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MILITARY PSYCHOLOGY, 20:219236, 2008 Copyright Taylor & Francis Group, LLC ISSN: 0899-5605 print / 1532-7876 online

e DOI: 10.1080/08995600802345113

Psychological Climate, Organizational Commitment and Morale: Implications for Army Captains Career Intent
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Krista L. Langkamer
Aptima, Inc., Washington, D.C.

Kelly S. Ervin
U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, Arlington, VA

The purpose of this research was to examine how work experiences contribute to junior officers intentions to leave the Army. Specifically, we hypothesized that psychological climate perceptions have direct and indirect effects on intent to leave through affective commitment and morale and that affective and continuance commitment interact to predict intent to leave the Army. The sample for this study was 649 captains who responded to an Army-wide survey, the Fall 2002 Sample Survey of Military Personnel. Results demonstrate support for full mediation, indicating that psychological climate impacts intent to leave the Army by influencing captains affective commitment and morale. The psychological climate dimension of leadership had the largest impact on affective commitment, morale, and intent to leave the Army. Affective commitment did not interact with continuance commitment to predict intent to leave. Implications for Army retention policies and leadership are discussed.

All organizations are interested in retaining quality personnel, and nowhere does a lack of quality personnel have such costly implications than in the United States
The content of this report is based on the research conducted by the authors and does not represent the position of the U.S. Army Research Institute, the Army, or the Department of Defense. This research was conducted while the first author was employed by the Consortium Research Fellows Program, U.S. Army Research Institute, Arlington, VA Correspondence should be addressed to Krista L. Langkamer, Aptima, Inc., 1726 M St., NW, Suite 900, Washington, D.C. 20036. E-mail: klangkamer@aptima.com

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FIGURE 1

Illustration of hypothesized relationships.

Army. The Army grows its officer core by investing a significant amount of resources (e.g., training, schooling) in junior officers. The preferred return on this investment is an officers commitment to stay in the Army until full retirement. The strength of the Armys officer core is predicated on whether or not junior officers remain in the Army and advance from company grade officers (2nd lieutenant, 1st lieutenant, and captain) to field grade officers (major, lieutenant colonel, and colonel) and beyond. Spurred by a captains crisis that occurred from 1996 to 2000 in which the number of captains who left the Army before retirement increased from 8 to 14% (Cahlink, 2005), Army leaders realized that an in-depth understanding of the reasons why junior officers leave is needed. The objective of this study was to investigate work experiences and related factors that can affect a captains decision to resign his commission.1 Our model (Figure 1) proposes that work environment perceptions (psychological climate) have a substantial impact on work attitudes (affective commitment and morale), which in turn may lead to considering leaving the Army. We also examined the interaction between affective and continuance commitment. This model illustrates how perceptions of work experiences can impact turnover intentions and, if supported, can be used as a guide for Army leaders in determining what environmental aspects captains view as problematic and influential. Leaders can focus on these aspects while developing policies and programs to positively influence a captains intention to remain in the Army until retirement.

1In addition to the captains crisis, we focused on captains because these officers, by nature of the rank, are at a point in their military career in which they must weigh the costs and benefits of staying in the Army. This cost analysis is more salient at the rank of captain than at any other rank because it represents 4 to 11 years of commissioned service in a possible 20- or 30-year military career

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We begin with a discussion of turnover intentions and then examine psychological climate, commitment, and morale, highlighting relationships with turnover intentions and with one another.

INTENT TO LEAVE THE ARMY (ITLA) To better predict turnover within the officer core, it would serve Army leaders well to understand the intended behaviors of their junior officers. Behavioral intentions are an important part of the turnover process and were demonstrated within an Army sample to be the most proximal predictor of reenlistment decisions (Motowidlo & Lawton, 1984). There is also a strong empirical history in social psychology that illustrates the ability of specific attitudes of planned behaviors to predict actual behavior (Ajzen & Fishbein, 1977), and many studies have demonstrated that intentions are strong cognitive predictors of actual turnover (e.g., Michaels & Spector, 1982; Motowidlo & Lawton, 1984; Steele & Ovalle, 1984; Tett & Meyer, 1993). Motowidlo and Lawton found the relationship between retention intentions and turnover behavior to correlate between .61 and .66. This link between intentions and actual turnover behavior underscores the importance of understanding what factors influence turnover intentions. Such an understanding is especially important to the Army, where retention is of the utmost concern.

