Book Description

The federal government faces a crisis in human capital because of downsizing, retirement of a large percentage of employees, conflicts in values between employees of different generational groups, and lack of strategic planning for acquiring and retaining qualified employees. A major component of this crisis is decreased loyalty and organizational commitment of federal employees. The purpose of this study was to determine the level of organizational commitment of civilian federal employees at a government military facility. Two null hypotheses were formulated: (a) There is no statistically significant difference in organizational commitment among generational groups of civilian employees in a military workforce. (b) There is no statistically significant difference between employees with and without military experience. The four generational groups were defined as Veterans (born before 1943), Baby Boomers (born 1943-1960), Generation Xers (born 1960-1980), and Generation Nexters (born 1980-2000). Military service was defined as any service from one or more enlistments to a military career. A total of 120 employees of the Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, branch of the Department of Defense were emailed a survey packet consisting of an introductory letter and an instrument comprised of a demographic component and the Three Component Model of Employee Commitment Survey. This was an 18-item survey measuring various aspects of commitment. Data were analyzed by frequency statistics and ANOVA. Results showed that Baby Boomers comprised the highest percentage, 71.6%, and that more than the majority had no military experience, 67.5. Hypothesis testing resulted in failure to reject the first null hypothesis: there were no significant differences among generational groups with regard to organizational commitment. However, the second null hypothesis was rejected: there were significant differences between employees with and without military experience with regard to organizational commitment. The first hypothesis results were surprising, since generally Veterans and Baby Boomers have greater organizational loyalty. The second hypothesis results were as anticipated, since employees with military service generally have greater organizational loyalty. Suggestions were made for enhancement of organizational commitment by government managers, and further research was recommended, especially with larger samples of more equally matched civilian government employees.