Logo: to the web site of the Swedish Defence University

The current study examined the association between leadership self-efficacy and the developmental leadership model. The purpose was to better understand how leadership training transfers to facets of developmental leadership. This was tested in a cross-sectional design with military commanders in the Swedish Armed Forces. The results show that the sub-domain of leader self-control efficacy (the cognitive and emotional ability to remain composure) did not predict developmental leadership, but that leader assertiveness efficacy (the ability to make rational decisions) predicted the two dimensions of the exemplary model, and inspiration and motivation in the developmental leadership model. One possibility is that leader self-control efficacy can be what enables the individual to function within an extreme context, but leader assertiveness efficacy can be what most determines the leadership performance within that context. The possibility for mediatory analyses in further research is discussed.

The present study examined a parachute training course intended to improve the leadership abilities of future military officers. Two research questions were examined. First, whether there were any differences between completers and non-completers in anxiety, stress, and collective identity at the beginning of the course (time 1), and second, whether there were any differences between completers and non-completers in leadership self-efficacy immediately after the course and at a five-month follow-up (time 2 and time 3). Participants were cadets from the Swedish Military Academy undergoing the course as part of their officer training curriculum. The results showed no significant differences between completers and non-completers in anxiety, stress, and collective identity at the beginning of the course (time 1). Non-completers showed a significant reduction in leader self-control efficacy compared to those who completed the training immediately after the course and at a five-month follow-up (time 2 and 3). Overall, these results indicate that non-completion of this type of demanding training could have negative effects on the individual's leader self-control efficacy.

Officer education has a long tradition of being primarily a vocational education focused on training in knowledge and skills that can be used here and now. The content of officer education has mainly been based on the profession’s overall and proven experience. Rapid technological development, globalization, new threats such as terrorist attacks, hybrid warfare and gray zone issues, refugee issues, and the effects of climate change have meant that officer education needed to be reformed in order to provide knowledge and skills to deal with the unknown in a VUCA world. The goal is to create officer education that will produce officers with ambidextrous competences and skills, who have the knowledge to take up their positions immediately after training, but which also provides them with the knowledge and skills to prepare them for the unknown, lifelong learning, and gives them the ability to handle a rapidly changing environment.

In an effort to address some of the current knowledge gaps in the literature on collaborative crisis management, this chapter explores the nature and development of the political-administrative system in Turkey and the role some of its attributes played for collaboration during the response to two earthquakes in southeast Turkey in 2011. In particular, the chapter investigates how state-society relationships, political conflicts, and intergovernmental relations influenced stakeholder collaboration during the earthquake response. In order to capture how the actors perceived collaboration and how they organized their collaborative activities, interviews were conducted with state officials from varying administrative levels, municipality and NGO representatives as well as village and neighborhood leaders, all of whom were involved in managing the earthquake disasters. By applying a general collaborative governance framework, this chapter attempts to shed light on the perceptions of collaboration in Turkey’s political-administrative system and the role it plays for collaboration. Two components of this framework are in particular focus: the drivers (i.e. uncertainty, interdependence, initiating leadership, and consequential incentives) and the “system context” (socio-economic and cultural characteristics) as well as the interplay between them. This chapter illustrates that there are evident differences across political-administrative systems regarding the conditions for collaboration, who is engaged in such activities, and what collaborations can realistically achieve. The chapter highlights that there needs to be a greater recognition of how these conditions for collaboration, and collaboration itself, may differ in various settings. Also, research should pay close attention to meanings and values that actors in these varying political-administrative systems ascribe to collaboration, as these too affect the outcomes of such activities.

Detta kapitel undersöker en aspekt av etik som militära praktiker ställs inför bland annat i samband med internationella insatser, men även vid nationellt försvar. Kapitlet öppnar upp för reflektion kring frågor som: Har olika kulturer olika moraliska sanningar? Begrepp som universalism och kulturrelativism har presenterats och använts för att stimulera reflektion kring följande frågor: Kan jag ha mer rätt att med våld försvara mina värderingar än vad motståndaren har? Kan jag som svensk militär acceptera andras kulturella seder och bruk som tycks bryta mot svenska normer? Kapitlet är avsett som komplement till mer teoretiskt informerad litteratur och mer praktiskt orienterade texter om kultur och etik. Fokus är främst fredsbevarande insatser och mötet med lokalbefolkningen.

The Armed Forces are one of Sweden’sSweden largest governmental organizations and at the same time one of Sweden’s most genderGender-segregated and male-dominated workplaces. Recruiting more women into the organization is one of the organization’s main goals for personnel planning, along with providing them with more opportunities for career developmentCareer development. This study sought a deeper understanding of the power resourcesPower resources that can be identified and which are used by female military personnel within the armed forces. A total of 16 women were interviewed and their ranks ranged from soldier/sailor to general/admiral. The qualitative analysis of the interviews shows that female military personnel use power resources to adapt to the male-dominated organization’s demands and to even out perceived asymmetric power relationships in their daily professional work. The power resources can be explained using four themes: structural power resources, cultural and social power resourcesSocial power resources, emotional power resources, and minority perspective as a power resource. More female military personnel would have increased the task effectiveness of the military organization. To make that possible, the Swedish Armed ForcesSwedish Armed Forces would have to discuss the prevailing masculinity norm, the meaning of being a man, and the gains of a more gender-equal organization.

