| dc.description.abstract | The U.S. Military Veteran experience in the context of their transition toward civilian life after military service has received a vast amount of research attention. Recently, the U.S. exit from the 21-year long war in Afghanistan has led to a renewed interest in the U.S. Military Veteran transition and the role of social support in facilitating a successful transition and the effectiveness of different interventions and support programs that claim to help Veterans adjust to civilian life. While this issue is certainly complex, our research is scoped to understand how Tennessee can leverage U.S. Military Veteran talent to improve its current and future labor shortages, and thus, increase Veteran Labor Force Participation Rates (LFPR) in the state.
Tennessee is geographically positioned to tap into the transitioning Veteran talent pool yet has not formalized a pipeline for recruitment. State-level initiatives have attracted companies to relocate from other locations, creating further demand to fill certain vocational areas within the states labor force. Given the aforesaid context, Tennessee has no traceable, systematic, or unified presence to systematically tap into this talent pool, further to this point, the State’s resources are not organized to aid in the transition. Our research seeks to understand what factors or barriers affect labor participation among Veterans and transitioning military seeking to secure a job as they transition their identity from that of a service-member to a civilian? What are they and how are they understood and by whom are they acknowledged, if at all?
The U.S. Military Veteran experience in respect to reintegration into the civilian labor force forms consistent prominence within research arenas, with particular focus on Veteran mental health crises, resulting stereotypes, and shifting identity paradigms as factors which affect successful reintegration into the civilian workforce after military service. The recent U.S. exit from its 21-year long war in Afghanistan and the resulting uptick in service members departing the military in search of civilian reintegration induces a compelling need to re-address Veteran reintegration holistically--as a business case attuned to the complexity of Veteran experiences against the backdrop of social identity theories. This study aims to expand knowledge through systematic investigation for which the findings may contribute to further understanding of the complexity of Veteran reintegration as it intersects with business contexts. Although our study does focus on the context of Tennessee's Veteran landscape; public, private and state policy findings may be applicable and generalizable to all contexts outside of Tennessee, given that the military to civilian transition process is a systemic, national issue. | |
