Campus Location
Dallas Campus (Online)
Date of Award
11-2023
Document Type
Dissertation
Department
Organizational Leadership
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Jeffry L. White
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Heather N. Rasmussen
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Rick Dool
Abstract
Generational differences and the socialization process within the workplace are often seen as opposing theoretical approaches when attempting to explain or understand employee satisfaction. Generational cohort theory asserts that the perceptions and outlooks developed during an individual’s formative years are based on historical events and location, which become instrumental in how they see and interact with the world around them. Social identity theory asserts that exposure and inclusion into a group or organization creates acceptance for the individual and this assists in structuring their outlook. The purpose of this quantitative ex post facto study was to determine if and to what magnitude a difference exists between or among generational cohort and employee tenure on employee satisfaction for federal employees who participated in the 2015 Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey. The study consisted of 376,633 separate observations that answered nine employee satisfaction survey items. The original design was a parametric two-way ANOVA but shifted to a non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis H test due to assumption violations. Two Kruskal-Wallis H tests were run for both dependent variables, generational cohort and federal employee tenure, based on overall employee satisfaction. The results of both tests showed a statistically significant difference between all categories within each independent variable based on the dependent variable. The mean rankings also provided insight into employee satisfaction based on independent category. These research findings add to the growing academic foundation of the connection between age cohort and employee tenure on employee satisfaction and hopefully provide an additional perspective for public sector organizational leaders.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Reed, Justin Lee, "Ex Post Facto Study of the Effect of Generational Cohort and Employment Tenure on Employee Satisfaction of United States Federal Employees" (2023). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 710.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/710