Called to Serve: Exploring the Relationship Between Career Calling,Career Plateaus,and Organizational Commitment in the U.S. Military

Abstract

Experiencing career as a calling has implications for an individual’s career trajectory; yet, little is known about whether calling relates to career plateaus, which have the potential to stall an employee’s career path. This relationship is particularly interesting for members of the U.S. military, who have a relatively prescribed set of career experiences and opportunities. Serving in the U.S. military requires potential sacrifice, loyalty, and a sense of moral duty, all characteristics of what it means to experience one’s career as a calling. Yet, research has largely neglected to examine callings in the context of military service. We address these gaps by examining the relationships between career calling, career plateaus, and organizational commitment. We also examine whether social capital moderates these relationships via complementary or substitution effects. Using a two-wave survey sample of 237 officers, we found that calling negatively related to content career plateaus which in turn mediated calling’s positive relationship to commitment. Social capital moderated this mediation in a manner to suggest substitution effects. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on military careers, career as a calling, and affective commitment, as well as for practicing military officers and their leadership.