The Effect of Personnel Stability on Organizational Performance
Do Battalions with Stable Command Groups Achieve Higher Training Proficiency at the National Training Center?
ResearchPublished Sep 26, 2008
In 2003, the Army began transitioning from an individual replacement system to a personnel management system called lifecycle manning, which is based on an assumed causal linkage in which personnel stability leads to higher unit cohesion, which leads, in turn, to increased unit effectiveness. This dissertation empirically tests that assumption by analyzing the direct relationship between personnel stability and unit effectiveness without incorporating cohesion. The analysis applies production function theory with the factor input of interest being increased personnel stability and a production output of unit effectiveness. Using new measures of personnel stability and training proficiency scores from previous RAND research, this research assesses whether battalions with stable leadership achieve higher levels of training proficiency. The analysis results do not show a prevalent or strong relationship between battalion leadership stability and battalion training proficiency. This unexpected result potentially calls into question whether the transition to lifecycle manning should continue in its current form, because there may be more flexibility in officer management than lifecycle manning policies permit.
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Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Web-Only
- Year: 2008
- Pages: 141
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.7249/RGSD234
- Document Number: RGSD-234
Citation
RAND Style Manual
Peterson, Jeffrey, The Effect of Personnel Stability on Organizational Performance: Do Battalions with Stable Command Groups Achieve Higher Training Proficiency at the National Training Center? RAND Corporation, RGSD-234, 2008. As of July 10, 2026: https://www.rand.org/pubs/rgs_dissertations/RGSD234.html
Chicago Manual of Style
Peterson, Jeffrey, The Effect of Personnel Stability on Organizational Performance: Do Battalions with Stable Command Groups Achieve Higher Training Proficiency at the National Training Center? Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2008. https://www.rand.org/pubs/rgs_dissertations/RGSD234.html.
This document was submitted as a dissertation in September 2008 in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the doctoral degree in public policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. The faculty committee that supervised and approved the dissertation consisted of Bart E. Bennett (Chair), Bryan W. Hallmark, and James T. Quinlivan.
This publication is part of the RAND dissertation series. Dissertations are written by Ph.D. candidates at the RAND School of Public Policy and supervised, reviewed, and approved by a RAND School faculty committee overseeing each dissertation. The RAND School is the world's leading producer of Ph.D.'s in policy analysis.
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