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Call for Interest: AOM 2018 Conference

Symposium: Veteran Affairs in the Civilian Workforce - Getting Hired, Getting Fired, and Everything in Between

With my colleague, Yvonne McNulty, I am pleased to invite you to consider submitting a paper for inclusion in a symposium focused on 'Veterans in the Civilian Workforce.'

 The overarching theme of the AOM 2018 Conference focus is how organizations can contribute to the betterment of society. All organizations need human capital to function effectively and to operate productively. It is an organization's people that drive it towards success, helping to reach its goals and build market dominance. Veterans (i.e., prior military service) are a particular challenge for organizations in both the private and public sector given their prior professional background and experience, often in war zones and high-conflict areas. In this 90 minute presenter symposium, we seek to connect interested researchers on human capital management and human resource issues that impact veterans' ability to secure employment and to succeed in the civilian workforce.

Post-service, veterans who are not of retirement age typically enter the civilian workforce in a second career. However, studies such as the one sponsored by the Center for Talent Innovation (CTI) have identified a number of major roadblocks that veterans must overcome when transitioning from the military to the civilian sector.

First, veterans face challenges in getting hired due to stereotypical expectations based on their military occupational role. Half of respondents in a recent survey said their civilian colleagues had made false assumptions about them (such as being politically conservative or suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder); more than a quarter tried to downplay, or chose not to reveal, their prior military service when applying for jobs; and nearly a third of those with a service-related injury or disability hid it. Younger veterans, and some women and minority veterans, have also struggled to find purposeful, long-term employment after service.

Second, once hired, just over half of veterans leave their first post-military job within a year.  Abrams, founder of the veteran support organization Four Block (http://fourblock.org/), notes that many veterans feel under-utilized, alienated, and uninspired in civilian workplaces. As reported by CTI, "[f]ully two-thirds of the respondents said they weren't using three or more of the skills they have, that could be applicable to their employers. Meanwhile, only 2 percent said they have an executive who really champions and advocates on their behalf. That compares with 19 percent of men and 13 percent of women CTI surveys of the general professional population..."

While there is a moral obligation by society to provide ongoing support to veterans' post-service, organizations that hire veterans are similarly responsible for ensuring that the advantages gained through a veteran's service are leveraged while mitigating any disadvantages of injury, illness, or other disparity. 

If you are interested in participating in this 90-minute presenter symposium, we recommend sending us your expression of interest early, as these will be reviewed as received, with a deadline of December 22^nd, 2017. Expressions of interest should include an extended abstract of up to 5 pages that clearly connects the proposed paper with the symposium's theme.

Proposed areas of focus include (but are not limited to):

Human capital management issues may include, but are not limited to:

• Expatriate veterans and their access to care abroad
• Intersection of public policy and management, such as the influence of incentives by federal, state, or local government for firms to recruit veterans
• Connecting organizational goals to meaningful/purposeful work

Human resource issues may include, but are not limited to:

• Veterans' health issues, including mental health
• Educational programs related to transition from military to civilian sectors
• Veteran specific hiring, retention, promotion, and sponsorship strategies

We welcome your interest in this symposium. Please submit applications and questions to Kelly Fisher (Kfisher@wcupa.edu) and Yvonne McNulty (yvonnemcnulty@suss.edu.sg

Kelly

Assistant Professor of Management

Air Force Language and Culture Fellow

College of Business and Public Management

West Chester University Pennsylvania

(m) +1.904.305.8445