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At the heart of loyalty : a comparative analysis of military loyalty in the armies of Greek city-states and Hellenistic kingdomsHerzogenrath-Amelung, Tristan Andreas January 2018 (has links)
This thesis is a comparative analysis of the concept of military loyalty in the armies of Greek city-states and Hellenistic kingdoms, combining ancient evidence with the use of modern theories of organisational structures and combat motivation. It presents a basic contrast between Polis armies, which displayed high levels of loyalty, and Royal armies, which suffered from frequent cases of non-compliance and disloyalty, and argues that this contrast is a consequence of two fundamentally different ways of generating compliance and loyalty. Polis armies, it will be shown, predominantly exercised normative power, i.e. they relied on a combination of symbolic incentives and rewards, and a civic ideology of sacrifice for the common good; correspondingly, the soldiers, over whom this power was exercised, predominantly displayed moral involvement with their army, that is they complied voluntarily, out of a belief in the righteousness of their cause and in the alignment of their own benefit with that of their organisation. Royal armies, on the other hand, primarily utilised remunerative power, i.e. the allocation and manipulation of material rewards, which in turn was met by predominantly calculative involvement from the soldiers, i.e. a utilitarian assessment of risk and reward. These two compliance relationships - normative-moral and remunerative-calculative - lay at the heart of the different levels of loyalty we find in Polis and Royal armies. Nevertheless, at times this distinction broke down, revealing areas of overlap and a complex layering of motivations and types of power. The argument will be developed over the course of five chapters. Chapter 1 provides the theoretical framework. It explains Amitai Etzioni's Compliance Theory, detailing the three congruent compliance models organisations may use. These models are based on the type of power the organisational elites (generals and officers) apply, and the type of involvement present in the lower participants (soldiers): normative power and moral involvement, remunerative power and calculative involvement, and lastly, coercive power and alienative involvement. I will also stress the importance of the socio-political system over that of primary groups for the generation of compliance and loyalty. Chapter 2 presents the evidence for the different levels of loyalty in Polis and Royal armies, showing how citizen forces were robustly cohesive in the field, whereas the armies of the Successors and Hellenistic kings frequently succumbed to treachery, non-compliance, and disloyalty. I argue that one of the main reasons for this contrast lay in the powerful socio-political system that enveloped Polis armies, allowing them to develop a normative-moral compliance relationship. At the same time, however, it caused intense political infighting. Chapter 3 will explore one feature of the socio-political system: funerary practices. We shall analyse how armies and societies commemorated their soldiers, and witness the effects of civic ideology on the expressive content in soldiers' epitaphs. The evidence suggests strong normative elements for Polis armies, but does not allow us to draw firm conclusions regarding Royal armies. Chapter 4 will discuss the third type of congruent compliance relationship, i.e. coercive-alienative. I describe how neither army had access to, or need of, an effective coercive apparatus, as both had found other ways to create and maintain compliance. Chapter 5 will analyse the reward structures of Polis and Royal armies, and I will draw attention to the overall symbolic nature of rewards in citizen armies, and the largely material aspects of Royal army rewards, while pointing out ways in which Royal army elites strove to exert normative power through settling soldiers. This reflects the predominant types of power and involvement that characterised these organisations. Finally, a concluding section highlights the contrasts that were revealed in this thesis, but also discusses areas of convergence where the 'Polis army vs. Royal army' dichotomy broke down: creating and maintaining loyalty is a complex task, and military organisations employ more than one way to achieve it.
