Chapter 1.
Introduction
History as a part of professional identity
This book deals with the impact of perceptions of history[i] on British and German army officer cadets’[ii] professional identity in general and their motivation to enlist in particular. Quantitative surveys and qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted in order to theorise how the cadets and the officer training-systems in Britain and Germany were shaped by a different dealing with historical experiences.
Modern-day Britain and Germany are Western liberal democracies whose armed forces, which are both NATO members and under civilian control, recruit professional soldiers and officers for territorial defence and foreign deployment. Despite many cultural similarities, British and German societal perceptions towards their military pasts seem to differ substantially. This book aims to deconstruct the relationship between officer cadets and their country’s history, and the impact of this relationship on the cadets’ occupational decision. While inherently comparative, this study does not intend to generalise. Instead it seeks to open up a new research area by linking the fields of military sociology with military history to afford an analysis of value-related incentives in the field of recruitment studies and motivational research.
The analysis undertaken intends to make three major contributions to the existing literature on identity and recruitment:
First, it explores the professional identity of British and German cadets at the beginning of their military career with a focus on their impetus to enlist and the role that their understanding of history played in their occupational decision-making.
Second, it confirms David R. Segal’s Pragmatic Professionalism approach, which claims that occupational and institutional reasons for enlistment, as defined by Charles C. Moskos in 1977 (Segal 1986; Moskos 1977), can merge together.
Lastly, it challenges and theorises recruitment studies by identifying history-oriented reasons for enlistment as a new incentive in recruitment research.
In order to add empirical weight to those theoretical contributions, the analysis in this book draws on a study of British and German army officer cadets who stem from two nations with an arguably quite different way of dealing with their military pasts ̶ an assertion that will find repeated attention throughout this book. Consequently, this study is exemplary and the sample of British and German cadets only serves as a contrasting model of two societies and how each one deals with lessons learned from the past differently.
The formation of identity, particularly in the field of work identity, has generated a great deal of interest in the areas of organisational behaviour and organisational psychology, yet still very little is known about the professional identity formation of army personnel in general and that of officer cadets in particular. Drawing on a study of British and German cadets and their (1.) professional identity, (2.) service motivation and (3.) understanding of history, this study will extend previous research by exploring the professional identity of officer cadets. Moreover, the study at hand will investigate anthropological and socio-cultural aspects relating to the norms and values of British and German societies, and explain which of those values and norms were adapted or rejected by the cadets and why.
The author of this book argues that officers have a strong relationship with the history of their country because the history of their country is identical to the history of their employer. Consequently, soldiers are inevitably more connected to the history of their country than other professional groups. Examining the impact of perceptions of history on the professional identity of British and German cadets as well as their public service motivation is essential, since both analyses give insights into the cadets’ wider perceptions of their future profession and provide direction for contemporary career research in the armed forces.
Given the suggestion by researchers that individuals adjust and adapt their professional identity over the course of their career (Slay and Smith 2011: 87), this book will provide an in-depth analysis on how British and German cadets perceived their future profession at the very outset of their military career. The examination of the cadets’ motivation to enlist focuses in particular on their perceptions of history and how cadets have aligned their knowledge of the past with their occupational decision-making. This procedure underlies the belief that the professional identity of British and German cadets is heavily influenced by a contemporary understanding of history and an individualised interpretation of lessons learned from the past.
Each chapter contributes to a better appreciation of the links between past and present in the two countries that are not only apparent in the two officer training systems, but also in the way in which the cadets perceived their future profession. To develop a better understanding of those links, Chapter 1 introduces the development of the British and German armed forces until 2014 as well as the officer training courses in both countries. The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate that most differences between the British and German militaries can be traced back to, (1.) the different lengths of service commitment in the two countries and, (2.) how each country presently deals with its military’s past differently. Subsequently, Chapter 2 discusses the cadets’ different reasons for an initial interest in a military career and provides the reader with in-depth knowledge about the British and German cadets’ social and educational background. The parts on British and German cadets are discussed separately, thus enabling the identification of the different factors which shaped adolescent opinions of the military in Britain and Germany and determined the likelihood of enlistment. Chapter 3 deals with the cadets’ perceptions of history and the place that the cadets granted the history of their country in their life and self-perception. General enlistment-motivations are discussed with a focus on value-related incentives to show that the empirical data analysis of the motivations contributing to the cadets’ decision to enlist in 2014 conform to Segal’s Pragmatic Professionalism theory (Segal 1986). Additionally, history-oriented reasons are introduced as a new incentive for enlistment in recruitment research. The aim of Chapter 3 is therefore to give detailed insight into the cadets’ understanding, internalisation and receptivity of history. This procedure is undertaken in order to explain just how far history-oriented reasons have affected the cadets’ career choice and why British cadets admitted more willingly than German cadets that those reasons have played a role in their occupational decision-making. The chapter closes with an all-encompassing interpretation of the British and German officer cadets’ historical awareness before the final chapter of this book sums up the results, discusses unexpected outcomes and proposes recommendations for possible future research directions.
Theoretical and methodological considerations: problem statement and research objective
The disciplinary boundaries of this book are blurred across the fields of sociology, psychology and cultural anthropology, which merge herein through a general interest in the professional identity of British and German army officer cadets and the impact that perceptions of the past (in the form of different cultural memory[iii] approaches) have on their occupational decision-making. This study makes use of sociological research methods whilst also employing an interdisciplinary approach, since the connections between culture[iv] and memory[v] and past and present cannot be approached solely within the purview of a single discipline (Caforio 2007; Erll 2011: 2-3; Mylle 2007: 123; Williams 2007: 89). While this study is encompassed within military sociology, the methodological approach combines military sociological, cultural and memory research with an anthropological interest in the officer profession in general and the officer cadets’ professional identity in particular.
The objective of this book is to provide an empirically rich analytical framework that enables a rigorous understanding of the preconditions for officer enlistment in Britain and Germany. The following sections discuss the theoretical contribution of this study and explain why history has been identified as an important element of leverage in motivating the cadets to enlist. Overall, this book aims to add a new dimension to the existing literature by exploring the impact of history on the cadets’ professional identity, their decision to enlist and their culturally-influenced understanding of the world in which they lived in 2014.
Using identity constructions, with a focus on the understanding and dealing with history in this book, goes back to the assumption that each discourse on identity is also a discourse on a network of historically, socially and institutionally specific categories, beliefs, statements and terms that offer a wide range of possible ways of giving meaning to the world (Aitken 2010: 57; Friese 2002: 2). Consequently, dealing with the cadets’ professional identity gives insights into (1.) different facets of their perceptions about reality and (2.) how far those perceptions were influenced by cultural differences in the two countries which serve as research samples. Accordingly, this study can also be trialled and put into practice with research samples other than the ones used in this book. The theoretical focus of this book is therefore consistent with Robert Merton’s request for theories of the middle range, which are specific enough to be directly tested by empirical research, yet sufficiently general to also cover a wide range of different phenomena (Merton 1957 quoted in Giddens 1997: 575).
In 2015 Darja Miscenko and David V. Day asserted that although the study of identity (in the field of work studies) has developed into an increasingly vast and heterogeneous body of literature in recent years, scholars would all too often consider only one available theoretical lens to study professional identity (Miscenko and Day 2015: 216). This study tries to obviate similar criticism by approaching the study of the British and German cadets’ professional identity from two directions: first, through a focus on the cadets’ initial interest in a military career (Chapter 2) and second, by examining reasons for enlistment which were directly informed by their culturally-influenced understanding of history, particularly in regards to different lessons learned from the past (Chapter 3). Despite a growing interest in identity studies, researchers know relatively little about the content and construction of the professional identities of young people (Pratt, Rockmann and Kaufmann 2006), a gap that this study starts to bridge.
Defining professional identity
The field of professional identity research is huge and this study refrains from providing an overview of the entire field. Identity theory proposes that a professional identity is a construction of an entity which stems from multiple social roles within the context of relationships with other people (Miscenko and Day 2015). Accordingly, identity is a complexly interrelated conception of the self, and the professional identity of British and German army officer cadets is most likely only one of many concepts that the cadets have about their selves.
