In this study the authors are exploring the profession of the military officer. The authors, which are military officers themselves, are doing this with an inductive quality based research method within a social science context. The military officer’s profession has during recent decades been under extensive changes both in organization and exercise within the military authorities of Sweden. Together with the political changes in the country of Sweden and the global changes regarding the strategic and security environment this has led to another view of the profession and its military context. These changes have led us to the need of explaining and the clarification of definitions, practice and concepts of the military officer. The investigation of the profession is conducted with an inside perspective. This study starts with interviews conducted together with personnel that in some way have a connection to the military profession. The interviews contain the core of the investigation, empirical data that tell us something about the profession of military officers, their on-the-job experiences and assumptions and conclusions regarding their own profession. Then follow an examination of doctrine and other literature regarding profession in a Swedish military context. This empirical data has led to a result presented as a model describing the military officer’s profession. The model itself is the first contribute of the study. The model has been used as an analytical instrument when investigating further empirical data. The interviews are divided into two different stages in the survey, the first part of interviews led to the model and the second part contains group interviews and this is where the actual analyses were completed. The main question of the study is whether the profession of military officers is coherent and congruent. The second contribute of this study is empirical findings that tell us a shift of focus is underway and has been for a while, within the profession, a "target-means displacement". This shifting of focus is explained using the practice of different logics, management logic and the logic of war. Management logic is defined mainly as bureaucracy and administration without an explicit connection to military knowledge and skills. The logic of war is defined as the opposite, knowledge and skills closely connected to the ability of leading, conducting and the organizing of combat at different tactical levels. Key words: Profession, military profession, officer’s military profession, management logic, the logic of war, bureaucracy, administration, focus shift, "target-means displacement.

Försvarsmakten (FM) behöver kompetenta officerare med vana till väpnad strid. Genom att synliggöra och tillvarata officerare med utlandserfarenhet kan kompetensen användas på ett sätt som ökar försvarsförmågan och behåller kompetensen inom FM. Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva hur officerens kompetens förstås och omhändertas efter utlandstjänstgöring av personalplanerande officerare- chefer på bataljonsnivån i armén. För att uppnå syftet har författaren genom den tematiska analysen (TA) en ansats till objektiv tolkning av respondenternas subjektiva syn på officerskompetens vilket sedan beskrivs i resultatet. Genom ansatsen till objektiv tolkning har författaren utvecklat ett förslag till förståelsemodell av kompetens till vidare forskning i slutet av uppsatsen.   Författaren lyfter även fram och diskuterar teori i uppsatsen om officerskompetens med historiska återkopplingar för att visa att officerskompetensens har, och kommer att utvecklas genom att officeren får möjlighet till att delta i skarpa insatser. Författarens abduktiva ansats med TA skapar två huvudteman. Det första är förståelsen av kompetens som har två underteman: definitionen av kompetens och kompetensens värde. Det andra huvudtemat är tillvaratagandet av kompetens som har två underteman: organisationen som drivkraft och kompetensuppbyggnad. Dessa teman utgör uppsatsens resultat som diskuteras i kapitel fem och ger svar på uppsatsens forskningsfråga.

The Swedish Armed Forces are in the middle of a crisis when 30% of professional officers retire in the next few years. It is difficult to recruit and retain personnel with the required skills and experience for Military Region Groups within the Home Guard Combat Force. The prupose of this study is to deepen the author´s understanding of what attracts professional officers to apply for employment in a military region group, and what is required to retain them. The study is based on a hermeneutic paradigm with an inductive approach and qualitative method. The method included four workshops with personell within and outside military regions and four interviews with representatives from the HR function in the Armed Forces. The result is reported as Grounded Theory. The results revealed four themes: instrinsic motivation, extrinsic motivation, the conditions of the organization and the mission, and working relationships that highlight what attracts and retain professional officers in a military region group. The study describes four conclusions: Professional officers fromn all three generations in the study are attracted to meaningful work tasks. Certain nuances between the generations´motivational factors occur and need to be taken into account in recrutiment, Professional officers from all three generations in the study cite both internal and external motivational factors as reasons for staying. Intrinsic motivation inludes geographical location and family siutation, extrinsic motivation inludes relevant salary development, The Home Guard Combat Force lacks a functioning personell supply system and cannot ensure that the vacancies within each military region are filled to a sufficient extent,  The Home Guard Combat Force needs to work more activelu with internal marketing within the Swedish Armed Forces.