Numerous societal change processes such as globalization, professionalization and social and technical acceleration have challenged military organizations. The aims of this study were to (1) gain a deeper understanding of coping strategies used by the military leaders at the strategic level to manage everyday organizational demands and (2) relate these strategies to multidisciplinary models of organizational challenges. Owing to an insufficiently developed base of research, an inductive approach was used. Interviews were performed with 23 Swedish brigadier generals and colonels. Five coping strategies were found for handling the negative organizational aspects: repair work, catching up, reproducing, using formal and informal strategies and managing loyalties. The theoretical concepts of narcissistic, anorectic and greedy organizations were used as a framework when interpreting the inductively generated coping strategies. It was suggested that the specific connection found between individual-level coping strategies and theoretically framed organizational challenges is new. The results of this study are discussed theoretically and may be valuable in educational settings when evaluating the working conditions and performance of high-level officers.
Den här boken handlar om chefer, experter och stödfunktioner i kommuner - och om deras administrativa arbete. Den kommunala sektorns administration har på några decennier förändrats genomgripande, både vad gäller omfattning, arbetsinnehåll och styrka. Inom flera områden har roller professionaliserats, och mer kraft och resurser har lagts på att styra organisationen med bakgrund i krav på granskningsbarhet, kommunövergripande policyer och mätbar måluppfyllelse. Det har kommit att påverka hela den kommunala organisationen. I den här boken redogör vi för hur samspel mellan olika administrativa funktioner (såsom chefer, stödverksamhet och staber) ser ut och förändras. Vi diskuterar också hur goda samspel kan se ut, och vad som krävs för att åstadkomma sådana. Boken riktar sig till alla med intresse för organisatoriskt samspel mellan chefer, experter av olika slag och servicefunktioner i dagens kommunala värld. Särskilt riktar den sig till studenter som läser utbildningar inom personal- och arbetsvetenskap, organisation och ledarskap, och offentlig förvaltning, samt till dem som arbetar med ledning och administration i kommuner.
This paper discusses concepts of command for complex endeavors. The traditional concepts of Unity of Command and Unity of Effort are found wanting, the former because there is no single individual in command of a complex endeavor, the latter because there is often no time to develop the comprehensive plan required, and if there is time, it is nevertheless difficult because different organizations have different planning methods and different planning cultures. A new command concept, based on our experience from studies of peace support operations is proposed. It is called Harmony of Efforts and it is a C2 concept for complex endeavors that involve a number of organizations, each of which does what it usually does, and for which there is no one commander with authority to enforce unity of command or unity of effort. Under these circumstances, Harmony of Efforts is all that one can hope for. The command concept of Harmony of Efforts specifies the spirit in which C2 issues should be approached, which is cooperation, the method to be used, which is negotiation, and the substance of C2, i.e., what C2 can usefully be concerned with in complex endeavors, which is the management of interfaces between organizations.
This is the second paper in a series where we try to understand what Clausewitz called the commander’s “coup d’oeil”, i.e., the ability to understand the situation on the battle field at a glance. We employ a standard paradigm from research on expertise where participants study a scenario and then reproduce it from memory. Last year we reported results consistent with other results from studies of expertise, viz., that experts recall meaningful scenarios better than meaningless scenarios whereas novices recall both types of scenarios equally badly. This year, we report four follow-up experiments. The first two study ex-perts’ and novices’ recall of scenarios after having seen how the scenario de-veloped over time and we do so under two conditions, one where the scenario develops violating constraints on how military units should move and one where they do not in an attempt to distinguish between two possible explana-tions for last year’s results: The constraints hypothesis and the pattern match-ing hypothesis. The results show that both experts perform better than novices but that both groups recall scenarios where the development did not violate constraints better than scenarios where the development violated constraints. We interpret these results as support for the constraints hypothesis. In Experi-ments 2 and 3 we vary the time allowed for inspecting static scenarios on the interpretation of these scenarios with both expert and novice participants. The results show that a short time for inspection affects the interpretation by novic-es to a greater extent than it affects the interpretation by experts, as was pre-dicted by Clausewitz. We interpret this to mean that novices and experts achieve their understanding of a military scenario in different ways.
