Managing Adverse and Reportable Information Regarding U.S. Military Officers: 2019 Update

Abstract

Decisions about U.S. military officer appointments, promotions, and retirements weigh both favorable and unfavorable information. For its own decisionmaking, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) relies on the military departments to provide reliable and consistent information about military officers performance and conduct. Additionally, DoD must include this information with its nominations for personnel actions that require Presidential approval or Senate confirmation. However, it is challenging to standardize the management of information that is complex, unique to each officer, and not always readily available. In this report, the authors describe DoD and Service policies and self-reported processes for tracking and reporting adverse and other potentially unfavorable information about the conduct of military officers. The authors document progress made since 2010, when RAND researchers first evaluated these processes. The authors also outline new or persisting differences in how policies are interpreted or applied; describe processes that differ by Service that might be problematic; and identify opportunities to correct misalignment among Senate, DoD, and Service expectations, policies, and processes.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 05, 2022
Accession Number
AD1173392

Entities

People

  • Katherine L. Kidder
  • Laura L. Miller
  • Phillip Carter
  • Samantha E. Dinicola

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Congress
  • Court Martial
  • Databases
  • Employment
  • Enlisted Personnel
  • Law
  • Management Personnel
  • Military Personnel
  • Military Reserves
  • Military Science
  • National Security
  • Officer Personnel
  • Personnel Management
  • Social Media
  • Space Force
  • Unified Combatant Commands
  • Warfare

Fields of Study

  • Education
  • Psychology

Readers

  • Defense Financial Management and Audit.
  • Economics
  • Organizational Psychology.