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

摘要

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.