Illegitimate tasks violate the norms of what is considered part of the employee’s work role and have been found to harm individuals, groups and organisations. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between key organisational conditions– span of control, recruitment needs, administrative support and organisational changes – and the prevalence of unnecessary and unreasonable illegitimate tasks experienced by managers and their subordinates. Data were collected from a sample comprising 80 managers and 863 subordinates in a Swedish municipality using questionnaires to assess their perceptions of illegitimate tasks. Organisational conditions were collected from the human resources register in the municipality. Multilevel analysis resultsreveal a positive association between the size of workgroups and illegitimate tasks; the more subordinates per workgroup, the more unnecessary and unreasonable tasks managers reported and the more unreasonable tasks the subordinates reported. These findings hold practical implications for organisations because they indicatethat illegitimate tasks can be reduced by decreasing the number of employees in larger workgroups.
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.
Can decision-making styles impact victory and defeat in armed conflicts? To answer the question of whether decision-making styles are linked to the victories and defeats of individual tacticians, this study utilizes five general decision-making styles: Rational, Intuitive, Dependent, Avoidant and Spontaneous. The aim of this study is to examine whether one or several of the general decision-making styles (GDMS) have an impact on tactical outcomes in wargames. A total of 104 officers and academics participated in the study. The study’s foremost conclusion is that the Dependent style is significantly connected to defeat in the wargame’s dueling set up.
This study examined laypeople's understanding of a simple dynamic system, expressed in reasoning and strategies used by the subjects, and how it affected performance. Participants were 15 undergraduate psychology students. 4 male and 11 female; median age was 24 years, ranging from 21 to 31 years. The subjects' task was to establish equilibrium in a simple predator-and-prey system. A task analysis was performed to identify the problem structure, the vital aspects of the task, and the ideal strategies to perform the task. The subjects' actual performance was compared to these strategies. The results revealed that, even though the task was structurally simple, it was still difficult. Much of these difficulties seemed to stem from a low ability to apply indirect reasoning and thinking in terms of discrete time steps instead of in terms of continuous time.
Purpose: This study aimed to examine the applicability of Bandura’s social cognitive theory in predicting organizational performance in dynamic and ambiguous hybrid warfare contexts. Specifically, the study investigated the influence of dyad composition, past performance in peacetime, collective self-efficacy, and persistence on wartime performance among high-ranking police and military commanders.
Study design/methodology/approach: One hundred and thirty-eight participants, consisting of police and military commanders, took part in a simulation exercise that escalated from peace to war. The participants were assigned to three types of dyads (N = 69); all-police (n = 20), all-military (n = 27), and mixed police-military (n = 22). The study utilized path analysis to examine the direct and indirect effects of the variables on wartime performance.
Results: The model developed in this study accounted for 54% of the variance in wartime performance (R2 = 0.54). Path analysis showed direct effects of persistence (β = −0.33) and peacetime performance (β = 0.45) on actual performance in wartime. Direct effects also showed how persistence was predicted by dyad composition (β = −0.24) and peacetime performance (β = −0.50). Indirect effects indicated how persistence mediated the effects of peacetime performance (β = 0.17) and dyad composition (β = 0.08) on actual performance in wartime.
Originality/value: This study contributes to the understanding of how social cognitive factors, as described by Bandura’s theory, can predict decision outcomes in collaborative crisis response settings involving police and military commanders. The findings have implications for policy-making and provide recommendations for further research in this area.
The aim of this study was to identify and analyze the ways in which images and reactions of the public are described and framed in media articles and reports. Reporting from six major events affecting the Swedish public was studied using a thematic method of analysis. The results show three dynamic interrelated processes at work simultaneously in framing the public: identification, characterization and evaluation. A significant contribution of this study is the emphasis on how this often subtle and implicit framing influences the portrayal of human reactions, thus possibly influencing the expectations and evaluations of both the public in general and crisis managers in particular.
