Three Essays Examining the Stress Processes of Non-Veterans and Veterans of the United States Military in the Civilian Workplace

Although there are millions of Veterans of the United States military (i.e., Veterans) currently working in civilian organizations, and millions of unemployed Veterans seeking jobs in civilian organizations, little research has examined if, how, and to what extent Veterans and non-Veterans (i.e., individuals without any military experience) experience workplace stress in civilian organizations differently. In my dissertation, I completed three research essays to address this gap in the stress literature. In the first essay, I developed a conceptual model of Veterans' workplace stress that incorporated the role of chronic strain resultant from Veterans' experiences while in the military. In the second essay, I tested an empirical model of workplace stress that accounted for the role of perceptions of hindrance stressors, challenge stressors, and organizational goodness-of-fit on employees' personal and organizational outcomes (i.e., job tension, vigor, job satisfaction, work intensity, interpersonal deviance, work-family interference). In the third essay, I built off of the findings from the second essay by exploring the role of self-regulation at work in the stress process.