Voluntary Separation Research Articles

Examining Retention Sentiments and Attrition Among Active Duty Army Medical Officers.

Providing quality care and maintaining exceptional medical providers are important priorities for military medicine. The present study examines the association between retention sentiments and voluntary separation from army service among Army Medical Corps and Nurse Corps Officers. Retention sentiments are derived from the Department of the Army Career Engagement Survey, a voluntary survey that Active Duty Soldiers complete annually. The sample included active Army officers in the Medical Corps (n = 1198) and Nurse Corps (n = 1016) who completed the Department of the Army Career Engagement Survey between May 06, 2020 and November 02, 2023, passed the embedded attention check, and said their responses could be used for research purposes. The most frequently cited "Extremely Important" reasons to leave the army were identified within each sample. Binomial logistic regression was used to examine the likelihood of separating from army service based on the top five reasons to leave the Army as identified on the Department of the Army Career Engagement Survey. This study was determined by Exempt Human Subjects Research. An examination of the factors most frequently endorsed as an "Extremely Important" reason to leave the Army revealed that "Effects of deployments on Family or personal relationships" and "Impact of military service on my Family's well-being" were among the five most cited "Extremely Important" reasons to leave the army within both the Medical Corps and the Nurse Corps samples. When examined together (i.e., summed), the Composite Leave Score was associated with a significantly greater odds of separating from army service in each sample. Specifically, each additional top five "Extremely Important" leave reason identified was associated with a 38% greater odds of separating from army service within the Medical Corps and 50% greater odds of separating from army service within the Nurse Corps. The current study highlights unique retention concerns among army medical providers in the Medical Corps and Nurse Corps. Additionally, this study ties medical provider sentiments to subsequent voluntary separation from the army. These findings can help army senior leaders evaluate, draft, and revise policy aimed at increasing retention among army medical providers, and increasing access to quality healthcare for service members and their families.

The more perceived training effectiveness, the greater the risk of voluntary separation: testing a turnover intent model among police officers in Taiwan

Purpose Building on Lambert’s (2001) work on turnover intent in law enforcement, this study examines how organizational characteristics and job attitudes along with job satisfaction, and organizational commitment affect turnover intent among Taiwanese police officers.Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from the New Taipei City Police Department (NTCPD) in the summer of 2012 via stratified random sampling (N = 1,035). Structural equation modeling was employed to examine factors affecting turnover intent.Findings Job satisfaction and organizational commitment reduced the risk of turnover, while job stressors and training effectiveness directly increased the risk. Worthy of note, officers with a Central Police University degree and who were married had a lower risk of turnover.Originality/value This study applies Lambert’s (2001) turnover intent model in law enforcement agencies developed in the West to a non-western policing setting. The use of SEM assures the robustness of the findings. Some noteworthy contrasts in findings from Western and non-Western settings are presented.

Homeschooling among Black families as a form of parental involvement: A focus on parental role construction, efficacy, and emotions

Experiences with racism and other emotionally laden encounters are intricately entangled with parents’ motivations to take direct action that can lead to voluntary separation from school or homeschooling. Using the Hoover-Dempsey and Sandler (HDS) model, this article expands parental involvement by including homeschooling and examines the usefulness of including emotion as a discernible motivator of parental involvement. Research on Black homeschooling is used as an example to explore the psychological and socio-emotional dilemmas parents face when preparing their children to become self-sufficient in an anti-Black lived context. Particular focus is given to parental role construction and efficacy beliefs to describe the intersection of emotions leading to parental actions toward involvement. Marchand et al.’s process of critical action is detailed to further illustrate the complexities of Black parents who actively engage in activities to combat discrimination. New insights on theory adaptation and pathways to inform practice, and recommendations for future research on parental involvement and Black homeschooling are also provided.

