I feel particularly comfortable addressing this symposium because of my long affiliation with occupational analysis and our shared belief that occupational surveys provide the solid foundation that enables organizations to make smart decisions. Now that I’m working at the Air Staff level, I’m convinced more than ever of the importance of occupational analysis and surveys.

All successful enterprises make decisions based on hard data--not whims or personal opinions. That is especially important in times of uncertainty and change. It’s hard to imagine a more turbulent time for governments and the armed forces of the world than the past seven to eight years. Think about it: The Cold War is over; national and military strategies have changed; the American military has gone through four base closure cycles and a drastic draw-down in personnel; and our Air Force has been reorganized at every level.

An important and distinctive part of our American military heritage has been our willingness and ability to rely on occupational survey data to guide our most important personnel management decisions. Over the past 30 years, Air Force Occupational Surveys have been critical in helping the Air Force refine and optimize classification structures, ensure training dollars are well spent, keep promotion tests on target, and, in recent years, deal with the most significant draw-down in history.

With all the geopolitical changes we see today and those that are projected, plus an explosion in information technology, it is important for us in the policy-making business to extol our philosophy regarding occupational analysis. In short, the information age will require revolutionary approaches to the way occupational surveys are conducted. Simply stated, our priorities for the future of Air Force occupational surveys are: speed and accuracy.

In addition, we believe our ability to respond to the changes taking place in the Air Force lies in automated survey capabilities which are currently available or on the horizon. This may mean adapting existing automation technologies, developing new technologies such as response-adaptive surveys, and even conducting surveys over the Internet. Whatever the right answer is, we need to draw on the expertise that extends through the width and breadth of our occupational survey experts to get to the right solutions, and more importantly, to ensure that automation of occupational surveys is accomplished with no loss in quality.

To that end, the papers presented here today are very encouraging. The environments in which these new survey approaches and technologies were applied range from basic military training to medical training, to assessment of career field changes and changes in organizational culture. The lessons learned from the research providing the basis for these papers recognizes the need for future work and continued improvement.

The paper entitled Automation Exploitation: Nothing Is Ever Easy makes it clear that, although there is much to be gained from the utilization of automated survey technologies, there are problems that go beyond those most often thought of, like common computer platforms. The authors of this paper described automated survey development software used to develop disk-based surveys that resulted in a reduction in the time required to gather data from the field. A direct benefit from this study was the discovery that use of disks resulted in enough time saved so that we could now conduct enlisted occupational surveys more frequently than in the past. Our current standard is to survey every enlisted specialty once every 5 years. Soon that will change. The Air Force Occupational Measurement Squadron has agreed to implement a new standard to survey every enlisted specialty once every 3 years--without sacrificing accuracy and without increasing resources.

Three out of five of the papers presented here today addressed various aspects of personnel activities which are critical if the Air Force is to maintain its current position in America’s national defense. I’m referring to the papers entitled: Insertion of Automated Technology in Basic Military Training; Research & Development of New Occupational Analysis & Training Evaluation Technologies; and, Determining Medical Training Priorities Using Task- and Training Standard-Level Survey Data. We must continue to bring in quality people, classify them, train them, promote them, and build on the past successes that have at their foundation occupational survey data. Air Force leadership understands the fiscal realities of the next century will demand organizational efficiency at all levels. Accordingly, the Air Staff and the entire personnel and training communities will continue to look to occupational surveys for timely and accurate information to help us make the right decisions on the tough issues. It is encouraging to see papers such as the three mentioned because this type of work will help ensure our personnel and training systems have timely and accurate occupational survey data so they can be as efficient and lean as possible.

The remaining paper also dealt with an important issue. The use of surveys to gain insight into Air Force organizational climate is not new; however, the paper entitled Integrating Focus Groups and Automated Technology for Assessing Organizational Cultures suggested automated surveys could be used with focus groups to determine the impact large-scale reorganization has had on the organization’s identity and "self-image." This type of information will be invaluable to the commander of a newly formed or reorganized command or organization. However, I would like to echo a caution here that was mentioned in the paper. As we get better at automating our ability to conduct surveys, let’s keep in mind it is not in our best interest to inundate our people with surveys. Increasingly, we hear comments from the field that our folks are getting surveyed to death. In an era of personnel reductions and increasing OPSTEMPO and PERSTEMPO, we cannot afford to take our people away from their primary duties any more than is absolutely necessary.

Our vision of occupational surveys of the future is one of an Air Force occupational survey program many of you in this room will help to build. We are heirs to people like Billy Mitchell and Hap Arnold; these early Air Pioneers were people who were excited by technology and ideas and who were willing to stake their careers on the use of those new ideas. Like these Air Force pioneers, we have an opportunity to develop and use leading-edge technologies which will help shape and improve the Air Forces of the future.

Looking to the future, I am confident Air Force occupational surveys will continue to provide data-driven answers to tomorrow's personnel and training challenges. In the end, the most impressive story in the development of the Air Force is the story of our people's willingness, even their eagerness, to step up to change and maturation. As Secretary of the Air Force Dr. Sheila Widnall has stated, "Our Air Force is undergoing a quiet revolution -- a move to new ways of doing business across the whole range of our activities." Our Air Force leadership is counting on you to lead the way and provide the foundation for the future.
 
 

Back to Symposium Table of Contents

Back to IJOA Home Page