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Military Officers (military + officer)
Selected AbstractsThe Use and Evolution of Stories as a Mode of Problem Representation: Soviet and French Military Officers Face the Loss of EmpirePOLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2000Tanya Charlick-Paley Experimental work on modes of problem representation (Sylvan, Diascro, & Haddad, 1996) has found that the story model of Pennington and Hastie (1986, 1988) is a helpful construct in understanding how people reach decisions when dealing with questions of foreign policy. Here, a modified version of the story model is applied to statements by military officers in the Soviet Union and in France, representing the situations they face before and after the loss of Eastern Europe and Indochina, respectively (Charlick-Paley, 1997). Both baseline stories and those after the losses of empire are examined to test the hypothesis that when a military experiences the loss of its state's empire, officers will formulate a new story that justifies the change in its status, and that this new story will motivate new patterns of civil-military relations in the post-imperial era. The hypothesis finds general support, and stories are found to be a useful vehicle in understanding differences between groups of military officers. An analysis of how officers' stories change over time yields intriguing results as to how mutable stories are and which elements of a story are most likely to change first. In particular, expansion of the level of a goal is found to be a representational response to the political stimulus of loss of empire. [source] Een-Gonyama Gonyama!: Zulu Origins of the Boy Scout Movement and the Africanisation of Imperial BritainPARLIAMENTARY HISTORY, Issue 1 2008TIMOTHY PARSONS British imperialists in the late 19th century denigrated non-western cultures in rationalising the partition of Africa, but they also had to assimilate African values and traditions to make the imperial system work. The partisans of empire also romanticised non-western cultures to convince the British public to support the imperial enterprise. In doing so, they introduced significant African and Asian elements into British popular culture, thereby refuting the assumption that the empire had little influence on the historical development of metropolitan Britain. Robert Baden-Powell conceived of the Boy Scout movement as a cure for the social instability and potential military weakness of Edwardian Britain. Influenced profoundly by his service as a colonial military officer, Africa loomed large in Baden-Powell's imagination. He was particularly taken with the Zulu. King Cetshwayo's crushing defeat of the British army at Isandhlawana in 1879 fixed their reputation as a ,martial tribe' in the imagination of the British public. Baden-Powell romanticised the Zulus' discipline, and courage, and adapted many of their cultural institutions to scouting. Baden-Powell's appropriation and reinterpretation of African culture illustrates the influence of subject peoples of the empire on metropolitan British politics and society. Scouting's romanticised trappings of African culture captured the imagination of tens of thousands of Edwardian boys and helped make Baden-Powell's organisation the premier uniformed youth movement in Britain. Although confident that they were superior to their African subjects, British politicians, educators, and social reformers agreed with Baden-Powell that ,tribal' Africans preserved many of the manly virtues that had been wiped by the industrial age. [source] COMPARISON OF SITUATIONAL AND BEHAVIOR DESCRIPTION INTERVIEW QUESTIONS FOR HIGHER-LEVEL POSITIONSPERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2001ALLEN I. HUFFCUTT Based on a study of federal investigative agents, Pulakos and Schmitt (1995) hypothesized that situational interviews are less effective for higher-level positions than behavior description interviews. To evaluate their hypothesis we analyzed data from 2 new structured interview studies. Both of these studies involved higher-level positions, a military officer and a district manager respectively, and had matching SI and BDI questions written to assess the same job characteristics. Results confirmed that situational interviews are much less predictive of performance in these types of positions. Moreover, results indicated very little correspondence between situational and behavior description questions written to assess the same job characteristic, and a link between BDI ratings and the personality trait Extroversion. Possible reasons for the lower situational interview effectiveness are discussed. [source] Calvinist Internationalism and the English Officer Corps, 1562,1642HISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2006David Trim This article uses a crucial but little-known text to examine two problematic issues in early-modern history: whether there was, in any meaningful sense, a ,Calvinist international'; and the extent to which religious commitment influenced career soldiers. The Defence of Militarie Profession (1579), by a Calvinist soldier, Geoffrey Gates, is rich on both issues and an excellent potential source for students. This article outlines how close reading reveals a transnational concept of the Reformed Churches as Israel, derived from a distinctive understanding and application of the Bible. Then, analysis of English military officers indicates that many were Calvinist and shared this internationalist concept of their confession. Thus, this essay argues that a ,Calvinist international' did exist as a conscious transnational movement and that its ideology was an important factor in the mental world of English career soldiers; and it introduces a text that students can use to explore these large issues. [source] An application of the unfolding model to explain turnover in a sample of military officersHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2007Daniel T. Holt Questionnaire data from 182Air Force officers who had voluntarily separated from the service were used to test Lee and Mitchell's (1994) unfolding model of voluntary turnover. Specifically, Lee and Mitchell predict five distinct paths to voluntary turnover, explaining the sequence of deliberate and impulsive decisions individuals make as they choose to leave organizations, where individuals interpret an organizational event, assess their relation to the workplace, evaluate options, and enact a response. Results indicate that 47% of the participants followed those five paths. Model modifications were made that reflect the unique nature of military service where members have preexisting plans to leave the service after a defined period or event. These modifications capture an additional 36% to explain 83% of the turnover decisions. The implications of these findings are addressed. ©2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Teaching Foreign Policy with MemoirsINTERNATIONAL STUDIES PERSPECTIVES, Issue 2 2002Terry L. Deibel Excerpts from the memoirs of high foreign policy officials, if