Constructing social identity during an involuntary organizational exit : the case of civilian contractors on U.S. military bases in Afghanistan

摘要

Civilian contractors play a vital role in supporting military operations, whether forroutine operations or in times of war. While the conclusion of deployment overseas, for militarypersonnel, means going back to their military bases in the U.S., and continuing with theirassigned duties, for the civilian contractors, the post-deployment period signifies loss of a joband income. Although academic research has strived to answer some of the fundamentalquestions pertaining to layoffs in traditional settings, there has been sparse literature ondownsizing in a different cultural milieu such as a war zone. This study examines how civiliancontractors construct social identity during involuntary organizational exit in a war zone.