Blair, John D.
Phillips, Robert L.
Job Satisfaction Among Youth in Military and Civilian Work Settings
Armed Forces and Society 9,4 (Summer 1983): 555-568.
Also: http://afs.sagepub.com/content/9/4/555.full.pdf+html
Cohort(s): NLSY79
Publisher: Inter-University Seminar on Armed Forces & Society
Keyword(s): Attrition; Job Satisfaction; Military Personnel; Military Training; Racial Differences;

Permission to reprint the abstract has not been received from the publisher.

This article examines whether the hypothesized changes in the U.S. military from an institution to an occupation have resulted in a normal organizational setting for young military "workers." Of particular concern are those organizational experiences that reflect social dimensions beyond the monetary aspect of work. The findings reported in this article indicated that in many ways American youth do not regard the military as a normal organizational work setting. That is, there are significant differences in average evaluations of non-monetary as well as monetary aspects of the job, although there is also considerable overlap in the assessments of young people. Although this overlap indicates that the military is a generally convergent work setting, nevertheless it is not a particularly attractive one. Postenlistment reality for many military "workers" turns out to be much worse than they had expected, and thus serious organizational dysfunctions such as high attrition rates might be predicted. In addition, greater dissatisfaction among service personnel relative to their civilian counterparts in the labor market can be expected to reduce the propensity for military service in the upcoming cohort (given an assumption of at least a degree of inter-cohort communication). The less satisfactory quality of work life that is reported by youth in the military may be a major reason for high attrition rates, for lower than expected propensities for military service, and for differences in recruiting success for certain jobs within a service.