Many scholars have used the term professional identity without defining it, simply to write in more general terms about the professional development of employees who work in a specific sector (e.g. Bocock 1994; Curle 1969; Glas 2013; Goldberg 2007; Schlegel 1995). Some scholars have tried to explore the philosophical roots of professional identity (e.g. Bierema 2010: 135-136), challenged theoretical conceptualisations of professional identity or analysed concepts which mirrored the relationship between professional identity, skills and abilities (Sommerlad 2006; Wager 1994; Walkowitz 1999) to the formation of identity in the field of justice (Southworth 2008; Levinson 2003) or educational studies (Nagatomo 2012; Rodgers and Scott 2008; Curle 1969; Glas 2013; Bocock 1994).
With a focus on the vast literature on identity, most professional identity studies in the sociology and psychology sectors either focussed on (1.) the development or change of identity in certain professions or (2.) on specific aspects such as how role models influence professional identities (e.g. Pratt, Rockmann and Kaufmann 2006: 237-238). The approach towards a definition of professional identity in most studies was, however, quite different.
For the purpose of this book, professional identity is defined as a self-concept based on attitudes, beliefs, values and experiences as well as perceptions and concepts that individuals bring to their professional role. The study at hand also rests on Carol R. Rodgers and Katherine H. Scott’s (2008: 733) premise that professional identity is dependent upon and formed within multiple contexts, which bring cultural, political, social and historical forces to bear upon that formation. Professional identity is therefore shifting and unstable and formed in relationships with, or demarcation to, others (Rogers and Scott 2008: 733-734). Most importantly though (at least theoretically) for the definition of professional identity within this study is that the cadets’ professional identity at their time of enlistment was a concept about their future profession which in large parts consisted of perceptions and expectations about the officer profession more than a collection of experiences.
As the armed forces, and societies that they serve, are both constantly changing and developing, the professional identity of their military personnel is most likely to alter accordingly (Johansen et al 2013: 523). Many studies stressed that professional identity is the result of a professional socialisation (Bierema 2010: 138) and therefore constantly evolving (Wiik 2010) throughout a career. Other than those studies, the analysis in this book does not deal with the progression of professional identity, but with a snapshot of the professional identity of British and German cadets at the very outset of their military career. This study therefore defines professional identity first and foremost as a phenomenon of perceptions, since identity is always constructed (Wiik 2010: 59). This approach is based on the Personal Construct Psychology of George A. Kelly who stated that individuals completely construct themselves and the world in which they live (Kelly 1955).
In summary, this book defines professional identity as an individualised concept about a particular profession - the concept that the British and German cadets had about being officers. Although, professional identity plays a central role in how career paths are chosen and how people make sense of their work environment (Zikic and Richardson 2015), there are not many studies dealing with professional identity in the military and none which concern themselves with the professional identity of aspiring officers.
Professional identity in the armed forces
Most identity studies were conducted in the sector of organisational and managerial studies and only very few scholars (Vest 2012; Ben-Shalom and Benbenisty 2016: 669) have dealt with the role of professional identity in the armed forces. Volker C. Franke, for instance, detected that identity images, norms, values and attitudes of West Point cadets most likely also guide their operational decision-making and general behaviour (Franke 2000: 177-178). Another study also came to the conclusion that the role identity of soldiers will always guide their behaviour (Broesder 2014: 521). It has been criticised that only little research has been done on how members of an organisation actively use identity-related information about their organisation to construct their own identity (Pratt, Rockmann and Kaufmann 2006: 236-237). This book aims to fill this gap by analysing the cadets` perceptions of the past as an integral part of their professional identity.
Michael G. Pratt at el (Pratt, Rockmann and Kaufmann 2006: 236) argued that organisational membership is an indicator of where one works whereas professionals are defined by what they do: Officers are, however, defined by both the armed forces for which they work as well as their specialised roles therein. A central argument of the identity theory is that individuals act in ways that are consistent with the perceptions they bring to their professional role (Schott, van Kleef and Steen 2016). Accordingly, analysing patterns of identity gives insights into culturally-shaped attitudes and opens up the possibility of making presumptions in regards to particular forms of behaviour. This is particularly important, since scholars from different disciplines have identified the construct of identity as an influential factor behind work-related behaviours (Miscenko and Day 2015: 215; Pratt, Rockmann and Kaufmann 2006; Pratt and Dutton 2000 referred to in Chreim, Williams and Hinings 2007: 1515; Schott, van Kleef and Steen 2016). Taking this finding one step further one could argue that understanding the cadets’ professional identity perceptions may give valuable insights into their future actions, based on the attitudes with which they joined the armed forces. Since officers perform important tasks within the armed forces, it is crucial that researchers understand the dynamics underlying their professional role identity.
This book adds to the previously mentioned findings by arguing that a better understanding of the British and German cadets and their professional identities not only provide insights into their future actions, but also limit retention for cases in which the cadets’ professional role identities matched the reality of their profession. This could ideally lead to a higher degree of job satisfaction (Miscenko and Day 2015: 216; Stahl, McNichols and Manley 1980). Furthermore, research in administrative and management studies concluded that if attention is paid to the question of professional role identities it might be easier to choose people with identities which are most suitable (Schott, van Kleef and Steen 2016) to accomplish particular organisational objectives.
History as a significant part of professional identity
The results of the study at hand argue that history plays a major role in the formation and construction of professional identity. This approach is tested with a focus on value-based reasons for enlistment which go back to an individualised construction of history. Although the research focus is primarily centred on the influence of history in the present day, the results of this book also cover a wider range of phenomena such as the impact of the lengths of service commitment on the cadets’ professional attitudes or variations in regards to different soldier types.
History and particularly memory as well as apparent lessons learned from the past have become an ever important ingredient of public debates and political negotiations. Individuals, institutions and nations each have a history. Getting to know their history is a matter of trying to find out, not only who and what they are at present, but also what they have been in the past. Selective interpretations and narratives used about the past specify how a state defines itself and the role it plays in the world (Rüsen 2002; Colley 2016: 6). The German historian Jörn Rüsen stated that although data, persons and events may be a given in history, how they are considered and weighted in the present is a matter of construction and purpose since history always has to be constructed (Rüsen 2002). This distinction, between what is constructed and how, is an important aspect of identity building, since different histories provide and maintain different identities (Graumann 1992: 3-4). According to Robert I. Watson (1979) history can therefore be conceived as a “social psychology of the past”. This book does therefore not only bridge a potential gap between historical theory and the study of historical memory, it also discloses how people make sense of history (Rüsen 2002: ix).
Historian Allan Megill criticised the large volume of literature on history and memory, while scholars failed to explore the relation of a historical understanding to the subject of identity (Megill 2011: 194). Megill’s argument can be supported considering that only few studies have dealt with historical conscience and historical thought as a construction of reality (e.g. Straub 2005). This book therefore offers a comprehensive introduction to the relationship between identity and awareness of history, as well as the relationship between the cadets’ understanding of history and their enlistment decisions. The main focus of this research is therefore on the British and German cadets’ public service motivation, with a special interest on the relevance and understanding of the national past to their motivation to enlist.
Arguably, a child who touches a hot stove once is most likely to be more careful around hot stoves in the future in light of this painful experience (comp. Schank et al 2011). The same observation appears to ring true for entire nations within the living memory of a collective historical experience when this particular experience persists in peoples’ lives through discourses in the media, educational or public sectors (comp. Kayß 2018). Germany’s role in the Second World War is comparable to such an experience. In this regard, Germany still struggles with the emotional and historical reappraisal of the events of that war since most of Germany’s political actions are still heavily influenced by its memory (Assmann 2006; Niven 2002; 2006; Sierp 2014). Britain, in contrast, lacks a comparable negative historical experience in the twentieth century. This does, however, not mean that Britain’s past is not constantly present in contemporary Britain. On the contrary, due to century-old military traditions that still resonate today, Britain’s links to its past are as strong as Germany’s. It is thus seemingly unsurprising that British and German cadets were influenced by societal perceptions about their country’s past – particularly when entering public service and such a traditional profession as soldiering.