The aim of this study is to analyse diversity in team learning behaviour between and among national respondents’ perceptions during a military staff exercise (CJSE). Edmondson’s team learning behaviour model is used as the theoretical basis of the study. The results showed statistically significant differences both between and among national respondents’ perceptions. The research results indicate that team leader coaching, team psychological safety, the importance of obtaining expert knowledge as well as pre-exercise training are perceived to be crucial for team learning behaviour. The study has theoretical and practical implications for a more nuanced understanding of the diversity of team learning behaviour in the context of a multinational military teamwork exercise and for working as a part of multinational temporal teams in particular.

In this article, we utilize the Collaborative Governance Databank to empirically explore core theoretical assumptions about collaborative governance in the context of crisis management. By selecting a subset of cases involving episodes or situations characterized by the combination of urgency, threat, and uncertainty, we conduct a plausibility probe to garner insights into a number of central assumptions and dynamics fundamental to understanding collaborative crisis management. Although there is broad agreement among academics and practitioners that collaboration is essential for managing complex risks and events that no single actor can handle alone, in the literature, there are several unresolved claims and uncertainties regarding many critical aspects of collaborative crisis management. Assumptions investigated in the article relate to starting-points and triggers for collaboration, level of collaboration, goal-formulation, adaptation, involvement and role of non-state actors, and the prevalence and impact of political infighting. The results confirm that crises represent rapidly moving and dynamic events that raise the need for adaptation, adjustment, and innovation by diverse sets of participants. We also find examples of successful behaviours where actors managed, despite challenging conditions, to effectively contain conflict, formulate and achieve shared goals, adapt to rapidly changing situations and emergent structures, and innovate in response to unforeseen problems.

Klimatförändringar, pandemier och skolskjutningar är alla exempel på samhällskriser som aktualiserar frågan om hur skolans personal arbetar i krissituationer. Vilken beredskap har skolan att hantera samhällskriser? Vilka kompetenser behöver skolans personal? Vad innebär det att vara en krisaktör? I boken beskrivs olika typer av samhällskriser, deras faser, orsaker och karaktäristika. Författarna argumenterar för att krishantering bör ses som en aspekt av den professionella lärarkunskapen och läsaren får ta de del av konkreta strategier och förhållningssätt som är en del av skolans krishantering. Barnperspektivet lyfts fram, liksom situationen i svensk skola och vilka förutsättningar som här finns för ett fungerande krishanteringsarbete, inte minst när det gäller förebyggande insatser. Skolans värld möter samhällskriser riktar sig till skolpersonal som behöver kunskap om krishantering i skolan. Boken innehåller forskningsnära diskussioner om hur en kris på olika sätt påverkar skolan, dess personal och eleverna. Den presenterar praktiska övningar för reflektion som kan användas som underlag i utbildning av blivande och verksamma lärare, men också av rektorer och annan skolpersonal.

Det här kapitlet, som är en del av ett läromedel i etik för Officersprogrammet, lyfter fram det dygdeetiska förhållningssättet fram som en viktig del av den militära etiken. Fokus ligger på att utveckla dygder (personliga karaktärsegenskaper) som vägledning för ageranden i ett professionellt sammanhang. Kapitlet ger konkreta exempel på hur dygdeetikens tankegods används inom samtida militär verksamhet, och innehåller en fördjupning om modet som central dygd såväl inom den aristoteliska dygdeetiken som för en modern militär profession. Kapitlet bygger på forskning som lyfter fram personligt mod i förhållande till andra former av mod som en oundgänglig del av det militära yrket. Kapitlet bidrar med tillämpade och empiriska exempel på hur detta uttrycker sig i yrkesrollen som ammunitionsröjare. Kapitlet avslutas med en diskussion kring risker i det militära yrket och förhållningssätt till den egna säkerheten.

During the 2000s, Sweden has pursued an active foreign and security policy. This has meant participation in several international military operations and has left many Swedish soldiers and officers with combat experience. Thus, the Swedish parliament decided in 2010 on a political reform of the veterans area, with more extensive societal support, war decorations to express the government recognition of personal sacrifices made in the service and a new medal for courage in combat. Considered as a reward system, it functions as an immaterial and emotionally established incentive, in contrast to the financial and bonus reward systems that are otherwise common.

From a governance perspective, this setting is fundamentally interesting. The complexity of military operations and the demands for efficiency in armed combat are in contrast with the democratic state's need to guarantee the rule of law, even from a distance and under difficult conditions. Traditional government is not sufficient because the situation is characterized by high contextual uncertainty and therefore requires more situational adaptive control. Organizing in a professional model implies autonomy for military officials, and this means that there is a form of gap in terms of civilian control.

