The Role of Calling in Military Engagement: Promoting Career Growth and Enhancing Life Satisfaction for Military Personnel, Better Recruitment and Retention for Those Called to Service

This report has been professionally converted for accurate flowing-text e-book format reproduction. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of calling in the military. As the military continues to increase retention goals despite budget constraints, it must adopt ways to better promote career growth and enhance life satisfaction for its personnel. This can be accomplished through recruiting, grooming, and retaining those individuals who have a calling to military service. My study answered the following research questions: (1) Is calling related to positive military career outcomes? (2) Does calling spark and deepen commitment and retention? (3) Does calling promote career growth for those "called" to service? (4) Does calling increase life satisfaction? (5) How is calling related to military retention? Data from surveys of Naval Postgraduate School students reveal many work-related correlations with calling and calling's positive effects. My research findings suggest that recruiting, retaining, and promoting those who are called to military service will not only decrease turnover, but also provide a better military workforce. I recommend incorporating calling into military employment practices for better human resources results and increased organizational success.

The introduction captures a general summary of the research while shedding light on the problem statement and research questions, which will be further examined and explained in subsequent chapters. Chapter II is the literature review, which reveals the comprehensive studies related to calling and other work-related outcomes. The literature review includes organizational commitment, career fit, turnover, life satisfaction, career plateau, social capital, and protean career orientation (PCO). This review highlights literature to generate a better overall understanding of the meaning of a calling, how it applies in various career fields, and how it affects other work-related constructs. Through the detailed literature review, we can understand and relate to the impact of calling in career fields outside the military (e.g., musicians). Chapter III lists the hypotheses of this study, linking the literature review to the research. Chapter III presents the relationships between calling and other work-related outcomes.

Chapter IV describes the methodologies, including a generous sample data collection exercised in this study. The survey design is explained in this chapter. Chapter IV presents the core of data in this research and the positive means of calling in the military within a specific group of the study. Chapter V provides the results of this study, highlighting the key findings and meaningful themes abstracted from individual surveys. Chapter V offers the most relevant and inspiring findings in this research. Finally, Chapter VI offers the direct conclusions and implications of this study, wrapping up with recommendations for areas of further research.