Finding a Manpower System’s Growth Factor under Recruitment Control at Maximum Entropy

Abstract

 It is important when studying a manpower system to be able to determine the necessary condition(s) for the growth factor to achieve maximum entropy in the manpower system configuration without necessarily violating admissible recruitment conditions when the system is controlled by recruitment. The need to provide an answer to this realistic challenging issue is included in this study. This study employs a well-known transition model based on Markov chain and the Shannon entropy formula for hierarchical manpower systems to consider the growth factor and its effects on the manpower structure. The well-known condition for maximum entropy is improved upon within the conceptual underpinning of a rectangular system configuration. The bounds for the growth factor when control by recruitment is enforced at maximum entropy are derived and results are presented for a time dependent, hierarchical manpower system. The results show that there is improvement in entropy when the system expands and falls when the system contracts. More specifically, entropy increases when the change in growth factor from one point in time to the other is negative, but it decreases when the change in growth factor is positive.