Non-Aircrew Officer Positions: Determination of Grade Requirements.

The major objectives of this study were a development and large-scale field-testing of a reliable and systematic method by which Air Force Management Engineering Teams METs could determine the appropriate grade levels Lieutenant to Colonel of non-aircrew officer positions and b application of this Officer Grade Requirement OGR technology to a job sample of sufficient size to estimate requirements for the non-aircrew force and various officer utilization fields. To test the technology and make projections of grade requirements, 950 raters from 122 Air Force-wide METs collected and evaluated over 11,000 officer job descriptions. In addition, ratings were obtained on a sample of jobs which had previously been evaluated by a HQ USAF Policy Board. A variety of analyses were conducted to determine the reliability and accuracy of the MET application and the stability of the data on the 11,000 jobs for making projections to be the total non-aircrew force. An integral part of the analyses was the development of an integer-weighted eight-variable policy equation and a grade conversion table which represent the systematic method for METs to use in determining non-aircrew officer grade requirements. Findings revealed that MET raters could accurately and consistently apply the technology, and there was considerable assurance of a stable base from which to make projections of grade requirements to the nonaircrew force. Comparison of these projected requirements with currently authorized grade levels revealed that the present non-aircrew force had fewer authorized field grade positions than was indicated by the OGR technology.