Suchergebnisse

The purpose of this thesis was to study the prerequisites for the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) in order to recruit sufficient numbers of suitable individuals to the organization, and to retain those within the organization. The thesis comprises three studies (Study 1-3) where Study One comprises data gathered, with a longitudinal design, when Sweden relied on conscription for the manning of the Armed Forces. Results show that those wanting to do international military service assessed themselves higher for required qualities than those individuals not volunteering for international military service. Study Two shows that job satisfaction, according to Hackman and Oldham´s Job satisfaction model, is higher when job characteristics are good, and they in turn affect the Critical Psychological States, as proposed by Hackman and Oldham. Study Three indicates that there is a relation between performance orientation, job characteristics, job satisfaction and retention. In sum, this thesis suggests that there are different incentives for recruiting and retaining personnel to a conscripted force, and an all-volunteer force. Furthermore, the thesis indicates that an all-volunteer force concept is not the best way of manning the armed forces, for Sweden and countries with similar society, size and likewise a critical geopolitical position.

The purpose of this thesis was to study the prerequisites for the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) in order to recruit sufficient numbers of suitable individuals to the organization, and to retain those within the organization. The thesis comprises three studies (Study 1-3) where Study One comprises data gathered, with a longitudinal design, when Sweden relied on conscription for the manning of the Armed Forces. Results show that those wanting to do international military service assessed themselves higher for required qualities than those individuals not volunteering for international military service. Study Two shows that job satisfaction, according to Hackman and Oldham´s Job satisfaction model, is higher when job characteristics are good, and they in turn affect the Critical Psychological States, as proposed by Hackman and Oldham. Study Three indicates that there is a relation between performance orientation, job characteristics, job satisfaction and retention. In sum, this thesis suggests that there are different incentives for recruiting and retaining personnel to a conscripted force, and an all-volunteer force. Furthermore, the thesis indicates that an all-volunteer force concept is not the best way of manning the armed forces, for Sweden and countries with similar society, size and likewise a critical geopolitical position. ; On 1 July 2010, conscription was made to rest in Sweden, in favor of an all-voluntary force, in so doing leaving a 100-year tradition. There were several reasons for this transformation of the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF), most important was the new security situation in Europe after the Cold War, which led the SAF focusing more on participation in multinational missions abroad. This thesis focuses on the recruitment and retaining of soldiers during the period when Sweden shifted the manning system for their armed forces. Results suggest that there are different incentives for staying in the SAF depending on manning system. In a conscription system, personality is a more prominent predictor of retention than in a voluntary system. The findings in this thesis emphasize the possibility to get the best from the two manning systems; to use the compulsory military service as a pool for recruitment to officer programs and NCOs, and the AVF system's work on improving the psychosocial working conditions in order to retain personnel. At the completion of this thesis, the SAF again changed the manning system, this time to a gender-neutral conscription, as the system with voluntariness failed in providing the SAF with sufficient numbers of soldiers with the right qualities.

This article examines the experiences of newly graduated officers and specialist officers, as they recently entered employment in the Swedish Armed Forces. Building on 35 interviews, this article illustrates the dynamics of excessive workload and an unstructured working environment, and how embedded strategies for mentoring and guidance can reduce negative outcomes associated with the workload. The article introduces the concept of career time, reflecting the participant's propensity to perform unpaid work to pursue a career in the organization. This study reveals tensions between organizational and employee interests, and experiences of exclusion from the officer profession, contextualized drawing on classical theorists Foucault and Habermas. When restructuring organizations, the quest for efficiency can outweigh professional values, such as esprit de corps and taking pride in work and professional identity.

The critical dependence of armed forces on teams carrying out tasks in a continuously changing, uncertain and often dangerous environment, raises questions about how to better understand factors that enable or hamper effective team learning. So far there is no developed field of research into team learning in the Swedish Armed Forces. This is the first of several studies within the Swedish Armed Forces to explore and gain a better understanding of team learning. In this first study of team learning we followed a military staff exercise. The theoretical base in this study is Amy Edmondson's theoretical model for studying and analyzing team learning. The model consists of context support, team leader coaching, team psychology safety and team learning behavior. The results of this study supports the theoretical model of team learning and describe factors that are important for creating good conditions for team learning behavior.

