The article entails a research conducted to determine the core factors responsible for the flourishing career of USAFA. The results deduced from the research are not just confined to Air force academy of U.S rather its implications are equally useful in other sectors. All the researches that have been previously carried out kept only the syllabus and subjects taught at the academy under focus, none of it ever dealt with the predetermining factors responsible to give cadets at academy a satisfying and progressing career. The fundamental indicator of any promising academy is the performance of its cadets at work. Article has highlighted the reasons behind the ineffective human management of US air force. After the cold war ended US military started downsizing its force personnel and consequently US air force faced a shortage of required number of personnel as it was engaged in too many projects. Therefore in order to fill the vacant places staffing was random without any sense of proper planning resulted in insufficient number of officers in every unit and most of them posted out of station for many months.
Shortage of personal occurred for many reasons as there was an extensive decentralization in air force. Field managers had no prime authority to take any corrective actions because the tasks and the duties were interconnected .Due to closed set of system in air force no induction takes place laterally. Over staffing of lieutenant couldn’t compensate for the deficiency at higher ranks. Apart from this, over induction of lieutenant results in less likeable progression opportunity, irrelevant assignment and inappropriate deployments and this ultimately leads to frustration and propels officers to leave military right after their initial bond gets over. Another major reason behind all this mismanagement was the tight budget and limited number of vacancy at each rank level allocate by the government to air force for induction. Ineffective policies of management for air force personnel compel the officers to look for bright opportunities in private sector. The cadet officers have enhanced level of human capital with highly capable leadership skills and intellectual strength makes them an attractive employee for private organizations.
Sample and Variables
The research was conducted on the data provided by the institutional research unit locate at air force academy. The data of cadets admitted at air force academy from 1982 until 1990 was retrieved with all the personal details of the individuals were removed. Only the length of career and relative rank were used to find the relation of a dependent and independent variables.”Success” was taken as a dependent variable and 15 independent variables were examined with this in order to establish some meaningful relation.
Methodology of Research
The following three hypotheses were made and tested through probit model and linear regression .The true picture of the relation of independent variables with the dependent variable “success” was calculated through marginal effect.
Hypothesis 1: Cadets who performed the best in high school are less likely to achieve military career success.
Hypothesis 2: Cadets who performed the best at the Academy are less likely to achieve military career success.
Hypothesis 3: Cadets who chose rated career fields are more likely to achieve military career success.
(Rodriguez. 2008).
Findings
The findings turned out to be 97.34% in explaining the reasons behind the failure of career perusal. 12.50% accuracy was found in illustrating the success in career and overall the research showed 75.57 precision. Research determined that the success of career mostly occurs after the cadets graduate from academy and perform their job and the variables of admission and academy can be used to determine those with failure in career.
Conclusion and Recommendations
The case study has clearly identified that long term success of the cadets lies in acquiring higher ranks .This conclusion draws attention to an important facet that society should support the cause in making defense officers for the country. The flying career should be linked to greater success in career and other non flying field should have longer initial service bonds in order to retain the officers for longer period of time. This policy will help to motivate and increase minorities and women to pursue more successful careers .Air force academy can use pre academy scoring of the cadets and those with extra ordinary human capital can let go air force option and can merge in private sector. Adjustment can also be made in the attendance record of those cadets coming from preparatory classes to academy as they face more of fatigue than those cadets who get inducted directly.
The impact of GPA also needs to be adjusted with ACQ in order to ensure that no military related activities would take place during this time.MPA has also been proved to impact positively on career progression so adjustments have also been made by giving ACO more leverage in giving MPA .So In the light of above mentioned points it can be hoped that certain changes in the policies and procedures can help to give graduates of academy a prosperous and wining career with US air force. The findings of this research will definitely help to cope up with issues of air force officers effectively.
References
John J. Rodriguez. (2008). Predicting the Career Success of Air Force Academy Cade. Linco. The University of Nebraska.
