Future Officer Career Management System: An Objectives-Based Design

This report is a follow-on to MR-470-OSD, Future Career Management Systems for U.S. Military Officers, 1994. The earlier study determined a range of likely future officer requirements and a number of alternative career management systems. It did not attempt to define a best system because it lacked the objectives component—what the system was to accomplish. The current report does design a best officer career system, defined as one that most fully satisfies 11 ranked objectives determined by a process that included interviews with a group of senior military and civilian officials. The authors describe the process used to determine the objectives of the career management system and the weights accorded those objectives by policymakers. They then illustrate how the methodology is used and present the career management system that results for line officers. A sensitivity analysis and six appendices are included.

This report is a follow-on to MR-470-OSD, Future Career Management Systems for U.S. Military Officers, 1994. The earlier study determined a range of likely future officer requirements and a number of alternative career management systems. It did not attempt to define a best system because it lacked the objectives component--what the system was to accomplish. The current report does design a best officer career system, defined as one that most fully satisfies 11 ranked objectives determined by a process that included interviews with a group of senior military and civilian officials. The authors describe the process used to determine the objectives of the career management system and the weights accorded those objectives by policymakers. They then illustrate how the methodology is used and present the career management system that results for line officers. A sensitivity analysis and six appendices are included.

Margaret C. Harrell (Ph.D., Cultural Anthropology, University of Virginia) is a social scientist at RAND. Her research at RAND focuses upon military manpower issues and social issues in the military.