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Master Sergeants Need Specific Attributes to Achieve their Designated Responsibilities

• Master sergeants represent the first level of senior enlisted leadership in the Air Force and are expected to transition from being technical experts and first line supervisors to leaders of operational competence.
• There are a number of attributes master sergeants must have to be good leaders. These include key technical knowledge as well as four general categories of skills (i.e., cognitive skills, interpersonal skills, business/management skills, and strategic skills).

The Current Promotion System Can Be Improved to Better Assess Leadership Potential

• The current system provides good measures of many of the key characteristics identified as important for a master sergeant.
• Current promotion outcomes are largely based on whether airmen have the necessary knowledge and tenure, but not if they are able to actually apply that knowledge or have the motivation to take on increased leadership responsibilities.
• There are also problems with inflated performance scores; for example, the mean enlisted performance report score for all airmen eligible for promotion to master sergeant is 134 out of 135 points.
• Overall, the current promotion process is not effectively assessing the full range of abilities or leadership potential needed to successfully perform as a master sergeant in the Air Force.

Several Potential Options for Improvement Exist

• There are pros and cons to the available assessment methods that could be used to improve the selection system.
• Overall, adding a situational judgment test and board ratings as additional factors in the promotion process seem most promising.

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. As the first level of senior noncommissioned officers, the ability of master sergeants to be effective leaders is especially critical. A key component of ensuring that master sergeants have the knowledge, skills, and abilities to fulfill the required leadership responsibilities is having an effective system to promote airmen with the greatest potential. Despite changes in force size, operational requirements, and airmen's responsibilities, the current promotion system has remained largely unchanged since it was developed more than 40 years ago. Therefore, RAND researchers assessed the current system and explored areas for possible improvement.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Master Sergeant Leadership Responsibilities and Related Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Chapter Three

  The Weighted Airman Promotion System

• Chapter Four

  Effectiveness of the Current Master Sergeant Promotion System

• Chapter Five

  Options for Improvement

• Chapter Six

  Conclusion and Recommendations

• Appendix A

  Enlisted Performance Report Forms

• Appendix B

  Interview Method and Analysis

• Appendix C

  WAPS Factor Descriptive Statistics

• Appendix D

  Overview of the Generalized Boosted Model

• Appendix E

  Research Findings on Evaluation Criteria for Each Assessment Method

• Appendix F

  Estimated Cost of a Master Sergeant Promotion Board