Organizational and Cultural Causes of Army First-Term Attrition
Abstract
The U.S. Army invests significant resources in recruiting, training, and preparing new soldiers. When a soldier does not complete a full contract term, the Army views this as a net loss. The goal of the research summarized in this report is to determine whether organizational factors matter, in a substantive way, for producing attrition and to generate hypotheses regarding the mechanisms by which organizational factors generate attrition. Prior research has assessed the possible role of many factors in producing attrition, including individual soldiers' characteristics, characteristics of their leaders, and institutional factors. We make use of the random assignment of soldiers to their first battalion to determine whether the "luck of the draw" - the battalion to which the soldier is assigned and the senior noncommissioned officer (NCO) at that battalion - is directly linked to the observed variation across assignments in eventual first-term outcomes. We complement that analysis by exploring, through qualitative data collection, the factors that could be driving noted differences across units, such as leadership and command culture, availability of soldier supports, management of deployment and training cycles, and installation and housing amenities. The aim of this report is to examine these factors together and to generate hypotheses that address the mechanisms that could be driving attrition. To the extent that there is evidence of factors under the Army's control that are associated with attrition, we sought to delineate opportunities to address those factors. Rather than conceptualizing attrition as a soldier being "fired" for poor performance that is a function of personal characteristics and not environment, this report describes attrition as a process in which leadership may fail to provide needed interventions or to perpetuate a culture in which soldiers want to and are able to remain in service.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2021
- Accession Number
- AD1149834
Entities
People
- Christina Panis
- James V. Marrone
- Katherine L. Kidder
- Louay Constant
- Marek N. Posard
- Rebecca Jensen
- S. R. Zimmerman
Organizations
- RAND Corporation