"Muddling Through": The Revolutionary Potential of Evolutionary Officer Management Reform
Abstract
In 2015, then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced Force of the Future (FOTF) - a series of initiatives designed to transform Department of Defense (DoD) personnel management. Reforming the officer management system was a main goal of the FOTF initiatives, which centered on an internal labor market that matched up individual talent and military requirements. However, DoD scaled back the effort almost immediately. The reforms underlying FOTF drew criticism from lawmakers, their staffs, and senior uniformed leaders, who did not believe that the existing system was broken and questioned whether such fundamental change was necessary. Despite these criticisms, several new officer management flexibilities became law in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), creating a renewed interest in officer management reform across DoD. The military departments are exploring the uses of the FY 2019 flexibilities and seeking to better understand the degree of latitude that already exists across legal, policy, and cultural fronts.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1147598
Entities
People
- Agnes Gereben Schaefer
- Albert A. Robbert
- Caitlin Lee
- Katherine L. Kidder
- Natasha Lander
- William H. Ii Waggy
Organizations
- RAND Corporation