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PSYCHOLOGICAL CLIMATE Psychological climate refers to an individuals cognitive appraisal of his organizational environment that assesses the significance and meaning of work environments (James, James, & Ashe, 1990, p. 51). In other words, individuals interpret situational events and predict outcomes by creating perceptions in regard to how beneficial or detrimental the work environment is to their well-being (James et al., 1990; Parker et al., 2003). Psychological climate perceptions were found to be a mediating link between actual organizational events and employee attitudes and behaviors (Parker et al., 2003). This meta-analysis demonstrated that the relationships between psychological climate perceptions and work outcomes such as individual performance and motivation were fully mediated by work attitudes like commitment. Although this work does not specifically examine relationships with employee turnover, these results demonstrate the influence of perceptions on work attitudes, attitudes that can ultimately impact turnover intentions. Much of the research on psychological climate attempts to delineate the multidimensionality of the construct (Kopelman, Brief, & Guzzo, 1990). The most widely used model, conceptualized by James and colleagues (James & Sells, 1981;

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Jones & James, 1979), depicts a multidimensional construct composed of five dimensions: job challenge and autonomy; role stress and lack of harmony; leadership facilitation and support; work group cooperation; and organizational attributes. These multiple dimensions indicate that individuals cognitively assess many types of work experiences (e.g., experiences with ones leader and experiences with ones work group). Although these five dimensions have emerged, a higherorder, general factor (PCg) that represents an individuals overall psychological appraisal of the organizational environment was found (James et al., 1990). One intention of our study was to test this commonly used model using an Army sample.
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ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT Organizational commitment, a very powerful attitude linked to employee behaviors such as performance and retention, can be influenced by work experiences such as organizational support and leadership processes (Meyer, Stanley, Herscovitch, & Topolnytsky, 2002). These meta-analytic results quantitatively demonstrate that a positive or negative work environment can influence organizational commitment. Therefore, it is essential to explore many work experience variables (such as psychological climate) to fully understand how to intensify organizational commitment. Meyer and Allens (1991) tripartite theory of commitment (affective, continuance, and normative) has been used as a theoretical base for many organizational commitment research studies (e.g., Brown, 1996; Gade, Tiggle, & Schumm, 2003). Affective commitment is defined as employees wanting to be a part of an organization; continuance commitment occurs when employees need to be a part of an organization based on the costs associated with leaving; normative commitment is should-based in terms of felt moral obligations. Of importance is that Meyer and Allen considered each of these areas as components, not types, of commitment. This distinction acknowledges a lack of mutual exclusivity, indicating that the components may have additive or multiplicative effects on organizational outcomes when combined and studied together. A few studies have examined the combined influence of affective and continuance commitment. Gade et al. (2003) demonstrated with an Army sample that high levels of both affective and continuance commitment resulted in the highest retention intentions. Sommer (1995) also demonstrated a significant interaction between affective and continuance commitment, such that employees with high affective and low continuance commitment were most likely to remain in the organization. This interaction suggests that feelings of sunk-costs from high continuance commitment can negate the positive effect of affective commitment on retention. Conversely, Jaros (1997) did not find evidence of a significant interaction

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between affective and continuance commitment in the prediction of turnover intentions. These inconclusive findings make it necessary to continue studying the important influences organizational commitment components may have on one another. Therefore, this current study will also examine how affective and continuance commitment interact to predict ITLA.

MORALE Soldier morale is a belief in the emotional bond that holds a team together (Department of the Army, 1999) and is a function of cohesion and esprit de corps (Manning, 1991). It is a primary aspect of combat motivation (Wong, Kolditz, Millen, & Potter, 2003) and is a factor in both Soldier readiness to engage in combat and willingness to reenlist (Motowidlo & Borman, 1978; Schumm, Gade, & Bell, 2003). The morale of military personnel has been a focus of research since World War II and is considered one of the most important attributes needed to sustain a successful Army via individual readiness and organizational attachment (Medalia, Miller, & Delbert, 1955; Schumm & Bell, 2000; Tucker, Sinclair, & Thomas, 2005). We concur that morale is an important variable of study in military research and believe that the effects of morale on a captains intent to leave the Army prior to full retirement need to be examined. Defining morale as being partially a function of unit cohesion indicates that this work attitude, like organizational commitment, has the potential to be impacted by ones surrounding work environment or the perceptions thereof, meaning that psychological climate perceptions have the potential to influence ones morale.

