Promoting Airmen with the Potential to Lead: A Study of the Air Force Master Sergeant Promotion System

Abstract

As operations become more jointly connected with other military services and the Air Force becomes smaller, there is concern that more leadership responsibility and authority is being pushed down to noncommissioned officers. Therefore, as the first level of senior noncommissioned officer leadership, the ability of master sergeants (E-7) to be effective leaders is especially critical. In addition to training and development efforts, a key component of ensuring that master sergeants have the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) needed to fulfill the required leadership responsibilities is having an effective system to promote airmen with the greatest potential from the E-6 rank of technical sergeant to master sergeant. The current promotion system was developed more than 40 years ago and is designed to identify those people with the highest potential to fill positions of increased grade and responsibility (U.S. Air Force, 1993, p. 1). Despite changes in force size, operational requirements, and airmen s responsibilities, the Weighted Airman Promotion System (WAPS) and its underlying factors have remained largely unchanged since its establishment. Therefore, the goal of this study was to examine the master sergeant promotion system and provide recommendations for improving it. Our work was driven by three primary research questions: (1) What are the KSAOs that master sergeants need to be good leaders? (2) Is the current system effective at promoting airmen with the KSAOs needed to be good leaders? (3) If necessary, what are potential options for improving the master sergeant promotion system to ensure that master sergeants have the KSAOs they need to succeed?

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2014
Accession Number
ADA611614

Entities

People

  • Dennis Curran
  • Kevin O’neill
  • Kirsten M. Keller
  • Lane F. Burgette
  • Lisa M. Harrington
  • Paul D. Emslie
  • Sean Robson

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Administrative Personnel
  • Air Force
  • Air Force Personnel
  • Applied Psychology
  • Business Administration
  • Cognition
  • Employment
  • Job Analysis
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Science
  • Military Training
  • Minority Groups
  • Organizational Structure
  • Personnel Management
  • Personnel Selection
  • Psychology
  • Task Performance And Analysis

Readers

  • Military Leadership and Professional Education.