Creating a diverse technical workforce in the Federal Government : the challenges of growing and sustaining technical talent in the new millennium

The United States is a world leader in the global scientist and engineering enterprise, however with a shortage of US workers prepared to fill scientist and engineering positions in the future, other nations are preparing themselves to challenge this strong US economic strength. Technically skilled international workers are beginning to fill the void within corporate America, including an increase in global white collar outsourcing, but while this action may adversely affect our nation's supply of available technical talent, the Department of Defense (DoD) faces additional challenges in their pursuit of the "best of the best." While the war for talent exists nationally, it is only exacerbated for the DoD by the department's unique requirements, specifically the non-traditional technical talent required and requirement for US citizenship. Coupled with these challenges, are changing diversity statistics that are not encouraging for future workforce shaping initiatives. With the recent cutbacks to the S&E workforce and many organizations facing retirement eligibility statistics nearing 50%, the technical workforce dynamics are changing. In an attempt to create a diverse technical workforce to replace the aging workforce, DoD faces several challenges. Not only will this war on talent attempt to attract scientists and engineers, but a cross-section of social groups in this field as well. In the course of developing their own diverse workforce, the Federal Government has yet another challenge that can hinder their ability to successfully hire this highly desirable talent: private industry. While private industry can offer higher salaries, and perceivably more benefits, the federal government is challenging this once stalwart opponent for the war on talent.

Department dc:contributor.department

Sloan School of Management.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Townsend, Jacqueline S. (Jacqueline Suzanne), 1965-

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lotte Bailyn.

• Sloan School of Management.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/17890

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/17890