Militärt ledarskap i en insatsmiljö präglad av svårförutsägbar irreguljär krigföring ställer stora krav på officersprofessionen. Etiskt komplexa insatser kan bidra till starka stressrelaterade emotioner hos enskilda soldater och officerare. Förmågan att hantera dessa känslor är central för att bibehålla operativ effektivitet. Kraven ökar samtidigt på den militära organisationen att anpassa sina normer för vad som är acceptabla emotionella uttrycksformer. Studien belyser en militär emotionskultur som ger begränsat utrymme åt emotionella uttryck då det är nödvändigt att vara bestämd, kall och ”professionell” i akuta situationer som innehåller moraliska dilemman. Ledare kan genom att härbergera starka känslor bidra till operativ effektivitet (benämnd containerförmåga). Potentiella konflikter mellan en god containerförmåga i akuta situationer å ena sidan och långsiktig anpassning i vardagen efter insatser å andra sidan belyses.
The study's aim was to elucidate the role played by leadership in the relationship between informal organizational influencers and the formal organization in a military context. A qualitative study was conducted by interviewing eleven high-level military officers and analyzing the data according to the grounded theory method. The analysis resulted in an identification of a core variable : Organization Influencers, which are composed of two sub-core variables (Shadow Factors and Formal Factors) that interact with one another. Therefore challenges arise for the leader to balance varying shadow and formal factors for individuals, groups and the organization. Previously research has defined the shadow organisation as a negative force ; however, our results indicate that this is not always the case. This study contributes by mapping out specific shadow factors in relationship with formal factors of a military organization, along with pointing out that shadow factors can be beneficial forces for organisations if balanced appropriately by the leader.
Social effectiveness, including political skill, reflects individuals’ ways of handling interpersonal processes at work. Most research has used a variable-oriented approach to investigate associations between political skill and key organizational factors, including performance, in civil settings. Thus, little is known of whether political skill transfers to a military context and whether there are specific profiles of political skill. Combining variable-oriented and person-oriented approaches, this study used self-reports from two samples of military student officers to: (1) investigate measurement properties of the 18-item political skill inventory; (2) explore whether it is possible to identify different profiles of political skill; and (3) investigate whether such profiles differ in demographics, personality, and job performance. Exploratory (sample 1: n = 185) and confirmatory (sample 2: n = 183) factor analyses supported a four-dimensional representation of political skill including networking ability, apparent sincerity, social astuteness, and interpersonal influence. Latent profile analysis (samples 1 and 2: N = 368) identified four distinct combinations of these dimensions, namely: (1) weak political skill; (2) weak political skill with strong sincerity; (3) moderate political skill; and (4) strong political skill. Importantly, profiles differed consistently in networking ability. Subsequent comparisons suggested potentially important differences in demographics, personality, and job performance. Despite needing additional research of how profiles of political skill develop over time, these findings may have practical implications for recruitment and training in organizational settings where social effectiveness is important.
This study explored existing literature regarding what social and psychological interventions currently exist for military couples/families in connection to international deployment. Asystematic scoping studies review was performed. Peer-reviewed articles were searched inthe following ProQuest databases: PsycArticles, Social Services Abstracts, and Sociological Abstracts. Twenty-four articles were identified that met the inclusion criteria. A thematic analysis was then applied. Two main themes were identified by the analysis describing the types of military support interventions, including family-based interventions and couple interventions. The existing literature covering specific interventions for military personnel and their families is limited, especially literature outside of North American military populations. Most current interventions focused on reactive psychological services, primarily during deployment and after the military employee has arrived back from duty and the family already presents symptoms of concern. Further studies are needed to represent the current support methods utilized for military personnel and their families in European contexts. Moreover, additional interventions focused on preventative health care may be a useful complement to currently offered treatment programs for helping military families mentally prepare for the specific stressors relating to military deployment. The current literature can serve as a basis for the identification of future needs in intervention and preventative psychological support for military families.
Military personnel needs to be resilient to be able to remain effective, motivated, and in good mental and physical health. Military organizations select on resilience to determine whether candidates are psychologically fit for their job. The INSPIRE Resilience Scale (IRS) is such a selection instrument that aims to assess the psychological resilience potential of candidates in high-risk professions. A longitudinal predictive validity study was conducted in five European Defense organizations and in the Dutch National Police. The IRS was submitted in selection (N = 11,404), and criterion data about performance and health were collected in the second half of the first training year (N = 726). The results based on correlational and regression analyses showed that the IRS scores significantly predicted the criterion measures. Emotional stability, part of the IRS, turned out to be the best predictor. Results also showed that candidates who dropped out of training had significantly lower means on the IRS in selection than candidates who were still in training in the second half of the first training year. Overall, the IRS proved to be a valid instrument to assess resilience potential in candidates for high-risk professions. Selecting on resilience may therefore contribute to training success and reduction of health problems.
