Balancing Organizational Needs and Career Sustainability: A Long-Term Workforce Planning Perspective in the Portuguese Navy

Long-term workforce planning is particularly challenging in hierarchical organizations, where personnel structures simultaneously determine organizational staffing capacity and the conditions under which careers develop. This study examines how workforce planning can contribute to balancing organizational requirements and career sustainability in a military context. For this purpose, a weighted goal-programming framework is applied to derive a Reference Special Personnel Table (RSPT) for the officer category of the Portuguese Navy. The model integrates three dimensions: operational staffing requirements, career-profile targets, and sea–shore rotation, subject to legally established personnel ceilings. The resulting reference structure is compared with the 2025 Special Personnel Table to identify structural differences and trade-offs across ranks and specializations. Results show that substantial changes in the distribution of positions can occur even when the overall personnel ceiling remains broadly stable, revealing imbalances that are not captured by aggregate workforce size alone. From a human resources perspective, these findings highlight the importance of considering organizational structures as part of the conditions shaping career development and progression in hierarchical organizations. The study contributes to the workforce planning and career development literature by positioning long-term workforce planning as a strategic mechanism for aligning organizational requirements with sustainable career structures.

strategic workforce planning; career sustainability; career development; career structures; military human resources; Portuguese Navy; workforce planning; goal programming

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