Flexible Management: A Must for Effective Armed Services Recruiting

The effectiveness and integrity of recruiting programs in the armed services are influenced to a very large degree by policy and resource allocation decisions made within the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) and the service headquarters. If recruiting managers and other involved officials have increased flexibility to appropriately adapt policy and resources to ever-changing conditions of market supply and demand, recruiting goals can be accomplished and malpractice and other irregularities reduced. A GAO review critiqued five management factors in decisionmaking processes involving OSD and service staff relationships.