This study will demonstrate that history-oriented reasons for enlistment influenced the cadets’ role identity reconstruction along more than one trajectory. The interpretative lens for this study is an in-depth analysis of professional identity as introduced in the previous sections. This analysis is structured around the goal of elucidating the cadets’ individualised interpretation and dealing with history, in order to detect whether their history perceptions have been an impetus in their occupational decision-making.
History-oriented reasons for enlistment as a new incentive in recruitment research
Although G. Lawrence and Peter Legree identified “a historical interest” first in their list of factors that affected the propensity to enlist, and described it as an “important underlying motivator”, (Lawrence and Legree 1996: 1) research on the impact of history on the professional identity of soldiers in general and military enlistment in particular (e.g. Leonhard 2010) is largely absent. Consequently, the influence of history perceptions on occupational decisions is a topic that has gone virtually unnoticed in academic debates in the civil and military sectors.
It is assumed that present factors influence or distort recollections of the past as much as past factors influence or shape the experience of the present (Connerton 1989: 2). Based on this assumption, this study commits itself to a comprehensive analysis of the cadets’ awareness of history with a view to detecting the potential linkages between their history-perceptions and their present actions, namely their motivation[vi] to enlist. This study, therefore, introduces history-oriented reasons for enlistment as a new incentive in the field of motivational studies.
According to Astrid Erll and Ansgar Nünning, an increase of interdisciplinary approaches in cultural studies, as undertaken in this book by combining cultural memory studies with military sociological insights, will lead to the acquisition of new fields of research (Erll and Nünning 2008: V). This study finds evidence that the cadets’ perceptions of history were closely connected to their values, which were in return linked to the way they conceptualised their surrounding world. Both perceptions and conceptualisations shaped the cadets’ world view, which became visible through their decisions and actions undertaken in the present (Wilhelm Dilthey in Patzel-Mattern 2002: 135). The overall argument advanced in this book is that conceptualisations as well as perceptions arise from one’s process of socialisation within a particular cultural framework. Therefore, individual perceptions of the past also yield insight into the wider cultural surrounding of a person. While most conceptualisations are based on the cadets’ understanding of the interaction between past and present, the interpretation and understanding of such interactions often depend on different national perspectives (comp. here Heuser and Buffet 1998a: 262-266). By detecting the history perceptions of the British and German officer cadets, this study provides insights into the impact of those perceptions on their occupational decision.
Motivational research and military sociology
The primary subjects in current military sociology are international and multinational missions (e.g. Nuyken 2012; Sangar 2014a), the changing relationship between army and society because of said missions (e.g. Beevor 2000; Mannitz 2011), sexuality and gender, family and veterans (comp. Armed Forces and Society issues 2015-2018) and research into the scope of the ongoing professionalisation of armies in Europe (e.g. Fleckenstein 2000; Moskos and Burk 1994; Moskos, Williams and Segal 2000; Williams 2000).[vii] Recruitment studies increased in number during the late 1980s and 1990s as a result of the growing numbers of all-volunteer forces (AVF) due to the suspension of compulsory military service in many countries and, associated therewith, the need to understand factors relating to the recruitment of professional soldiers and reservists. Research on issues such as how to ensure a sufficient quality of soldiers in the European militaries has become an object of investigation in both sociology and psychology. While some studies have dealt with the role of the armed forces as a recruitment competitor with the private sector, others have analysed changes in recruitment since the advent of AVF (Apt 2010; Bulmahn and Wieninger 2010; Dandeker and Mason 2010; Dandeker 2007; Tresch 2008; Tresch and Leuprecht 2010; Yu 2014).
The decision to join the military is complex and commonly motivated by a variety of intrinsic and extrinsic factors (Taylor et al 2013: 143). Many different theories have been proposed to explain why individuals choose to join the military. A number of those studies have examined the characteristics of race, gender, family influence and tradition, retention, socio-economic status, remuneration as well as socio-political, faith, demographic, spatial, security or defence-related reasons with regards to their relevance on enlistment (Bachman and Blair 1975; Dandeker and Strachan 1993; Dandeker 2010d; Elbe and Müller 2005; Griffith and Perry 1993; Ben-Shalom and Benbenisty 2016). Still, none of those studies dealt with the role of history in the context of professional identity constructions or its impact on enlistment decisions. Additionally, with few exceptions, the vast majority of those studies were conducted with graduates or combat soldiers, but not exclusively with British and German officers and never before in a comparison of officer cadets as in this book.
While cross-national empirical research has recently become an important feature in military sociology, largely as a consequence of increased multinational military missions in recent decades, comparative studies still remain in the minority (Dandeker 2000b; Müller 1999). Where it has been undertaken, comparative research has tended to focus on the differences between cultures (e.g. the Afghans) and the deployment force (e.g. ISAF), though rarely on the military cultures of the different national military actors (exceptions: Caforio 2013; Soeters and Manigart 2008). Although exemplary volumes covering topics such as strategic cultures (Biehl, Giegerich and Jonas 2011) or the challenges of recruitment in Europe (Tresch and Leuprecht 2010) have included single chapters on different countries, studies which directly compare the military systems, soldiers or officers of different European nations are few and far between (e.g. Caforio 2006: 261-263; Caforio and Nuciari 1996; Haltiner 2003; King 2011). This is surprising, given the current focus on plans to establish a common European Defence Force (Kayß 2017a; BW-3; Vincenti 2015) and joint military training in the future. It also suggests that the different European Armies know relatively little about each other.
Within the recruitment literature many different definitions have been proposed to specify occupational motivations: John Eighmey, for example, differentiated between tangible and intangible youth goals which he divided into self-orientated reasons, such as pay or personal achievement, and other-orientated reasons, such as an interest in democracy or teamwork (Eighmey 2006: 325). In line with most researchers looking into enlistment motivations, Eighmey stated that intrinsic values and norms uniquely differentiate military service from civilian work. Still, he refrained from developing them in depth in his analysis (Eighmey 2006: 324; Griffith 2008: 308). Other than Eighmey, Todd Woodruff et al divided enlistment motivations into the subgroups of institutional, occupational, pecuniary and future orientated motivations (Woodruff, Kelty and Segal 2006: 360). According to their results, those motivations were either altruistic, self-improvement focussed, experimental or pragmatic (355). However, these categories neglect intangible reasons such as a feeling of obligation to serve or a fondness of history and traditions. An original contribution of this book is the analysis it presents concerning those factors.
Strikingly, as a result of a lack of theoretical up-to-date models to measure reasons for enlistment, Moskos’ From Institution to Occupation model (in short: I/O; Moskos 1977) is still widely used in recruitment research. From Institution to Occupation (Moskos 1977) is a classic benchmark in the literature on recruitment. Moskos, who was writing in the context of the market-oriented AVF post-1973, attempted to research the shape of the US military in the foreseeable future and concluded that it was transitioning from an institutional to an occupational format (Moskos 1977: 42). Moskos defined institutional as a calling of vocation legitimised by institutional values and assumed that occupation in turn referred to a legitimisation by the labour market. Accordingly, Moskos argued that a shift from institutionally to occupationally motivated soldiers would lead to military personnel not primarily driven by moral motivations, values and norms such as duty, honour and notions of self-sacrifice and dedication, but by self-interests and monetary compensation (Moskos 1977: 42-44; Woodruff, Kelty, and Segal 2006: 356). Moskos believed that this trend was a result of the professionalisation in Western militaries (Bury 2016; King 2013). While Moskos intended to analyse developing trends in the military at the organisational level, the I/O approach is predominantly used in up-to date recruitment research as a concept to discuss occupational attitudes that are potentially in conflict with the structure, tasks and demands of military service (Bury 2016; Johansen, Laberg and Martinussen 2013: 525; Stahl, McNichols and Manley 1980: 260).
