Using RAND's Military Career Model To Evaluate The Impact Of Institutional Requirements On The Air Force Space Officer Career Field
Abstract
An institutional requirement (IR) is a U.S. Air Force manpower requirement needed to support the Air Force institution, including positions like recruiters, instructors, or political- military affairs specialists. These positions may not align well with traditional functional career fields. Generally, IRs do not have to be filled by officers with a particular specialty or from a particular career field, so various career fields are taxed to fill them. Career field assignment teams then assign officers to fill IR positions allocated to their career field. Typically, however, some IRs go unfilled because career fields have a limited pool of officers to fill both IR positions and core career field authorizations. In these situations, the additional stress that IRs place on some career fields is significant. In fiscal year 2014, RAND Project AIR FORCE was asked to carry out research on IR processes and impacts. In this document, we summarize our findings from modeling the effect of filling IR positions on a career fields health, given that filling IR positions draws labor away from core authorizations. We adapted RANDs Military Career Model (MCM), a detailed personnel simulation model, to evaluate the impact of changes to IRs on the space officer (13S) career field. The model enabled us to study how IRs affect a variety of career field metrics, including the ability to simultaneously fill core requirements and IR positions. We also examined how changing the number of IRs affects the operational development, career experience diversity, and career paths of space officers.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1053367
Entities
People
- Alexander D. Rothenberg
- Lisa M. Harrington
- Paul Emslie
- Tara L. Terry
Organizations
- RAND Corporation