Competitive Sourcing in the Marine Corps: Friend or Foe?

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a trend in the Marine Corps toward contracting noncombat-oriented jobs to U.S. civilians and third-country nationals. This competitive sourcing, or "outsourcing," of Marine Corps' billets is being implemented with the goal of decreasing the number of Marines required to perform support functions to increase the number of Marines available for warfighting. Theoretically, competitive sourcing allows the Marine Corps to meet support requirements more effectively, more efficiently, and at a monetary savings. Considering the Marine Corps' limited resources, it seems that implementing this manpower approach could make a positive impact on operational readiness. Unfortunately, competitive sourcing raises some negative issues as well, such as lack of flexibility, degraded unit cohesion, and potential security risks that threaten to undermine the Marine Corps' overall operational readiness.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 07, 2006
Accession Number
ADA503458

Entities

People

  • J. R. Strohmaier

Organizations

  • Marine Corps University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Civilian Personnel
  • Contractors
  • Contracts
  • Conversion
  • Department Of Defense
  • Governments
  • Management Personnel
  • Marine Corps
  • Military Personnel
  • Military Police
  • National Security
  • Operational Readiness
  • Personnel Management
  • President (United States)
  • Security
  • United States
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Economics
  • Maritime Combat Support and Expeditionary Logistics.