Vem skall fylla uniformen? : Generation Officer

Sammanfattning: The Swedish Armed Forces must double its personnel volumes with 50% within the next 15 years period. With already existing challenges to procure new personnel and to keep those already serving in the current organizational structures this mission comes with some problems. The numbers leaving the Armed Forces are for the moment at a higher rate than what is recruited. This study sets out with the aim of finding what directions the Armed Forces can take to turn this trend around. The research has, by asking already serving commissioned and noncommissioned officers, examined what factors and motivators made them choose the profession and what factors makes them stay in the service. Further, to examine these factors and motivators deeper, interviews with cadets were made with the aim to find out what attracted them to serve. The data emerging consisted of seven categories each one giving a deeper understanding of what attracted the individual to the Armed Forces and what made them take the step to join. These categories are responsibility, leadership, stimulation, purposefulness, development, security and belonging. To put these factors in to a generational perspective, and to give them a wider meaning, third grade high school students were asked to explain their interpretation of them and how important they are. This secondary empirical gathering gave the researchers the opportunity to compare already existing theories about generations with the actual motivating factors of those already serving. What emerged was the combining factors of motivation to attract individuals to the Armed Forces, purposefulness, stimulation and belonging. This consists with the use of normative power when it comes to controlling the personnel in the organization and how important the use of the right organizational powers is to attract and get compliance from individuals. The Swedish Armed Forces cannot in its aim to expand depend on general knowledge about what attracts individuals from a particular generation. Instead a deeper more purposeful examination of what drives an individual to serve must be developed, something this study has tried to accomplish. The result of this study concludes that belonging to an organization with a purpose creates individual stimulation and allows the organization to use normative powers.