The Naval Acquisition Workforce: Toward Understanding the Impact of Its Growth

Abstract

In response to an increase in the size of the acquisition workforce within the Department of the Navy (DoN) since 2008, the questions have been asked: What has been the impact of this change in acquisition staffing, and how is acquisition different now than with the smaller, previous workforce? Addressing this issue is not straightforward, due to both the complex structure of the acquisition workforce and the acquisition activities themselves. Nevertheless, it should be possible to discern some basic indicators that, while not definitive, do provide some indication of the impact of the increase in the workforce. It might be appropriate to use case studies as a proof-of-concept for whether it is possible to meaningfully determine the impact of the mandated increase in the acquisition workforce (independent variable) on selected impact measures (dependent variables) at the program or contract levels. If the link can be satisfactorily established, then a larger scale, quantitative study could be attempted that uses measures such as regression analysis to assess the impact of the increase in the acquisition workforce.