Date of Conferral

2022

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Management

Advisor

Sheryl A. Kristensen

Abstract

The retiring of an aging workforce leaves significant deficits in leadership positions across the federal government. As employee turnover increased, onboarding was not occurring at rates necessary to replace retirees, ultimately contributing to the leader deficit. The evidence was insufficient on how the employee satisfaction of both older and younger leaders affects their intent to leave and ultimately the leader deficit. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the differences in employee satisfaction and the intent to leave between older (i.e., age >= 40) and younger (i.e., age < 40) federal leaders to discern how their age influences their satisfaction and desire to leave federal service. Grounded in Herzberg’s two-factor theory and Strauss and Howe’s generation theory, the research questions addressed if the independent variable, categorized age of supervisory employees, had an effect on the dependent variables, employee satisfaction and intent to leave. Archival data from the 2016 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey were analyzed. The results of the Welch t-test and Fisher’s exact test (r x 2) found no significant statistical differences (p > .05) between the categorized age group of supervisory employees and the dependent variables, employee satisfaction (p = .152) and intent to leave (p = .512). As federal supervisory employees ‘Under 40’ showed lower satisfaction values and higher intent to leave values than supervisory employees ‘40 and over,’ a key recommendation is to examine an employee’s intent to leave over time. The implication for positive social change includes engaging baseline data on multi-generational contributions to leadership retention and management, thus informing and benefiting the possible retention and development of organizational leaders in the public sector.

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