The Impact of Military Culture on Veterans Entering the Private Workforce: A Qualitative Ethnographic Study

From 2010 to 2020, veterans have consistently had lower unemployment numbers than non-veterans. However, out of the nearly 200,000 veterans entering the civilian sector annually, close to 100,000 of them leave their original place of employment within the first year. The issue, therefore, is that veterans are culturally unprepared for the transition. In this qualitative study, the author employed the framework of Bourdieu, a sociologist who developed several concepts related to cultural intersections, to investigate the ways that military culture impacts veterans during their first year of civilian employment. An equal number of participants from across all five of the major branches of the armed service answered questions in their own words as to what factors contributed to the desire to leave their place of employment. The responses from the participants were consistent with the findings from studies conducted on non-veteran employee turnover. Veteran employees were more likely to remain within organizations when they feel valued by their employer and “fit in” with their workplace environment. However, the results also indicated that the culture of the military, as defined by Bourdieu’s three-part theory on cultures, had a significant impact on how veterans perceived their civilian leaders and coworkers, regardless of his or her military background. This results of this study contribute to the human resources field of business by demonstrating a need for the integration of veterans into cultural training within organizations. Recommendations for practice include training for military leaders to better recognize the level of preparedness for those leaving the military, a curriculum for organizational leadership regarding veteran culture, and the incorporate of veteran culture as part of onboarding during new-hire orientation. With future research, veterans and their employers can become better prepared to mitigate misperceptions and eliminate high rates of veteran employee turnover