Recent empirical studies (KCMHR 2015) and a number of international scholars have challenged Moskos’ theory by stating that the organisation of enlistment motivations is more complex than presented in his dichotomous conceptualisation model (Eighmey 2006; Griffith 2008: 245; Janowitz 1977; Jans and Frazer-Jans 2009; Woodruff, Kelty and Segal 2006: 353; 359). Although Moskos stated that both institutional and occupational elements would always remain in the armed forces, the model has been criticised for being too simple. Particularly Segal (1986: 352-353) stressed that Moskos’ theory needed measurement to preclude incompatibilities between the definitions of occupational and institutional, concluding that soldiers can be materialistic and simultaneously be driven by moral motivations, values and norms. According to Segal, institutional and occupational constructs are not opposite poles of a single dimension, but different dimensions capable of merging together, a phenomenon which he referred to as Pragmatic Professionalism (Segal 1986: 355-358). Pragmatic professionals thus hold moderate to strong institutional and occupational values simultaneously (Jans and Frazer-Jans 2009: 242). This study finds evidence to support Segal’s Pragmatic Professional approach in the case of British and German officer cadets in 2014. It therefore contributes to the literature with an analysis of qualitative and quantitative empirical data confirming Segal’s findings and likewise adds thereto by showing that value-based incentives (such as history-oriented reasons for enlistment, as introduced in this book) should by no means be underrated when constructing reasoning in favour of a military career.
Less attention still has been given to the officer cadets’ way of thinking and their professional identity. The latter is particularly important, considering that, as mentioned in the foregoing sections, understanding the way young officers think might also influence their actions in the future. Although recruitment difficulties in the officer ranks have not been apparent in Europe since the 1990s (Tresch 2008: 78), an interest in the motivation typology of officers as well as adequate recruitment advertising for them has increased in recent years (Yeung and Gifford 2011; Yu 2015). Two research fields have developed steadily over the last decade: (1.) research on enlistment motivations intended to detect the characteristics and intentions of recruits who enlist in professional armies, and (2.) retention studies seeking to detect factors that influence soldiers to remain in the military (on the grounds that retention is often seen as more difficult than recruitment in professional armies).
Interestingly, retention studies have found that institutionally-motivated soldiers are more likely to remain in the military than materially-motivated soldiers because the former are predominantly driven by value-related incentives such as their duty, which does not allow them to let down their comrades (Griffith 2008: 230, comp. also Moore 2002: 269, 274; Woodruff, Kelty and Segal 2006: 355). This book augments the aforementioned findings by promoting an increase in an understanding of value-related incentives for enlistment. Importantly, while research on the values of soldiers has increased in international studies (Bachman, Segal, Freedman-Doan and O'Malley 2000; Greif 2010), most studies only point to the significance of value-oriented motivations for enlistment without giving them any further attention. In this regard, this book provides such detail and attention with a focus on the cadets’ professional identity at the very outset of their military career by analysing the impact that the cadets’ understanding of history has had on their professional outlook.
This study also argues that there are major differences between the enlistment motivations of soldiers and officers, particularly concerning the preconditioning factors that influenced their initial interest in a military career. Astonishingly, the vast majority of recruitment studies do not differentiate soldiers from officers (e.g. Leonhard 2010; Pung, Smallman, Ling and Hallsworth 2007; Rand Europe 2008). Although these studies have helped to develop the research design for this study, they could not be used to compare the research results with previous evaluations.[viii]
The only study on enlistment motivations conducted with British and German officers was undertaken by Giuseppe Caforio and Marina Nuciari in 1996. It found that adventure, a specific interest in the tasks connected with the chosen regiment and team spirit ranked highest amongst the motivation for enlistment of British officers. According to the same study, German officers predominantly enlisted to be trained to lead men and to get an opportunity to study at one of the Bundeswehr universities in Hamburg or Munich (Caforio and Nuciari 1996: 150). Since Caforio and Nuciari’s research results were a product of retrospective surveys conducted with officers who had already been in service for many years, it was impossible to compare their results with the results of this study (comp. also Caforio 2007: 228-229). The author of this book believes that retrospectively reported arguments for enlistment are a testimony for feelings towards the army at the time of the survey more than actual enlistment motivations many years ago. The classifications of motivations within Caforio and Nuciari’s study were, however, useful for designing the questionnaire which was used for the study at hand.
British and German military recruitment studies were limited in scale and scope when compared to the significant amount of military recruitment literature from the United States and Canada. Particularly the fact that there were no specific departments for Military Studies in Germany[ix] until the 1990s as a result of the tabooing of military subjects in post-war Germany (Loch 2008: 28) and most recruitment studies in Britain were outdated (e.g. Bellany 1982), made it difficult to design hypotheses regarding potential outcomes of this study. One of the most recent British recruitment studies is Brian Howieson’s and Howard Kahn’s study from 2003. Their study, however, failed to differentiate between different military branches or between graduates with and without an interest in the armed forces. As a result of this omission, they came to the conclusion that the UK faced recruitment difficulties because undergraduates had an aversion to dangerous occupations, poor perceptions of the British Armed forces, and considered salaries to be an important criterion for their occupational choice (Howieson and Kahn 2003: 130). This book provides a correction to Howieson and Kahn’s findings. It shows that a more coherent approach towards motivational measurements is to be found in Segal’s research on Pragmatic Professionalism as well as research undertaken by Christopher Dandeker (1989; 2007), which addressed the changing occupational environment in Britain and identified potential difficulties confronting UK military recruitment as a result of societal changes.
In 2013, Jami K. Taylor et al. connected Moskos’ I/O model to the large body of cross-national research undertaken in the area of public service motivation and concluded that approaches towards the attraction of public participation, self-sacrifice, compassion and the commitment to public values yield a more nuanced way to assess institutional motivations in the twenty-first century (Taylor, Clerkin, Ngaruiya and Valez 2013). This book picks up on Taylor’s argument by introducing history-oriented reasons for enlistment as an incentive in recruitment research, not only because history has been ignored in the academic literature as an influential part of soldiers’ professional identity (notably, neither Moskos nor Segal or Taylor considered history or perceptions about the military profession to play a role within soldiers’ decision process), but also because adding the impact of perceptions of history to the recruitment literature can potentially also contribute to a wider discussion about the attraction of public participation, compassion and the commitment to public values (comp. also Colley 2016).
The role of the military has changed significantly over recent decades with an increase in the array of activities of armed forces in supporting peace, security, rule of law and democratic institutions (Broesder et al 2014: 521). Although research on different soldier types has increased in this context, most of the recent studies focused on already active soldiers or developed theoretical classifications to measure the military role as a one-dimensional construct (e.g. Nuciari 2003; comp. Broesder et al 2014: 523). One example of the latter is the study carried out by Fabrizio Battistelli in 1997 in which he categorised soldiers into paleo-modern, modern and postmodern. According to Battistelli, paleo-modern soldiers joined the Army to be useful to others and strengthen their country’s image on the international stage. Modern soldiers were apparently driven by monetary incentives and the wish to learn skills that were also useful for their return to civilian life, whereas postmodern soldiers were primarily interested in adventures and meaningful personal experiences (Battistelli 1997; Dandeker 2007: 27-28).
While Battistelli’s motivation typology has gained traction amongst scholars (Hedlung 2011), the results of this book will demonstrate that most enlistment incentives can co-exist, which renders Battistelli’s approach too simplistic. At the same time, this book is unique in analysing the motivations of cadets who were still in training at the time of survey, considering that most motivational studies were conducted with fully-trained personnel in retrospective (e.g. Keller 2004; Seiffert 2005; comp. also FüAKBw 2005). Although some studies acknowledged that different soldier types can also appear in combination, (Hirsch, Schmiedke and Reemts 2009: 27; Seiffert 2005: 127) a grouping of soldiers often leads to a simplified generalisation that could be a far cry from the reality. The results of this book suggest a micro perspective through the analysis of personal interviews as an addition to surveys with a view to also capturing the personal voice of the cadets and thus enhancing the in-depth understanding of the researched sample.
