Veterans and Job Satisfaction in the U.S. Federal Government: The Importance of Role Clarity in the First Years of Civilian Employment

• Author: Andrew K. Tao,Jesse W. Campbell
• DOI: 10.1177/0091026019878210
• Published date: 01 December 2020
• Date: 01 December 2020
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0091026019878210

Public Personnel Management

2020, Vol. 49(4) 508 –531

© The Author(s) 2019

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DOI: 10.1177/0091026019878210

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Article

Veterans and Job Satisfaction

in the U.S. Federal

Government: The Importance

of Role Clarity in the First

Years of Civilian Employment

Andrew K. Tao1 and Jesse W. Campbell1

Abstract

Veterans can face difficulties adjusting to civilian employment due to their experiences

in highly structured and regimented military service organizations. This study focuses

on factors that affect the job satisfaction of veterans employed in the civilian U.S.

Federal Government. Drawing on sector imprinting theory, we propose that role

clarity will have a stronger link with job satisfaction for government employees who

have served in the military than for those who have not. Second, we argue that this

difference will dissipate over time, with the importance of role clarity for veterans

being strongest at the earliest stages of the transition to civilian employment. We

present evidence for our theory from an analysis of the 2013 Federal Employee

Viewpoint Survey. Finally, after discussing the limitations of our study, we suggest

practical managerial tactics that can complement ambitious public sector veteran

employment initiatives.

Keywords

sector imprinting, military service, role clarity, job satisfaction, job tenure

Introduction

The United States has a long history of education and training programs designed to

help veterans transition to civilian life (Schulker, 2017), perhaps most famously, the

Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill. Continuing

1Incheon National University, South Korea

Corresponding Author:

Jesse W. Campbell, Department of Public Administration, Incheon National University, 12-1 Songdo-

dong, Yeonsu-gu, Incheon 22012, South Korea.

Email: jcampbell@inu.ac.kr

878210PPMXXX10.1177/0091026019878210Public Personnel ManagementTao and Campbell

research-article2019

Tao and Campbell 509

in this tradition, on November 9, 2009, President Obama signed Executive Order

13518, otherwise known as the Veterans Employment Initiative. The policy section of

the order states, “Veterans have served and sacrificed in defense of our Nation. When

they complete their service, we must do everything in our power to assist them in re-

entering civilian life and finding employment” (Executive Order No. 13518, 2009, 3

C.F.R. 2010, p. 267). The initiative aimed to provide preferential treatment to veterans

in the hiring process of the civilian federal government and had a substantive impact:

From 2009 through 2013 . . . there was a 7 percent increase in the number of veterans

hired by the federal government, and veterans’ participation in the federal workforce

jumped from about 26 percent to more than 30 percent. (American Foreign Service

Association, 2015, p. 37)

However, finding employment is not the only challenge faced by veterans and the

transition from military to civilian life can be turbulent in a number of ways. Military

training and service change recruits physiologically and psychologically so that they

fit into military culture (Elnitsky, Fisher, & Blevins, 2017; Swain, 2016), and some

research suggests that aspects of these changes persist well beyond the period of active

service (Jackson, Thoemmes, Jonkmann, Lüdtke, & Trautwein, 2012; Lieberman

et al., 2016; Swain, 2016). The unique experiences of veterans have lasting effects and

can contribute to a variety of poor civilian career outcomes following transition, for

example, underemployment, earnings disadvantages, and an increased unemployment

rate for veterans who served after 2001 (Schulker, 2017). Although providing employ-

ment is important, a better understanding of how military service shapes outcomes

within the post-service civilian workplace is necessary to help soldiers reach their full

potential after being discharged.

This study straddles two areas of interest for public administration scholars and

practitioners. First, studies on sector imprinting have shown that experience gained in

a particular sector affects job perceptions and attitudes when entering into employ-

ment in a different sector (Boardman, Bozeman, & Ponomariov, 2010; Chen, 2012;

Johnson & Ng, 2016). However, extant literature has tended to focus on transition

from the private to the public (or non-profit) sector and has not addressed these effects

in the context of a military to civilian employment transition. This is a significant

issue, however, as military and civilian organizations, though they are both public, are

fundamentally different, and attitudes and behaviors acquired during active service

may necessitate a significant period of adjustment when transitioning to employment

in civilian agencies. Second, this study links prior military service to organizational

phenomenon of central concern for public administration scholars, namely, job satis-

faction and role clarity. Job satisfaction is among the more studied and important vari-

ables for public administration researchers (Cantarelli, Belardinelli, & Belle, 2016),

and prior research shows that clarity is a significant and consistent contributor to job

satisfaction (S. R. Bray, Beauchamp, Eys, & Carron, 2005; Hassan, 2013; Stazyk,

2016). However, some management and psychology literature suggests that the need

for clarity varies between individuals (S. R. Bray et al., 2005; Lyons, 1971; Miles &