Competitive Military Recruiting -- A Strategy of Institutional Fratricide

摘要

The U.S. military's system of duplicative and competitive active duty recruiting contributes to and perpetuates the failure of DOD-wide recruiting efforts. Given the significant changes in the U.S. economy, and the relinquishment of market-share by the military services associated with the military drawdown of the 1990s, the military's present recruiting strategy will no longer fulfill DOD's personnel readiness requirements. The Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine recruiting forces have tried in vain to increase individual service market-share and the DOD-wide share within the greater employment market. Single-service efforts ostensibly aimed at increasing service market share predominantly impact upon other military services. Current marketing strategies and operations that are redundant and inefficient often cost the DOD more than the value gained in enlistment production increases. Small unit sales tactics and recruiting procedures encourage additional waste through the duplication of recruiting effort and negative military advertising.