In 2010, full-time soldiers and NCOs were implemented as a new service category in the Swedish Armed Forces. The purpose was to fulfil the 2009 government white paper with requirements of immediately accessible, usable and flexible force. Five years later, with 5800 active soldiers and NCOs the focus for the armed forces has shifted towards deterrence and national defence. Consequently the need for active soldiers and NCOs in international deployments is declining. This paper examines the professional role of soldiers and NCOs at Life Regiments Hussars during 2015. With the support of H.J. Leavitt´s system theoretical model for organisational transformation, the effects of implementing the new category is analysed. The results show that an overwhelming majority of the soldiers and NCOs are experiencing that they operate within an operational oriented role, just in line with the government’s original intension. At the same time soldiers and NCOs are successively assigned an increasing responsibility within the support and instructor role. The NCOs uses one third of their working hours in other roles than the operational oriented. There are also individual soldiers who work full-time in an administration-, support- or instructing role. Furthermore the results show that Swedish Armed Forces protocols contain few limitations for soldiers and NCOs to operate outside the operational oriented role. Even the largest limitation, the organisational structure, with requirements expressed in category and rank, has recently seen an adjustment towards a wider professional role for soldiers and NCO. Despite these developments, sixty percent of the soldiers and NCOs in the study, replies that there are even more areas were soldiers and NCOs can overtake tasks from commissioned officers.

Försvarsmakten växer. För att skapa det robustare försvar med ökad förmåga, som beskrivs i Försvarsmaktens Perspektivstudie 2022, krävs under överskådlig framtid en tillväxt av de militära personalkategorierna. En personalkategori som Försvarsmakten har haft svårt att rekrytera är anställda soldater och gruppbefäl.Syftet med denna studie är att utforska vad som motiverar unga vuxna att efter värnplikten välja att ta anställning som kontinuerligt anställda gruppbefäl och soldater i Försvarsmakten. Studien är en kvalitativ, induktiv studie där empirin har inhämtats genom intervjuer och workshop med värnpliktiga och anställda soldater vid tre förband i armén.Studiens referensram beskriver hur de värnpliktiga soldaterna genom socialisation anpassar sig och formar en begynnande professionell identitet. Vidare så beskriver den soldaternas anknytning och engagemang till yrkesrollen. För att ytterligare se på soldaternas motivation genomlyses empirin med ett generationsperspektiv.Studiens resultat visar att de värnpliktiga soldaternas upplevelse av grundutbildningen är avgörande för deras val att fortsätta i Försvarsmakten. De soldater som väljer att stanna i Försvarsmakten som anställda GSS har positiva upplevelser i sin yrkesroll från grundutbildningen och har haft befäl som är starka positiva förebilder för professionen. Soldaternas främsta motiv utgörs av en förväntansbild som präglas av soldatyrkets särskilda karaktär och förutsättning och den starka sammanhållning som de ser som unik för den militära professionen.I studiens slutsatser anför författarna att fler värnpliktiga soldater skulle motiveras att fortsätta som anställda soldater om Försvarsmakten tillämpade ett förhållningssätt och ett ledarskap som inte gör åtskillnad på olika personalkategorier. De anför också att organisationskulturen behöver utvecklas för att bättre möta den nya generationen. / The Swedish armed forces (SAF) are growing. To meet the need for a more robust and capable defense force, as described by the proposed strategical military concept, the SAF must steadily increase military personnel volumes. A personnel category that the SAF has had difficulties recruiting are employed soldiers and squad leaders.The study aims to explore what motivates conscripts to choose voluntary employment as professional soldiers and squad leaders within the Swedish Armed Forces after their mandatory military service. The study is a qualitative, inductive study that gathers empirical facts through interviews with recently employed soldiers and a workshop with conscripted soldiers still completing their military service.The study's frame of reference describes how the conscripted soldiers adapt through socialization and form a nascent professional identity. Furthermore, it describes the soldiers' attachment and commitment to their professional role. To further understand the soldiers' motivation, the empirical evidence is viewed through a generational perspective.The results show that how the soldiers experience their mandatory military service constitutes the decisive factor for their choice to continue in the Armed Forces. Conscripts who choose to stay in the Armed Forces have both had a positive affirmation of their professional identity during their military service and have experienced leaders who are strong and positive role models for the profession. Their primary motivations embody expectations of the special characteristics and prerequisites of the military profession as well as the strong sense of cohesion and comradeship that they regard as unique to the military profession.The authors conclude that more of the conscripted soldiers would be motivated to continue if the SAF would adopt a more coherent approach of culture and leadership that does not differentiate between conscripted and contracted soldiers. The authors also conclude that the organizational culture of the SAF need to adapt to the new generation.