Studies in Military Psychology and Pedagogy
Edited by Hubert Annen
Vol. 14
Nadine Eggimann Zanetti (ed.)
Values and Virtues in the Military
Bibliographic Information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available online at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
This work was accepted as a PhD thesis by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Zurich in the fall semester 2017 on the recommendation of Prof. Dr. Willibald Ruch and Prof. Dr. Bruno Staffelbach.
Printed by CPI books GmbH, Leck
ISSN 2364-08718
ISBN 978-3-631-80395-0 (Print)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-81513-7 (E-PDF)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-81514-4 (EPUB)
E-ISBN 978-3-631-81515-1 (MOBI)
DOI 10.3726/b16658
© Peter Lang GmbH
Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften
Berlin 2020
All rights reserved.
Peter Lang – Berlin · Bern · Bruxelles · New York · Oxford · Warszawa · Wien
All parts of this publication are protected by copyright. Any utilisation outside the strict limits of the copyright law, without the permission of the publisher, is forbidden and liable to prosecution. This applies in particular to reproductions, translations, microfilming, and storage and processing in electronic retrieval systems.
To
Sandro & Finn
Thank you for the good moments in time as one family and for the bunches of love.
My Parents
Thank you for hanging in and supporting me warmheartedly in daily life, across this long-term project, from the first to the very last day.
On Courage, Comradeship, Discipline, and Security
The Factorial Structure of Military Values and Virtues in the Swiss Armed Forces
Thesis
presented to the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
of the University of Zurich
for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
by
Nadine Eggimann Zanetti
Submitted in the fall semester 2017 on
the recommendation of Prof. Dr. Willibald Ruch and Prof. Dr. Bruno Staffelbach
Zurich, 2017
Foreword
Military organizations see themselves as value-driven, and therefore it is not surprising that most of the armed forces have a definitive list of values and standards. This is a means of articulating its common ethos and moral basis, and ensuring correct behavior of serving personnel. Moreover, in an era where civilian society’s values seem to be moving ever further away from those of armed forces such a basis becomes more relevant in educating soldiers on the moral character necessary to address the ethical situations they will encounter in military training and even more during military missions.
In general, we assume that values reflect what is accepted by cultures, be it the military organization or the wider population. However, it has not been proven that existing lists of values can be equated with it; they have mostly grown historically and are therefore based not least on traditional ideals, norms, standards, and also top-down guidelines. Robinson (2006) even goes so far as to say that lists of values and virtues produced by most armed forces in the Western world remain inwardly orientated and somewhat old fashioned (p. 266).
The Swiss Armed Forces have deliberately refrained from using an universal canon of values. But the official service regulations refer to certain values in the sections on leadership and education; the Military Ethics Report (2010) also stresses the importance of fundamental values; and finally, values are also part of the content of various leadership courses. On the one hand, this provides at least a certain framework, and on the other hand, the room for maneuver that is desirable in practice. But now one can argue that in a rapidly changing world and in view of our multioption society, specifically for a conscript army, it seems appropriate to create a more solid and binding basis in terms of content by systematically examining the values perceived.
This is precisely the starting point of this research project. Its aim was using scientific methodology to depict and interpret the current understanding of values and virtues; to intensify the dialogue on the culture of values and virtues within the military organization; and to create the conditions for evaluating the impact of military education. With this in mind, qualitative and quantitative data were collected at different hierarchical levels. The resulting comprehensive and representative data set opened up the possibility for comparisons between the different hierarchical levels and provided detailed information on the differences between professional members of the armed forces and members of the militia. Furthermore, a structural factor analysis of the same data set led to five superordinate value factors and four virtue factors, which somehow reflect the values-landscape of the Swiss Armed Forces. For example, the five value domains reflect a culture of respectful, human-oriented conduct and a simultaneous military focus on mission and related duties.
The benefits of the present study are manifold: In contrast to the traditionally established value systems of other military organizations, mostly imposed from above or by history, a value culture is described here from the perspective of today’s members of the Swiss Armed Forces. In addition to this overall picture, it also allows comparisons between relevant subgroups and thus stimulates discussion about the different weighting of the values and virtues. It can also be highlighted that this research project should provide the impetus for self-reflection. Thus, while an officer is, first and foremost, a soldier, the value-oriented behavior of an officer goes above and beyond what is required of soldiers. So, the results presented here can be seen as a binding basis on which the behavior of leaders can be assessed and on which they should reflect themselves – their decisions and actions – regularly. And finally, this study can serve as a starting point for further scientific work such as the systematic recording of
