I versus we: Collective and individual factors of reserve service motivation during war and peace

Armed Forces and Society

Volumn 34, Issue 4, 2008, Pages 565-592

  Ben Dor, Gabriel ^a   Pedahzur, Ami ^b   Canetti Nisim, Daphna ^a   Zaidise, Eran ^a   Perliger, Arie ^a   Bermanis, Shai ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF HAIFA   (Israel)

^b UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN   (United States)

Author keywords

Collectivism; Individualism; Israel; Military; Peacetime; Service motivation; Social cohesion; State of belligerency; Wartime

Indexed keywords

EID: 44949256369     PISSN: 0095327X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0095327X07303609     Document Type: Article

References (149)

1. Theda Skocpol, "Will 9/11 and the War on Terror Revitalize American Civic Democracy?" PS: Political Science & Politics 35, 3 (2002): 537-40.
2. Stanley B. Greenberg, "'We' - Not 'Me': Public Opinion and the Return of Government," The American Prospect December 17 (2002): 25-7.
3. William D. Baker and John R. Oneal, "Patriotism or Opinion Leadership? The Nature and Origins of the 'Rally 'Round the Flag' Effect," Journal of Conflict Resolution 45, 5 (2001): 661-87.
4. Daphna Birenbaum-Carmeli, "Between Individualism and Collectivism: The Case of a Middle Class Neighborhood in Israel," International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy 21, 11/12 (2001): 1-25.
5. Uri Ben-Eliezer, "Post Modern. Armies and the Question of Peace and War: The Israeli Defense Forces in the 'New Times,'" International Journal Middle East Studies 36, 1 (2004): 49-70.
6. Alek D. Epstein, "On the Collapse of the Normative Framework of Citizens' Commitment to the Army in the 1990s," in In the Name of Security: The Sociological of Peace and War in Israel in Changing Times, ed. Majid Al-Haj and Uri Ben-Eliezer (Haifa, Israel: Haifa University Press, 2003), 215-40.
7. The roots of this term, nation in arms, go deep into the writings of military experts, academics, and statesmen. Here, it is used mainly to imply a simple notion of codependency between the military and society. This codependency includes, but is not limited to, almost full national conscription of men and women of service age, harnessing the nation's economy to the countries war efforts, and even conscription of personal property (such as personal possessions, vehicles, and land) at times of war.
8. Charles C. Moskos and Frank R. Wood, eds., The Military: More Than Just a Job? (Washington, DC: Pergamon-Brassey's International Defense Publishers, 1988).
9. Gal Reuven and Stuart A. Cohen, "Israel: Still Waiting in the Wings," in The Post Modern Military: Armed Forces After the Cold War, ed. C. C. Moskos, J. A. Williams, and D. R. Segal (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 224-41.
10. Epstein, "On the Collapse of the Normative Framework of Citizens' Commitment to the Army in the 1990s."
11. Ibid.
12. Ben-Eliezer, "Post Modern Armies and the Question of Peace and War."
13. Uri Ben-Eliezer, "From, a Nation in Arms to a Post-Modern Army: Military Politics in Israel in 'New Times,'" Democratic Culture 4-5 (2001): 55-97 (Hebrew).
14. Baruch Kimmerling, "Anomie and Integration in Israeli Society and the Salience of the Israeli-Arab Conflict," Studies in Comparative International Development 9, 3 (1974): 64-89.
15. Simmel George, Conflict and the Web of Group Affiliations (Glencoe, IL: The Free Press, 1955);
16. Raymond W. Mack and Richard C. Snyder, "The Analysis of Social Conflict-Toward an Overview and Synthesis," Journal of Conflict Resolution 1, 2 (1957): 212-48;
17. Kenneth E. Boulding, Conflict and Defense (New York: Harper, 1962);
18. Robert A. Levine and Donald T. Campbell, Ethnocentrism (New York: Doubleday, 1972);
19. Lewis A. Coser, The Functions of Social Conflict (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1964);
20. Jonathan H. Turner, "A Strategy for Reformulating the Dialectical and Functional Theories of Conflict," Social Forces 53, 3 (1975): 433-44;
21. Kyriacos C. Markides and Steven. F. Cohen, "External Conflict/Internal Cohesion: A Reevaluation of an Old Theory," American Sociological Review 47, 1 (1975): 88-9;