Influence of family factors on service members' decisions to leave the military

AbstractBackgroundService member retention is a crucial aspect in maintaining and advancing the U.S. military and its mission. To increase retention, it is important to understand why active duty personnel voluntarily leave while they are still highly qualified. For married service members, spouses likely influence the decision to stay or leave military service.ObjectiveThe current study used data from the Millennium Cohort Family Study for 4,539 dyads comprising service members and their spouses to investigate family predictors of voluntary military separation.MethodsMultivariate mediation analyses were conducted to evaluate the role of military satisfaction (spouse and service member) and work–family conflict as mediators of the effects of both family life and military stressors on risk for military separation, while accounting for spouse and service member demographics.ResultsResults identified significant family factors operating through work–family conflict and military satisfaction that were associated with increased likelihood of service member voluntary separation, including number of children, spouse bothered by finances, and service member months away from home. Service members with spouses who reported higher levels of social support were significantly less likely to voluntarily separate, after operating through both work–family conflict and military satisfaction.Conclusion and ImplicationsFindings suggest that work–family conflict and military satisfaction play an important synergistic role in predicting the impact family and career factors have on voluntary separation. These modifiable factors may guide potential interventions to increase military retention efforts.

SEGREGATION: DEFINITION OF CONCEPT AND NECESSITY OF LEGISLATIVE CONFIRMATION

The article substantiates the need for legislative confirmation of the definition of segregation and counteraction to this phenomenon. It is emphasized that discrimination is a generic concept of segregation, and the latter – a form of discrimination that has its own characteristics and types. The need to supplement the Law of Ukraine “On Principles of Preventing and Combating Discrimination in Ukraine” with articles on preventing and combating segregation is pointed out. It is suggested to understand segregation as a form of discrimination, which consists in an act aimed at separating individuals (social groups) who differ in racial, gender, sexual, social, religious, educational, professional or other characteristics without an objectively justified and legitimate justification for such demarcation. Emphasis is placed on the significant differentiation of manifestations of segregation in modern society and the prevalence of gender segregation in the workplace (occupational segregation), including in Ukraine. Emphasis is placed on the fact that segregation is not an overcoming phenomenon today, and its manifestations are quite diverse. Examples of segregation in modern society include attitudes toward Roma, internally displaced people (IDPs) from eastern Ukraine, and those who refuse to be vaccinated against COVID-19. The conclusion is made about the need for comprehensive counteraction to this phenomenon, which should begin with the legislative confirmation of the concept of segregation. It is noted that voluntary separation from others on the basis of one of these features is not segregation. Manifestations of such voluntary separation can be considered the activities of educational and cultural institutions and institutions intended for representatives of a particular culture, bearers of certain traditions or national minorities.

Understanding Nursing Turnover: The Case of Home Health Care

Only a few studies of nursing turnover have examined post-acute home health care. This study examines factors that are associated with home health licensed nurse turnover using linked employee-level and patient-level data from one of the five largest home health companies in the US. The data include variables from human resources and payroll systems, visit logs, discharge records, physical and mental health assessments, care plans, and patient encounters and is organized at the employee-day level. We measured turnover using human resources data, including measures of voluntary and involuntary job separation, and from exit interviews that allow classification of whether turnover was associated with agency-related factors (e.g., pay, schedule, supervisor, coworkers) versus personal factors (e.g., family needs, relocation). In bivariate and multivariate analyses, explanatory variables included nurse demographics, patient population characteristics, and the degree to which nurses can delegate tasks to home care aides. We found a downward trend in turnover for licensed nurses between 2016 and 2019. Attrition in the first year was 34% for full-time nurses and 45% for part-time nurses, most of it occurring in the first 180 days of employment. The rate of voluntary turnover was nearly four times as great as involuntary turnover. We found that agency factors accounted for 26% of monthly turnover on average, while personal factors accounted for 74%. In states in which licensed nurses could delegate more tasks to home care aides, turnover rates were slightly higher than in states with little delegation.

An Experiment: Voluntary Separation in Indefinitely Repeated Prisoner's Dilemma Game

In economic and social relationships, such as employment and marriages, participants often have the option to separate from their partner. This study experimentally investigates how the option to separate with or without a cost affects cooperation in indefinitely repeated prisoner’s dilemma game. For costly separation, I consider the cost of establishing a new match as well as the opportunity cost of missed interactions due to delays in matching. The theoretical model assumes the coexistence of non-strategic defectors and strategic conditional cooperators and predicts the long-run cooperation rate to which the population converges as players learn the initially unknown type distribution through experience. The experimental data support the theoretical prediction that compared to no separation, costless separation lowers the cooperation rate in the long run. The low cooperation rate and positive assortment through separation from defectors result in greater equity within matches. Costly separation increases the cooperation rate compared to no separation, yet the higher cooperation rate improves efficiency only under the high continuation probability.