In conclusion, most recruitment studies focus all too often on tangible reasons for officer enlistment such as monetary incentives or career prospects. Only rarely did value-based reasons which are rooted in the cadets’ professional identity attract attention (comp. Eighmey 2006). The hypothesis of this book is that career choices are more complex than often assumed. This study follows the assumption that value-based reasons for enlistment are directly linked to culturally shaped perceptions about military history. In analysing this presumption, the study at hand demonstrates that career choices rely on subjective perceptions not only of the chosen profession, (hence the cadets’ professional identity,) but also of its standing in society by virtue of the history at its core. Accordingly, it is argued that due to the nature of public service, the cadets’ understanding of the political systems in which they grew up, as much as those systems’ history, has most likely contributed to the cadets’ awareness of their future profession.
As explained in the foregoing sections, the concept of professional identity will primarily be used as an aid in discussing the positioning of how perceptions of history have affected the identity formation of British and German army officer cadets. The results of this book will therefore reveal the importance of examining identity content for a fuller understanding of a connection between the identity of the cadets and their narration of the past as one element of their self-definition as officers. In summary, the discussion of the research undertaken in the fields of professional identity and motivational recruitment studies served to highlight several conceptual and methodological issues, including a tendency towards over-simplification, lack of precision in defining professional identity or identifying group samples of soldiers for analysis, random mixture of ranks and branches, and the omission of value-related and particularly culturally-influenced perceptions of history as an incentives for enlistment.
It has been argued that each researcher can be found in his or her own work because knowledge is produced under particular social circumstances and therefore shaped in a specific way (comp. Higate and Cameron 2006). The acknowledgement of such circumstances renders greater potential for accountability and transparency in sociological research, which is why the following sections will describe how the analysed data for this book were gleaned.
Innovation and significance of this study
As outlined in the foregoing sections, this study represents a novel methodological contribution to memory and military recruitment research by analysing the British and German cadets’ professional identity and the impact of history on their decision to enlist in 2014. It provides insight into the British and German army officer cadets’ understanding of the past, and illustrates (1.) how far their understanding of history was influenced by the culture in which they grew up in and (2) to what extent culturally-shaped perceptions have influenced their understanding of the officer profession in general and their decision to enlist in particular.
As explained in the first part of this chapter, professional identity is construed as a cognitive schema that stores information and meaning attached to a particular role, viz. the role of the officer (Miscenko and Day 2015: 216-217). Professional identity develops over time and is fragmented and prone to change rather than coherent and stable (Rogers and Scott 2008: 734; Sutherland and Markauskaite 2012: 748). Therefore, the results of this book are a snapshot of the British and German cadets’ professional identity right at the beginning of their career in the military. Conducting this research at the beginning of the cadets’ officer training has epistemological value for five reasons:
1. The analysis undertaken in this book allows cadets of both nations to develop a better understanding of each other before they get deployed in joint exercises or missions abroad. An in-depth understanding of the cadets’ training procedures and service motivations will enable British and German soldiers to grasp important differences in terms of their understanding of history and the consequences that those differences have had on their training, attitudes and overall perceptions about the officer profession.
2. It would appear that the cadets from 2014 will influence future generations of soldiers and officers more than the people in power in the military at present. Accordingly, the values and perceptions that these cadets will transmit to the following generations of officers should thus be of interest to the military staff.
3. To develop knowledge about the cadets’ perceptions regarding their future profession will help military staff to rectify improper perceptions about the officer profession from early on in order to limit subsequent disenchantment with the profession.
4. The armed forces can profit from an in-depth analysis of their officers’ professional identity, since it allows them to make predictions about aspects of their military competence and skills, since scientists have demonstrated that analysing military identity can predict military performance (Johansen, Laberg and Martinussen 2013: 527-528).
5. Having knowledge about the composition of institutional and occupational reasons within the cadets’ enlistment decision will provide military recruitment staff with useful insights into the cadets’ mindset with a view to selecting cadets who have displayed an “appropriate professional identity” consistent with the “normative assumptions” of the armed forces (Miscenko and Day 2015: 222) that they are aiming to join.
Accordingly, detecting the professional identity of young cadets is important for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, the cadets’ awareness of their future profession provides information about ideals which the cadets connected to the officer profession. Although not all of those ideals necessarily correspond with reality, they are insights into what the cadets’ expected from their future profession (comp. Wiik 2010: 58; Remley and Herlihy 2005: 22).
The officer corps has always been a vital component of the armed forces, not only because the corps determines the military mind-set and upholds and revises the military ethos, but also because the officer corps interacts with all other social actors present on the national and international stage (Caforio 2006: 255). Ulrich vom Hagen defined the officer corps as the core of military culture because officers impact on the military culture in a way that non-commissioned officers cannot, even though the latter are usually closer to the troops (vom Hagen 2012: 273). Consequently, research undertaken on aspiring officers, as in this book, also acts as research on the military culture in Britain and Germany. Developing an understanding of how young British and German officers perceive their profession and the world around them will therefore provide some indicators on how those officers might act in the future. As a result of increased multinational military operations after 1990, the British and German armies began working side by side. An intercultural understanding of future officers’ thinking, perceptions and attitudes are undoubtedly vital for effective, functional and successful cooperation in the years to come. It is important to keep in mind that the cadets are not isolated from their respective societies. Consequently, their way of dealing with the past by either approving or rejecting common history narratives within their culture is also likely to be shared with civilian society.
The shift to AVF in over twenty European countries after 1990 not only induced a debate regarding the social composition of the military and its representativeness of society, but also awakened discussions about the challenges in recruiting the right number of high-quality troops to handle low-intensity conflicts and the increasing number of counter-insurgency missions (Faris 1981, 546; Williams 2012, 683-684; Lusher 2016; Farmer 2016.). A general acceptance of the British and German societies of their armed forces, however, does not necessarily go hand in hand with a general willingness in society to make an active personal contribution to stability, security and peace. On the contrary, the pursuit of less risk in life and fewer constraints on freedom are growing among the British and German school leavers which is why the recruitment of promising school-leavers (Fleckenstein 2000: 89; 98) will remain a challenge for both armies in the years to come. This study contributes to a better understanding of recruits and therefore opens up new possibilities to customise advertising and content of the military profession to potential officers in Britain and Germany. Furthermore, the research results will hopefully also attract attention from scholars who deal with countries that have also dealt with a controversial past such as Italy or Japan or alternatively countries in which several dynamics seem to parallel the British trajectory.
In 1993, Dandeker and Strachan (282-283) requested more research into what army recruits think about the armed forces, their social characteristics and their perceptions of their role within the army as a way of optimising recruitment methods and gaining an overall understanding of future military leaders’ ways of perceiving the world. This book answers this request in two ways: First, it offers insight into the British and German officer cadets’ thinking by analysing their professional identity, and second, it adds a new incentive for enlistment to the field of recruitment studies by introducing history-oriented reasons for enlistment.
Empirical Data Sample: Participants and Measurements
British and German cadets were chosen as two contrasting samples with a view to facilitating theory, since the dynamics of dissimilarities tend to be more visible than they might otherwise be for other samples. In this regard, the researched samples in this book contrast in that British and German societies differ in their way of dealing with their military pasts. Furthermore, the British Army is a traditional military with century-old traditions whereas the contemporary German Army was only established in 1955. Furthermore, the British Army was heavily involved in global military missions in the second half of the twentieth century whereas the German Army only recently (after the end of the Cold War) has begun to develop into a professional, internationally active military force.
Whilst the objective of this study is a focus on British and German cadets only, its results may nevertheless be used as a basis to extend theory, since they contribute to a general discussion about occupational perceptions, military training and selection procedures. The results are therefore also applicable to other nations. Particularly, because history (as past, memory, tradition or temporal consciousness,) is a constitutive part of the “national” identity and can therefore attract analysis from different national perspectives (Geulen 2002: 222).
