Todd Woodruff’s research while affiliated with United States Military Academy and other places

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Publications (12)


Revisiting Propensity to Serve and Motivations to Enlist: Insights and Implications for Contemporary Military Recruitment Challenges and Research
  • Article

June 2024

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49 Reads

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2 Citations

Armed Forces & Society

Todd Woodruff

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As recruitment challenges persist, understanding enlistment motivations remains pivotal in ensuring military readiness and guiding evolving recruitment strategies. This article examines the enduring relevance of the 2006 study “ Propensity to Serve and Motivation to Enlist Among American Combat Soldiers” by Woodruff, Kelty, and Segal and underscores its significance amid contemporary military recruitment challenges. The original article was selected to be profiled as part of the 50th anniversary issue. Building on work by some of the most important names in military sociology, our research underscores the critical importance of understanding the complex interplay of factors influencing enlistment decisions and the effects of declining propensity to serve for all-volunteer militaries. By recognizing the multifaceted nature of enlistment motivations, we emphasize the importance of tailored approaches to attract diverse cohorts of recruits. Our study not only contributes to military sociology and recruiting actions but has also informed policy discussions, stimulated interdisciplinary research, and facilitated the transmission of scholarly knowledge and mentorship to future generations of scholars and leaders.



The Positive and Negative Effects of Social Status on Ratings of Voice Behavior: A Test of Opposing Structural and Psychological Pathways
  • Article
  • Publisher preview available

October 2021

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192 Reads

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23 Citations

Journal of Applied Psychology

We examine how social status-the amount of respect and admiration conferred by others-is related to leader ratings of team member voice. In a field study using 373 West Point cadets nested in 60 squads, we find that there are two countervailing pathways linking social status to leader voice ratings: A positive structural path via instrumental network centrality and a negative psychological path via perceived image risk. In addition, we show that these relationships are contingent upon a relational moderator, such that high-quality team interpersonal relationships weakened the positive indirect effect via instrumental network centrality but strengthened the negative indirect effect via image risk. Two post hoc experiments provided preliminary support for our arguments that perceived image risk causes people to deliver their voice in a manner that is more acceptable to recipients and ruled out several alternative explanations. The results of our multilevel analyses shed new light on how, why, and when social status impacts leader ratings of voice. In doing so, we challenge assumptions in the extant voice research and open avenues for future research. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).

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Hypothetical leaders with different trust velocities over time
Graphic representation of the effects of trust stability and change on leader effectiveness. Starting Trust refers to Trust at T1; Ending Trust refers to Trust at T2
Exemplar leaders exhibiting increase (Solid Lines), stability (Dotted Line), and decrease (Dashed Line) in trust over time
Trust in leader across time and expectations
Trust in leader across time and transformational leadership
Understanding the Change and Development of Trust and the Implications for New Leaders

July 2021

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306 Reads

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11 Citations

Journal of Business Ethics

Leaders, particularly new leaders, seek to establish high levels of trust, as it has been associated with higher levels of effectiveness and group outcomes. This study is designed to understand how trust changes and develops for leaders in a new role and the implications of that change. Although calls for research on trust over time have been made for the past 2 decades, our knowledge of this phenomenon is still quite limited. The findings indicate that leader and unit performance is a function not only of absolute trust level, but is also affected by the direction and magnitude of change in trust across time periods, with the highest levels of effectiveness being associated with leaders who exhibited an increase in trust from the group over time. The data also suggest that the direction and rate at which trust grew was determined by initial expectations and transformational leadership behaviors.



TABLE 2 . Study 1: Voice Types, Status, and Leader Emergence a 
TABLE 4 . Study 1: Voice-Gender Interactions, Status and Leader Emergence a 
TABLE 5 . Study 2: Means, Standard Deviations and Correlations a 
The Social Consequences of Voice: An Examination of Voice Type and Gender on Status and Subsequent Leader Emergence

September 2017

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2,955 Reads

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244 Citations

Academy of Management Journal

This paper explores the impact of two types of voice and gender on peer-rated social status and subsequent leader emergence. Across two studies—a three-wave field study and an experiment—we find that speaking up promotively, but not prohibitively, is positively and indirectly related to leader emergence via status, and that this relationship is conditional on the gender of the speaker. Specifically, men who spoke up promotively benefited the most in terms of status and leader emergence, not only compared to men who spoke up prohibitively, but also compared to women who spoke up promotively. This research extends our understanding of the outcomes of voice by articulating how it impacts one’s place in his or her group’s social structure, and ultimately whether he or she is seen as a leader. We also add to our understanding of leader emergence by suggesting that talking a lot or participating at a high level in a group may not be enough to emerge as a leader—it also depends how you do it and who you are.



