An analysis of selected Army promotion board results.

Abstract

This thesis presents a review of recent Army officer professional development and an analysis of selected promotion board results. The review consists of descriptions of the Officer Personnel Management System (OPMS) and the pre-OPMS system, a comparison of the two systems, and the reasons for the changeover to OPMS. From this review the following question is developed: Is OPMS meeting its stated goals through promotions? To answer this question two Lieutenant Colonel promotion lists are selected for analysis. The analysis consists of a contingency table analysis and individual tests for the difference of proportions for each specialty listed as over or under aligned at the time of the convening of the promotion board. The analysis shows that promotion under OPMS is not alleviating specialty alignment problems for the lists analyzed. To remedy this specialty alignment problem, a two step course of action of providing guidance to promotion boards is recommended.