was as frustrating as this one. We couldn’t get an answer on anything. Everything was fly by the seat of your pants.”

Some of Mr. Cain’s staff was put off by his devotion to publicizing his newly released memoir, “This Is Herman Cain! My Journey to the White House.” His book tour took him mainly through the South, where primaries will not be held until February at the earliest. The tour helped increase his name recognition and has been “very successful for us,” Mr. Gordon said.

Not everyone agreed. “When I found out about the book in June, I thought, ‘Are you kidding?’ ” said the same aide who found the e-mail troubling.

“That approach alienated some of his former staffers,” said Chris Buck, an unaffiliated Republican strategist in New Hampshire who said he considered working for the Cain campaign earlier this year, but changed his mind. “I think everybody was bewildered.”

Setting up offices was also something of a trial. “When I told people, ‘You’ll be getting offices and phone lines,’ I’d have to postpone that,” the former staff member in Iowa said. “It was like they were running for sophomore class president.”

Mr. Hall added, “We couldn’t even get our own e-mail addresses,” for the campaign.

Mr. Cain’s workers said basic supplies, like signs and bumper stickers, were hard to find. In many cases, they have to buy their own, said Donald L. Overman, a retired marketer who is a loyal volunteer for the campaign in New Hampshire.

He thinks the campaign can do better. “You can’t go out and buy bumper stickers,” he said.

Management problems extended to important events. In July, a businessman and Tea Party supporter, Bill Hemrick, invited some 200 friends to the private Standard Club in Nashville to meet Mr. Cain. Mr. Hemrick said the Cain campaign had asked him to serve as its financial chairman for Tennessee.