MINI CONCEPT VETERAN LEADERSHIP PAPER 1
Mini Concept Paper
DBA: Business Administration
Liberty University
Dr. James Latour
May 10 , 2023
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Introduction
Background
Everyone is afforded the right to human dignity in life and through the work that they do
to contribute to society. The contract that we are given is we exchange our skills to a company
for pay. In the bible the lord says everyone is made in his image, meaning we are all the same
and shouldn’t be treated differently. Unfortunately, in the business world, veterans are often left
out of opportunities and chances to get equal rights to employment opportunities in leadership.
This could lead to underemployed veterans as well as strong leaders having their right to being
treated fairly in the workplace due to company’s inadequate goal setting within the human
dignity framework.
Problem Statement
The general problem to be addressed is the lack of corporate veteran hiring programs
leading to a decrease and lack of veterans in corporate roles resulting from hiring managers
negative biases against veterans resulting in underemployment of veterans. According to an
article written by John Dexter (2020) their study found that enlisted leadership personnel (E-4–
E-9) are more effective civilian managers due to the similarities in hands-on leadership
experiences (p.489). A second article supported that veteran hiring programs are difficult to
implement due to unknown factors and difficulty bridging the gap from military to civilian
(Blank, 2019). A third article supports research that shows top leadership transformation
programs have been modeled after military leadership practices through a careful study and
found they lack veterans in the programs that run them to create impact (Shafique & Kalyar
2018).
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The specific problem to be addressed is that corporate hiring programs don’t possess the
knowledge or framework to implement veteran hiring programs that result in the increase of
veteran leadership roles.
Conceptual/Theoretical Framework & Design
Premise: Organizational Role theory states that organizations have defined traits for
leadership roles throughout the organization which is the basis for human resource management
programs (Bright, 2022). Those traits are values, resilience, and resourcefulness. Expanding
upon this theory by adding concepts of veteran leadership traits and corporate human resource
hiring programs. This theory will allow the framework to be examined in each segment to ask
and answer questions from that give quantifiable data.
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Research Paradigm
Leadership theory has many branches that can be navigated, the one that will be focused
on is leadership trait and skills that veterans possess through a qualitative study (Charli, 2022).
The use of the attached survey will be used to gather data from veterans who are currently in
leadership positions and those who are underemployed in their current position. This qualitative
data will be gathered to create the empirical data that is currently missing from current research
in the field of veteran leadership inequities.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this qualitative study is to expand the understanding of the reasons behind
why veterans are not in higher echelon leadership positions post military service and the impact
it has on veterans’ growth opportunities in corporate roles (Shafique,2018). The research will
seek to determine the main driving factors why corporate hiring programs are lacking in veteran
centric hiring practices (Dexter,2020). The larger problem of quality veteran leaders that have
proven successful in some of the most hostile work environments around the world are lacking in
leadership roles will be explored through an in-depth analysis study of the top fifty fortune 500
companies hiring programs (Burns, 2019). This will help understand the complete lack of
established corporate veteran hiring practices in the United States that results in a data driven
approach to fill the gaps in the existing research in a post war climate.
Significance of Study
The lack of veteran leadership in corporate roles has led to a decline in innovative
leadership traits and unique experience in corporate planning. This has been a result of non-
veteran centric leadership hiring practices that were created by human resource managers with
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little understanding of veterans (Blank,2019). The development of veteran programs has been
slow across the United States and the world as evidenced by the corporate leader representation
across the top companies in the fortune 500 (Blank,2019).
In the post pandemic business world, human resource managers need to pivot their
traditional hiring models and include new practices to attract and retain top tier veteran leaders
(Dexter, 2020). For all companies it’s important to have a clearly defined hiring program that is
defined for civilians and veterans to address the shortcomings. To remain competitive and
constantly adjust to the ever-evolving need for quality leaders, corporate human resources
managers must change practices to address the pitfalls of current hiring practices as the veteran
population increases (Shafique, 2018).
