Employability Issues

Whilst there is extensive research on the organisational culture associated with service organisations such as the police, military and emergency services (Cochran & Bromley, 2003; Prenzler, 1997; Prenzler & Ronken, 2003; Sever, 2008; Stinchcomb, 2004), particularly in the sense of organisational culture and trauma (Restubog, Scott & Zagenczyk, 2011), and its effect on members of the organisations, there is limited research specifically targeted at employability issues post-service. Literature from several key areas was examined with an ultimate focus on occupational mobility (DiPrete, 1988; Hayes & Fitzgerald, 2009) and human capital (Becker, 1964) and how this may influence identity work. A natural digression occurred during the literature examination into the areas of social resource theory (Otto et al., 2011), social capital and labour market trends (Behtoui & Neergaard, 2012), all of which helped shape the research problem and target the research questions. It is worthwhile taking a moment to define some of these terms to explain the intentions of the use of each of these subject areas and the relevance to the research.  

Much of the literature includes human capital in the measure of an individual’s social capital which is that individual’s value as measured amongst their network of relationships in society. The literature is extensive across this range of terms and many of the definitions are intertwined, but for the purposes of this research, the literature was reviewed for its elements that contributed to a greater understanding of human capital and occupational mobility, and how they contributed to an individual’s identity development work as relevant to the former members of the police, military and emergency services. The term human capital is best defined using Becker’s theory from 1964 that proposes employees acquire two types of skill as a result of their exposure to the labour market, those that are transferable and those that are not. The issue for former members of police, military and emergency services is the non-transferable nature of many of their skills. Dobbie and MacMillan (2012) elaborate to describe transferable skills as general skills and non-transferable skills as firm-specific skills. Much of the research shows a connection between these skill sets and earnings (Dobbie & MacMillan, 2012; Kilpatrick & Felmingham, 1996), with general labour market skills measured by age and adjusted by education levels and firm-specific skills measured by firm tenure (Dobbie & MacMillan, 2012). In addition, studies have shown that earnings are also linked to occupation-specific skills, and industry-specific skills, essentially creating four categories of human capital for consideration (Dobbie & MacMillan, 2012; Kwon & Milgrom, 2014; Lazear & Oyer, 2004; Shaw, 1984). In the context of earnings, the research conducted across decades and countries has concluded that firm-specific skills have the lowest return, followed by occupation-specific and industry-specific skills, with general skills having the highest return (Dobbie & MacMillan, 2012; Kwon & Milgrom, 2014; Lazear & Oyer, 2004; Shaw, 1984). However, if earnings are not the primary motivator for post-service employment choices and subsequent satisfaction, then human capital measured by earnings is not as significant a benchmark. Instead, human capital needs to be measured by the nature of achievable employment in a post-service environment, particularly with a focus on reducing underemployment. What is interesting about these findings is that the introduction of occupation and industry-specific skills as a category influenced the return on firm-specific skills. Where before, firm-specific skills may have held their own against general skills, the additional categories revealed this to not be the case, reducing the contribution of firm-related skills and tenure to worker earnings (Neal, 1995; Parent, 2000). This creates a confusing environment for former service members as they try to navigate their worth in a post-service environment and try to ascertain which of their skills are transferable, and which are positive contributions to new employment.