The Effect of Major Organizational Policy on Employee Attitudes Toward Graduate Degrees

<p>Leaders initiate policies not only to improve the success of their organizationsbut to influence employee performance whereby employee attitudes toward a policy objective can influence their resulting behaviors. One group of employees Air Forceofficers experienced a policy change in 2005 that discontinued the use of academicdegrees as criteria for officer promotions. With this change there is a concern that thenumber of Air Force officers with graduate degrees might decrease. In particular seniorleaders in the Civil Engineer (CE) officer career field are concerned that this policychange might reduce the number of officers available to fill critical positions identified asrequiring a graduate degree.This study used a web-based survey to assess the attitudes of CE officers towardpursuing graduate degrees and revealed that their attitudes were not impacted by thepolicy change. In fact their perceptions regarding the importance of graduate degreesremain high. In addition the lower their intentions to leave the Air Force the more effortthey expended researching the pursuit of a graduate degree. Most of them reportedresearching graduate degree information at least once during 2005 and intending to earnone by 2010. Therefore senior leaders should not expect to see a decline in the numberof CE officers possessing graduate degrees in the near future.</p><p>This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore you will see the original copyright references library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world) and other notations in the work.</p><p>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America and possibly other nations. Within the United States you may freely copy and distribute this work as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.</p><p>As a reproduction of a historical artifact this work may contain missing or blurred pages poor pictures errant marks etc. Scholars believe and we concur that this work is important enough to be preserved reproduced and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.</p>