AGENT-BASED MODELING AS A TOOL FOR MANPOWER AND PERSONNEL MANAGEMENT

摘要

This paper describes the development of a generalized agent-based simulation tool for studying manpower and personnel management behaviors. The subject matter of the simulation are complex organizational behaviors found within United States Navy Manpower and Personnel processes. Behavior of such a complex system is typically associated with a hierarchical structure in which the lowest level agents are characterized by continuous and discrete event-variable dynamics and the highest level agents by heuristically based decision-making mechanisms. The system dynamics approach is used to develop a model that describes the dynamics of a sailor's behavior while he or she is a member of the US Navy. This system dynamics based model constitutes a basic "microscopic" element of an agent-based model of the US Navy's Manpower and Personnel (M&P) systems. Agent-based techniques are used to handle heterogeneity in behaviors and domain descriptions associated with shipboard processes. The results of our work provide strong support for the importance of agent-based modeling approach as a key tool for analyzing M&P systems and policy design.