Enterprise Business System Effects on Workforce Staffing Levels: Examining Organizational Learning and Knowledge Transfer within the Department of Defense, Defense Logistics Agency

In 2014 the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) leadership at the Fleet Readiness Center South East, Jacksonville, FL (FRCSE) recognized inefficiencies within its workforce which contributed significantly to un-forecasted spending and revealed redundant job roles within the workforce structure. The purpose of this single case study research effort was to gain insight and understanding from archived data collected by DLA on how the implementation of the Enterprise Business System (EBS), an Enterprise Resource Planning tool (ERP), influences workforce staffing counts to improve business efficiencies and determine the appropriate workforce staffing level based on their missions and functions. The sample included government civilian employee participants within the job roles of customer support specialist, customer support technician, sustainment specialist, equipment specialist, resolution specialist, customer support manager, supply planner, demand planner, and material support technician. Data were gathered through face-to-face interviews. Surveys were emailed by the Defense Logistics Agency Office of Operations Research and Resource Analysis (DORRA) to approximately 250 potential participants. Seventy-eight participants completed the surveys and participated in the interviews. The resulting data provided a basis of comparison among the participants with regards to job functions they currently performed and those that they did not perform. The job functions were evaluated as percent values and time per units in relation to a normal day's work. The results confirmed that several job functions required inordinate amounts of time to complete and influenced inefficiencies in other job functions. Results revealed that several job functions within each job role substantially contributed to inefficiencies and influenced workforce staffing levels. Evaluation of the findings lends itself to explain the connection between organizational learning and knowledge transfer when organizations implement ERPs. The results indicated that when organizations consider how they will implement the ERP, the type of learners within the organization, the optimal learning modality to utilize, and the amount of training resources needed in the planning phase greatly impacts the staffing levels required to perform efficient normal operations. The review of the literature and the results of this study aligned and were found to be congruent to the theoretical framework of this study. Recommendations as a result of this study suggests how ERP implementation changes workload functions that affects staffing by gaining organizational knowledge and knowledge transference capabilities, how leveraging organizational learning and the application of organizational knowledge mitigates the effects of ERP implementation on workload volumes, and suggestions and recommendations DLA leadership can provide other organizational leaders to overcome knowledge barriers, acquire organizational knowledge, and conduct continuous process improvements. Additionally, when organizations consider how they will implement the ERP, the type of learners within the organization, the optimal learning modality to utilize, and the amount of training resources needed in the planning phase greatly impacts the staffing levels required to perform efficient normal operations. This research was limited to one FRC however, the DoD as an institution is uniformly structured and future opportunities to conduct additional research exists. Repeating this study to examine other DLA FRCs across the DoD enterprise may verify if related conclusions can be attained.