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“Vi kallar det för The Foundation” : – En kvalitativ intervjustudie om värderingsstyrningBodin, Linnéa, Skånberg, Lea January 2023 (has links)
In today's work life, values and their importance for organizations are a central and debated issue. Most organizations have a values foundation consisting of a number of specific values that are considered important guidelines for desirable behavior and common goals. This study aims to investigate more closely how the management can make value-based management work by analyzing an organization that works with value-based management, using Etzioni's (1975) compliance theory. The empirical basis of the study rests on eight qualitative semi-structured interviews with managers and employees within the organization. The result indicates that the management has involved the employees in the process of developing the values. The management has different strategies to implement the values: they have clarified the meaning and the scope of use of the values, the values are used as the first assessment within an internal career framework, and they conduct regular feedback conversations regarding the values. Using the compliance theory, these strategies can be understood as normative exercise of power, but with elements of rewarding exercise of power in that the values are used in the career framework. The result further shows that the values land with the employees. The employees are positive about the values and perceive them as important which, using the compliance theory, can be understood as moral commitment. However, a tendency identified in the results is skepticism towards the values being used for evaluation purposes as a first step before they are given the opportunity for promotion through the organization's career framework. The skeptical approach is interpreted as being due to the management exercising normative power and rewarding power at the same time. In general, the results of the study show that the management's value-based management works. Based on Etzioni's (1975) compliance theory, this means that the relationship between the management's strategies for implementing the values and how they resonate with the employees are congruent. The management's normative exercise of power is reflected by the employees' moral commitment. An important result of the study, however, is that value-based management has less effect when two different types of power are combined. This means that a prerequisite for value-based management to work is that the management exercises one type of power, and that it corresponds to the commitment of the employees. / I dagens arbetsliv är värderingar och deras betydelse för organisationer en central och omdiskuterad fråga. De flesta organisationer har en värdegrund bestående av ett antal bestämda värderingar som betraktas som viktiga riktlinjer för önskvärt beteende och gemensamma mål. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka närmare hur ledningen kan göra för att värderingsstyrning ska fungera genom att analysera en organisation som arbetar med värderingsstyrning med hjälp av Etzionis (1975) efterlevnadsteori. Studiens empiri grundar sig på åtta kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer med chefer och medarbetare på organisationen. Resultatet visar att ledningen inkluderat medarbetarna i processen att ta fram värderingarna. Ledningen har olika strategier för att implementera värderingarna: de har tydliggjort värderingarnas innebörd och användningsområde, värderingarna används som första utvärdering i ett internt karriärsramverk, och de håller i regelbundna feedbacksamtal gällande värderingarna. Med hjälp av efterlevnadsteorin går dessa strategier att förstås som mestadels normativt maktutövande, men med inslag av belönande maktutövande. Resultatet visar vidare att värderingarna landar hos medarbetarna. Medarbetarna ställer sig positiva till värderingarna och upplever dem som viktiga, vilket med hjälp av efterlevnadsteorin går att förstås som moraliskt engagemang. En tendens som identifierats i resultatet är emellertid skepticism mot att värderingarna används i utvärderingssyfte som ett första steg innan de får möjlighet till befordran i och med organisationens karriärsramverk. Det skeptiska förhållningssättet tolkas grunda sig i att ledningen utövar normativ makt och belönande makt samtidigt. Generellt visar studiens resultat att ledningens värderingsstyrning fungerar. Utifrån Etzionis (1975) efterlevnadsteori betyder det att relationen mellan ledningens strategier för att implementera värderingarna och hur det landar hos medarbetarna är kongruent. Ett viktigt resultat i studien är emellertid att värderingsstyrningen får mindre effekt när två olika typer av makt kombineras. Det betyder att en möjlig förutsättning för att värderingsstyrningen ska fungera är att ledningen utövar en typ av makt, och att den motsvarar medarbetarnas engagemang.
