Building Line Officers into Financial Managers: An Analysis of the Process and Recommendations for Improvement
Abstract
With a FY 2004 budget of $114 billion, there is no question that the Department of the Navy is involved in big business. If compared to the sales revenues of the Fortune 500, the Navy would rank sixth. After having weathered a prolonged drawdown through the 1990's, Naval leadership must recapitalize its aging legacy systems. The plan to accomplish this task is the Sea Enterprise component of the Navy's Sea Power 21 strategy. In order to reach these goals, the Chief of Naval Operations needs a cadre of business-savvy line officers who can properly allocate scarce resources. The core of this group is composed of line officers who hold the Financial Management (FM) subspecialty designator. This thesis applies a managerial control system approach to the process of filling Financial Management billets with properly qualified FM line officers. Complex and miltifaceted, the process contains three distinct components: promotion, assignment and education. After examining levers of control that can be accessed by the FM community manager, this thesis identifies system weaknesses. Recommendations to solve the weaknesses include improved control and tailored incentives. The combination of control and incentives could improve the qualification rate of the Navy's FM officer positions and, ultimately, allow the Navy to meet its Sea Enterprise goals.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 2004
- Accession Number
- ADA424816
Entities
People
- David C. Cutter
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School