carefully selected and structured, can be a valuable resource in the teaching of diplomatic history, American foreign policy, and international relations. Two decades of teaching a memoirs-only course to mid-career military officers and foreign affairs professionals in a seminar discussion format reveals many of their advantages. Memoirs are interesting reading that rarely fail to engage a reader's attention; they impart detailed knowledge of historical events; they provide a rich understanding of process and the neglected area of policy implementation; like case studies, they let students build vicarious experience in policymaking and execution; and they often provide what Alexander George called "policy-relevant generalizations." While lack of objectivity can be a serious drawback of first-person accounts, it provides its own lessons on the nature of history and can be offset by using multiple accounts of the same events and by combining memoirs with documents and historical works, or countering analytical studies. Although picking the most interesting and worthwhile excerpts, getting them in students' hands, and accommodating their length within the boundaries of a standard college course are additional challenges, professors who take them on should find that memoirs add a new level of excitement and realism to their courses. [source] The Use and Evolution of Stories as a Mode of Problem Representation: Soviet and French Military Officers Face the Loss of EmpirePOLITICAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 4 2000Tanya Charlick-Paley Experimental work on modes of problem representation (Sylvan, Diascro, & Haddad, 1996) has found that the story model of Pennington and Hastie (1986, 1988) is a helpful construct in understanding how people reach decisions when dealing with questions of foreign policy. Here, a modified version of the story model is applied to statements by military officers in the Soviet Union and in France, representing the situations they face before and after the loss of Eastern Europe and Indochina, respectively (Charlick-Paley, 1997). Both baseline stories and those after the losses of empire are examined to test the hypothesis that when a military experiences the loss of its state's empire, officers will formulate a new story that justifies the change in its status, and that this new story will motivate new patterns of civil-military relations in the post-imperial era. The hypothesis finds general support, and stories are found to be a useful vehicle in understanding differences between groups of military officers. An analysis of how officers' stories change over time yields intriguing results as to how mutable stories are and which elements of a story are most likely to change first. In particular, expansion of the level of a goal is found to be a representational response to the political stimulus of loss of empire. [source] Social representations of democratic transition: Was the Philippine People Power a non-violent power shift or a military coup?ASIAN JOURNAL OF SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2010Cristina Jayme MontielArticle first published online: 16 AUG 2010 This research looked at social representations of the 1986 People Power in the Philippines among Filipino civilians and the military. Using mixed qualitative,quantitative methods, the research collected military narratives, ran a survey of civilians and military personnel and reviewed newspaper accounts of People Power anniversary celebrations over 20 years. Civilians saw People Power as a strong and positive power shift, while the military viewed it as an aborted coup led by military officers that was weak and bad. The findings about the social representations of transition are linked to civilian,military social identities after 1986 and illuminate the subjective landscape of State power contests in a new democracy. [source] Planning without guidance: Canadian defence policy and planning, 1993,2004CANADIAN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION/ADMINISTRATION PUBLIQUE DU CANADA, Issue 3 2010Robert Michael Hartfiel The Forces' operational tempo increased significantly even as the defence budget was cut by a quarter. Defence issues were perceived to have very little profile in Ottawa, and military officers felt their concerns were not being heard. Despite rapid changes in the global security environment, dramatic budget cuts, and frequent deployments, the government failed to update its policy guidance to reflect these new challenges. However, the Canadian Forces gradually learned to survive in the absence of political guidance. Defence planners initiated a number of reforms aimed at anticipating future missions, preserving combat capabilities, and winning more resources. Drawing on a series of interviews with senior military officers and civilian officials at the Department of National Defence and a reading of the relevant literature on Canadian defence policy and strategic planning, the author examines the process of adaptation, focusing particular attention on the adoption of capabilities-based planning for resource allocation and mitigating risk. The article concludes with a discussion of the implications of these developments for civil,military relations in Canada and presents a case for institutional reform. Sommaire : La décennie qui s'est déroulée entre la publication du Livre blanc sur la défense de 1994 du Canada et son Énoncé de politique internationale de 2005 a été une période de crise au sein des Forces canadiennes. Leur rythme opérationnel s'est accru considérablement alors même que le budget de la Défense était réduit d'un quart. Les questions relatives à la Défense étaient considérées comme ayant peu d'importance à Ottawa, et les dirigeants militaires avaient l'impression qu'on n'écoutait pas leurs préoccupations. Outre les changements rapides intervenus au niveau de la sécurité internationale, les réductions budgétaires drastiques et les redéploiements fréquents, le gouvernement a omis de mettre à jour ses lignes directrices politiques pour refléter ces nouveaux défis. Cependant, les Forces canadiennes ont appris progressivement à survivre en l'absence de lignes directrices politiques. Les planificateurs de la Défense ont lancé un certain nombre de réformes visant à prévoir les missions futures, à préserver les capacités de combat et à obtenir plus de ressources. En s'appuyant sur une série d'entrevues avec de hauts dirigeants militaires, des dirigeants civils du ministère de la Défense nationale et sur une lecture de documents pertinents concernant la politique de défense et la planification stratégique canadienne, l'auteur étudie le processus d'adaptation, en portant une attention particulière à l'adoption de la planification fondée sur les capacités d'affectation des ressources et de la réduction des risques. L'article se termine par une discussion sur les implications de ces faits nouveaux concernant les relations civilo-militaires au Canada et présente un cas pour le bien-fondé d'une réforme institutionnelle. [source] | ||||||||||||||||