In the dissertation, a concept and an analytical model are formulated to understand this phenomenon, entitled soft norm governance, that also form one of the main results. The model combines four levels of analysis to describe the dynamics of the steering mix: organizational metagovernance, rule control, policy work and professional ethics. One conclusion is that professional ethics has a two-way function in the chain of implementation steering, both as a decisive factor for concrete decision-making, but also as an objective for the government’s soft norm governance. Thus, this control gap does not mean absence of control, but that other value-based norm systems govern our actions. In this way, soft norm governance also reaches beyond the scope of the law.

The theoretical framework is metagovernance, the idea that the modern state is steering at a distance and with subtle methods, such as by organizational measures. It opens for the importance of soft law, social norms and ethics in governmental steering. The case study of the veterans policy and medal of courage contributes empirically to the specification of these theories. Furthermore, new institutionalism adds an explanatory value with a rationality of action for the officials, a so-called logic of appropriateness based on the professional role and on adaptation to the situation at hand and to applicable rules. Theoretically, the thesis contributes by supplementing with a logic of values, which takes into account the profession's ethical and moral rationality of action, which is particularly important in situations such as armed conflict.

The methodological approach combines a structural statistical perspective with a qualitative and understanding-oriented perspective and can, with the support of the analytical model, illuminate both pattern and function. The material base is a total selection from the medal preparation of eight contingents in Afghanistan during the years 2008-2012, i.e. FS16-FS23. It consists of the archive material from the nominations as well as in-depth interviews with responsible commanders at the international units and at the national headquarters, including the Commander-in-Chief.

Det här kapitlet, som är en del av ett läromedel i etik för Officersprogrammet, beskriver ett etiskt förhållningssätt för den militära yrkesrollen. Kapitlet utgår ifrån den professionella etiken, som baseras på en roll som är förknippad med utövandet av ett yrke. I kapitlet beskrivs professionsetik som en omdömesförmåga som övas upp genom erfarenhet och reflektion från att utöva yrket. Denna förmåga bygger på yrkeskunskaper samt kännedom om det regelverk och andra sociala normer som är gränssättande respektive bjudande för verksamheten. Kunskaper i etik behövs när det inte finns tydliga regler eller när olika normer står emot varandra, vilket skildras genom två tillämpningar där omdömesförmågan i beslutsfattandet har en särskilt viktig funktion för militärt arbete. Det första exemplet är knutet till uppdragstaktiken som ledningsfilosofi och det andra till yrkesrollen som ammunitionsröjare.

Inom ledarskapsämnet betraktas etiskt ledarskap som en central del av ett modernt ledarskap. Det handlar om beslutsfattande i svåra situationer och om att ha en omdömesförmåga baserad på yrkeskunnande och en god moralisk kompass – förankrad i Försvarsmaktens värdegrund.

Boken innehåller teoretiska perspektiv på etik förankrade i militär verksamhet i en svensk kontext. Varje kapitel introducerar begrepp och analytiska verktyg som tillämpas på praktiska exempel och avslutas med reflektions- och diskussionsfrågor. Den pedagogiska idén är att stimulera dialogen om etiska frågor inom den militära professionen.

Som teoretisk grund diskuteras den normativa teorins betydelse för militär praktik, och i en tillämpning beskrivs modet som central egenskap i militärt arbete. Den militära kontexten skildras via etiska problem i kulturella möten i insatsmiljöer, samt den militära yrkesutövningens svåraste moraliska dilemma – att ställas inför att ta liv.

Målgruppen är militär personal som för befäl. Boken är anpassad för ledarskapsämnet på Officersprogrammet, men kan användas på andra militära utbildningar som behandlar frågor om etik och värdegrund.

Den här texten är ett introduktionskapitel till ett läromedel i etik för Officersprogrammet, där antologins övriga kapitel sätts i ett sammanhang genom att lyfta fram fokusområden och avgränsningar. Kunskapsområdet militär etik inriktar sig på att bearbeta etiska aspekter på olika frågor inom det militära verksamhetsfältet. Studier i militär etik innefattar såväl konkreta problem i den militära yrkesutövningen som teoretiska frågor om den militära etikens grundvalar. Titeln antyder att det finns flera vägar till kunskaper i militär etik, och att boken därmed inte gör anspråk på att ge färdiga lösningar på etiska problem eller moraliska dilemman. Syftet är att stimulera till dialog inom den militära professionen kring etiska frågor och värdegrundens innehåll. Inom ledarskapsämnet betraktas etiskt ledarskap som en central del av ett modernt ledarskap som ofta är kopplat till beslutsfattande. Det handlar då om att ha en förmåga till gott omdöme, som den yrkesutövande erhåller med erfarenhet från att utöva yrket och genom reflektion och dialog kring yrkesutövningens villkor.