The presence of a new or persistent periapical radiolucency adjacent to a rootfilled tooth is often used as a criterion of endodontic treatment "failure". However, clinicians' suggested management of such cases is subject to substantial interindividual variation. Several components that might influence endodontic retreatment decision making have been explored, but data on which factors dentists actually think they consider, are missing. The aim was to interview 20 general dental practitioners (GDPs) and 20 endodontists about factors they thought would influence the prescription of endodontic retreatment. Six simulated cases were presented as cartoons accompanied with a clinical history. In two of the cases the teeth were planned to serve as an abutment tooth in a fixed prosthodontic construction. The status of the periapical bone tissue and the quality of rootfilling seal were varied. Between 1 and 6 factors per case were reported to influence decision making. In cases not planned to serve as abutment teeth most dentists considered that the periapical condition was the most important factor, whilst they considered the fixed prosthodontic construction to be the most important factor in cases planned as abutment teeth. Generally, endodontists seem to be more inclined to retreat and act on the mere presence of a periapical lesion regardless of size than GDPs. In a real clinical setting in direct contact with patients, additional factors like economy and patients' preferences might be expected to exert a major influence. The majority of the dentists stated that they thought that their colleagues would make similar decisions as they did themselves.
Research with microworlds enable us to study complex mental processes in semantically rich but standardized environments, under more realistic conditions than ordinary tests do. Moreover, adapting the microworlds to the needs of mental testing may increase our ability to predict success in real life pursuits [Rigas, G., & Brehmer, B. (1999). Mental processes in intelligence tests and dynamic decision making tasks. In P. Juslin & H. Montgomery (Eds.), Judgement and decision making: Neo-Brunswikean and process-tracing approaches (pp. 45-65). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.]. Yet earlier studies have found no relations between intelligence test scores and microworld performance. The relationships between two real time dynamic decision making tasks (microworlds) and one intelligence test were investigated. The participants interacted with eight NEWFIRE scenarios, four COLDSTORE scenarios, and completed Raven's Advanced Progressive Matrices (APM). The composite scores of performance in the two microworlds were sufficiently reliable. APM was a predictor of success in these two microworlds. Statistically significant increases in R 2 were obtained. Methodological problems in research with microworlds are discussed and changes related to the adaptation of microworlds to the needs of mental testing are proposed.
Work-related negative effects on well-being have increased in frequency and variability, specifically within the public sector and among managers. In the Job Demands-Resources model it is suggested that increased demands reduce well-being and decrease performance, but the research literature demonstrates little research in the context of managers and leadership. The purpose of this study was to investigate variability in work situations among Swedish public sector managers and how this was related to differences in stress, impaired health, work engagement and leadership performance. 267 managers in a mid-sized Swedish municipality responded to a web-based survey and formed six clusters. Three clusters comprising 42% of managers had less favorable working conditions and significantly worse well-being, less frequent transformational and transactional leadership behaviors as well as slightly lower work engagement. A conclusion from the study is that worse managerial working situations may lead to decreased possibilities to perform leadership in an active way.
The article argues for a changed perspective on military tactics and safety. By seeing militarytactics as safety knowledge, a wider perspective can be applied to a military problem. Safety isin fact a military core capability impossible to exclude from any military operation. By ignoringsafety, one becomes susceptible to embedded safety flaws, increasing organizational hazards.This could cause mission failure and exposing military personnel to occupational safety risks.
The purpose of this article is to discuss the transformation of Twitter from a usable tool for spreading information to a space for learning. When we talk about different software, we in many cases can’t phantom their outreach and connectivity. Specific software solutions have been integrated into our lives making them a part of ourselves. Specific tools can be designed to enhance specific functions within the software such as automatic accounts spreading keywords users write. Users are humans and perceive their cyber environment in the same way as they perceive human interaction in real life. The transformation changed the tool to an area of operation where different stakeholders can interact with each other. From an intelligence perspective, the distinction between technology and HUMINT no longer serves its purposes of classification – it has merged into one and the same. From the perspective of C2, information technology in itself is still emphasized at the cost of other dimensions, hence obscuring the very mechanisms of how what is only seen as social media in fact is a dimension of itself. While the human dimension is sometimes addressed, there is a dearth of research exploring its workings.