Who Should the Military Recruit? The Effects of Institutional, Occupational, and Self-Enhancement Enlistment Motives on Soldier Identification and Behavior

March 2017

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162 Reads

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42 Citations

Armed Forces & Society

The U.S. military spends millions of dollars and substantial institutional effort to understand enlistment motives and appropriately target incentives, recruiting effort, and marketing to prospective members. Similarly, researchers have worked for decades to identify, understand, and conceptualize enlistment motives. Much less effort has been made to understand the effect enlistment motives/goals have on individuals after they join. This research uses well-established enlistment motives/goals to identify and understand their effects on soldiers’ value to the military in terms of organizational identification and critical discretionary behaviors. Using multicohort cross-sectional data from future, initial training, and currently serving soldiers, this research finds that intrinsic enlistment motives/goals, such as altruistic service and self-enhancement, create greater relational and behavioral value than most extrinsic/economic enlistment motives/goals such as pay, gaining skills for future employment, and educational funding. Intrinsic enlistment motives/goals have a strong positive effect on perceptions of the organization, social satisfaction, organizational identification, and discretionary pro-organizational behaviors. Conversely, economic enlistment goals tend to be associated with higher levels of economic satisfaction but decreased organizational identification and pro-organizational behavior. Importantly, these effects tend to persist among soldiers who have been in the military for years. Contrary to the institutional–occupational framework, self-focused enlistment goals, both intrinsic and extrinsic, can creative substantial value for the military when they are aligned with organizational interests. Based on these findings, the practice of using enlistment motives/goals to maximizing enlistment without considering their long-term impact on relationship quality and behavior appears myopic and may fail to maximize long-term value for the military.


Gender and Deployment Effects on Pro-Organizational Behaviors of U.S. Soldiers

February 2017

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37 Reads

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4 Citations

Armed Forces & Society

This study examines whether gender moderates the relationships between deployment and both organizational identification and pro-organizational behaviors. The broader context motivating this study is the U.S. military’s 2016 rescission of the ground combat exclusion, accomplishing full gender integration in the armed forces. Structural equation modeling is used to test for gender moderation effects. Results reveal deployment frequency, but not current deployment, has small effects on several pro-organizational behaviors. Results also show that gender does not moderate the effects of deployment frequency on soldiers’ perceptions of the organization or economic or social satisfaction. Gender does moderate the effects of deployment frequency on soldiers’ identification with the army. Additionally, while gender was not found to moderate the relationship between combat deployments and overall pro-organizational behaviors among soldiers, it does moderate the effect of deployments on one pro-organizational item: sacrificing behavior. Implications are discussed with an eye toward full gender inclusion in the U.S. military.


Table 1 . Agreement statistics and recommended cutoff points 
Table 2 . Descriptive statistics and correlations among study variables 
Table 2 (cont.) Descriptive statistics and correlations among study variables 
Echoes of Our Upbringing: How Growing Up Wealthy or Poor Relates to Narcissism, Leader Behavior, and Leader Effectiveness

April 2016

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1,234 Reads

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137 Citations

Academy of Management Journal

We investigate how parental income during one's upbringing relates to his or her effectiveness as a leader after entering an organization. Drawing on research on the psychological effects of income, social learning theory, and the integrative trait-behavioral model of leadership effectiveness, we propose a negative, serially mediated association between higher parental income and lower future leader effectiveness via high levels of narcissism and, in turn, reduced engagement in behaviors that are viewed as central to the leadership role. We test our model using multisource data collected from active soldiers in the United States Army. Results reveal that parental income exerts indirect effects on leadership effectiveness criteria because a) parental income is positively related to narcissism as an adult, b) narcissism relates negatively to engaging in task-, relational-, and change-oriented leadership behaviors, and c) reduced engagement in these behaviors relates to lower leader effectiveness. Our investigation advances theory by identifying pathways through which parental income relates to the effectiveness of leaders in organizations, and by illuminating the origins of a trait (narcissism) that predicts the behavior and effectiveness of leaders.


Citations (7)


... Studies on recruitment and retention in the armed forces tell us that people join armies or armed groups because of nationalist beliefs and hopes (Eighmey, 2006). They join for profit as well (Woodruff et al., 2024). Citizens join standing armies to protect their nations and communities (Aitken, 2021), and people join insurgent groups to defend their national identity, rights, or with the hope of gaining statehood (Florez-Morris, 2007;Kudelia, 2019). ...

