Imagery of Regent people and campus

Dissertation Abstract


John P. Smith, II
November 2010

Motivation and job satisfaction are central themes in leadership studies and are used to describe the forces acting on or within an organism to initiate, direct, and sustain behavior (Petri, 1986). Despite an increased interest in studying the American wars of the past and how they have impacted service members and the families, many of the studies have focused on deployment separation and redeployment adjustment issues as they relate to mental, physical, and economic struggles. Still yet, a number of studies have suggested that self-efficacy and spirituality have a positive impact on job satisfaction and motivation to lead (MTL) and that transformational leadership may moderate these variables. Hence, while family, the economy, physical and mental challenges of war, and leadership are vital to a soldier's success, there has been very little mention about how a soldier's self-efficacy and spirituality may impact their MTL and job satisfaction during conflict and when they return from war. There have been no studies in the past that have focused specifically on the effects of self-efficacy and spirituality on the job satisfaction and MTL among redeploying soldiers as moderated by transformational leadership. In this regard, I focus on leaders and future leaders who have recently returned from war and whether or not spirituality, self-efficacy, and transformational leadership impact the job satisfaction and MTL among these soldiers. Building upon previous studies, findings expand the breadth of knowledge in the fields of inquiry. Using participants from various units within the U.S. Army, I conducted this study to (a) examine the relationships between the two predictor constructs of spirituality and self-efficacy and the outcome constructs of job satisfaction and MTL, (b) check for the effects of moderation by transformational leaders, and (c) test the construct validity of Chan and Drasgow's (2001) MTL scale using factor analysis.