The purpose of this study was to assess core values and attitudes among conscribed soldiers volunteering for international peacekeeping missions (n=146), by a comparison with conscripts from the same class and regiment that did not apply for international missions (n=275).The sample consisted of an entire class of conscribed soldiers whereof 389 completed all three repeated surveys. There were no demographical differences between the groups. Volunteers expressed higher altruistic basic values and held more positive attitudes toward their military education. The findings in this study are of importance for the Swedish armed forces as success in international missions is dependent on soldiers with sound values in order to better understand different cultures in the areas where deployments now are taking place.

Professional officer training in Sweden has gone through some major changes in the last 30 years. The current officer system is a two-category system, where officers complete the three-year academic Officers' Programme, and specialist officers complete 18 months of vocational training at the Swedish Armed Forces' training schools. The aim of this study was to investigate newly graduated officers' and specialist officers' perceptions of their officer training. Results showed that their perceptions could be covered by three overriding themes: identification, vertical versus horizontal career paths and the perceived relevance of the officer training. Furthermore, the respondents' officer identification seemed to have developed before officer training, and the individual motivators concerned deliberate choices of becoming either an officer or a specialist officer. Coaching was crucial to both officers and specialist officers. However, the officers stated that coaching came at an early stage of their basic military training, whereas specialist officers were coached at a later stage in their career. The implications for the Swedish Armed Forces is that identification and career path are issues that need to be addressed early in a soldier's military career, and that officer training needs to be more focussed on defining career paths, especially for specialist officers.

International operations have become one of the main tasks for the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF). The SAF and Swedish National Defence College organize annual international staff exercises with the purpose of training officers to carry out effective staff work. This study analyzed a staff exercise using Edmondson's team learning model in a military setting. The model was developed by including group cohesion. As defensive routines are a threat to team learning behavior, the possible presence of these was examined. The results indicate that team leader coaching is crucial to support all the variables in the model. The added variable of group cohesion contributed with insights on how the commander used task solving to create group cohesion. Some examples of defensive routines were also revealed but there seemed to be challenges in identifying such routines in this type of exercise setting.

Abstract
Defence organisations are unique in that they comprise integrated military and civilian personnel working in partnership with each other (e.g., in headquarters, on bases, on missions, in academic settings). Many defence civilians are supervised by military supervisors and managers, while others are themselves responsible for managing military personnel. At the same time, despite often high levels of partnership and integration, military and civilian personnel are governed by very different personnel management systems, and have distinct cultures. These factors can affect the nature and quality of the collaboration and influence personnel outcomes and organisational effectiveness. Indeed, defence organisations are increasingly recognizing the importance of optimizing integration between their military and civilian workforces, with many adopting organisational terms implying that the military and civilian workforces form a cohesive whole: the Defence Team (Canada), the Whole Force Concept (United Kingdom), One Defence Team (Sweden), and Total Defence Workforce (New Zealand).
This paper presents results from the Military–Civilian Personnel Survey (MCPS), which was administered in 11 nations as part of a NATO Research Task Group on the topic of military-civilian personnel collaboration and integration (NATO STO HFM RTG-226). This survey was the first systematic examination of large samples of military and civilian respondents, and the first to examine military–civilian relations from the perspective of both military and civilian personnel. The results presented here are based on three open-ended questions included in the survey, which asked respondents to identify 1) the most important factors for establishing and maintaining positive military-civilian personnel work culture and relations, 2) the challenges of working in a military-civilian environment, and 3) the main advantages of working in a military-civilian environment. Results of 5 nations, including Canada, Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and the United Kingdom (n =1,513 military respondents and n = 2,099 defence civilians) are presented. Results indicate that mixed military-civilian work environments present both unique challenges and advantages, and identified the factors considered to be important for enhancing integration and collaboration between military and civilian personnel. Given that many cross-national patterns emerged, these findings provide useful insights for enhancing military and civilian personnel integration and collaboration across nations.
*Adapted from the material first reported in Goldenberg, I. & Febbraro, A.R. (2018; in publication). Civilian and Military Personnel Integration and Collaboration in Defence Organizations. NATO Science and Technology Organization Technical Report - STO-TR-HFM-226. DOI 10.14339/STO-TR-HFM-226. ISBN: ISBN 978-92-837-2092-8.