Co-constructing Belonging: ‘Voluntary Separation’ in Deaf and Immigrant Education in Japan

ABSTRACT This article explores educational integration and the ways in which ‘difference’ is accommodated in the mainstream Japanese education system by drawing upon two distinct cases of marginalised students: deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH) students and immigrant students. One form of accommodation to aid the integration of these two groups into mainstream classrooms is ‘special support classes’ such as providing Japanese as a Second Language classes to recent immigrant students and speech training and academic support to DHH students. While ‘integration’ and, more recently, ‘inclusion’ practices are usually placed in a binary system with segregation in the form of separate schools or ‘schools within a school’, we argue that these separate educational spaces have important roles, meanings, and functions for marginalised students who re-imagine them as spaces of belonging (ibasho). Belonging is co-constructed in these physically and metaphorically separate spaces rather than in ‘mainstream’ ones in which they are academically integrated but socially isolated. By analysing the official role of support classes in ‘integrating’ students in mainstream settings, we explore the co-constructed meaning given to such spaces of ‘voluntary separation’ by marginalised students in the Japanese education system.

Towards a vertically separated broadband infrastructure: The potential role of voluntary separation

Public policymakers face the challenge of maintaining incentives for investments in fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) infrastructure while simultaneously enabling effective competition. In that regard, the ability of vertically integrated operators to discriminate against downstream rivals is regarded as a major regulatory problem, especially as policing nondiscrimination obligations is notoriously difficult for vertically integrated operators. The European regulatory framework mandates functional separation to eliminate discrimination incentives. However, this measure comes with significant drawbacks and caveats and resembles a strong market and ownership intervention. The present article discusses how voluntary vertical separation can achieve the positive effect of a vertically separated industry structure without the need for strong market interventions. We use a discounted cash flow model to compare the financial attractiveness of wholesale-only and integrated business models for a greenfield FTTP rollout. We further discuss and test how public policymakers could positively affect the profitability of a wholesale-only business model. Based on our findings, we recommend public-policymakers and national regulation authorities to proactively define separation scenarios and respective ex ante regulation reductions precisely, to make adjustments to broadband state aid programs that favor wholesale-only providers, and to critically reflect the hampering effect volume and time discount wholesale tariff structures of incumbents have on the emergence of wholesale-only networks.

Reconsidering Palmer v Thompson

Reconsidering Palmer <scp>v</scp> Thompson

Can federations expel member states? On the political theory of expulsion

When, if at all, can a federal political order expel a member state against its will? In political theory, expulsion has—unlike the scenario of secession as voluntary separation—so far received no systematic attention; an omission that is reinforced by the paucity of historical precedent. However, current debates around the potential disintegration of the European Union show that expulsion, as a theoretical and political possibility, deserves a more careful analysis. The article sets out to consider a route toward theorizing expulsion in systematic and realist terms. It outlines possible motivational constellations, feasibility constraints, legitimacy issues, as well as procedural dimensions. The resulting claim—that expulsion may be feasible in some circumstances but that its legitimacy is bound to remain contested—is applied to the case of the European Union.

Intricacies Related To Retirement

The relationship between employment and retirement is changing dramatically in industrialized societies, with a decreasing proportion of working life being spent in stable career progression. Many who retire from long-service career jobs now seek paid employment in bridge jobs before completely exiting the labor force. There is little research about the effects of employment transitions and instability in later life on health, but limited research on instability early in the working life does show a strong and significant relationship. Instability is found to be associated with adverse health effects, with variability by gender and type of health measure. In addition, both objective and subjective transition characteristics are related to variability in health. In this regard, this paper will explore on different aspects related to retirement, issues like, countering aging population, philosophical concern on retirement, support to retirees and variables associated with retirement. A voluntary separation occurs when an employee separates from employment due to resignation, retirement or job abandonment. Retirees commonly face four risks that can threaten to derail their retirement: work life initiatives, health care, sequence of returns, and financial status. These risks pose a multifaceted challenge that requires a combination of strategies, such as carefully choosing when to claim Social Security, allocating assets to lifetime income annuities, adopting a systematic withdrawal strategy, and planning for long-term care. This article offers a range of ideas and insights to help organizations offer the best support to retirees so that they can achieve a more secure retirement.

