Recruiting the Cyber Leader: An Evaluation of the Human Resource Model Used for Recruiting the Army's Cyber Operations Officer - Recommendations for This Fast-Paced Operational Environment

This late 2017 report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. For the first time since the creation of the Special Forces branch in 1987, the Army authorized the creation of a new branch, the Cyber branch. With this, the Army joined the ranks of other organizations in this rapidly expanding arena. The Army found itself in a situation where it needed to quickly fill the positions required of this new branch. To accomplish this goal, the Army developed a recruitment strategy based on the Army human resource management model. The purpose of our research is to evaluate the effectiveness of that model to recruit Cyber Operations Officers and to examine the effects of its continued use. To perform this evaluation, we conduct an operational assessment that included identifying and assessing measures of performance (MOPs) and measures of effectiveness (MOEs) based on data collected from Army institutions, a survey of the Cyber Branch population, and the Person-Event Data Environment database. Our research also examined recruitment strategies and practices in other selected organizations to identify practical recommendations for improvements to current Army practices. The results of this research suggest that while the Army was generally successful in accomplishing the identified tasks of its recruitment strategy, there were inconsistencies in its application. Additionally, through analysis of the survey data we were able to identify attributes that had the most impact on achieving desired effects. Finally, we found that the Army did not recruit in accordance with best practices for the cyber workforce and that it did not use available tools to measure aptitude in its recruitment and the selection process. We identify some practical implications and provide recommendations for further research in this fast-paced operational environment.

I. INTRODUCTION * A. BACKGROUND—CYBER BRANCH * 1. Creation of the Cyber Branch/17 Career Management Field * 2. Recruiting the Cyber Operations Officer (17A) * B. PROBLEM STATEMENT * C. PURPOSE OF THE STUDY * 1. Research Questions * 2. Potential Benefits and Limitations of the Study * II. LITERATURE REVIEW * A. ORGANIZATIONAL THEORIES AND FRAMEWORK FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT AND RECRUITING * 1. HRM Definitions * 2. HRM Constructs: Soft and Hard * 3. HRM Models * 4. Analytic View of HRM Models * 5. HRM Models in Practice * 6. Assessing Effectiveness of HRM Models * 7. Recruitment Strategies: Recruitment and Selection * B. REVIEW OF HRM FOR RECRUITING IN SIMILAR ORGANIZATIONS * 1. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) * 2. The Federal Civilian Workforce * 3. Non-government Civilian Organizations * 4. DOD and the U.S. Army * 5. The Military Human Resource Model * 6. The Army Human Resource Model * 7. Specialty Recruitment in the Army * C. THE RECRUITMENT OF CYBER OPERATIONS OFFICERS (17A) * 1. DOD Cyber Workforce Strategy * 2. Critical Element #1: Assessing Cyber Aptitude * 3. Critical Element #2: Transition Opportunities * 4. Critical Element #3: Advertising DOD Cyberspace Workforce Opportunities * 5. Army Recruitment of Cyber Operations Officers * III. METHODOLOGY * A. RESEARCH GOALS * 1. Quantitative Approach * 2. Qualitative Approach * B. DATA COLLECTION * 1. PDE Data * 2. Cyber Operations Survey Data * 3. Data Collected from Army Institutions * 4. Army Recruitment Strategy for Cyber Operations Officers * 5. Measures of Effectiveness * 6. Data Collected from Other Government and Nongovernment Organizations * C. COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS * D. SUMMARY * IV. QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH FINDINGS