It proves impossible to make an absolute statement about the British and German cadets’ professional identity because the cadets and their perceptions were far too diverse to engender a generalised statement. It is however possible to detect distinct patterns which were predominantly brought forward by either British or German cadets. Analysing those differences has helped shape a more general statement about how far the cadets were influenced by their country’s history and apparent lessons learned from the past. As such, this book contributes to an academic discourse on historicity and the current fate of the notion of history as well as a better understanding of forms of professional perceptions and self-understanding (comp. Straub 2005: xii-xiii) with the intention to provide new starting-points for an analysis of a current understanding of history.
The in-depth comparative case study fieldwork was conducted with British and German cadets and their training staff between January 2014 and April 2015. Unless otherwise stated, all quantitative and qualitative data used in this book stem from British and German army officer cadets in their first year of training at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS/Sandhurst) in Britain, and the German Army Officer School in Dresden [in German, Offizierschule des Heeres, OSH]. The empirical data are the result of surveys, semi-structured interviews[x] in person, via email or Skype. All quotes written in italics are original quotes from transcribed interviews conducted for this study. Before compiling the questionnaire for the British and German officer cadets who started their training in 2014, a testing phase was implemented in 2013 to survey and interview officer cadets in both countries in order to resolve uncertainties in the questionnaire regarding the intention, wording and phrasing of the questions (comp. Griffith 2014).
In Britain, 481 of the 515 British officer cadets who started their training at Sandhurst in 2014 completed the survey, indicating a response rate of 93 percent. In Germany, 274 cadets filled out the questionnaire, indicating a response rate of 38 percent, with 728 cadets going through basic officer training at the OSH to proceed with a degree course in Munich or Hamburg in 2014. Fifty-nine of the British cadets (12%) who participated in the survey were born outside the UK. In Germany, the number of surveyed cadets born abroad was even higher at 20 percent (54 cadets). In both Britain and Germany, only cadets in possession of a British or German passport were surveyed and interviewed. Foreign cadets and exchange students were accordingly excluded from this study for reasons of space and comparability. The same applies to German cadets who started officer training without proceeding with a degree course as part of their training. All reported percentages used in this book were calculated from the total responses for each question in the questionnaire[xi] or from additional statistics provided by the British Army, the Bundeswehr, the British Ministry of Defence or its German equivalent, the German Ministry of Defence [in German, Bundesministerium der Verteidigung].
Of the 481 British cadets who filled out the questionnaire, 49 were interviewed either in person or via email (table 1.1.). The same applied to 54 of the 274 German cadets who filled out the questionnaire. In Britain, 12 percent of the cadets who participated in the surveys were female; in Germany the rate was significantly lower with only 5 percent female cadets. Only 3 female Sandhurst cadets volunteered for an interview whereas in Germany not a single female cadet wanted to be interviewed. There is no space in this book to discuss this low participation rate or the answers provided by female cadets separately, particularly because the participation rate of female cadets did not allow for a more detailed analysis. As a result, the analysis in this book is based on the evaluation of all data with no distinction between those of male or female cadets. The data from female cadets, however, received special attention when it differed drastically from those of the male cadets.
In 2013, 84 percent of the British population were English, followed by 8 percent Scottish, 5 percent Welsh and 3 percent Northern Irish (Office for National Statistics 2014). Those numbers correlated in most parts with the surveys conducted at the RMAS in 2014 in that 84 percent of all cadets were English, 4 percent Welsh and Scottish, and 4 cadets (0.83%) Northern Irish.[xii] The surveyed German cadets came from all parts of Germany, with the highest numbers from the federal states North Rhine-Westphalia, Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg, which, when putting these numbers in relation to the population, were also the three most populated federal states in Germany in 2014 (comp. here DSP 2014a).
Most of the British cadets (88%) were university graduates when they enlisted, which partially explains why the Sandhurst cadets were on average at least one year older than the German cadets, of whom the majority (89%) joined the army straight out of high school.[xiii] Age differences and potential consequences thereof in terms of the maturity level of the cadets receive attention over the course of the following chapters. In Britain, 63 (13%) of the cadets who filled out the questionnaires held a degree in History, whereas in Germany only 2 cadets (1%) had studied History previously to their officer training. The consequences resulting from this observation are discussed in more detail in Chapter 3, when the cadets’ knowledge of history is analysed.
As far as it can be seen, the majority of the cadets in Britain and Germany participated in the surveys and interviews because they had an interest in the research topic of the study at hand, history in general, or because they wanted to express their opinion. The surveyed and interviewed cadets were from both combat and support arms. Notably, in contrast to the Sandhurst cadets, the German officer cadets are allocated to arms rather than regiments. In this book the British word regiment is employed for both British and German cadets and only differentiated if necessary. Regarding the subjects that the cadets studied at the time of the survey or before they joined the Army, the sample of British cadets was more diverse than that of the German cadets: whilst the aspiring British officers held degrees in a variety of subjects, the surveyed and interviewed German cadets predominantly studied humanities or social sciences other than technical or natural science subjects.
Identity and story-telling: Making sense of the past
According to research results in the literature on professional role identity, most studies on professional identity work with macro sociological perspectives and tend to ignore individual dynamics, which are closely associated with the construction of professional identity (Chreim, Williams and Hinings 2007: 1517; McAdams 2008: 256; Sveningsson and Alvesson 2003: 1164). This study combines a mixture of methods by using macro- and micro-level research approaches. This hybrid approach was undertaken to combine the robust character of survey data with the insights available from in-depth qualitative semi-structured interviews to also cover the individual voices of the British and German cadets.
The questionnaire was designed to capture basic socio-demographic details, the cadets’ understanding of the officer profession, occupational motivations and aspirations, and their understanding of the past. The main purpose of collecting additional qualitative empirical data through interviews was twofold: first, to resolve apparent contradictions appearing in questionnaire answers and, second, to gain access to the cadets’ individualised narrations about their professional identity, their reasoning in favour of a military career as well as their understanding of connections between past and present.
The methodological approach undertaken in this book is therefore consistent with research on identity narratives. The narrative identity model is one of two major models (the second is, the identity status model) which is useful for conducting a focused study on the content of identity (Erikson 1968 referred to in McLean, Syed and Shucard 2016: 356). Kate McLean, Moin Syed and Hannah Shucard (2006) have argued that to fully understand a process of identity development, one must have an adequate understanding of what is developing. Since this study is concerned with the British and German cadets’ professional identity, but not with the development of their identity, it will examine what it is that can potentially develop, namely the cadets’ professional identity at a time when they were still in training.
Rogers and Scott (2008: 736) found that the most widely embraced way of making sense of shifting, multiple, constructed, contradictory or confusing elements of life is through the practice of narratives and the telling of stories. Psychologists discovered that much of what people remember is cultural shared knowledge (Rubin 2005 referred to in McAdams 2008: 246) and have therefore established programs which are dedicated to the empirical study of personal narratives. An interest in personal narratives is, however, not limited to psychology, but has also found attention in sociology, anthropology, communications and education studies because narrative identity theories offer a strong alternative to established methods for interpreting case studies (McAdams 2008: 242). The construction of a personal story which includes a narration of how ones’ professional identity has come into being has arguably helped the cadets to maintain a sense of self-coherence. Additionally, this study argues that it has also helped them to situate themselves into a broader narrative repertoire within the culture (comp. Miscenko and Day 2015: 225; Saks and Ashforth 1997: 1189) that they considered to be their own.
Autobiographical memories are highly selective and strategic because the cadets could decide what they considered to be noteworthy and what served their own goals. Life objectives therefore strongly influence how narratives about the past are organised, regardless of whether those narratives are critical or uncritical in content (McAdams 200: 243-244; Conway and Pleydell-Pearce 2000/Singer and Salovey 1993 referred to in McAdams 2008: 244). Arguably, life itself is storied by people because everyone locates himself within a repertoire of stories. Storytelling is therefore not only the most natural form of human communication, but also essential in how humans make sense of the world (Colley 2016: 1). Storytelling is therefore a key construction of self because stories are connected by memories about the past. This makes it also possible to render multiple identities by placing them within a story (Vest 2012:606). Most narratives are based on a construction of a personal story based on autobiographical memories which explain how someone has come to be the person one currently is (Pasupathi, Mansour and Brubaker 2007 referred to in McLean, Syed and Shucard 2016: 357). This book is mainly concerned with a discussion of how elements of the past have become embedded in the cadets’ life stories, their professional identity and their motivation to enlist.
