Future Soldiers: Analysis of Entry-Level Performance Requirements and Their Predictors

Abstract : The transformation into the Future Force will continue to involve changes to missions, systems, and organizational structures. However, U.S. Army leadership recognizes the importance of its Soldiers to the effectiveness of transformation. In this regard, the Army is seeking to ensure transformation through training, leader development, and Soldier systems. This research effort is titled New Predictors for Selecting and Assigning Future Army Soldiers (Select21). Its goal is to make sure that the Army acquires Soldiers with the knowledge, skills, and attributes (KSAs) needed to perform the types of tasks envisioned in a transformed Army. This goal resulted in two objectives (a) develop and validate measures of these critical KSAs and (b) propose the use of these measures in a selection and classification system adapted to the demands of the 21% century. This report documents the procedures and results of a future-oriented job analysis designed to support the development and evaluation of such measures. Future-oriented performance requirements developed for this project include those relevant to entry-level Soldiers in (a) all future Army jobs and (b) Military Occupational Specialties (MOS) representative of two future job clusters. Each of 48 KSAs was identified and prioritized in terms of its importance to future performance.