AFRL Mesa-based researcher wins Myers Award for applied research

  • Published
  • By John Schutte
  • Human Effectiveness Directorate
WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio --  Dr. Winston "Wink" Bennett, principal scientist for training systems and performance assessment at the Air Force Research Laboratory's Human Effectiveness Directorate, is one of five individuals selected to receive the 2008 M. Scott Myers Award for Applied Research in the Workplace. 

Dr. Bennett leads a team of five Warfighter Readiness Research Division psychologists and operational MAJCOM staff personnel who have worked on the Mission Essential Competency (MEC) process, initially developed in 2000 as a proof-of-concept methodology for defining "go-to-war" knowledge skills and experiences and now being used by the Air Force to enhance the combat readiness of pilots and operators.
 
The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), a division of the American Psychological Association, presents the Myers Award annually to recognize an outstanding example of industrial and organizational psychology in the workplace. 

The MEC process is a scientifically-based approach to defining knowledge, skill and developmental experience requirements to drive training for complex occupations.
 
The MEC project is a joint effort involving Dr. Bennett at AFRL's Warfighter Training Systems and Performance Branch, Mesa Research Site, Ariz., with fellow team members who were named on the award: Dr. George Alliger, Vice President for Solutions, The Group for Organizational Effectiveness, Inc. in Albany, N.Y.; Chuck Colegrove, Air Combat Command, Flight Operations Division (Alion Science and Technology), Langley Air Force Base, Va.; Rebecca Beard, The Group for Organizational Effectiveness, Inc.; and Dr. Michael Garrity of Aptima, Inc., in Woburn, Mass.
 
Mission Essential Competencies (MECs) are defined as the "higher-order individual, team, and inter-team competencies that a fully prepared pilot, crew or flight requires for successful mission completion under adverse conditions and in a non-permissive environment," according to Dr. Bennett. 

Nearly every Air Force mission now has defined MECs, including combat pilots, command and control decision-makers, senior leadership, information operations, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. 

The MEC approach has impacted training activities and resource allocations for over 100,000 Air Force personnel annually. The approach and data also gave Air Combat Command decision-makers rationale needed to generate additional funding for the Combat Air Forces comprehensive, high-fidelity distributed simulation program for combat training. 

Civilian first responders have benefitted from ME by improving their readiness to perform in disaster situations. A goal of the MEC project is to improve the capability of all personnel who must perform in extremely challenging and stressful environments, including warfighters and civilian rescue personnel.
 
SIOP is a large, international organization of researchers and practitioners in a variety of work-related fields such as human resource development, personnel and organizational assessment, and workplace design and evaluation.
 
The award will be presented at the 23rd annual conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology April 9-12 at the Hilton San Francisco.