Veteran Status and Job Candidate Assessments in U.S. Local Governments

• Published date: 01 September 2024
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X231152777
• Author: Justin M. Stritch,Ulrich Thy Jensen,David Swindell,Michelle Allgood,Allegra H. Fullerton
• Date: 01 September 2024

https://doi.org/10.1177/0734371X231152777

Review of Public Personnel Administration

2024, Vol. 44(3) 493 –515

© The Author(s) 2023

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DOI: 10.1177/0734371X231152777

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Article

Veteran Status and Job

Candidate Assessments in

U.S. Local Governments

Justin M. Stritch1, Ulrich Thy Jensen2,3,

David Swindell1, Michelle Allgood1,

and Allegra H. Fullerton4

Abstract

Advocates often present veterans as an untapped resource for local governments

to boost the public service workforce. However, there is a lack of understanding of

how human resource (HR) professionals value military experience when assessing

candidate preparedness for a managerial career in public service. We examine how

veteran status affects U.S. city and county HR directors’ evaluations of candidates for

entry-level managerial positions in local government. Using an experimental design,

we randomly assign candidate characteristics of veteran status and gender, and we

observe HR directors’ assessments of candidate preparedness. Our findings reveal a

premium on veteran status for candidate assessments relative to similar private sector

experience in assessments of candidate experience. At the same time, the results

are less conclusive when compared to similar public sector experiences. In addition,

we find no clear evidence of disparate assessments of candidate preparedness as a

function of candidate gender.

Keywords

human resource management, veterans, applicant evaluations, bias, gender

1School of Public Affairs, Arizona State University, Phoenix, USA

2Center for Organization Research and Design (CORD) and School of Public Affairs, Arizona State

University, Phoenix, USA

3Crown Prince Frederik Center for Public Leadership, Aarhus University, Denmark

4School of Public Affairs, University of Colorado Denver, USA

Corresponding Author:

Justin M. Stritch, Arizona State University, 411 N. Central Avenue, Phoenix, AZ 85004, USA.

Email: jstritch@asu.edu

1152777ROPXXX10.1177/0734371X231152777Review of Public Personnel AdministrationStritch et al.

research-article2023

494 Review of Public Personnel Administration 44(3)

Introduction

In the United States, there are approximately 18 million military veterans and approxi-

mately 8.4 million veterans participating in the civilian labor force (U.S. Bureau of

Labor Statistics, 2021). While veterans make up a smaller fraction of the total work-

force in absolute terms than nonveterans, they still represent a large potential human

capital resource for public service organizations. Many veterans are the beneficiaries

of years of significant public investment in the form of logistics and technology train-

ing. As a result, U.S. military veterans have been the subject of interest in public

administration and public sector personnel management research as federal, state, and

local governments have adopted a range of policies to promote their employment (e.g.,

Johnson, 2015; Johnson & Walker, 2018; Lewis, 2013; Lewis & Pathak, 2014; Liggans

et al., 2019; Ordway, 1945; Tao & Campbell, 2019).

Current research on veteran hiring in public organizations focuses on veteran prefer-

ence policies and the pursuit of a social objective (veteran employment) that comes with

potential tradeoffs relative to other social objectives or organizational performance.

Public administration and public personnel management researchers have examined the

implications of these preference policies on veteran representation and their subsequent

effects on the representation of members of historically underrepresented groups (Lewis,

2013; Lewis & Emmert, 1984; Mani, 1999) as well as the implications for the overall

quality of the federal workforce (Johnson, 2015; Lewis, 2013).

While studies focusing on macro-level, institutional outcomes (e.g., representation

and workforce quality) offer important contributions to our understanding of veteran

preference policies, they do not consider the role veteran status plays in micro-level

attitude formation and decision making. These attitudes are critical since gatekeepers,

such as human resource (HR) professionals, can shape access or create barriers to

veteran employment in decision-making processes. Previous research has found that

individuals rely on heuristics and other mental shortcuts such as stereotypes in recruit-

ment and hiring processes (Boyd-Swan & Herbst, 2019; Gorsuch, 2019; Hipes et al.,

2016; Neumark et al., 1996).

Yet, research has yet to determine whether veteran status serves as a signal of can-

didate preparedness for a career in local government. If so, to what extent does mili-

tary experience bias public sector HR professionals’ toward or against positive

evaluations of potential job candidates? These questions are pertinent as professional

groups across the U.S., such as the International City and County Management

Association (ICMA) and Leagues of Cities, recently started programs to promote vet-

eran hiring in U.S. local governments by easing the transition from military service to

a career in local government administration (e.g., ICMA’s Veteran Local Government

Management Fellowship).

To address these issues, we examine the following research questions: (1) How

does veteran status affect public sector HR directors’ assessments of candidate pre-

paredness for a managerial position in local government? (2) Do public sector HR

directors weigh military experience differently for men and women in their assessment

of candidate preparedness? We focus on candidate preparedness for entry-level man-

agement positions since existing recruitment efforts tend to draw a straight line