<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>Numerous societal change processes such as globalization, professionalization and social and technical acceleration have challenged military organizations. The aims of this study were to (1) gain a deeper understanding of coping strategies used by the military leaders at the strategic level to manage everyday organizational demands and (2) relate these strategies to multidisciplinary models of organizational challenges. Owing to an insufficiently developed base of research, an inductive approach was used. Interviews were performed with 23 Swedish brigadier generals and colonels. Five coping strategies were found for handling the negative organizational aspects: repair work, catching up, reproducing, using formal and informal strategies and managing loyalties. The theoretical concepts of narcissistic, anorectic and greedy organizations were used as a framework when interpreting the inductively generated coping strategies. It was suggested that the specific connection found between individual-level coping strategies and theoretically framed organizational challenges is new. The results of this study are discussed theoretically and may be valuable in educational settings when evaluating the working conditions and performance of high-level officers.</p>
</abstract>

Numerous societal change processes such as globalization, professionalization and social and technical acceleration have challenged military organizations. The aims of this study were to (1) gain a deeper understanding of coping strategies used by the military leaders at the strategic level to manage everyday organizational demands and (2) relate these strategies to multidisciplinary models of organizational challenges. Owing to an insufficiently developed base of research, an inductive approach was used. Interviews were performed with 23 Swedish brigadier generals and colonels. Five coping strategies were found for handling the negative organizational aspects: repair work, catching up, reproducing, using formal and informal strategies and managing loyalties. The theoretical concepts of narcissistic, anorectic and greedy organizations were used as a framework when interpreting the inductively generated coping strategies. It was suggested that the specific connection found between individual-level coping strategies and theoretically framed organizational challenges is new. The results of this study are discussed theoretically and may be valuable in educational settings when evaluating the working conditions and performance of high-level officers.

Organizational challenges and leaders’ coping strategies: a qualitative study of Swedish military staff organization

Strategy and Leadership, Swedish Defence University

Journal of Military Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Numerous societal change processes such as globalization, professionalization and social and technical acceleration have challenged military organizations. The...

Organizational challenges and leaders’ coping strategies: a qualitative study of Swedish military staff organization

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: May 23, 2018

Page range: 24 - 33

Received: Feb 23, 2017

Accepted: Nov 05, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jms-2017-0002

Keywords
organizational challenges, leadership strategies, organizational narcissism, organizational anorexia, organizational greed, qualitative study

© 2020 Alvinius et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1

Organizational challenges and leaders’ coping strategies: a qualitative study of Swedish military staff organization

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: May 23, 2018

Page range: 24 - 33

Received: Feb 23, 2017

Accepted: Nov 05, 2017

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/jms-2017-0002

Keywordsorganizational challenges, leadership strategies, organizational narcissism, organizational anorexia, organizational greed, qualitative study

© 2020 Alvinius et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Fig. 1

Keywords
organizational challenges, leadership strategies, organizational narcissism, organizational anorexia, organizational greed, qualitative study