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A Sea Story: Implementing the Navy's Personnel Assignment System

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas A. Blanco

    (Navy Personnel Research and Development Center, San Diego, California)

  • Robert C. Hillery

    (Bureau of Naval Personnel, Washington, D.C.)

Abstract

During its operational test and evaluation, despite top management support and significant technical achievements, a personnel assignment model implemented for the United States Navy to support assignment decisions experienced overwhelming resistance from the users, the 200 or so enlisted detailers, located at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washington, D.C. Our MS/OR research team had neglected to assess the negative impact of the personnel assignment model on an important detailing function: assignment negotiations or bargaining between the detailers and their customers, the service members. By involving the detailers in revising the model and making the failings of the old model the strengths of the new model, we turned certain failure into a successful program. By managing the behavioral aspects of the implementation with special emphasis on problem identification and requirements structuring, we overcame the difficulties of introducing change to a largely manual and highly decentralized decision process and we compare lessons learned with the experiences of other implementers.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas A. Blanco & Robert C. Hillery, 1994. "A Sea Story: Implementing the Navy's Personnel Assignment System," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 42(5), pages 814-822, October.
  • Handle: RePEc:inm:oropre:v:42:y:1994:i:5:p:814-822
    DOI: 10.1287/opre.42.5.814
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. K A Willoughby & C J Zappe, 2006. "A methodology to optimize foundation seminar assignments," Journal of the Operational Research Society, Palgrave Macmillan;The OR Society, vol. 57(8), pages 950-956, August.
    2. Allen Holder, 2005. "Navy Personnel Planning and the Optimal Partition," Operations Research, INFORMS, vol. 53(1), pages 77-89, February.

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