Date of Award

3-14-2014

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Department of Operational Sciences

First Advisor

Jennifer Geffre, PhD.

Abstract

From United States Air Force (USAF) doctrine, Air Force Instruction 1-1 lists three purposes for the USAF Enlisted Evaluation System. The first purpose is to provide feedback to individuals on how well they are meeting expectations. The second purpose is to provide a cumulative record of performance and potential based on observations. The third purpose is to identify the best qualified personnel. However, current Air Force leadership has expressed a need to revamp the enlisted appraisal process, requesting consistency in identifying the best performers, reduction in ratings inflation, and better delineation between ?near peer? performers. This research proposes utilizing Value-Focused Thinking to perform junior enlisted performance reports, to better align with Air Force doctrine and values. Moreover, the multivariate Management Science techniques of Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis are applied to statistically validate the accuracy and defensibility of the design. Finally, Artificial Neural Networks are employed to showcase the classification accuracy of the proposed system. In addition to providing consistency, inflation reduction, and delineation during appraisals, this research advocates the use of a web-based design to reduce administrative demands and to provide query capability of appraisal data to the Air Force Personnel Center for trend and force management decisions.

AFIT Designator

AFIT-ENS-14-M-13

DTIC Accession Number

ADA598643

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