Research Summaries

Back The Effects of Minority/Female Role Models and Diversity on Retention

Fiscal Year 2020
Division Research & Sponsored Programs
Department NPS Naval Research Program
Investigator(s) Tick, Simona L.
Arkes, Jeremy A.
Sponsor NPS Naval Research Program (Navy)
Summary This project will examine how greater diversity among leadership (role models) and peers affects first-term retention. The diversity measures are based on the percentage of leadership or peers on a Sailorâ¿¿s first ship assignment who are of certain minority racial/ethnic groups and who are female. This builds from student theses from last year, which found evidence among three platforms (103 ships) that some measures of greater diversity among enlisted leadership led to higher retention for both minorities and non-minorities.

In the proposed project, our contributions will be: (1) examining the effects of diversity among not just leadership, but also peers; (2) increasing the power of the analysis by expanding the data to include more platforms; (3) examining the effects of diversity within ratings on larger ships; and (4) attempting to add a basic qualitative analysis to explore reasons why there might be diversity effects.

The Research Questions for the proposed project are:

RQ#1: What is the effect of greater diversity among leadership and peers on retention of minority and non-minority enlisted Sailors and Officers?

RQ#2: How do any effects of diversity among leadership and peers on the retention of minorities and non-minorities vary by platform, and by diversity dimensions (race/ ethnicity, gender)?

RQ#3: What are the possible explanations for the effect of greater diversity among leadership on retention of minority and non-minority, and what are the policy implications for boosting retention among minorities and non-minorities?

From administrative DMDC data, we will regress the Sailorâ¿¿s eventual reenlistment decision on variables representing leadership and peers of: the % female, % Black, and % Hispanic.

Our primary deliverables will be a formal report for the U.S. Navy, along with a formal 2-page summary for the U.S. Naval Institute.
Keywords
Publications Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal
Data Publications, theses (not shown) and data repositories will be added to the portal record when information is available in FAIRS and brought back to the portal