Examination of the Relations of Personality to Enlisted Retention Decisions

Organizational effectiveness depends on the ability to recruit, select and classify, train, and retain well-qualified personnel. Although these challenges apply to any organization, they can be especially difficult for the military with its unique organizational structure and job requirements. Retention efforts focus on providing incentives for military members to stay in the military. The purpose of this effort was to examine whether selection factors that have shown utility for predicting training and job performance are also related to retention decisions. Our objective was to determine whether generic non-cognitive profiles could be identified for enlisted military personnel who tend to stay (or leave) the military. Analyses of experimental personality measures indicated statistically significant, but weak relationships with retention decisions. Scores for three of the Big Five domains (Neuroticism, Openness, and Extraversion were related to retention. Those who chose to stay in were more emotionally stable, less extraverted, and less open than those who chose to separate. Three biodata measures (marital status, number of dependents, and enlisted grade) exhibited strong relations with retention. When these biodata variables were used as a baseline, the incremental validity of the personality measures was very small.