Military cohesion, culture and social psychology

Defense and Security Analysis

Volumn 26, Issue 2, 2010, Pages 143-159

  Kirke, Charles ^a  

^a CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ARMED FORCES; CULTURE; MILITARY INTERVENTION; PSYCHOLOGY; QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS; RESEARCH WORK;

UNITED STATES;

EID: 77954940172     PISSN: 14751798     EISSN: 14751801     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/14751798.2010.488856     Document Type: Article

References (72)

1. W. Darryl Henderson, Cohesion: The Human Element in Combat, Washington DC: National Defense University Press, 1985, p. 4.
2. JohnM. Spiszer, "Leadership and CombatMotivation: The Critical Task", Military Review, May/June 1999, pp. 66-70, this at p. 68.
3. MoD, "Soldiering: TheMilitary Covenant", Directorate General of Doctrine and Development, ArmyCodeNumber 71642 Report, February 2000, pp. 3-8.
4. A less forthright position has been adopted by James Griffith where he points out that cohesion per se is not necessarily a determinant of military performance. "Further Considerations Concerning the Cohesion-Performance Relation in Military Settings", Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 34No. 1, 2007, pp. 138-147.He seeks to show that, like the health psychology of "social support", cohesion enables and enhances performance rather than creates it; he sees an in direct link rather than a close linear relationship. However, even if this corrective is accepted, it still seems that strong cohesion is associated positively with operational effectiveness, directly or in directly. It therefore remains an important topic for the military.
5. Donna Winslow, "Rites of Passage and Group Bonding in the Canadian Airborne", Armed Forces and Society, Vol.25 No.3, 1999, pp. 429-457, this at pp. 429-430.
6. See, for example, the recent discussion in Armed Forces and Society, Vol.32 No.4, 2006; Vol.33 nos 2 and 4, 2007; Vol.34 No. 1;
7. and the special edition of Military Psychology, Vol.11 No.1, 1999.
8. Charles Kirke, "Group Cohesion, Culture, and Practice", Armed Forces and Society, Vol.35 No.4, 2009, pp. 745-753.
9. W.Darryl Henderson, Cohesion: The Human Element in Combat, op. cit. Armed Forces and Society
10. Nora Kinzer Stewart, Mates and Muchachos: Unit Cohesion in the Falklands/Malvinas War, New York: Brassey's (US) Inc., 1991.
11. Anthony King, "The Word of Command: Communication and Cohesion in the Military", Armed Forces and Society, Vol.32 No.2, 2006, pp. 493-512.
12. Charles Kirke, "A Model for the Analysis of Fighting Spirit in the British Army", in Hew Strachan (ed.), The British Army, Manpower and Society in to the Twenty-First Century, London: Frank Cass, 2000.
13. See, for example, a British officer's view of American (as opposed to British) Army organizational culture in Brigadier Nigel Aylwin-Foster, "Changing the Army for Counterinsurgency Operations", Military Review, November-December 2005, pp. 2-15.
14. Paul T. Bartone, BjørnHelge Johnsen, Jarle Eid, Wibecke Brun and Jon C. Laberg, "Factors Influencing Small-Unit Cohesion in Norwegian Navy Officer Cadets", Military Psychology, Vol.14 No.1, 2002, pp. 1-22;
15. Peter C. Boer, "Small Unit Cohesion: the Case of Fighter Squadron 3-VI.GIV", Armed Forces and Society, Vol.28, 2001, pp. 33-54.
16. Guy L. Siebold and Mikael Salo, "Variables Impacting Peer Group Cohesion in the Finnish Conscript Service", Journal of Political and Military Sociology, Vol.36 No.1, 2008, pp. 1-18.
17. A. David Mangelsdorff, "Preface to the Special Issue", Military Psychology, Vol.11 No.1, 1999, pp. 1-3.
18. Guy L. Siebold, "The Evolution of the Measurement of Cohesion", Military Psychology, Vol.11 No.1, 1999, pp. 5-26.
19. Albert V. Carron, "Cohesiveness in Sport Groups: Interpretations and Considerations", Journal of Sport Psychology, Vol.4, 1985, pp. 123-128, this at p. 124.
20. John H. Jones et al., Cohesion in the USMilitary, Washington DC: National Defense University Press, 1984, p. 9.
21. Henderson, Cohesion: The Human Element in Combat, op. cit., Cohesion in the US Military p.4.
