Assessing the Association Between Airmen Participation in Force Support Squadron Programs and Unit Cohesion: An Evaluation of the UNITE Initiative Summary

Abstract

The UNITE Initiative provides unit leadership with funding to participate in cohesion-promoting activities, often by using activities provided by the installations Force Support Squadron (FSS). The Air Force asked RAND to evaluate whether participation in UNITE events is associated with unit cohesion, which could ultimately impact airmen and unit readiness and resilience. We developed a logic model for UNITE to guide the evaluation (Figure 1), which visually describes how a program operates to achieve an expected outcome. We conducted a process evaluation to understand program implementation and identify successes, limitations, and lessons learned. An outcome evaluation explored whether UNITE participation was associated with expected short-term and intermediate outcomes. Data sources included interviews and open-ended surveys with community cohesion coordinators (C3s), who actually implement UNITE; post-participation surveys completed by airmen; and event details submitted by unit commander.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
May 20, 2022
Accession Number
AD1169464

Entities

People

  • Brandon Crosby
  • Christopher J. Doss
  • Laura Werber
  • Lu Dong
  • Sarah O. Meadows
  • Stephani L. Wrabel
  • Stephanie B. Holliday
  • Wing Y. Chan

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Engineered Resilient Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Business Administration
  • California
  • Cohesion
  • Combat Readiness
  • Communities
  • Delphi Method
  • Leadership
  • Lessons Learned
  • Marketing
  • Materials
  • Resilience
  • Space Force
  • Squadrons
  • Test And Evaluation
  • United States
  • User Friendly
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Defense Technology Research and Development.
  • Organizational Psychology.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control