An Exploratory Study on the Recruitment Process of Officer Cadets: a Review of Literature with Special Reference to Nepal and Sri Lanka

Abstract

Maintaining a credible military deterrence is the raison d’etre of the armed forces of any nation. The process of getting able-bodied men to an organisation is called recruitment. Recruitment of officer corps in South Asian countries has declined to an extent where it needs a serious research attention. The factors applicable to recruitment in one part of the world is not equally applicable in other parts. Therefore, this research will be limited to the South Asian context with a special reference to Nepal and Sri Lankan armed forces. Both Nepal and Sri Lanka face unconventional security threats. Even though they need the military strength to deal with the problem, the numbers of recruitment are declining consistently. Investigating the reasons for this declining is pertinent to devise solutions. The author has referred to sources of literature in order to find the various aspects of the issues in this regard. It is evident that recruitment and selection are considered by the previous researchers as a single process. However, the author suggests that they are different functions on the ground. Armed forces are found to be effective at the selection process rather than in the recruitment. The author suggests that recruitment should generate the availability of similar candidates and subsequently the process of selection should be used to hand-pick the most suitable candidates from the similar pool. Finally, placement of the candidate should be done according to the requirement procedures and their skills. The study has further found that the decline in the number of candidates, is due to various factors. As per the literature, demography, legality, nature of occupation and marketing are the most common factors affecting the recruitment process. Keywords