22. Morris Janowitz and R. Little, Sociology and the Military Establishment, New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1965, p. 165.
23. Tamotsu Shibutani, The Derelicts of Company K: A Sociological Study of Demoralization, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1978.
24. John Hockey, Squaddies: Portrait of a Subculture, Exeter: University of Exeter, 1986.
25. ArthurM. Smith, "Fear, Courage, and Cohesion", Proceedings, November 1994, pp. 65-69.
26. Edward A. Shils and Morris Janowitz, "Cohesion and Disintegration in the Wehrmacht in WorldWar II", Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol.12, Summer 1948, pp. 280-315.
27. Samuel A. Stouffer et al., Studies in Social Psychology in World War II: The American Soldier, Volume 2, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1949, p. 131.
28. See also Henderson, Cohesion: The Human Element in Combat, op. cit., Studies in Social Psychology in World War II: The American Soldier p. 22.
29. N. Gross and W. E. Martin, "On Group Cohesiveness", American Journal of Sociology, Vol.52, 1952, pp. 546-554, this at p. 553.
30. Michael A. Hogg and Graham M. Vaughan, Social Psychology, 4th edn, London: Pearson Education Ltd, 2005, p. 4
31. citing G. W. Allport, "The Historical Background of Modern Social Psychology", in G. Lindzey (ed.), Handbook of Social Psychology, Vol.1, Worcester, MA: Clark University Press, 1935.
32. Hogg and Vaughan, Social Psychology, op. cit., p. 8.
33. James Griffith and Mark Vaitkus, "Relating Cohesion to Stress, Strain, Disintegration, and Performance: An Organizing Framework", Military Psychology, Vol.11 No.1, 1999, pp. 27-55.
34. See, for example, the 2005 paper by the Director, Army Personnel Strategy, "Human Cohesion", The British Army Review, Vol.137, 2005, pp. 40-44.
35. See, for example, Robert J.MacCoun et al., "Does Social Cohesion Determine Motivation in Combat", Armed Forces and Society, Vol.32 No.4, 2006, pp. 646-654.
36. These concepts are related to the idea that "[e]ach type of bonding has been considered to have two aspects: affective (an emotional/reactive side) and in strumental (an action/proactive side)" . Guy Siebold, "The Essence of Military Group Cohesion", Armed Forces and Society, Vol.33 No.2, 2007, pp. 286-295, this at p. 287.
37. Shils and Janowitz, "Cohesion and Disintegration in theWehrmacht in WorldWar II", op.cit. Armed Forces and Society
38. Charles Horton Cooley, Social Organization: A Study of the Larger Mind, New York: C. Scribner's Sons, 1909, p. 23.
39. See, for example, M. A. Vaitkus and J. E.Griffith, "An Evaluation of Unit Replacement on Individual Morale and Cohesion in the All-voluntary Army", Military Psychology, Vol.2 1990, pp. 221-239;
40. Stewart, Mates and Muchachos, Unit Cohesion in the Falklands/Malvinas Warop, op. cit. Military Psychology;
41. Griffith and Vaitkus, "Relating Cohesion to Stress, Strain, Disintegration, and Performance: An Organizing Framework", op. cit. Military Psychology;
42. Guy L. Siebold, "The Evolution of the Measurement of Cohesion", op. cit. Military Psychology;
43. Donald E. Vandergriff, "Unit Cohesion: The Army's Effort", Marine CorpsGazette, 1999, pp. 61-67;
44. DAPS, "HumanCohesion", op.cit.;
45. and especially Guy L. Siebold, "The Essence ofMilitary Group Cohesion", Marine CorpsGazette op. cit.
46. Siebold, "The Essence ofMilitary Group Cohesion", Marine CorpsGazette op. cit., p. 287.
47. Stewart, Mates and Muchachos, Unit cohesion in the Falklands/MalvinasWar, op.cit., Marine CorpsGazette p. 27.
48. Stewart, Mates and muchachos, unit cohesion in the falklands/malvinaswar, Marine CorpsGazette Ibid., p. 35.
49. Stewart, Mates and muchachos, unit cohesion in the falklands/malvinaswar, Marine CorpsGazette Ibid., p. 116.
50. Ibid., pp. 40-41, 86-87.
51. Stewart Mates and muchachos, unit cohesion in the falklands/malvinaswar, Marine CorpsGazette Ibid., pp. 54-80.
52. Stewart Mates and muchachos, unit cohesion in the falklands/malvinaswar, Marine CorpsGazette Ibid., p. 81.
