The Army spends more than $2.3 billion annually on soldier and family support or quality of life (QOL) programs intended to mitigate the stress of military life and thus enhance well-being, improve readiness, and sustain recruiting and retention.¹ In the past decade, long and frequent deployments in particular have motivated the Army to expand significantly its commitment to support QOL programs. These QOL programs cover a broad spectrum from health care, relationship counseling, and personal finance training to recreation activities, child and youth services, and spousal employment counseling, to name a few. However, research conducted in support of these programs,...

All military organizations must be able to attract and maintain a ready fighting force, and the Army is no exception. Thus, recruiting, retention, and readiness are the Army’s strategic goals in human resource management. To achieve these strategic goals with a volunteer force, the Army has to be an attractive employer in a competitive labor market. Apart from providing financial incentives in the form of pay and bonuses, the Army also offers a comprehensive benefits package including health care, life insurance, and support programs to soldiers and family members. Support services cover a broad range from relationship counseling to childcare,...

This chapter reports the major themes and significant issues commonly cited by Army and OSD officials across multiple domains commonly associated with supporting QOL in the Army. As described in Chapter One, we coded responses from Army and OSD officials to identify areas of agreement in their needs for research and issues they perceive or have experienced in using research. We also coded our discussions with non-DoD interlocutors, but they are not the primary focus of much of this analysis. In total, we spoke with personnel from 26 different organizational units, both military (19) and nonmilitary (7), and coded a...

Successful organizations adapt to change. They have clear goals, develop strategies, and systematically mobilize resources in pursuit of those goals. In this regard, effective use of research—qualitative and quantitative data and analysis—is essential to inform decisionmaking. Research helps define goals and inform strategy development, implementation plans, and subsequent performance-monitoring efforts.

Roadmapping is one approach to help align goals and strategy.¹ More specifically, it is “a disciplined process for identifying the activities and schedules necessary to manage technical (and other) risks and uncertainties associated with solving complex problems” (Ma, Liu, and Nakamori, 2006). The Army wants to use roadmapping...

The Army wants policy and programming decisions associated with the provision of support programs to soldiers and families to be informed by information and analysis. It is a means to the end of providing the right support services to soldiers and families and to ensure that Army resources are wisely spent. These twin objectives are important motivations for this study. In addition, the Army wants to know how soldier and family QOL is linked to its strategic goals in recruiting, retention, and readiness, and it wants a strategically aligned Army QOL research roadmap to guide an agenda of research to...