22. Arthur Stein, "Conflict and Cohesion: A Review of the Literature," Journal of Conflict Resolution 10, 1 (1976): 143-72;
23. Arthur Stein, The Nation at War (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1980);
24. Dimitris Monos, "The 'Common Enemy' Factor and Gemeinschaft in a Multi-Ethnic Community," International Review of History and Political Science 19, 1 (1982): 68-82;
25. Yinon Cohen, "War and Social Integration: The Effects of the Israeli-Arab Conflict on Jewish Emigration from Israel," American Sociological Review 53, 6 (1988): 908-18;
26. Gad Barzilai and Bruce M. Russet, "The Political Economy of Israeli Military Action," in The Elections in Israel, ed. A. Arian and M. Shamir (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1990), 13-35;
27. Birger Heldt, "The Dependent Variable of Domestic-External Conflict Relationship: Anecdotes, Theories and Systematic Studies," Journal of Peace Research 34, 1 (1997): 101-6;
28. Clifton T. Morgan and Christopher J. Anderson, "Domestic Support and Diversionary External Conflict in Great Britain, 1950-1992," The Journal of Politics 61, 3 (1999): 799-814.
29. Birenbaum-Carmeli, "Between Individualism and Collectivism."
30. Luis Roniger and Michael Feige, "From Pioneer to Freier: The Changing Models of Generalized Exchange in Israel," European Journal of Sociology 33, 2 (1992): 286.
31. Johnathan Shapira, Democracy in Israel (Ramat Gan, Israel: Massada Press, 1977) (Hebrew).
32. Barach Kimmerling, The Invention and Decline of Israeliness: State, Society, and the Military (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001).
33. Birenbaum-Carmeli, "Between Individualism, and Collectivism."
34. Roniger and Feige, "From Pioneer to Freier."
35. Birenbaum-Carmeli, "Between. Individualism and Collectivism."
36. Roniger and Feige, "From Pioneer to Freier."
37. Roniger and Feige, "From Pioneer to Freier";
38. Ben-Eliezer, "From a Nation in Arms to a Post-Modern Army";
39. Ben-Eliezer, "Post Modern Armies and the Question of Peace and War."
40. Eyal Ben-Ari, Zeev Rosenhek, and Danial Maman, "Military State and Society in Israel: An Introductory Essay," in Military State and Society in Israel: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives, ed. D. Maman, E. Ben-Ari, and Z. Rosenhek (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2001), 1-43.
41. Gal and Cohen, "Israel: Still Waiting in the Wings," 225.
42. For more on this subject, see Eyal Ben-Ari, "Tests of Soldierhood, Trials of Manhood: Military Service and Male Ideals in Israel," in Military State and Society in Israel: Theoretical and Comparative Perspectives, ed. D. Maman, E. Ben-Ari, and Z. Rosenhek (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2001), 239-67.
43. Ibid.
44. Charles C. Moskos, John Allen Williams, and David R. Segal, The Post Modern Military: Armed Forces after the Cold War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000).
45. Ben-Eliezer, "From a Nation in Arms to a Post-Modern Army."
46. Ben-Eliezer, "Post Modern Armies and the Question of Peace and War."
47. Martin Van Creveld, The Sword and the Olive: A Critical History of the Israeli Defense Force (New York: Public Affairs, 1988).
48. Ben-Eliezer, "Post Modern. Armies and the Question of Peace and War."
49. Yoram Peri, "Civil Military Relations in Israel in Crisis," in Military, State, and Society in Israel-Theoretical & Comparative Perspectives, ed. D. Maman, E. Ben-Ari, and Z. Rosenhek (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2001), 107-36.
50. Ben-Eliezer, "Post Modern Armies and the Question of Peace and War."
51. Peri, "Civil Military Relations in Israel in Crisis."
52. Yagil Levy, Trial and Error: Israel's Route from War to De-Escalation (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997).
53. Yagil Levy, A Different Kind of Army for Israel: Materialist Militarism (Tel-Aviv, Israel: Yediot Aharonot, 2003);
54. Yagil Levy, "Social Convertibility and Militarism.: Evaluations of the Development of Military-Society Relations in Israel in the Early 2000s," Journal of Political and Military Sociology 31, 1 (2003): 71-96.
55. Gal and Cohen, "Israel: Still Waiting in the Wings."