Research realisation
All British cadets who started their officer course in January, May and September 2014 were surveyed at the RMAS during Junior term. The British cadets’ interest in the research topic expressed itself in both a high number of survey participants and an equally high number of interview volunteers. Conducting the fieldwork in Britain was easier than in Germany for two reasons: first because the author of this book was already based in Britain, and second because the British military staff was on average more willing to support independent research on the military than the German military staff. Both factors contributed to the low participation rate in Germany when compared to the higher rate in Britain. In contrast to the British cadets, the German counterparts were surveyed at three different locations and at three different points in time during their initial training. This procedure was necessary due to the low participation rate at the OSH. This rate, however, should not be seen as disinterest on the part of the German cadets towards the research topic, but as a result of bureaucratic difficulties in conducting the survey in person and the failure of military staff at the OSH to render assistance.
It is assumed that patterns of motivation and professional identity can change fundamentally once integrated in the military system, though Alan Saks (1996 referred to in Saks and Ashforth 1997: 257) and Caforio argued that the professional identity of soldiers remains the same in the first months, regardless of contexts and partially changed functions and tasks within the military (Caforio 2007: 221; 230). Comparing the survey results of the German cadets surveyed early during their training with those of cadets surveyed at the beginning of their degree course confirms Caforio’s and Saks` assumption, in that the cadets’ answers indicated no noticeable differences.
Semi-structured interviews were chosen to cover all the themes considered to be essential for understanding the cadets’ perceptions and decision-making. With the exception of one interview, all personal one-to-one interviews with British cadets were conducted at Sandhurst roughly 3 months after the cadets were surveyed. In contrast, German cadets were interviewed at the HSU in November 2014 in the first semester of their degree course, roughly 19 months after enlistment. Cadets at the university in Munich were only interviewed via email or Skype, but students in Hamburg and Munich may be considered as one survey group because the universities function as partner institutions. All but two interviews were conducted with one cadet only, lasting between 25 and 120 minutes, depending on the knowledge and loquaciousness of the cadet. The vast majority of the interviews took on average 50 minutes. In contrast to the email interviews, where cadets were addressed formally, all cadets who were interviewed in person were addressed on a first name basis after seeking the cadet’s permission. This procedure was undertaken with a view to increasing the feeling of trust and limiting the gap between interviewer and interviewee to the highest possible degree.
Contrary to expectations, the fact that I, as the interviewer, am female and from a non-military background turned out to be an advantage, since it granted me the option of asking questions such as 'can you please expand on this military method, since I’m not really familiar with it' without running the risk of being perceived as incompetent, a courtesy which may not have been extended had their interviewer been male. Additionally, since many of the social care roles in the British and German military are occupied by females, the cadets opened up surprisingly fast about their feelings and personal life. To get a rounded view of the military training and teaching methods in Britain and Germany, additional interviews were also arranged with active and former officers as well as history lecturers at Sandhurst and at the OSH.
Data processing and research limitations
The influence of translation, interpretation and selection of information can significantly impact on research (Miscenko and Day 2015: 225; comp. also Müller-Wille 2014). Consequently, a breakdown of perceptions will be presented to show how different patterns in the analysis of data were developed. Additionally, as many cadets’ quotes as possible are included in this book to relate data assessment to the subjective voices of the cadets and their individualised narrations regarding their professional identity. Unless stated otherwise, all quotes in this book are original quotes from the surveys and interviews. Discourse analytical tools were used in the interviews to identify and analyse the world views and perceptions of the British and German cadets. Interview transcripts therefore also included noticeable emotional reactions such as laughter, a change in voice or longer pauses than one might normally expect.
Notwithstanding the generally positive results of this study, there are a few limitations worth considering. The first of these would be the relative small number of target individuals on the German side when compared with the data from British cadets. While the material from Germany was adequate, it was not as dense or extensive as the British material. The results can, however, still be seen to reflect the mind-set of the entire intake in 2014 as the same answers were consistently repeated, and it seems unlikely that 200 more questionnaires or 50 more interviews would have drastically changed the results of this book.
It goes without saying that classifications of motivational incentives will always be accompanied by a degree of imprecision because a classification seeking to capture all potential motivational incentives would include so many factors that it would no longer be defined as a classification. The same observation applies to different types of soldiers: recruitment analysis would be a great deal easier if all recruits could be divided into Athenians or Spartans, (Haltiner 2003) world-improvers or excitement-seekers (Försvarsmakten 2013 in Strand 2014) or idealists and realists. This study, however, argues that world-improvers can also seek excitement and intellectually minded and academically schooled officers can also identify with the role of a warrior. Thus, it is the firm belief of the author of this book that classifications are always imprecise because individual characteristics, personality and desires are subject to change. Sociological studies, however, require forms of measurement whilst also acknowledging that analytical generalisations are inherently limited. This book seeks to develop meaningful categories in understanding the professional identity and recruitment motivations of British and German cadets while acknowledging that this approach does not necessarily provide universal truths.
The approach of this book is limited in that it cannot illustrate all themes in detail. Each chapter is worthy of an individual publication in its own right, particularly the comparisons between the history of the two armies in this chapter. Another noticeable limitation of this research project is the way in which different cadets understood different phrases, words, events and concepts. For instance, words such as morality, warfare or even history were at times interpreted very differently by different cadets. Providing a clarification of all these phrases, words, events and concepts is beyond the scope of this book, which is why only the definitions of significantly important words are discussed separately.
Sociologists have postulated different theories about when periods of socialisation start and how significant they are. This study shares Caforio’s opinion that primary socialisation is the process an individual goes through as he or she matures to become a member of society at large. The secondary socialisation process starts when the individual enters a narrower, more specialised group (Caforio 2006: 256). When correlated with the British and German cadets, the start of their officer training thus marked their entry into secondary socialisation. Others might argue that the British cadets entered their secondary socialisation beforehand by studying at university, which contrasts with the German cadets, most of whom joined the army straight out of school. This would make this particular comparison more complicated, considering that the cadets would have been surveyed and interviewed at different periods in their life. Although some data results clearly hint at a difference in regards to the maturity level of British and German cadets, the comparison is still functional, as studying in Britain does not necessarily lead directly to a professional field in which the person intends to work for life, but a continuation of the educational process which is explained in more depth in Chapter 2.
Optional interviews pose limitations in that they involve a particular type of cadet only. Shy cadets, for example, or cadets with no interest in History were more likely to be less keen on being interviewed. A limitation is therefore posed by the restricted variety of cadets. This, however, still serves a function in making statements about the ethos of the officer corps as it seems more likely that the officer ethos is held up, continued and changed by the dominant, confident and motivated kinds of cadets who attended the interviews rather than the calm, shy and technically focused cadets who show only minor interest in topics outside their sphere of interest.
Interviewing in person poses the risk of the interviewer effect which may lead to a distortion of responses as a result of a reaction to the social style, personality or characteristics of the interviewer. The style of presentation of particular questions can also influence the way how interviewees answer particular questions. Although telephone or computer-based interviewing would have limited potential distortions, the personal interview contained more advantages, not only because (1.) it was possible to establish a more personal relationship with the particular cadet, but also because (2.) the participation rate was expected to be much lower if the interviews were not conducted personally. Although interviews have been carefully transcribed to make the particular voice of the cadet heard, the interviewer always remains a part of the opinion and perception-sharing process within the interview. This is a limitation that cannot be overcome and therefore remains as a part of the wider analysis.