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När bägaren rinner över! : Officeren och utmattningsproblem.Jennerholm, Jesper, Söderberg, Rikard January 2024 (has links)
Vi har under 2023 sett flertalet av våra kollegor kämpa med utmattningsproblem. Vid ett av Skaraborgs regementes utbildningskompanier har en tredjedel av officerarna uppvisat stressymptom. Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att förstå vad som orsakar långvarig stress hos officerare vid Skaraborgs regemente. Då vi försökt förstå individers upplevelser har vi valt en hermeneutisk positionering och en induktiv, kvalitativ ansats. Vi har samtalat med sju officerare som har eller har haft utmattningsproblem. Samtalen har sedan analyserats genom Informed grounded theory. Vi har även samtalat med några befattningshavare för att få en karta över utmattningsproblem inom Försvarsmakten. Dessa samtal har genomgått en enklare innehållsanalys. Den bild som efter detta växt fram bygger på fem teman som till del går i varandra och ger ett sjätte tema som är stressens konsekvens. Förutsättningar är de förutsättningar officeren har med sig och får av arbetsgivaren att göra sitt jobb och möjligheter att återhämta. Krav som visar hur kraven från arbete, privatliv och inte minst de krav individen skapar själv påverkar. Ambition som handlar om officerens egna krav och förväntningar på sig själv. Kunskap om problemet innefattar officerens kunskap om långvarig stress, utmattningsproblem och hur återhämtning fungerar. Struktur som belyser hur god struktur fördröjer problem och är nödvändigt för att komma tillbaka efter utmattningsproblem. Dessa ledde till Konsekvenser som innefattar de symptom och reaktioner som skapat det lidande våra respondenter öppet beskriver. Konsekvenserna är det som är själva anledningen till vårt syfte. Vi har i vårt arbete kommit fram till följande slutsatser: •Utmattningsproblem hos officeren skapas i spänningen mellan bristande förutsättningar och för hög egen ambition. •Avsaknad av stöd när officeren får bristande förutsättningar och har hög ambition accelererar utmattningsprocessen. •En otillräcklig struktur i arbete och privatliv ökar effekten av komplexitet och hög belastning, minskar känslan av kompetens och påskyndar på så vis utmattningsprocessen. •Hela livet, både arbetslivet och privatlivet samverkar till att fylla bägaren. •Bristande kunskap om utmattningsproblem och återhämtning eller att inte ta ansvar för återhämtning ger mindre motståndskraft och allvarligare konsekvenser. •Det saknas en karta över utmattningsproblem i Försvarsmakten. / During 2023 we have seen several of our colleagues struggle with exhaustion problems. At one of the training companies at the Skaraborg regiment of the Swedish army one third off the Officers and Noncommissioned officers (NCOs) exhibit clear symptoms of stress. The purpose of this thesis is to understand what causes cumulative stress in officers and NCOs at the Skaraborg regiment. We have tried to understand the experience of individuals. Therefore, we have chosen a hermeneutic paradigm and an inductive qualitative approach. We have elected to converse with seven officers and NCOs who have or have had exhaustion problems. The conversations have been analyzed through Informed grounded theory. The emerging picture rests on five themes who partially intersect and consequently produce a sixth. Conditions are the conditions the individual bring with them and the conditions they get from the employer to do their job and recover. Demands which demonstrates how the demands from work, their personal life and not least the demands the individual creates for themselves. Ambition which describes the demands and expectations the individual imposes on themselves. Knowledge of the problem contains the individual’s knowledge of cumulative stress, problems of exhaustion and how recovery works. Structure which illuminates how a good structure in work and personal life delay stress related problems. How structure is necessary to recover after exhaustion problems. These themes all lead to Consequences which comprises of those symptoms and reactions to stress which creates the suffering our respondents have so openly described. The consequences which are the reason of our purpose. We have reached the following conclusions: •Exhaustion problems in officers and NCOs are created in the tension between deficient conditions and individual ambition. •The lack of support when individuals have deficient conditions, and a high ambition accelerates the exhaustion process. •A deficient structure in work life and personal life increases the effect of complexity and high task load. It reduces the feeling of accomplishment and so doing hastens the exhaustion process. •Life as a whole, both work life and personal life conspire to create exhaustion problems. •Lack of knowledge of exhaustion problems and recovery or not applying existing knowledge reduces resistance and aggravates consequences. •There is no map of exhaustion problems in the Swedish armed forces.
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