Development of a New Adaptability Measure

The military services are currently transitioning to the information age. That transition is placing demands on military personnel to adapt to new ways of thinking about and performing their jobs. Adaptability will be essential for survival in the year 2010. American business, like the military services, are highly dynamic today. Downsizing, technological advancements, and the opening of international markets are affecting competitiveness. In many military and civilian jobs, employees will have to be adaptable in the 2000's. However, valid measures of adaptability-related constructs do not exist. With those points in mind, the objectives of Phase I are to: (1) develop a working model of adaptability--specifying major cognitive and dispositional variables involved in adaptation along with the expected interactions among them; (2) develop prototype measures of adaptability-related cognitive and dispositional constructs amendable to routine administration--generic measures that will be appropriate in both military and civilian settings; (2) develop prototypes of criterion measures that measure adaptability in real-world settings; and (4) provide a framework for demonstrating the criterion-related validity of the measures developed on the basis of this model.