Officer Career Development: Modeling Married Aviator Retention
Abstract
Since fiscal year 1982, the aviation warfare community has been confronted with decreasing percentages of pilots who remain in the Navy more than 2 years beyond their Minimum Service Requirement. The purpose of this report is to describe the factors contributing to naval aviation retention and to create a model that could be used for predictive purposes. Questionnaire data from a matched random sample (commissioning years 1972 to 1980) of stayers (N = 237) and leavers (N = 237) were analyzed. The resultant path model was able to account for 48 percent of the variance in retention behavior, even up to 4 years after the survey was taken. Interestingly, evaluation of sea duty (and family separation because of deployments) did not add to our ability to account for retention behavior. Our findings suggest a possible causal chain from individual, organizational, and environmental factors, through career intent, and finally, depending upon past performance evaluations, to retention. Keywords: Career development; Career policy; Turnover; Spousal support.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1989
- Accession Number
- ADA210081
Entities
People
- Regina L. Burch
- Reginald A. Bruce
Organizations
- Bureau of Naval Personnel