A study on retention and recruiting of program managers in defense industry organizations

A study focusing on the retention and recruiting of program managers in US defense-industry organizations is discussed. The author addresses the question of why former US military trained program managers are leaving the military before reaching retirement as well as what motivates private defense industry to hire these people. The study compared perceptions of (1) former nonretired members of the US military who are functioning as program managers in private defense industry and (2) industrial supervisors in program management organizations to determine what managerial leadership attributes were motivating factors in hiring former US-military-trained program managers rather than civilian-trained program managers into private defense-industry organizations. The findings indicated that skilled workers are leaving the military for private defense-industry organizations because of the strong influence of noneconomic factors such as poor job choices, an inadequate promotion system, and poor chance to use educational skills in the military