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PROPOSED MODEL AND HYPOTHESES The purpose of this study was to explore antecedents to career intent using a sample of Army captains. Specifically, our model proposed that affective commitment and morale acted as mediators between psychological climate and ITLA. Work attitudes have been shown to be mediators of psychological climate/work outcome relationships (Parker, et al., 2003) and therefore it is logical that variables that are very salient to Army captains (such as affective commitment and morale) should be used as mediators here. Also, because of the equivocal findings regarding the combined impact of affective and continuance commitment, we sought to explore this relationship further. As such, we argue that employee perceptions of the surrounding work environment impact attitudes toward the organization, which in turn influence decisions to remain in the Army until retirement. We propose the following hypotheses (illustrated in Figure 1):

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Hypothesis 1a: There is a positive relationship between individual perceptions of psychological climate and affective commitment. Hypothesis 1b: There is a positive relationship between individual perceptions of psychological climate and individual level of morale. Hypothesis 2: There is a negative relationship between individual perceptions of psychological climate and Army captains intent to leave the Army. Hypothesis 3: The relationship between individual perceptions of psychological climate and intent to leave the Army is partially mediated by affective commitment and morale. Hypothesis 4: Continuance commitment moderates the relationship between affective commitment and intent to leave the Army such that intentions to leave are the lowest when affective commitment is high and continuance commitment is low.

METHOD Sample The sample for this study consisted of 649 captains. The majority (82%) of the captains fell between the ages of 25 and 34, and 82% were males. The majority of the respondents (83%) classified themselves as White, 12% African American, and 6% Asian (percentages total to more than 100% due to allowing respondents to choose more than one response). Measures All measures were taken from the Fall 2002 Sample Survey of Military Personnel (SSMP), which is conducted semi-annually by the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences Army Personnel Survey Office (ARIAPSO). The SSMP population is randomly selected active duty Army personnel. Although Soldiers across all ranks responded to the SSMP, we focused on the captains responses to the survey.

Psychological climate measure. Captains were asked to assess a list of 24 items on a 10-point scale (1 = no problem at all to 10 = serious problem). For example, they rated how much of a problem lack of respect for leaders, work place violence, lack of training, and sexual harassment were in their current unit. Items were recoded so that higher scores indicated more positive psychological climate perceptions. The reliability for this measure was good ( = .88). We believed that these 24 items represented issues of psychological climate as defined and supported in the organizational literature (James & James, 1989;

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Parker et al., 2003). That is, Jones and James (1979) state that psychological climate is a function of individual perceptions of the work environment and, hence, is an evaluation of work experiences. The measure used here required captains to cognitively assess how detrimental situational and relationship issues were in their units, therefore measuring perceptions of the work environment. Moreover, the items used in this analysis of psychological climate are conceptually similar to those created by James and colleagues. For example, items from the original measure targeted thoughts on effort within the work group to carry out difficult tasks; one of our items within the work group dimension asked about perceptions of Soldiers trying to avoid work. Another example of the similarity between the measures can be seen within the organizational dimension; items from both the original measure and the current measure reflected organizational effectiveness specifically in terms of allowing individuals to complete their duties in an efficient manner.

Organizational commitment. Modified versions (Gade et al., 2003) of Meyer and Allens (1991) commitment scales were used. Captains rated four affective commitment items (e.g., I feel like a part of the family in the military) and four continuance commitment items (e.g., One of the problems of leaving the military would be the lack of available alternatives) on a 5-point scale (1 = strongly agree, 5 = strongly disagree); all items were coded with higher scores indicating higher levels of commitment. Both scales demonstrated high reliability ( = .87 for both scales). Soldier morale. Captains were asked to respond to the following question on a 5-point scale (1 = very high, 5 = very low): How would you rate your current level of morale? Items were coded so that higher scores represented higher levels of morale. Although some may question the psychometric properties of single-item measures, two studies by Wanous and colleagues demonstrated that they can be reliably measured. First, Wanous, Reichers, and Hudy (1997) used meta-analytically derived correlations and the correction for attenuation formula to estimate the reliability of a single-item job satisfaction measure; the authors found that a reasonable minimum reliability value for this measure was .70. Second, Wanous and Hudy (2001) demonstrated the reliability of single-item measures of teaching effectiveness by using the correction for attenuation formula and factor analysis techniques. They found an average minimum reliability for the individual-level single-item measure to be .70 across both methods of analysis. These two studies demonstrate that single-item measures, especially those assessing work attitudes, are not overly problematic from a psychometric viewpoint. Career intent. Intent to leave the Army (ITLA) was measured by a wellestablished, single-item measure (e.g., Teplitzky, 1991) that has been found

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to be a strong predictor of continuation or separation behavior (Byrnes & Hoover, 1995). Captains chose the statement (1 = definitely stay in until retirement to 6 = definitely leave upon completion of my present obligation) that best reflected their career intentions. Reponses were coded so that higher scores indicated that respondents were more likely to leave the Army before full retirement.

