Why Are First Term Soldiers Leaving the Us Army Reserve?: Are First Term Soldiers Losses Threatening Military Readiness?

By Vaine Caldwell, PhD

"The information presented takes a look at what some military observers see as an emerging issue that the United States Army Reserve will have to address more thoroughly."

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 7, 2010
• ISBN: 9781456820152

Book preview

Copyright © 2010 by Vaine Caldwell Ph. D.

ISBN: Softcover    978-1-4568-2014-5

ISBN: Ebook        978-1-4568-2015-2

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

This book was printed in the United States of America.

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CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

ABSTRACT

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

Background

Total Force Concept

CHAPTER II: PROBLEM STATEMENT AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS

Statement of the Problem

The Purpose of Study

The Research Question

CHAPTER III: LITERATURE REVIEW

Primary Sources of Current Retention Problems

Military Impact

Select Approaches to the Study of Retention Problems

Individual Level Selection Approach

Demographic Model Selection Approach

Rational-Economic Actor Model

Institutional/Organizational

Non-Military Impact

Conflicts of Primary and Secondary Commitments

Climate-Central to Organization’s Effectiveness

Theoretical Orientation

Counseling and Advising for Retention

Voluntary Employee Turnover Theory

Moonlighting Theory

Conceptual Framework

Retention and Attrition Theory

Hypotheses

CHAPTER IV: METHODOLOGY

Research Design

Study Population and Participants

Data Collection Tools/ Measurement Instrumentation

Variables

Statistical Analysis

CHAPTER V: RESULTS, DATA ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION

Descriptive Findings

Inferential Statistics

Assumptions

Normal P-P Plot of Regression Standardized Residual

Histogram

Findings from Open-Ended Questions

CHAPTER VI: DISCUSSION, CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS OF RESEARCH

Review

Discussion of Findings

The Impact of Non-Military Factors on First-Term Soldier’ Plan to Stay in the Army Reserve

The Impact of Organization Unit Climate Factors on First-Term Soldier’s plan to stay in the Army Reserve

The Impact of the Retention Counseling Factors on First-Term Soldier’s Plan to Stay in the Army Reserve

Discussion of Findings from the Open-Ended Questions

Conclusions

Limitations of the Study

Contributions and the Significance of the Study

Recommendation for Future Research

REFERENCES

APPENDIX A

A: Survey Questionnaire

B: USARC Retention Action Chart- 6R Poster

C: Career Counseling Section of the USARC 140-6 REG

D: Example of a 6X2 Enlistment Contract

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE

1    Active Duty Recruiting Fiscal Year 2007

2    Reserve Forces Accessions Fiscal Year 2007

3    UCP and CCS Variable Categories: Organizational/Military Unit Climate Factors: Selections used in the Modified Survey

Instrument for the Study

4    List of Variables

5    Statistical Analysis Procedures for Testing Hypotheses

6    Gender, Marital Status and Race Demographics of Respondents

7    Educational Demographics of Respondents

8    Age Range Demographics of Respondents

9    Time-in-Service and Military Rank

Demographics of Respondents

10    Descriptive Statistics of Main Research Variables

11    Representative Factors of Variable Organizational/Military

Unit Climate

12    Collinearity Statistics

13    Correlation between Non-Military Background

Factors And First-Term Soldier’s Plan to Stay

14    Correlation between Military Counseling Factors

And First-Term Soldier’s Plan to Stay

15    Summary of Models

16    Model 1 Variables’ Beta Value Results

17    Model 2 Beta Value Results after Including Variables

Entered in Model 1and Organizational/Military Unit

Climate Representative Factors

18    Model 3 Beta Values after Including Counseling Variables

entered in Models 1 and 2

19    Summary of Hierarchical Regression Analysis for Variables

Found Significant in the Models

20    Solder’s Recorded Comments for Open-End Questions

LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE

1    CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK

2    P-PLOT OF REGRESSION STANDARDIZED RESIDUALS

3    HISTOGRAM

PREDICTORS OF INTENTIONS OF THE FIRST-TERM

SOLDIER’ S PLAN TO STAY IN THE ARMY RESERVE:

