Date of Conferral

2021

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Brian P. Cesario

Abstract

Military veterans entering the civilian job market have experienced challenges adapting to the civilian work place culture, which poses undesirable retention rates. This qualitative study addressed the research gap in understanding contextually the lived experiences with setting expectations and its impact on veterans withdrawing from the organization from the perspectives of veterans, HR, and hiring managers. This study was based on the met expectation theory that posits that an employee’s incoming expectation needs to match their expectation while on the job to avoid withdrawal behaviors. To confirm the theory and address the purpose two research questions were used: (a) addressed HR/hiring managers’ experiences with setting expectations and its impact, and (b) explored the veterans’ experiences with setting expectations within the military and the civilian organization. Ten participants were enrolled from one veteran ready civilian organization to answer semi-structured interview questions, which generated a novel veteran expectation setting checklist from the study themes (eight from RQ1 and seven from RQ2). The checklist is recommended to be used by employers to assess the fit between veterans and the workplace environment. In addition to the checklist, the positive social change implications of this study conveyed the need for organizations to be ready to provide accurate intel about the workplace setting to incoming veteran employees to ensure they transition successfully into their jobs. This encourages organizations to tap into veterans as an advantageous human capital resource to improve diversity and inclusion practices and stabilize the retention of veteran employees.

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