Criminal Background and Job Performance

Job applicants with criminal records are much less likely than others to obtain legitimate employment, a problem that recent legislation, including Ban the Box, has attempted to address. The success of any remedial strategy depends on why hiring firms impose a hiring penalty and whether their concerns are founded on an accurate view of how ex-offenders behave on the job if hired. Little empirical evidence now exists to answer these questions. This paper attempts to fill this gap by examining firm-level hiring practices and worker-level performance outcomes. Our data indicate that the typical employee with a criminal record has a psychological profile different from other employees, with fewer characteristics that are associated with good job performance outcomes. Despite these differences, individuals with criminal records have an involuntary separation rate that is no higher than that of other employees and a voluntary separation rate that is much lower. Employees with a criminal record do have a slightly higher overall rate of discharge for misconduct than do employees without a record, although we find increased misconduct only for sales positions. We also find that firms that do not use information about criminal backgrounds seem to compensate by placing more weight on qualifications that are correlated with a criminal record, such as low educational attainment.

Voluntary separation or voluntary mixing?

Voluntary separation or voluntary mixing?

The Cost of a Negative Separation: The Extreme Impact of a Military Discharge That Is Other Than 'Honorable'

For those who join the military, their exit from service will fall into one of two categories, voluntary or involuntary separation. Those who voluntarily separate have completed their term of service and no longer owe any continuing service obligation under their enlistment contract or commission. These soldiers are eligible for the full array of benefits and are looked upon by the general population with favor in almost every aspect of their post military life. There are certain classifications of involuntary separations that, when imposed, do not cause soldiers to lose eligibility for all benefits; these include Honorable and General Discharges. There are others that force the Departments of Veterans Affair to make a case-by-case determination of a particular veteran’s eligibility for benefits; these include Other Than Honorable and Bad Conduct Discharges. Finally, there are those separations that render a veteran ineligible for all benefits and are not permitted to submit an application for review by the Department of Veterans Affairs; these are those classified as Dishonorable Discharges, or Dismissals in the case of an Officer. Despite the category or classification of a soldier’s discharge, the next step that must be taken by any veteran is reintegration into civilian life. Steven Davidson, former U.S. Army Sergeant and 2012 Army Times Soldier of the Year, argues, “the most crucial benefit to ensuring successful reintegration is mental health services.” In Mr. Davidson’s opinion, there is a period after service during which a former soldier’s mind is simply unsettled, and even those fortunate enough to be surrounded by friends and family during this period still feel completely out of place in everyday civilian life. This article begins with a description of the benefits made available to veterans by the Department of Veterans Affairs, then it details the various categories and classifications of separation and the effect each has on benefit eligibility, then it discusses the burden of a “negative separation,” and finishes with a proposal to help alleviate the problems with the veteran reintegration process.

Downsize or rightsize? Changing KESC to K-ELECTRIC (Case A)

Subject area Organizational restructuring strategy such as downsizing and rightsizing and their effects on organizational performance. Study level/applicability The case can be taught to graduate students of a business administration program for change management or human resources management courses. Case overview The case discusses a structural change strategy followed by a crisis management situation of a Pakistani state-owned enterprise with hierarchical structures, unclear work roles and workplace corruption and its shift toward a profitable company with rebranded mission and values. With the management takeover by the Abraaj Group, several issues were identified as major blocks to K-ELECTRIC’s performance. Drastic changes included information technology advancement, investment in infrastructure of generation capacity, marketing campaigns and corporate social responsibility initiatives with a record profit in 2011-2012, for the first time in 17 years. But, the greatest challenge to quality service and profitability was faced by the human resources department, to retrench 4,459 workers by offering a voluntary separation scheme to non-core management staff in 2009. However, disregarding the successful impact on business performance, only 300 workers (approximately) had accepted the package in early 2010, while the rest questioned the decision of outsourcing non-core jobs and demanded reinstatement with the company, followed by a series of protests in January 2010. K-ELECTRIC needed to make some sensitive and timely decisions to ensure efficient and quality service to its customers as its top agenda. Expected learning outcomes The outcomes include: to understand the challenges faced by a recently privatized public utility service to become lean and efficient without compromising on its public mission of providing electricity to the residents of the city; to analyze the factors that influence choice of restructuring strategies and their effects on the employment relationship and organizational performance; to recognize the critical role of leadership in choosing a voluntary downsizing strategy and analyzing the sense of urgency needed to execute the decision; and to recognize the role of legal and organizational consultancy needed in critical decision-making to prevent workplace violence. Supplementary materials Teaching notes and teaching guide.