RESULTS
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Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA): Psychological Climate Items Using the James and James (1989) five-factor model of psychological climate, the 24 survey items were reviewed to see which dimension they conceptually fit. Each item was examined and grouped according to the dimension definitions provided in the literature, allowing for the development of a conceptual model in which our items mapped onto the established psychological climate dimensions. Following this initial theoretical categorization, there were 6 items that fit into the leadership facilitation and support dimension, 2 items in the role stress and lack of harmony dimension, 13 in work group cooperation, and 3 items in the organizational attributes dimension. We did not find that any of the 24 items conceptually fit the job challenge and autonomy dimension. Next, we subjected the 24 items to a CFA using LISREL 8.7, which produced a preliminary model according to the groupings described above that did not fit the data well (RMSEA = .14, NFI = .87, IFI = .88, CFI = .88). Upon further examination of the item loadings and dimension definitions, it appeared that some of the psychological climate items grouped into two unique dimensions not previously defined by James and James (1989). Specifically, we had a number of items that seemed to reflect issues of discrimination and hostility within the captains units. These new dimensions, which we labeled as equal opportunity and antagonistic behavior, tapped into the presence of coworker aggression and fit well into the general definition of psychological climate; discrimination and hostility are most certainly issues that influence whether people perceive their working environment as detrimental to their well-being. Given that empirical work has demonstrated a negative link between coworker aggression and emotional well-being (LeBlanc & Kelloway, 2002), the appraisal of whether or not such behaviors are present and impacting ones well-being represent psychological climate. Based on such theoretical reasoning, we added these two dimensions to our psychological climate measurement model. To improve the fit of the model, beyond the addition of dimensions, we also revisited the items in relation to dimension definitions and made some adjustments.

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First, we did not retain the role stress dimension for further analysis since none of the items loaded strongly, and the added value was minimal. Therefore, our final model consisted of three of the original dimensions proposed by James and James (1989) and two new ones. Second, upon revisiting items and dimension definitions, many of the items were ambiguous enough to fit more than one dimension. For example, an item that asked how much of a problem not dealing with diversity was could theoretically be classified as an issue with leadership, a problem in the work group, or perhaps a problem in the organization as a whole. Also, some items such as alcohol and drugs, did not seem to be as important to the psychological well-being of the captains as other issues such as poor or inept leadership and demonstrated relatively low loadings (.48 vs. .73, respectively). Thus, the fact that model fit improved upon removing more ambiguous or trivial items was not surprising. The final model structure consisted of 16 variables that loaded on five factors (leader, equal opportunity, organization, work group, and antagonistic behavior) and fit the data well. Although the chi-square of our final five-factor model was significant, 2 (94, N = 649) = 463.10, p < .000, we suspect that the significance was due in part to our large sample size, given that the other fit indices demonstrated good model fit (RMSEA = .079, NFI = .95, IFI =. 96, CFI = .96). Because of evidence that psychological climate dimensions collectively comprise a general factor (Parker et al., 2003), we also tested a model that contained a second-order factor structure, meaning that all five dimensions loaded onto a general psychological climate variable. This model demonstrated mediocre fit (RMESA = .089, NFI = .94, IFI = .94, CFI = .94) (MacCallum, Browne, & Sugawara, 1996). For comparison purposes, we also tested a first-order one-factor model that demonstrated poor fit (RMSEA = .19, NFI = .84, IFI = .84, CFI = .84). The results from the CFAs demonstrate that the model with the five first-order factors and no second-order factor fit the data the best. This seems to indicate that certain dimensions are more influential in determining psychological climate perceptions than others. Therefore, instead of merely testing our hypotheses using a general psychological climate variable, our analyses were also conducted with each individual psychological climate dimension as the independent variable. The final model and the results for this 16-item CFA are shown in Figure 2. Our psychological climate dimensions were not an exact replica of the model proposed by James and colleagues, nor did we expect to mimic the original model because our items were unique. However, we assert that because captains were required to cognitively assess their perceptions of their working environment, our measure tapped into dimensions of psychological climate. Parker et al. (2003) found that compared to the other dimensions, the dimensions involving perceptions of leader, work group, and organization had the strongest relationships with

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FIGURE 2

Confirmed factor structure and loadings for psychological climate measure.

work attitudes; these three dimensions are the ones that were retained in our analyses. Along with those three dimensions, the CFA provided us with the support needed to include equal opportunity and antagonistic environment as two new theoretical psychological climate dimensions.