56. Popular opinion in past decades held that a military career was, among other things, beneficial in terms of income and status. Beginning in the early 1980s and most evident during the "high-tech" and "dot-com" boom, of the late 1990s, the military's image as a high-paying profession began to erode. Today, it is clear that although salaries in the IDF still range far above the national average, they cannot compete with those offered by private companies in highly valued professions. See, for example, Ofer Shelach, The Tray and the Money (Or-Yehuda, Israel: Kinneret, Zmora-Beitan, 2003) (Hebrew).
57. Van Creveld, The Sword and the Olive.
58. Stuart A. Cohen, "Military Service in Israel: No Longer a Cohesive Force?" The Jewish Journal of Sociology 39, 1-2 (1997): 12.
59. Van Creveld, The Sword and the Olive.
60. Ben-Eliezer, "Post Modern Armies and the Question of Peace and War," 57.
61. Ofer Shelach, The Tray and the Money.
62. Peri, "Civil Military Relations in Israel in Crisis."
63. Van Creveld, The Sword and the Olive.
64. Dan Horowitz, "Strategic Limitations of 'A Nation, in Arms,'" Armed Forces & Society 13, 2 (1987): 277.
65. Gabriel Ben-Dor, Ami Pedahzur, and Badi Hasisi, "Israel's National Security Doctrine under Strain: The Crisis of the Reserve Army," Armed Forces & Society 28, 2 (2002): 233-55.
66. Alex Fishman, "Miluyim Be'mil" [Retired Reserves], Yediot Aharonot (Hebrew daily paper), 8 October, 2000.
67. Yoram Peri, "Civil Military Relations in Israel in a Crisis," Megamot 39, 4 (1999): 375-99 (Hebrew).
68. Harel Amos, "Growing Concern in the IDF of a Crisis in the Reserves," Haaretz (Hebrew daily paper), 6 April, 2001;
69. Harel Amos, "IDF Survey: 41% of Reserve Personnel Feel Like 'Freierim.' (Suckers)," Haaretz, 9 July, 2001;
70. Harel Amos, "Served in the Reserves 100 days within 9 Months," Haaretz, 10 May, 2002.
71. KAMLAR (Chief Reserves Officer) Web site (Hebrew), http://www.aka.idf.il/ sites/klali/default.asp?siteId=43314&catId=47784&docId= (accessed June 7, 2006).
72. The age of discharge from the reserves is not entirely universal. There are some positions as well as ranks that are discharged at a later age (doctors, high-ranking commissioned officers).
73. Dan Horwitz, "The Israel Defense Forces: A Civilized Military in a Partially Militarized Society," in Soldiers, Peasants, and Bureaucrats: Civil-Military Relations in Communist and Modernizing Societies, ed. R. Kolkowicz and A. Korbonski (London: Allen & Unwin, 1982), 77-186.
74. Brace Newsome, "The Myth of Intrinsic Combat Motivation," The Journal of Strategic Studies 26, 4 (2003): 24.
75. Ben-Dor, Pedahzur, and Hasisi, "Israel's National Security Doctrine under Strain."
76. David W. Grissmer and Sheila Nataraj Kirby, Changing Patterns of Nonprior Service Attrition in the Army National Guard and Army Reserve (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 1988).
77. Ibid.
78. Shelley Perry, James Griffith, and Terry White, "Retention of Junior Enlisted Soldiers in the All-Volunteer Army Reserve," Armed Forces & Society 18, 1 (1991): 111-31.
79. Sheila N. Kirby and Scott Naftel, "The Impact of Deployment on the Retention of Military Reservists," Armed Forces & Society 26, 2 (2000): 259-84.
80. Perry, Griffith, and White, "Retention of Junior Enlisted Soldiers in the All-Volunteer Army Reserve."
81. Hyder Lakhani and Stephen S. Fugita, "Reserve Guard Retention: Moonlighting or Patriotism," Military Psychology 5, 2 (1993): 113-25.
82. Perry, Griffith, and White, "Retention of Junior Enlisted Soldiers in the All-Volunteer Army Reserve";
83. Kirby and Naftel, "The Impact of Deployment on the Retention of Military Reservists";
84. Walter R. Schumm, Brace D. Bell, Rose E. Rice, and Diane Sanders, "Trends in Dual Military Couples in the U.S. Army," Psychological Report 78, 3 (1996): 1287-98;
85. Linda Gorman, "Enlistment Motivations of Army Reservists: Money, Self Improvement or Patriotism," Armed Forces & Society 17, 4 (1991): 589-99;
86. Walter R. Schumm, Bruce D. Bell, and Gary Resnick, "Implications for Military Leaders," Psychological Reports 89, 1 (2001): 153-65.
87. Hyder Lakhani, "Reenlistment Intentions of Citizen Soldiers in the U.S. Army," Armed Forces & Society 22, 1 (1995): 117-30.
88. Penny F. Pierce, "Retention of Air Force Women Serving during Desert Shield and Desert Storm," Military Psychology 10, 3 (1998): 195-213.