The aim of this pilot study is to adjust the NOSACQ-50 to the work environment of military organizations.NOSACQ-50 is a validated tool successfully used in several organizational domains to measure occupationalsafety climate (OSC). In general, few studies have been published investigating OSC in militaryorganizations. NOSACQ-50 consists of 50 items across 7 OSC dimensions, i.e. group members’ sharedperceptions of: 1) management safety priority, commitment and competence; 2) management safetyempowerment; 3) management safety justice; 4) workers’ safety commitment; 5) workers’ safety priority andrisk non-acceptance; 6) safety communication, learning, and trust in co-workers’ safety competence; 7)workers’ trust in the efficacy of safety systems. To assess the relevance of the NOSACQ-50 items, a revisedversion of the instrument was sent to 11 military safety experts. In addition, 19 items pertaining to areas notcovered by NOSACQ-50 were validated by the same experts. After contents validation, data from 517participants from 4 garrisons were collected. The results showed that NOSACQ-50 had acceptable reliabilityscores (.70-.89.), and the factor structure was confirmed by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Principalcomponent analyses (PCA) of the supplementary 19 items showed that 12 items grouped into threedimensions (alpha .74-.91): Management enabling safety performance, personnel’s knowledge of andcompetence in national laws regulating safety and Unit ethics. In conclusion, preliminary results showed theadjusted NOSACQ-50 instrument could be used to measure OSC in military organizations. However,additional studies must be performed to improve and develop military specific dimensions not covered byNOSACQ-50.
During the Covid-19 pandemic social media have become an important tool for spreading information from government agencies regarding restrictions. Government accounts and public health care organizations have used different social media platforms such as Twitter to communicate with the Swedish public. The Swedish public have interacted with the information, arguing for a stricter or a more relaxed approach to Covid-19 recommendations. This social network analysis aims at exploring statistical methods to investigate patterns made by twitter accounts commenting the Swedish Armed Forces field hospital activities and the national Covid-19 strategy during the Covid-19 pandemic. Data was collected using the twitter platform and the Ncapture add-on with Google Chrome. The interactions stored in the tweets and replies section (TRS) from 227 twitter accounts were collected and coded with the NVivo auto code function. Twitter usernames that occurred in less than 35 % of the 227 TRS were deleted. The 227 extracted TRS were treated as scale items and occurring twitter-names which interacted with the TRS as respondents n=761. Analysis of the factor structure with PCA and CFA indicated four factors: 1) Military policy, 2) Right wing politics, 3) Law enforcement, 4) Politics and strategy. Structural Equation Modelling revealed interrelationships between the factors. Thus, Military policy, Law enforcement and Politics and strategy had a direct effect on Right wing politics. Politics and strategy had a direct effect on Military policy and Law enforcement. This study revealed that PCA, CFA and SEM have the potential to discover the core of a thought collective. Despite the obvious dangers with misinformation and political extremism on social media, policymakers need to tackle misinformation and disinformation, protecting electoral processes and facilitating public discussion, built on the three fundamental democratic principles of equality, representation and participation.
The purpose of this paper is to review the scientific basis for claiming any effect of foreign information operations. The literature on information operations is reviewed, as well as other kinds of persuasive communication (advertising, risk and health communication) that aims to change attitudes or behaviour. Most research indicates that persuasive communication in general has little effect on receiver attitudes and/or behaviour. Some hypothetical strategies that may increase the effect are formulated, such as hiding the sender’s intent, sending messages not too distant from the receiver’s present views, or using the emotional, rather than the rational, route.
Are humans rational? Do we generally choose the alternative with the best balance between costs and benefits when making decisions? Or are we to a large extent guided by our emotions and impulses? This book argues that it can be both ways. The latter may, however, be more frequently the case than we ourselves want to believe. Our emotions - and our way of coping with them - are important explanations for decisions that do not have the results that were anticipated, as well as to enemy images, violence and evil.
