abilities, whether professional, military, or general; and recognition for progress is given. There is a minimum of disciplinary problems. These external symptoms of effective personnel use are not separate or isolated but are so related that improvement in any one area leads to improvement in other areas. Senior AKs, like other petty officers, spend a great deal of time supervising subordinates. Too often, they tend to think that the emphasis should be placed on the jobs and how well they are being done by the individuals. A little thought shows that actually the individuals should be supervised so that they get the jobs done well—a view that involves an important difference in orientation on the part of the supervisor. Some of the factors involved in effective use of personnel are discussed in this section. No effort is made to present a definitive treatment of the subject; rather, the section is intended to alert you to the advantages to be gained by developing your skill in managing people, and to give you a starting point for further reading and study. Personnel Versus Workload The standard complaint of many supervisors, when faced with any change in procedure, is that more personnel are needed. For anyone to consider the work force too large already is unlikely. Sometimes, however, there are actually more personnel available than can be used effective y. Perhaps it is only natural to think that any job could be done better if only a few more personnel could be assigned. The fact is that the law of diminishing returns applies in the Navy as surely as in any profit-making organization. Individuals need to feel that they are performing a useful function and are contributing something tangible to the defense of our country. If people do not have a feeling of accomplishment, morale in an organization will suffer. A supervisor with a knowledge of the variety of jobs done by workers can easily compute the optimum number of personnel for the organization. You must review the number of personnel now assigned and the work that must be done. Does every person have a full-time job? If some of the functions were combined or eliminated, would the performance of the organization suffer? Often, operations that were necessary at some time in the past are continued long after they cease to serve a useful purpose. An accumulation of these can sometimes waste the productive time of several persons. If you cannot prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you need every person, you are overstaffed. In determining manpower requirements, it is better to err on the short side than the long. People are flexible enough to absorb more work than they are generally given credit for being able to perform, and inventive enough to devise the means of doing the job more easily. Assigning and Rotating Work Assignments The supervisor should be able to make an equitable and efficient distribution of the individual jobs among assigned personnel. This is not a simple task. It requires careful study and planning because several factors affect it. These factors may vary from one organization to another. One of the factors is personnel ability. Your personnel will have varying degrees of knowledge and experience. Also, the jobs differ in complexity, required time to perform, and frequency of performance. While the ultimate responsibility for the assignment of personnel rests with the supply officer, he or she will rely heavily on your recommendations. The practice of rotating personnel through the various phases of their rating is universally recognized as beneficial to the individuals and hence to the Navy. Unfortunately, it is by no means universally practiced, and even more unfortunately, resistance to a regular system of rotation is often concentrated in the senior enlisted personnel. The first step in planning personnel assignments is to prepare a list of all jobs that are required in performing the supply functions for which you are responsible. The size of the list will depend upon the number of supply functions under your supervision and the degree to which you break down these functions into jobs. It is not necessary to list every motion required to perform a task, but each separate, distinct job should be shown. The list should not be limited only to routine work, but should include reports as well as the jobs that are performed less frequently. The next step is to analyze the job requirements. The major purpose of job analysis is to help you to make the most effective use of manpower. Therefore, you decide how much information is needed about each job. You can make the analysis as simple or as elaborate as you deem necessary. The items listed below could be used in making a job analysis; either by listing on a 1-5