Modeling for Strategy Design: Systems Thinking, Personnel Turbulence, and the US Coast Guard

摘要

Based on previous successes using systems thinking to investigate specific workforce problems, the U.S. Coast Guard decided to use the approach to analyze the interactions among the dynamic elements that comprise the total enlisted system. A team was created of researchers experienced in operations research, human resources and modeling, human resources personnel, master chiefs as subject matter experts and modelers experienced in systems thinking and military workforces. The Enlisted Workforce Turbulence Strategy Model will reproduce and simulate the interactions of the three major processes, training, advancement, and assignments, in the enlisted system to generate a mutual understanding among personnel policy-makers of how the enlisted system actually works. Steady-state equations model the flow of personnel through the enlisted system over time. The model is not intended to calculate explicit numerical results but rather as a strategic tool to assess impacts of personnel policies prior to implementation.