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The military departments believe that DOPMA and ROPMA continue to provide an effective framework for managing the careers of officers in core warfighting communities

• Service representatives indicated that DOPMA/ROPMA promotion structures and tenure management policies still work well.
• The services have devised standardized career paths that develop tactically proficient leaders and account for facets of DOPMA/ROPMA that constrain professional development models.
• Representatives agreed that there are benefits to active/reserve component permeability but also identified several barriers, including the current scrolling process.

Where change is needed, it is primarily to accommodate needs in low-density occupations, foster the pursuit of unconventional but useful career paths, or permit an earlier shift of more promising officers from tactical to strategic skill development

• Service representatives conveyed a willingness to depart from the emphasis on standardization promulgated by DOPMA/ROPMA and shift toward greater differentiation of career management approaches across the services and for different needs within each of the services.
• Openness to new officer career management flexibilities appears to be married to a strong sense that implementation should be at the discretion of service secretaries.
• Secretarial discretion allows the services to tailor their approaches to specific needs and to allow gradual adoption of new flexibilities as their longer-range consequences become better understood.

The phenomenon that most clearly signals a need for new flexibilities is the employment of military personnel in offensive cyber warfare

• There is a perception that conventional career management approaches may not yield the human capital needed for success in this mission set.

Section 572 of the fiscal year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) called for the Secretary of Defense, in consultation with the secretaries of the military departments, to provide two reports on policies for regular and reserve officer career management. The reports are intended to provide perspectives on the body of statutory provisions commonly referred to as the Defense Officer Personnel Management Act (DOPMA) and the Reserve Officer Personnel Management Act (ROPMA). The first report addressed the sequencing of promotion lists. The second report encompassed 15 additional promotion or career management issues. Sections 501 through 507 of the fiscal year 2019 NDAA enacted some of the provisions explored in the 2018 reporting requirements and required further reporting on a new promotion-related flexibility.

The director of Officer and Enlisted Personnel Management within the Office of the Secretary of Defense asked RAND for assistance in obtaining perspectives from service secretariat, military, and reserve staffs on the issues to be covered in the various reports required by the 2018 legislation, organizing the perspectives, and providing additional information or analysis helpful in informing potential statutory or policy changes. The authors of this report summarize that work and also outline related statutory changes introduced in the 2019 legislation.

• Chapter One

  Introduction

• Chapter Two

  Promotions

• Chapter Three

  Tenure

• Chapter Four

  Talent Management

• Chapter Five

  Active/Reserve Permeability

• Chapter Six

  Crosscutting Issues

• Chapter Seven

  Flexibilities Introduced in the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act

• Chapter Eight

  Conclusions and Recommendations

• Appendix A

  Review and Reporting Topics

• Appendix B

  Selected Status of Forces Survey Results

• Appendix C

  Statutory and Policy Provisions by Topic