Reference:

Motivated to Fight: Diverse Motivations of Foreign Fighters in the Russia-Ukraine War
Revisiting Propensity to Serve and Motivations to Enlist: Insights and Implications for Contemporary Military Recruitment Challenges and Research
  • Citing Article
  • June 2024

Armed Forces & Society

... However, new status holders may interpret or appraise this event differently and experience distinct types of pride (i.e., authentic pride and hubristic pride) and this interpretation or appraisal is determined by contextual factors. That is, given that status is socially determined and conferred by others in a team (Berger, Cohen, & Zelditch Jr, 1972;Correll & Ridgeway, 2006;Hays et al., 2022), how positive status change is interpreted is likely to be affected by the context of the team (Bunderson, 2003;Campbell, Liao, Chuang, Zhou, & Dong, 2017;Kim & Wiesenfeld, 2017;Kim, McClean, Doyle, Podsakoff, Lin, & Woodruff, 2021;Swaab, Schaerer, Anicich, Ronay, & Galinsky, 2014). Building on the above, we use the two-facet model of pride to recognize status differentiation as a crucial contextual factor that significantly affects how new status holders interpret their status changes. ...

The Positive and Negative Effects of Social Status on Ratings of Voice Behavior: A Test of Opposing Structural and Psychological Pathways

Journal of Applied Psychology

... Továbbá azok, akik megbíznak a vezetőikben, több energiával és elköteleződéssel dolgoztak, és a teljesítményük is nőtt (Zak, 2017;Dirks et al., 2021). A tudásmenedzsment-rendszerek, azokon belül a tudásmegosztás leghatékonyabban a bizalom kultúráját megteremtő szervezeteknél valósul meg (Bencsik et al., 2021). ...

Understanding the Change and Development of Trust and the Implications for New Leaders

Journal of Business Ethics

... When employees have a voice, they feel valued and impactful (e.g., Bashshur & Oc, 2015). Potentially, they can gain status in their teams and arise as future leaders (Weiss & Morrison, 2019;McClean et al., 2018). Despite these prospective benefits, employees cannot be forced to speak out; employee voice can only be left to their discretion. ...

The Social Consequences of Voice: An Examination of Voice Type and Gender on Status and Subsequent Leader Emergence

Academy of Management Journal

... 3). 2 On the decline of the mass army, see Haltiner (1998); Moskos, Williams, and Segal (2000); van Doorn (1975). 3 This intuition is bolstered by survey research on the US military (see Woodruff 2017). 4 An alternative argument, which reaches the same conclusion, is that voluntary recruitment makes both military commanders and civilian political leaders more sensitive to casualties, because of the marginal costs of training new professional soldiers (see Horowitz, Simpson, andStam 2011). ...

Who Should the Military Recruit? The Effects of Institutional, Occupational, and Self-Enhancement Enlistment Motives on Soldier Identification and Behavior
  • Citing Article
  • March 2017

Armed Forces & Society

... 1 This novel perspective helps elucidate how individuals' child-parent relations frame their later subordinateleader relations and introduces parental overindulgence as an important moderator of employees' work-related social behavior. By incorporating parental overindulgence into the LMXSC literature, this study contributes to nascent research exploring the effects of childhood experiences on employee outcomes (Campbell et al., 2019;Martin et al., 2016) and lays the groundwork for continued research on this largely unexplored topic. Third, this study expands on previous work linking personality characteristics (e.g., trait narcissism) to hubristic pride and dominance-based status strategies (Carver et al., 2010;Cheng et al., 2010;Mercadante et al., 2021;Tracy & Robins, 2007a, 2007b by suggesting that one's previous, successful use of a dominance strategy towards resource-distributing authority figures (e.g., parents) can be decisive in determining the extent to which individuals act on their feelings of hubristic pride. ...

Echoes of Our Upbringing: How Growing Up Wealthy or Poor Relates to Narcissism, Leader Behavior, and Leader Effectiveness

Academy of Management Journal

... Why do they travel to foreign countries to participate in conflicts? Scholarship on recruitment and retention (Bury, 2017;Griffith & Perry, 1993;Woodruff et al., 2006Woodruff et al., , 2024, which regularly explore enlisted motivation, come short. Common explanations stress factors such as personal development, pay or benefits, job or career development, or the desire to experience the military. ...

Propensity to Serve and Motivation to Enlist Among American Combat Soldiers
  • Citing Article
  • April 2006

Armed Forces & Society