A SEA STORY - IMPLEMENTING THE NAVY PERSONNEL ASSIGNMENT SYSTEM

During its operational test and evaluation, despite top management sup port and significant technical achievements, a personnel assignment mo del implemented for the United States Navy to support assignment decis ions experienced overwhelming resistance from the users, the 200 or so enlisted detailers, located at the Bureau of Naval Personnel in Washi ngton, D.C. Our MS/OR research team had neglected to assess the negati ve impact of the personnel assignment model on an important detailing function: assignment negotiations or bargaining between the detailers and their customers, the service members. By involving the detailers i n revising the model and making the failings of the old model the stre ngths of the new model, we turned certain failure into a successful pr ogram. By managing the behavioral aspects of the implementation with s pecial emphasis on problem identification and requirements structuring , we overcame the difficulties of introducing change to a largely manu al and highly decentralized decision process and we compare lessons le arned with the experiences of other implementers.