A Program Evaluation of the U.S. Army's Employee Career Development Program

By

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

First of all, it would give me great pleasure to show my gratitude to my professor, for his/her propositions, remarks, understanding and patience. It would also be an honor to express gratitude to my parents, my mother, my father, my sister and my brother for their endless support in my life and allowing me to make all my decisions. I would also like to take the opportunity to show appreciation to my co-workers for their expert cooperation on every occasion. I would also like to be grateful to the Department, managers of the university, instructors and students who have supported me throughout this research.

DECLARATION

I declare that the content presented in this thesis/dissertation is, in my understanding and opinion, original and has not been presented for scholarly assessment in the past, either completely or partly, for an academic degree at this educational institution or elsewhere. I would also like to admit that I have studied and understood the principles, prerequisites, processes and guidelines of the University regarding the higher academic degree research award and to my dissertation. I would also like to declare that I have abided by the University's principles, prerequisites, processes and guidelines.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTii

DECLARATIONiii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Problem1

Purpose of the Study2

Theoretical Framework3

Assumptions4

Scope of the Research Study5

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW6

Organizational Training and Development6

Training6

Training Plans7

Elements of the Staff Development Program8

Paths of Commissioned Officer in U.S Army9

Gaps in Literature11

Officer Personnel Management System11

Career Management12

Critical Social Theory15

Socio-Technical Systems Theory15

Total Army Performance Evaluation System19

Supervisors as Mentors19

Mentoring for Civilian Members of the Force20

Benefits of Mentoring21

Career Development Training for Civilians in United States Army21

Implementation of Total Quality Management22

CHPATER 3: METHODLOGY25

Research Design25

Instrumentation26

Field Procedures26

Sample/Participants27

Data Collection and Recording Procedures27

Data Processing and Analysis Procedures28

Methodological Assumptions28

Methodological Limitations29

Ethical Considerations29

CHAPTER 4: ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION31

Involvement of Management50

Supervisor involvement with Career Development Plan50

Effective Supervisors51

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION54

REFERENCES56

APPENDICES61

QUESTIONNAIRE61

Survey Results66

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Career development programs are designed for providing individuals with career awareness, self development, and career decision making skills. In this research study, the researcher has analyzed the career development program of the Department of the Army (DA) Civilians (DAC) working at Fort Gordon, Georgia's (Fort Gordon) Directorate of Logistics (DOL), for the identification of the predicaments in the program. The evaluation of the current career development program revealed that the DOL has not implemented the career development program in an appropriate manner. The strategy for the current career development program was not created and updated with the coalition of the supervisors. In addition, the researcher noticed the fact that the DACs had not received proper career development counseling, which has resulted in low job satisfaction among the employees, it has also demoralized the employees and their level of motivation has decreased drastically. This was because the management/supervisors had not employed any of the low to no-cost tools of employee development such as; mentoring, cross-training, job rotation, feedback and suggestions. A major issue which was identified by the researcher regarding the current career development program was that the DA interns were trained, mentored and rotated to different job within the ...