The Role of Behavioral Economics in the Navy Detailing Process

Abstract

Improvements are needed in the U.S. Navys enlisted detailing process in order to reduce the number of sailors forced into billets that do not meet their personal or professional desires. This thesis explores behavioral economic concepts, specifically nudge theory, and presents recommendations to help reduce forced billet distribution. Additionally, it proposes comprehensive improvements to be made in the detailing process that will help to incentivize the specific hard-to-fill jobs identified by the Navy as their three challenged areas (location challenge, work condition challenge, and information scarcity challenge). Finally, it explores the mechanism to integrate these non-monetary incentives into the Navys marketplace detailing model. Reducing forced assignments and allowing sailors to control more of their own destiny when choosing orders will go a long way toward improving morale, increasing retention, and in crafting a more lethal and capable force.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 2020
Accession Number
AD1114283

Entities

People

  • Thomas J. Reichhart

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Abstracts
  • Artificial Intelligence
  • Blockchain
  • California
  • Commerce
  • Economics
  • Electronic Mail
  • Governments
  • Human Behavior
  • Information Exchange
  • Mental Processes
  • Motivation
  • National Security
  • Naval Personnel
  • Negotiations
  • New York
  • Personnel Management
  • Professional Development
  • Schools
  • Social Media
  • Standards
  • Students
  • Thinking
  • Training
  • United States
  • Universities

Readers

  • Economics
  • Naval Personnel Management
  • Systems Analysis and Design