Voluntary recycling despite disincentives

This paper assesses the determinants of take-up of a voluntary waste separation scheme, in a scenario where residents sorted, stored and paid for collection of recycling waste even though mixed waste was collected at the kerbside more conveniently, free of charge and without any quantity limits. Uptake of the scheme was positive, persistent and diverse across localities, offering an opportunity to assess the factors determining voluntary participation in the presence of disincentives. We employ a unique panel data-set (n = 4,644) from Malta, including data on recyclable waste kilogrammes collected over the first 86 weeks of the scheme's operation. Drawing on insights from environmental economics and psychology, a model is empirically estimated. Results indicate that uptake is suppressed by the initial constraints households may face and stimulated by collection frequency. Political vote is an important determinant of participation and this interacts with scheme promotion to create diverse uptake rates.

Voluntary transition of the CEO: owner CEOs' sense of self before, during and after transition.

This inductive study explores how former business owner chief executive officers (CEOs) experience sense of self during voluntary separation and transition from their company. Our inquiry engaged 16 CEOs who ran companies ranging in size from 15 to 500 employees as they detailed their stories of walking away from roles as owner CEOs. We developed a coding scheme to analyze themes manifested in the narratives. We also analyzed the former CEOs' narratives using a stage and valence model depicting both the continuum of the separation experience and the characterization of each stage as a positive or negative state of being. The diverse yet synchronous stories resulted in three implications for current owner CEOs, professionals who advise CEOs, and future research on CEOs' careers. First, the CEOs often failed to allocate sufficient time and effort to prepare for an identity shift following the sale of their company or transition into retirement. Second, the CEOs experienced a diminished sense of self and dissatisfaction with the exit event. Third, the majority of the CEOs demonstrated an ability to work through the adverse and unanticipated states of being into a positive sense of self.

Reasons for job separations in a cohort of workers with psychiatric disabilities.

We explored the relative effects of adverse working conditions, job satisfaction, wages, worker characteristics, and local labor markets in explaining voluntary job separations (quits) among employed workers with psychiatric disabilities. Data come from the Employment Intervention Demonstration Program in which 2,086 jobs were ended by 892 workers during a 24 mo observation period. Stepped multivariable logistic regression analysis examined the effect of variables on the likelihood of quitting. Over half (59%) of all job separations were voluntary while 41% were involuntary, including firings (17%), temporary job endings (14%), and layoffs (10%). In multivariable analysis, workers were more likely to quit positions at which they were employed for 20 h/wk or less, those with which they were dissatisfied, low-wage jobs, non-temporary positions, and jobs in the structural (construction) occupations. Voluntary separation was less likely for older workers, members of racial and ethnic minority groups, and those residing in regions with lower unemployment rates. Patterns of job separations for workers with psychiatric disabilities mirrored some findings regarding job leaving in the general labor force but contradicted others. Job separation antecedents reflect the concentration of jobs for workers with psychiatric disabilities in the secondary labor market, characterized by low-salaried, temporary, and part-time employment.

Enterprise-wide risk management and organizational fit: a comparative study

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to analyse enterprise risk management (ERM), its organizational translation and fit, investigating in particular its impact on a major control process: budgeting.Design/methodology/approach– The research was carried out with a multiple case study approach including three companies in the UK. This approach was chosen to gain a deeper understanding of the nature of ERM within each of the organizations and the factors shaping its achievements.Findings– Three main issues emerged. The first is related specifically to ERM implementations and its variety in practice. Second, ERM champions emerged as central in shaping the managerial usefulness of ERM. Third, the cases showed diversity of practice in term of integration with budgeting which range from a voluntary full integration to an voluntary separation.Practical implications– The cases analysed highlighted that the integration between risk and other control processes is a challenge but also a strategic choice. Although conceding that ERM implementation is not linear, companies should reflect upon the type of relations they would like to have between different processes of control.Originality/value– The results of the paper explored ERM organizational fit, evidencing variety in practice and theoretically discussing how this diversity is linked to organizational and technical issues.