89. Ann C. Smith, Dennis W. Organ, and Janet P. Near, "Organizational Citizenship Behavior: Its Nature and Antecedents," Journal of Applied Psychology 68, 4 (1983): 653-63.
90. Perry, Griffith, and White, "Retention of Junior Enlisted Soldiers in the AU-Volunteer Army Reserve."
91. Peter W. Horn, Ralph G. Katerberg, and Charles L. Hulin, The Prediction of Employee Turnover in a Part-Time Military Organization (Arlington, VA: Organizational Effectiveness Research Program, Office of Naval Research, 1978);
92. Lakhani, "Reenlistment Intentions of Citizen Soldiers in the U.S. Army";
93. Elchanan I. Meir and Tal Green-Eppel, "Congruence, Skill Utilization and Group Importance as Predictors of Well-Being in Army Reserve Units," Journal of Career Assessment 7, 4 (1999): 429-38;
94. Ruth Linn, "Patterns of Crisis among Israeli Reserve Soldiers," The Jewish Journal of Sociology 39, 1-2 (1997): 24-45;
95. David K. Vaughan and William A. Schum, "Motivation in U.S. Narrative Accounts of the Ground War in Vietnam," Armed Forces & Society 28, 1 (2001): 7-31.
96. Guy L. Siebold and Lindsay, J. Twila, "The Relation between Demographic Descriptors and Soldier-Perceived Cohesion and Motivation," Military Psychology 11, 1 (1991): 109-28.
97. Lakhani and Fugita, "Reserve Guard Retention."
98. Gal Reuven, A. Portrait of the Israeli Soldier (New York: Greenwood Press, 1986).
99. Ben-Dor, Pedahzur, and Hasisi, "Israel's National Security Doctrine under Strain."
100. David R. Segal, Recruiting for Uncle Sam: Citizenship and Military Manpower Policy (Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1989).
101. John H. Faris, "The Looking-Glass Army: Patriotism in the Post-Cold War Era," Armed Forces & Society 21, 3 (1995): 411-34.
102. Kirby and Naftel, "The Impact of Deployment on the Retention of Military Reservists."
103. Michelle L. Kelley, Ellen Hock, Jennifer F. Bonney, Melinda S. Jarvis, Kathleen M. Smith, and Monica A. Gaffney, "Navy Others Experiencing and Not Experiencing Deployment: Reasons for Staying in or Leaving the Military," Military Psychology 13, 1 (2001): 55-71;
104. Hyder Lakhani and Elissa T. Abod, "The Effectiveness of Economic Incentives for Career Commitment of Peacekeepers in the Sinai," Armed Forces & Society 23, 3 (1997): 391-414.
105. Patrick Mileham, "But Will They Fight and Will They Die?" International Affairs 77, 3 (2001): 621-29.
106. Douglas R. Bey and Jean Lange, "Waiting Wives: Women under Stress," American Journal of Psychiatry 131, 3 (1974): 283-86.
107. Kelley et al., "Navy Others Experiencing and Not Experiencing Deployment."
108. Robert H. Stretch, "Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among United-States-Army Reserve Vietnam and Vietnam-Era Veterans," Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 53, 6 (1985): 935-36.
109. Ben-Dor, Pedahzur, and Hasisi, "Israel's National Security Doctrine under Strain."
110. Survey protocol was consistent with standard protocol employed by the Haifa Survey Center. Dialing was preformed automatically via the computer software; callbacks to busy lines, no replies, and facsimile replies were conducted at consistent intervals. Interviews are preformed by university students specifically trained for this purpose. Interviews were supervised by Survey Center staff and the authors. Responses are coded directly into a computerized database and then produced as an SPSS data file. A more detailed description of the protocol can be obtained from either the Survey Center or the authors.
111. During the years 2000 and 2002, Bezeq was Israel's sole land-line telephone provider for private home consumers. Dialing was preformed by the computerized software using random digit dialing, employing sampling according to population density, to maximize the representative quality of the sample.
112. This compares very favorably with studies in the United States, especially since the dialing methods in Israel, unlike in the United States, include business phones (approximately 10 percent), which must then be treated as a failed attempt.
