Government Issued, Government Stamped: The Institutional Legacy of the Military on Service Members.

Organizational membership involves socialization processes in which individuals interact with institutionally-specific roles and normative expectations. While socialization into organizations has been extensively documented, less is known about whether certain aspects of these experiences leave enduring traces on attitudes and behaviors after organizational exit. Drawing upon 22 semi-structured interviews and five months of participant observation, I argue that the military imprints what I call an "institutional legacy" upon service members. I find that institutional legacies have "residual" and "relational" dimensions, some of which are conditional upon organizational roles held during active duty and others more generally evolving from organizational features of the military as a whole. The concept of an institutional legacy contributes to organizational research by providing a means of orienting and identifying the attitudes and behaviors that manifest themselves during the period of time connecting organizational exit and entry into other spheres of social life. I conclude by discussing possible implications of these legacies and suggest areas for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]