FY88 Biennial Survey of Army Civilians: Formation of Item Composites and Investigation of Broad Demographic Trends

The Civilian Leadership Research Program was established in 1987 to improve the leadership of Army civilian personnel. A major component of the research was the development of baseline measures of organizational and personnel factors through which the effectiveness of personnel initiatives could be evaluated. This report describes the analyses conducted on responses of a sample of about 9,000 Army civilians to the FY 1988 Army-wide biennial survey. Through factor and item analyses of the survey questions, a number of more comprehensive and reliable measures were formed by combining responses from two or more questions. In the process, items that were essentially redundant or difficult to interpret were identified for possible deletion in future surveys. In addition, differences among various types of employees in the patterns of their baseline measures and responses to the individual questionnaire items were identified. For example, in general, male personnel responded more favorably to the questionnaire items than did females, younger personnel had lower levels of job satisfaction, and more educated employees expressed more willingness to leave their jobs. Baseline measures, Leadership, Civilian personnel, Personnel management, Personnel trends.