113. In Israel, a sample of five hundred respondents represents the Israeli-Jewish population, which stood in 1998 at 4,883,300, with a statistical error of 4 percent. In this study, which focused only on Jewish men (2,302,500), the sample error was reduced to less than 3 percent.
114. Ultra-orthodox Jews are often exempt from service, whereas secular and traditional Jews are found in greater numbers among military service personnel.
115. Jon A Krosnick and Leandre R. Fabrigar, Designing Good Questionnaires: Insights from Psychology (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001).
116. A similar analysis was used by Brice Stone, Vince Wiggins, Kathryn Turner-Holland, and Larry T. Looper, "Air Force Pilot Retention: Evaluating the Results of Alternative Models," Armed Forces & Society 25, 1 (1998): 121-35.
117. 2, thereby reducing the likelihood of multicollinearity or concept redundancy; J. Cohen and P. Cohen. Applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences, 2nd ed. (Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1983).
118. Skocpol, "Will 9/11 and the War on Terror Revitalize American Civic Democracy?"
119. Jacob Erez, "This is a 'Rolling' Military Operation, Slowly Advancing Step by Step, City by City," Ma'ariv (Hebrew daily paper), 2 April, 2002.
120. Dan Horowitz and Baruch Kimmerling, "Some Social Implications of Military Service and the Reserves System in Israel," European Journal of Sociology 15, 2 (1974): 271-2;
121. Linn, "Patterns of Crisis among Israeli Reserve Soldiers";
122. Horwitz, "The Israel Defense Forces."
123. Horwitz, "The Israel Defense Forces."
124. Kim Uichol, Harry C. Triandis, Cigdem Kagitcibasi, San-Chin Choi, and Gene Yoon, eds., Individualism and Collectivism: Theory, Method, and Applications (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1994).
125. Ibid.
126. Gorman, "Enlistment Motivations of Army Reservists";
127. Siebold and Twila, "The Relation between Demographic Descriptors and Soldier-Perceived Cohesion and Motivation";
128. James Griffith and Shelly Perry, "Wanting to Soldier: Enlistment Motivations of Army Reserve Recruits before and after Operation Desert Storm," Military Psychology 5, 2 (1993): 127-39.
129. Lakhani, "Reenlistment Intentions of Citizen Soldiers in the U.S. Army";
130. Lakhani and Abod, 'The Effectiveness of Economic Incentives for Career Commitment of Peacekeepers in the Sinai";
131. Stone et al., "Air Force Pilot Retention";
132. Kirby and Naftel, "The Impact of Deployment on. the Retention of Military Reservists";
133. Schumm, Bell, and Resnick, "Implications for Military Leaders."
134. Horn, Katerberg, and Hulin, The Prediction of Employee Turnover in a Part-Time Military Organization;
135. Perry, Griffith, and White, "Retention of Junior Enlisted Soldiers in the All-Volunteer Army Reserve";
136. Lakhani, "Reenlistment Intentions of Citizen Soldiers in the U.S. Army";
137. Meir and Green-Eppel, "Congruence, Skill Utilization and Group Importance as Predictors of Well-being in Army Reserve Units";
138. Laurel W. Oliver, Joan Harman, Elizabeth Hoover, Stephanie M. Hayes, and Nancy A. Pandhi, "A Quantitative Integration of the Military Cohesion Literature," Military Psychology 11, 1 (1999): 57-83;
139. Siebold and Lindsay, "The Relation between Demographic Descriptors and Soldier-Perceived Cohesion and Motivation";
140. Kelley et al., "Navy Others Experiencing and Not Experiencing Deployment."
141. Lakhani and Fugita, "Reserve Guard Retention";
142. Uri Ben-Eliezer, The Making of Israeli Militarism (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998).
143. Jessica Wolfe, Pamela J. Brown, and John M. Kelley, "Reassessing War Stress: Exposure and the Persian. Gulf War," Journal of Social Issues 49, 4 (1993): 15-31;
144. Lakhani and Abod, "The Effectiveness of Economic Incentives for Career Commitment of Peacekeepers in the Sinai";
145. Pierce, "Retention of Air Force Women Serving during Desert Shield and Desert Storm";
146. Kirby and Naftel, "The Impact of Deployment on the Retention of Military Reservists";
147. Kelley et al., "Navy Others Experiencing and Not Experiencing Deployment: Reasons for Staying in or Leaving the Military";
148. Mileham, "But Will They Fight and Will They Die?"
149. Ben-Dor, Pedahzur, and Hasisi, "Israel's National Security Doctrine under Strain."