PERCEPTION OF UNIT CLIMATE AND

RETENTION COUNSELING

A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the

College of Education of Touro University

International submitted in Partial Fulfillment of

the Requirements for the Degree of

Doctor of Educational Leadership

By

Vaine Caldwell

©Vaine Caldwell, 2008

All Right Reserved

ABSTRACT

The specific problem addressed by this study was first-term enlisted soldiers deciding to leave the Army Reserve before completing their contractual service obligation or their congressional statutory obligation. The research purpose was to measure if retention counseling received from a first-term soldier’s First Line Leader (FLDR), First Sergeant (1SG), Commander (CDR), Army Reserve Career Counselor (ARCC), and Military Peers could have significant influence on a first-term soldier’s plan to stay in the Army Reserve; beyond the impact of Non-Military Family Impact (spouse/parent), Workplace Conflict (other employer’s communications), Organizational/military unit climate as well as certain demographic variables. One hundred seventy one Army Reserve soldiers (N=171) participated in the study, mostly from Army Reserve units on the east coast of the United States. Hierarchical multiple regression was conducted to test the hypotheses. Three Models were produced. All Models turned out to be significant at the 0. 05 level. Effect size of R2 was .38 for Model 2 and .42 for Model 3. Workplace Conflict (other employer’s communications) was the most significant contributing variable (p = .025) in Model 1. Model 2 included 14 representing factors for Organizational/military unit climate. Among the representative factors evaluated to measure the impact of Organization/military unit climate, unit social/sport and reenlistment potential were especially contributing to the variable’s impact (β = .347, t = 2. 246, p = .027), and (β = .498, t= 4. 120, p = .000) respectively. The results for the main retention counseling variables showed that Commander’s (CDR’s) counseling to first-term soldiers had a significant influence in the first-term soldier’s decision to plan to stay in the Army Reserve (CDR’s counseling, β = .52; t (124) = 2. 83, p ≤ .025). The findings supported Knapik and et al (2004) results which was that military senior leaders had an impact on soldiers’ decision to continue to serve in the military. Three open-end questions were included in the study. The open-end question results uncovered some of the same sentiments found in the 1988 WESTAT Study such as that it was the perception of some soldiers that they were not being treated fairly or with respect. Also, that some soldiers felt that their time was not well spent. Soldiers wanted to know that someone cared about them and they wanted to feel proud of their service. Conclusions and recommendations support the thesis that there is a need to continue to seek ways and means to recognize and solve the problems that first-term soldiers sometimes feel that their leadership is not addressing their concerns. The findings demonstrate the need for the urgency of the Army Reserve to institute more retention counseling requirements specifically targeting the leadership of first-term soldiers.

Key Words: Retention, attrition, first-term soldier, Army Reserve, counseling, Army Reserve Career Counselor (ARCC), advising, Expiration Time of Service (ETS), statutory obligation, contractual obligation, unit climate, and junior enlisted soldiers.

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

Background

The Army Reserve soldier is often called a citizen soldier. The concept of the citizen soldier is based on the notion that American citizens have the obligation to arm themselves to defend their communities or nations from foreign invaders and from domestic tyrants. The citizen-soldier concept has traditionally been embodied in the colonial militia, state and National Guard formations, federal conscription, and the Ready Reserves (Janowitz, 1979).

There are three Reserve component categories: the Ready Reserve, the Standby Reserve and the Retired Reserves. The Ready Reserves includes the Selected Reserve. The Selected Reserve’s mission is to provide combat and combat support units and personnel to augment the Active Military Forces during national emergences. Most members of the Selected Reserve are assigned to mobilization units. The Selected Reserve is comprised primarily of soldiers that serve part-time in the Army Reserve, Army National Guard, Army Air National Guard, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps Reserves. The Reserve also has some full-time personnel (GOA, 1991). Reserve soldiers’ part-time service requires them to participate in 48 battle training assemblies (BTAs) and at least 2 weeks of active duty annually training (AT). The BTAs consist of inactive duty training periods of as least 4 hours at a time.

Throughout its history, the Army Reserve has been a key player in the National Security and Military Strategies of the United States (Phipps, 2006). During periods of major conflicts or when there has been a need for wide spread mobilizations, the Army Reserve citizen soldier is expected to be called to Active Duty (Department of the Army Historical Summary, [DAHSUM], 1982). Adhering to the established historical pattern, the Army Reserve was employed extensively between World I and the Korean War. However, at the onset of the Vietnam War, the Reserve Forces were not called to duty. The Reserve Forces, however, were subsequently called to duty and did provide limited support in the Vietnam War (Phipps, 2006). During the Vietnam period, the political choice was to only mobilize a very limited number of Reserve soldiers. Many citizens joined the Reserve with the deliberate intent to avoid combat service in the war. The legitimacy of the Reserves as citizen soldiers suffered temporally (Janowitz, 1979).

Military leaders realized the obvious shortcomings of not including the Reserve Forces in the Vietnam War