Strategic Human Capital: Preserving a Vital National Asset

Abstract

Manpower reductions in the Department of Defense and in the defense industry are focused on making personnel strengths match shrinking budgets. These reductions neither account for the strategic value of human capital nor for the possible consequences of its depletion and the resulting dispersal and loss of strategic knowledge, skills and experience. Strategic human capital-and its probable dispersal and loss-is critical to defense industry production capability because it takes a long time to develop, embodies perishable skills, is not easily substitutable, and cannot be passively mothballed like physical capital. Trained, skilled, experienced employees are being lost to the defense establishment by current "downsizing" requirements. Rather than relinquishing these valuable assets to job market forces they should be strategically re-employed in industries that can best make use of their specialized training and experience.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1997
Accession Number
ADA394378

Entities

People

  • Lynn M. Scott

Organizations

  • National Defense University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Administrative Personnel
  • Base Closures
  • Defense Industry
  • Department Of Defense
  • Employment
  • Governments
  • Infrastructure
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Production
  • Second World War
  • Security
  • Students
  • Training
  • United States
  • War Colleges
  • War Games

Readers

  • Instructional Design and Training Evaluation.
  • Strategic Security Studies