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Research Questions
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Design with Rationale
The design that’s best suited to answer the question behind why veterans are not in higher
echelon leadership positions post military service and the impact it has on veterans’ growth
opportunities in corporate roles. This design would have to be a mixed design that leads to a
more qualitative design with a correlation method. This is because of the lack of empirical data
that exists in current literature and peer revied research. This would require in-person
engagement in certain pinpointed locations. These locations would seek to gather data from
hiring managers and surveying veterans who are job seekers or under employed leaders. The
framework will allow the research to cultivate relevant and accurate data across the business
MINI CONCEPT VETERAN LEADERSHIP PAPER 8
sector of leaders to find the gaps in hiring programs for veterans that has underemployed
veterans who have the qualifications to be in top leadership positions.
Discussion of Design Method with Rationale
Using a mixed methods design method will allow for a deeper qualitative understanding
due to the lack of empirical data regarding the questions to be answered (Ebneyamini, 2022). The
data that exists solely focuses on civilian human resources design frameworks and corporate
leadership programs. The use of case study will be used to collect the data over a period of
established time because the data will need to come from multiple business companies in
different fields of work as leaders come from every industry. Second, action research will be
employed as being a veteran personal data is relevant and will to be an active participant in the
study as well as connect with other veterans to encourage feedback and gathering of data.
Summary
Ultimately this paper will use a mixed method with qualitative research that will require
boots on the ground approach to gather and collect the data that is missing. The usage of this data
will help shape the narrative to answer the questions of hiring programs for veterans and veterans
being underemployed due to human resource departments training and veteran hiring programs.
The use of the survey and utilizing current research on leadership trait theory will aid in rounding
out the research framework.
MINI CONCEPT VETERAN LEADERSHIP PAPER 9
Attachment
As part of my DBA research dissertation at Liberty University, I am conducting a survey that
investigates “Veterans current leadership roles and underemployment due to HR hiring
practices.” I would appreciate it if you could complete the following questionnaire. Any
information obtained in connection with this study that could identify you will remain
confidential.
Respondent’s Details:
Name:___________________ Age:_________________ Gender:_______
Branch Of Service:___________ Rank:__________ Education_____________
1. I was hired to a position that meets my skills Y/N
2. I feel I am underemployed in my position Y/N
3. My companies hiring program identified my Veteran status Y/N
If employed in a leadership role answer the following questions
1. I feel my leadership role equates to my military service level Y/N
2. I currently hold an executive level leadership position Y/N
3. I currently hold a senior level leadership role Y/N
4. I currently hold an Area Manager or Supervisor Role Y/N
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References
Blank, H. D. (2019). Corporate Treatment of Veterans as an ESG Factor and a Potential Source
of Incremental Returns. 1), 75-93. Review of Business, 39(
https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A572144947/GBIB?
u=vic_liberty&sid=summon&xid=80457acc
Bright, L. (2022). Why does PSM lead to higher work stress? exploring the role that
organizational identity theory has on the relationship between public service motivation
and external-related stress among federal government employees. Public Organization
Review, 22(3), 803-820. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-021-00546-0
Charli, M. S., Eshete, S. K., & Debela, K. L. (2022). Learning how research design methods
work: A review of Creswell’s research design: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed
methods approaches. (12), 2956-2960. Qualitative Report, 27
https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2022.5901
Dexter, J. C. (2020). Human resources challenges of military to civilian employment transitions.
Career Development International, 25(5), 481–500. https://doi.org/10.1108/cdi-02-2019-
0032
Elliott, A., Lang, S., Truby, H., Brennan, L., & Gibson, S. (2022). Tackling the challenge of
treating obesity using design research methods: A scoping review. Obesity Reviews,
23(2), e13360-n/a. https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13360
Ebneyamini, S. (2022). Towards developing a framework for conducting management studies
using design research methodology. , International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 21
160940692211122. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069221112245
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Shafique, I., & Kalyar, M. (2018). Linking transformational leadership, absorptive capacity, and
corporate entrepreneurship. Administrative Sciences, 8(2), 9.
https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci8020009