It may be reasonable to use gut instinct in everyday decisions that affect only one self and has no dramatic consequences. But the focus in this book is primarily in different contexts in which decisions may have - or may be expected to have - large effects. The first part addresses the question if we are rational in relation to different types of threats - from risks in the community to life-threatening situations and war. The second part analyzes whether political decision makers and various political movements are rational – ranging from the average local politicians to more extreme and violent movements.The book also includesa theoretical part, with a discussion about how our lack of rationality can be explained and understood.
The hypothesis was that post-Cold War downsizing of the military defense is associated with low levels of public anchoring, and that better anchoring is associated with a perception of a better performance by the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) and with a SAF connection and military experience. An additional research question concerned the level of concordance between the military and political elites and the population on these issues. A questionnaire was sent to 3,000 randomly selected residents. The results showed that post-Cold War downsizing was only partly associated with low levels of anchoring. Better anchoring was associated with a perception of a better performance by the SAF and with SAF connection and experience. There was significant concordance between the elites and the public. The study shows that anchoring is best supported by increased communication of the results and benefits of the military defense to all subgroups of the population.
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the armed forces' ability to implement an unpopular decision while maintaining commitment and job satisfaction among its personnel, as well as examine what factors affect the perceived outcome of a decision process in a military context. In line with earlier research, it was hypothesized that a fair process, knowledge (about the circumstances and objectives of the decision) and trust (in the decision-makers) will promote decision acceptance. An additional hypothesis was that a higher hierarchal position will promote understanding of the decision. A specific decision process was chosen - that which led to the 2010 choice to make service on international military missions mandatory for all personnel in the Swedish Armed Forces. An ad hoc questionnaire was constructed with the intention to measure the perception of the decision's input values, the decision process, the organization and decision-makers, as well as of the outcome. The questionnaire response rate was 48% (N = 229 respondents). The respondents were (predominantly middle-aged, mid-career, male) Swedish military officers and civilian employees. Knowledge about the decision, its perceived timing, and trust in the decision makers - but not the respondents' hierarchical position - significantly contributed to the outcome : its degree of acceptance. The study shows much dissatisfaction with the decision and its implications, but also a lack of knowledge about the decision-making process involved.
Military staff performance may be inferior due to several reasons. The purpose of the present survey was to study the impact of stress reactions, personality factors, situation awareness, and maladaptive group dynamics on the quality of the decision-making in Swedish high-level military staffs. Participants were mainly captains and majors, but also lieutenant colonels and colonels took part (n = 256, 61 % response rate). A mainly self-made questionnaire was administered in two staff exercises. Maladaptive group dynamics, stress exposure, lack of situation awareness, and negative stress reactions were the strongest predictors of poor staff performance, while personality had less impact.
Psychological operations (PSYOP) implies a purposeful use of communication by a government or military organization to fulfill its mission and is one understanding of strategic communication. The present study focuses on PSYOP effects. The few studies available on this area indicate that the effects of PSYOP generally tend to be on a minor scale, while PSYOP may have a stronger impact in specific contexts. We discuss possible explanations and suggest that a number of psychological factors inhibit PSYOP success. One major example is that of human cognitive conservatism. Other psychological mechanisms, mostly emotional ones, may promote PSYOP, for example, strong identification with one’s own (national, ethnic or religious) group, a sense of threat to the resources, status and/or survival of own group, a perception of hostility from other groups, and the experience that another group has devalued or offended the in-group.
By identifying components relevant to conscripts' success in and positive attitudes towards the military, we may be able to make it a more attractive employment option for current and future age-cohorts, thus solving the recruitment crisis not only in Sweden, but in several other European countries that have recently made the shift from conscription to an all-volunteer force. Precisely, this study aims to identify and examine conscripts' values and attitudes towards their mandatory tour of duty. The objective of this study is to analyze the components important to Swedish conscripts in order to determine what components should be included or emphasized in future military education programmes. Data were collected from 55,239 conscripts between 2002 and 2010 (when conscription was suspended in Sweden), using an anonymous course evaluation questionnaire. Data from 2002-2005 were combined and used as a baseline to compare against data from later years. Principal component analysis was conducted and resulted in 3 components being extracted for each year (except 2008, a year for which only 2 components were extracted). Those components were individual development, group cohesion, and competence/ state of readiness. The study's most important conclusion was that conscripts' attitudes and values were in line with those of younger generations and that a focus on these values may lead to the development of more attractive educational and career opportunities for today's youth.