53. See, for example, David Lewis, "Revealing, Widening, Deepening? A Review of the Existing and Potential Contribution of Anthropological Approaches to 'Third Sector' Research", Human Organization, Vol.58 No.1, 1999, pp. 73-81, this at p. 74.
54. John Beattie, Other Cultures: Aims, Methods and Achievements in Social Anthropology, London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd, 1966, p. 20.
55. LucyMair, An Introduction to Social Anthropology, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1965, p. 7.
56. See, for example, Geert Hofstede, Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, London: HarperCollins, 1994, p. 9;
57. Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner, Riding the Waves of Culture: Understanding Cultural Diversity in Business, London: Nicholas Brealey Publishing Ltd, 1997, pp. 20-27.
58. See, for example, Anne Irwin, The Social Organization of Soldiering: A Canadian Infantry Company in the Field, Manchester: Manchester University, unpublished PhD thesis, 2002, pp. 14-19.
59. Examples of anthropologists of the military in clude Donna Winslow and Anne Irwin, both of whomhave worked with the Canadian armed forces, Brian Selmeski who has worked with the armed forces of Ecuador, and Maren Tomforde who has worked with the Bundeswehr. The author has worked with the British Army, and Anthony King has worked with the Royal Marines. Apart from the latter two, few anthropologists have studied military cohesion, an exception being Donna Winslow who examined some aspects of bonding in the Canadian Airborne Forces ("Rites of Passage and Group Bonding in the Canadian Airborne", Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 25 No. 3, 1999, pp. 429-457
60. and Eyal Ben-Ari who, with his colleagues Uze Ben-Shalom and and Zeev Lehrer, examined bonding through "swift trust" among Israeli Forces ("Cohesion During Military Operations: A Field Study on Combat Units in the Al-Aqsa Intifadfa", Armed Forces and Society, Vol. 32No. 1, 2005, pp. 63-79) and none has studied cohesion in the British armed forces.
61. Kirke, "AModel for the Analysis of Fighting Spirit in the British Army", op. cit. Armed Forces and Society
62. King, "TheWord of Command: Communication and Cohesion in theMilitary", op. cit. Armed Forces and Society
63. The list of literature relevant to cohesion in the British Army can be expanded slightly by in cluding Reginald von Zugbach's book on Power and Prestige in the British Army, Aldershot: Avebury, 1988;Hockey's ethnography of British in fantry private soldiers, Squaddies: Portrait of a Subculture; and PaulKillworth's, Culture and Power in the British Army: Hierarchies, Boundaries and Construction, Cambridge: Cambridge University unpublished PhD thesis, 1997; Thomas Thornborrow's "The Construction of Collective Identity in the British Parachute Regiment: A Storytelling Approach", Nottingham, Nottingham University unpublished PhD thesis, 2005; and the author's social anthropological PhD theses on the lives of British soldiers, Social Structures in the Regular Combat Arms Units of the British Army: A Model, Shrivenham: Cranfield University unpublished PhD thesis, 2002, all of which provide somecultural in sights in to life at regimental duty which have the potential to illuminate the study of cohesion in the British Army.
64. For example, Emile Durkheim, The Rules of Sociological Method (George E. G. Catlin, ed., Sarah A. Solovay and John H. Mueller, trans., Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1938;
65. A.R.Radcliffe-Brown, Structure and Function in Primitive Society, London: Routledge, 1952.
66. Anthony Giddens, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration, Cambridge: Polity Press, 1984.
67. Ibid., p. 21. Anthony Giddens, The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration, 1984.
68. The word "soldier"means any member of a military unit, regardless of rank.
69. All terms specific to the author's models are written in italics.
70. All RAC soldiers are male at the time of writing.
71. Navy, Army, and Air Force Institutes.
72. B. G. Glaser and A. L. Strauss, The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research, London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968.