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Descriptive Statistics The means, standard deviations, and correlations for all measures are presented in Table 1. Although the majority of the variables were significantly correlated, based on current standards (Cohen, Cohen, West, & Aiken, 2003), the variance inflation factors did not indicate multicollinearity (ranged from 1.2 to 1.5), and all relationships were in the expected direction. Mediated Regression: General Psychological Climate Variable
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The results of the mediated regression for the general psychological climate variable are in Table 2. We first found support for Hypothesis (1a) that there is a positive relationship between psychological climate and affective commitment ( = .25, R2 = .06, p < .01). The second part of the first Hypothesis (1b) predicted a significant, positive relationship between psychological climate and morale and was also supported ( = .46, R2 = .22, p < .01). These findings support the first part of our hypothesized model. Our second hypothesis, that psychological climate and ITLA have a negative relationship, was also supported ( = -.21, R2 = .04, p < .01). Our final step was to test the mediating effects of morale and affective commitment on ITLA. The two mediators were entered as a set, and our final hypothesis predicting partial mediation was not supported ( = -.01, n.s.); this nonsignificant regression weight provided evidence of full mediation (Baron & Kenny, 1986), meaning that
TABLE 1 Means, Standard Deviations, and Intercorrelations Among Variables Variable 1. PC general 2. Leader PC 3. Work group PC 4. Organizational PC 5. Antagonistic behavior PC 6. Equal opportunity PC 7. Affective commitment 8. Continuance commitment 9. Morale 10. Intent to leave M 7.58 6.45 7.04 5.84 9.42 SD 1.34 2.48 2.03 2.46 .91 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

.79** .79** .74** .51** .58** .24** .06

.56** .46** .22** .27** .28** .11**

.44** .31** .36** .22** .06

.23** .21** .09* .03 .51** .09* .03 .12* .09* .18** .03 .29**

9.14 1.49 3.64 .81

2.71 1.02

3.33 .93 .46** .49** .38** .33** 3.15 1.64 .21** .23** .18** .11**

.16** .45** .20** .08* .45** .39**

Note. n = 649; **p < .01; *p < .05; All Psychological Climate dimensions were measured on a 10-point scale, while all other variables were on a 5-point scale. PC = Psychological Climate.

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TABLE 2 Regression Weights and Variance Explained:General Psychological Climate Model Dependent variable: Affective commitment STEP 1 Psychological Climate R2 Dependent variable: Morale Psychological Climate R2 Dependent variable: Intent to leave STEP 2 Psychological Climate R2 STEP 3 Psychological Climate Affective commitment Morale R2 Note: **p < .01 SE

.24** .06** .45** .20**

.04

.04

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.20** .04** .01 .34 .24** .25**

.04

.04 .04 .04

when affective commitment and morale were entered into the model, psychological climate no longer had a direct effect on ITLA. Therefore, our final model, with all of the variables entered, resulted in a moderate effect size (R2 = .25), indicating that psychological climate, morale, and affective commitment collectively explained 25% of the variance in an Army captainsintent to leave the Army before retirement. Mediated Regression: Individual Psychological Climate Dimensions Based on the CFA results, we suspected that some of the dimensions in the general psychological climate variable may be driving the tested relationships more than others. Therefore, to not wash out important differences, we conducted the same regression analyses with each individual psychological climate dimension (leader, work group, organization, equal opportunity, and antagonistic behavior) as a separate predictor. Results indicated that the leader dimension was the only one to significantly predict ITLA. With the leader dimension as our sole predictor, results were analogous to those with the general psychological climate variable, albeit slightly stronger. The relationship between the leader dimension and ITLA was fully mediated by affective commitment and morale, with all predictors explaining 25% of the variance in ITLA. The results for all regression analyses are shown in Figures 3a3e. Each of the mediated regressions is illustrated by a figure depicting

(a)

(b)

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(c)

(d)

(e)

FIGURE 3

(a)(e) Mediated regression analyses for each psychological climate dimension.