Ethics and integrity
This study was approved by the British Ministry of Defence and the German equivalent, the Bundesministerium der Verteidigung. To secure permission for a research permit from the War Studies Department at King’s College London, the research project, its aims, methodology and innovation also met the approval of the King’s College’s Research Ethics Committee before the Ministry of Defence was approached.[xiv]
Gleaning cultural knowledge is a formidable undertaking and knowledge of both the British and German culture varies strongly depending on the observer. There is no consensus about the exact definition of culture in a complex network of signs and a web of signifying practices, though culture can nevertheless be construed as a construction of knowledge of which the observer has to acknowledge his very subjective perspective, personal features and interpersonal dynamics (Bassnett 1997: xvii-xviii; comp. also Ben-Ari 2014). As a German native, I was born and brought up in the German culture and my perspective will understandably differ from someone who only learned about it as an adult. Living in England for almost five years has nevertheless afforded me an insight into the British culture. That said, living in, talking and reading about a culture cannot replace the experience of growing up in, and therefore being a part of, that culture. The latter experience will always grant the observer a deeper understanding of cultural dynamics. This became particularly apparent to me while talking with British cadets about class differences and with German cadets about feelings of shame, which were directed towards Germany’s military past. While I felt a strong familiarity with some of the topics raised by German cadets, most of the topics that I discussed with the Sandhurst cadets were alien to me when I first encountered them. As an outsider to the British system, however, I was granted an honest insight into the British culture by the aspiring British officers. Being German proved to be highly advantageous in terms of inspiring truthfulness and frankness in the Sandhurst cadets, particularly for topics such as class, heritage and feelings of superiority. At no point did I get the impression that any of the interviewed cadets held back in giving his opinion out of fear that I would not appreciate a particular view or attitude. The same applied, albeit to a lesser extent, to the German cadets. In general, however, establishing an atmosphere of freedom of speech in Germany proved much more arduous, since some of the German cadets were suspicious and worried that I would misconceive their opinions and label them by being biased with my own opinion.
To give an example, my German nationality most likely led the British cadets to believe that I would not have a personal opinion about whether the British Empire should be perceived as a good or a bad thing to the British public. Consequently, the cadets openly addressed their attitude on this topic. German cadets on the other hand seemed to assume that I must have my own opinion about the way Germany masters its past in regards to the Second World War, which made establishing an atmosphere in which they felt comfortable enough to talk about their own attitudes a bit more complicated. Due to the minor age difference between me and the cadets, however, most German cadets assumed that my opinion might be similar to their own. In addition, I was perceived as a PhD student who studied in Britain and had not lived in Germany for a couple of years, which motivated some of the German cadets to explain their perspective on developments in Germany in more detail to me. Due to those circumstances, I held an outsider perspective in both systems, particularly because I have a non-military background and did not stand in any affiliation to either the British or the German army as an independent researcher.
Before examining the initial interest of the British and German army officer cadets in the next chapter, the following sections will provide a short introduction on the history of the British and German army and outline the differences between the officer training courses in Britain and Germany in 2014.
[i] In this book, history is construed as a hybrid between the humanities and social sciences, since history is dependent on different narratives and interpretations as demonstrated in the following chapters. Both narratives and interpretations have their origins in the social, political and, particularly, the cultural and intellectual background of the interpreter. Hence, the cadets’ perceptions of history and their individualised reconstruction of the past can give insights into the cadets’ cultural background and their understanding of the world.
[ii] The term 'cadet' refers to the male and female cadets participating in the surveys and interviews. For the sake of ease of readability, the masculine pronouns used herein refer to both male and female cadets.
[iii] Cultural memory is defined according to Erll’s definition “as the sum total of all the progresses (biological, medical, social) which are involved in the interplay of past and present within sociocultural contexts” (Erll 2011: 101). An elaborate study about different interpretations of memory can be found in Bergenthum 2005.
[iv] This study defines culture as a “socially-constructed and historically-derived common base of knowledge, values and norms for action that people grow into and come to take as a natural way of life.” However, culture is also a particular way in which a group is structured and shaped and how “those shapes are experienced, understood and interpreted” (Hodkinson and Sparkes 1997: 33).
[v] The term memory is construed as per Erll’s definition as being “a kind of switchboard which organises experience both prospectively and retrospectively: Prospectively, cultural memory is the source of schemata which already pre-form experience, that is, which decide what will even enter the individual’s consciousness and how this information will be further processed. Memory as an apparatus of selection and schematisation is thus the very condition for gaining experiences. But it is only retrospectively, through cultural remembering, that we create experiences as an interpretation of events that guide future actions” (Erll 2011: 112).
[vi] Motivations can be described as conscious or unconscious stimuli for actions that lead towards a desired goal (Ben-Dor et al. 2008: 571; Newsome 2003: 24).
[vii] Research for this book was undertaken during a time of remarkable changes in both armies: in 2014 the British Army was in the process of implementing all-encompassing changes to transform into a high-readiness force by 2020 (GOV-1; Bury 2016: 2). After the abolition of conscription in 2011 and the transformation into a professional force, comparable developments had also started in Germany. The first German casualties and increasing problems in Afghanistan during Germany’s involvement in the ISAF-mission acted as a catalyst for the rediscovery of military affairs in the German media and public debate. As a result, a marked increase in academic and non-academic literature on the Bundeswehr and its recent missions has been published (such as soldier autobiographies e.g. Brinkmann, Hoppe and Schröder 2013; Clair 2013; Würich and Scheffer 2014).
[viii] For instance, while RAND Europe has conducted detailed recruitment studies, classifications of research respondents such as “officers and other ranks” were too generic to be used for more specific research (e.g. Rand Europe 2008; Pung, Smallman, Ling and Hallsworth 2007).
[ix] Most military sociological studies in Germany were conducted by the Bundeswehr Institute of Social Sciences [in German, Sozialwissenschaftliches Institut der Bundeswehr, SOWI] which merged with the Institute for Military History [in German, Militärgeschichtliches Forschungsamt, MGFA] in 2013 and became the Centre for Military History and Social Science of the Bundeswehr [in German, Zentrum für Militargeschichte und Sozialwissenschaften der Bundeswehr, ZMSBw]. It is important to note that the ZMSBw is run by the Bundeswehr, which raises certain questions regarding the authenticity, neutrality and editorial control over its publications (comp. Albrecht-Heide 2000: 418, Klein 2000; Klein, Kriesel and Lippert 1997). While military-sociological research in Britain is sustained by universities and private and public agencies, research in Germany is chiefly if not exclusively assigned and performed in state-run centres (Caforio and Nuciari 2006: 29-30; 45; Klein 2000: 51; Zoll 2006: 181). Caforio and Nuciari discovered that the degree of research freedom is higher in Britain than in Germany (Caforio and Nuciari 2006: 41-42). Furthermore, Paul Klein has asserted that in Germany, research into the military is often conducted at an emotive level and thus considered to be of low prestige within the German academic community (Klein 2000: 50; comp. also Wolffsohn 2009; Kümmel 2003; Wagner and Biehl 2013: 27), an observation that the author of this book can fully confirm. In his book Europe’s Armed Forces, Anthony King suggested that the possibilities of dense fieldwork in the British military in contrast to the German and French military were granted to him because of his British nationality (King 2011: 11). King’s observation cannot be confirmed, since the author of this book, although being German, made similar experiences to those of King’s when conducting fieldwork in Britain and Germany.
[x] For more details on in-depth interviewing comp. Moore 2014.
[xi] If, for example, only 470 of 481 cadets who filled out the questionnaire answered a particular question, 470 was used as the 100 per-cent mark for that question. All questions reached at least a 90 percent response rate.
[xii] 42 of the 481 surveyed British cadets were born outside of Britain.
[xiii] The average age of British cadets was 23 or 24 years (born in 1990 and 1991) in 2014, in contrast to the German cadets who were 20 or 21 years old on average (born in 1993 or 1994).
[xiv] A detailed description of the process to gain access for this research project can be found in the original PhD thesis written at King’s College London which served as a basis for the book at hand.