Founded in 1983 by General Maxwell Thurman, the Office of Economic and Manpower Analysis, or OEMA, is a Department of the Army research agency co-located with the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. OEMA is a highly expert, multidisciplinary innovation team of soldiers and civilians who teach, publish, and conduct disciplined inquiry to help senior leaders create the Army of tomorrow. In particular, we conduct program evaluation, policy analysis, and problem-solving research to improve existing people programs and to deliver innovative new ones to the Army.

Our Research Focus

In its early years, OEMA focused on helping to recruit and retain Soldiers for the all-volunteer Army that emerged in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Over time, however, our portfolio grew to include a broad range of people-related program and policy areas. Today OEMA works to create innovative new people paradigms across the Army’s talent management lifecycle areas: Acquire, Develop, Employ, and Retain. Our research has led to a variety of new Army people innovations, all designed to improve organizational performance and drive Army strategy execution.