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the specific relationship and the standardized regression weights. Due to the large sample size, relying on traditional significance values is not practical; therefore, only those relationships demonstrating an R2 of .04 or higher are considered significant (according to standards of a small effect size; Cohen, 1992). Based on this criterion, as mentioned, the only dimension with a significant relationship with ITLA was the leader dimension. These results demonstrated that although the general psychological climate factor was a significant predictor of ITLA, perceptions of leaders may be the most important influence. As suggested by Parker (1999), aggregating psychological climate perceptions into one general factor can potentially obfuscate important relationships existing between individual dimensions and outcomes of interest. We will discuss these results and their implications for leadership below. The Influence of Continuance Commitment Finally, we tested the multiplicative effect of affective and continuance commitment on ITLA by using moderated regression with centered predictors to reduce the impact of multicollinearity among interaction terms (Aiken & West, 1991). The analysis did not support our hypothesis ( = -.02, n.s.) indicating that more work needs to examine the simultaneous influence that organizational commitment components can have on retention intentions and other outcomes.

DISCUSSION We examined how work experiences can influence Army captains career intent. Specifically, psychological climate, affective and continuance commitment, and morale were predictors of intent to leave the Army before retirement. Results supported affective commitment and morale as fully mediating the link between psychological climate and intent to leave. Analyses did not support an interaction between affective and continuance commitment. The relationship between the components of commitment should be explored further in different settings. Our findings illustrated that perceptions of leaders strongly influence assessments of ones working environment. Although we were surprised that none of the other individual psychological climate dimensions impacted turnover intentions, it was not surprising that the leader dimension exerted the strongest influence on work attitudes and turnover intentions. Leaders serve as direct representatives of organizations (Eisenberger, Stinglhamber, Vandenberghe, Sucharski, & Rhoades, 2002) and are likely to influence work attitudes and turnover intentions. Data from several focus groups conducted by us with both junior and senior Army officers tell us that experiences with first commanders are very influential in junior officers retention decisions. Such anecdotal evidence and the idea of leaders serving

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as organizational representatives indicates that leader behaviors perceived as detrimental to ones well-being may lead to deciding to leave the organization. These results have important implications for both research and practice. First, the analyses conducted with the individual psychological climate dimensions illustrated the importance of teasing out what is driving relationships and may be helpful in detecting interactions among commitment components. A recent common practice in commitment research (e.g., Vandenberghe, Bentein, & Stinglhamber, 2004) is to delineate different foci of commitment (e.g., organizational vs. supervisor commitment). By clearly and specifically defining the target of commitment, interactions among the components of organizational commitment may be easier to detect. Practically, leaders can exert a substantial influence over subordinate work attitudes and can be trained to understand this impact. Such training may be especially cogent for senior Army commanders leading junior officers as they make decisions about their Army career. Thus, perceptions of leader behavior may ultimately influence the effectiveness and readiness of the force. Our findings contribute to the psychological climate literature by adding to the traditional psychological climate dimensions, notably those of antagonistic behavior and equal opportunity. Although issues such as work place aggression and discrimination have enjoyed significant focus in the literature (e.g., Collier, 2005; Department of Defense, 2005; Faley et al., 2006), these areas have yet to be studied conceptually as psychological climate dimensions. They are important to consider because of the damaging effects that an antagonistic or discriminatory environment can have on employees (e.g., Ensher, Grant-Vallone, & Donaldson, 2001). Although we found evidence for these dimensions with a very unique organization, we believe that these dimensions also can be upheld in a civilian organization. Future research on psychological climate should continue to explore antagonistic behavior and equal opportunity as psychological climate dimensions.

LIMITATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS We acknowledge that since our analysis was limited to captains who responded to the SSMP, it may not be possible to generalize results to all Army captains. Another possible limitation is the use of all self-report measures, which may result in common method variance. However, if all of the relationships were upwardly biased, as is a common result of method bias (Conway, 2002), nonsignificant relationships would not have been found. Also, due to constraints in accessing Soldiers, most data collections using Army samples are conducted using self-report measures. Additionally, two of our constructs (morale and ITLA) were measured by single-items. However, based on the reliability of such measures in past research, we do not see this as overly problematic. Future research should strive to

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incorporate multi-method data collection strategies with multi-item measures. A longitudinal design would also be useful in informing a more comprehensive model. A better understanding of how Army captains assess their work environment is valuable knowledge that Army leaders can use when developing retention programs. A thorough understanding of these relationships allows leaders to take either preemptive actions to ensure that captains will not interpret their work environment as detrimental to their well-being or corrective actions to mitigate negative psychological climate perceptions. Such proactive leadership can help to ensure that junior officers grow into senior officers, strengthening the Army in the process.
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