Values and Virtues in the Military. Nadine Eggimann Zanetti

assumption within thesis was that military values and virtues can be used to describe and define the specific military culture (Kernic & Annen, 2016; Pathak, Rani, & Goswami, 2016).

      It is not surprising that the military organization is a “value community,” which identifies itself as a commitment to share common values (Moskos, 1973). This makes the military leaders accountable to explain, convey, and live the fundamental values of the organization. Such a commitment and leadership task is closely connected with the inherent concern of building an identity and a social cohesion (Kernic & Annen, 2016). In view of potential conflicts, a widely held postulate declares that the social competencies and psychological strength of the military members are a decisive factor in a mission’s success or failure (Scales, 2009). In this respect, Matthews (2014) talked about “cognitive dominance,” stating that considering psychological concepts such as character, values, and virtues will be of substantial importance for armed forces to be successful. For these reasons, it was recommended for a military organization to avoid the temptation to position leadership on principles, which are purely economic-purpose-rationally driven. Military organizations, specifically those rich in operational experience, care about character education, moral decision-making, and personal reflection on one’s own values and virtues (Kernic & Annen, 2016).

      Accordingly, values and virtues have always been a top priority within the military domain of leadership, training, ethical commitment, and psychological research. Military organizations have long recognized that morally good, positive characteristics of personality are highly influential on work satisfaction, individual performance, adaptation, and effective leadership (Matthews et al., 2006b). Specifically, the overall importance of character strengths, virtues, ←30 | 31→and values within the military is widely documented (Matthews, 2009). Equally important, there is growing evidence that positive characteristics such as values, virtues, and character strengths predict success in challenging military situations. In spite of the emphasis in priority, there is still a dearth of empirical evidence, to demonstrate the importance of values and virtues within the military context (Matthews, 2012).

      The Swiss Armed Forces is equally committed to foster military values and virtues such as discipline, comradeship, personal responsibility, as well as honesty (Swiss Armed Forces, 2004). Overall, the very specific environment of the Swiss Army represents a military institution with a long-lasting tradition, initiated by General Wille, to foster values and virtues, and expecting their members to respect them and live accordingly. The Swiss Armed Forces qualifies for representing a value-oriented organization (Proyer, Annen, Eggimann, Schneider, & Ruch, 2012). Like in other military organizations, the doctrine of the Swiss Armed Forces (Dienstreglement der Schweizer Armee, DR 04 [Swiss military Service Regulations 2004]) has emphasized the importance of personal values and virtues in successful leadership and military training (Annen et al., 2004).

1.1 Characteristics of the Swiss military system

      The Swiss Armed Forces is an ideal environment to examine values and virtues given the distinct nature of the Swiss military system and the legal settings that govern the conscription of male citizens. The characteristics of the Swiss military system should be outlined for a general understanding of the samples of soldiers that are to be studied.

      The main tasks of the Swiss Army are of defensive and protective nature. It also serves in case of natural catastrophes and other national hazards. The Swiss Armed Forces is a conscript army, in which all Swiss men aged between 19 and 31 years must fulfill their military service requirement. Active reserve officers serve even longer, until the age of 42 to 50 depending on their rank. The basic training lasts between 18 and 21 weeks followed by three weeks of training per year until the age of 26. Females may join the Forces voluntarily and are assigned to all groups including combat troops. Besides militia members, the Swiss Armed Forces employs a great variety of fulltime staff. However, a typical feature of the Swiss Armed Forces is that the greater portion of officers constitutes of members of the militia. Correspondingly, career officers, career NCOs as well as contracted military personnel account for only about 3% of the total Swiss Armed Forces (Annen, 2004).

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      Unlike the majority of the Swiss Armed Forces officers, who only serve as active reserve officers, career officers and career NCOs are fulltime professional officers. Prior to becoming a career officer or career NCO, the candidates completed at least one and a half years of training for militia officers or NCOs and were obliged to work temporarily as officers or NCO in the Swiss Armed Forces for one year, on average, to get practical experiences and a realistic insight into the actual job. The career personnel serve important functions such as educators and instructors, or preferably as coaches of the militia cadre. They are responsible for the molding of a leadership culture as well as the implementation of military guidelines.

      The Swiss Army is a “training army,” in which the professional officers and NCOs do not primarily have to be part of military operations and foreign assignments. However, the Swiss Armed Forces spends the majority of its time training for operational readiness and for educating soldiers, as part of their mandatory military service. Correspondingly, values and virtues are the basis of military education. Military education aims at influencing the values and the behavior of soldiers purposefully and sustainably (Annen et al., 2004). The Swiss Armed Forces with their militia system of a compulsory military service are regarded as a mirror of the society as a whole (Haltiner, 1996). Around 95% of Swiss military armed troops are conscripts, who serve as citizens in uniform (Szvircsev Tresch, 2011). They incorporate likewise the values and virtues of the Swiss society. The Swiss Armed Forces are thus obliged to present the objectives and the content of military education to both their military personnel as well as to the civilian society as a whole, in a transparent manner. That is why the values and virtues that characterize military education must be understood (Annen et al., 2004). Clarity about the conveyed values and virtues is needed, as they define the content of military education. For the military leader this means that it is required to understand the values, to live them as a role model, and to eventually embody them. In particular, the Swiss Report on Military Ethics published on September 1, 2010 (Swiss Armed Forces, 2010) stated that the training and educational culture of the Swiss Armed Forces must be explicitly defined according to values and virtues. Therefore, it was considered as indispensable to consciously deal with the soldiers’ view and perception of values and virtues. The military education shall not convey a “counter world” to civil society (Eggimann & Annen, 2014). The Swiss Military Ethics Report is thus an up-to-date document, which refers to the importance of values and virtues in the Swiss Armed Forces and emphasizes the need for relevant scientific studies. However, currently there are no known military psychological studies, which have researched the values and virtues in the Swiss Armed Forces in a systematic and comprehensive manner.

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1.2 In search of military core values and virtues in the Swiss Armed Forces

      Matthews (2012, p. 214) stressed the need for a military organization to understand cultural significance as it applies to values and virtues, stating: “Cultural considerations are of paramount importance in twenty-first-century warfare.” Furthermore, Britt, Adler, and Castro (2006) referred to the general requirement to address the question whether there are consistent values and virtues conveyed by the military organization. This perspective makes it a mandate to understand the core values and core virtues of an organization. Core values are principles that an organization views as being of central importance and reflect what the company values, setting the vision and goal of an organization (Duh, Belak, & Milfelner, 2010). Likewise, core virtues are the most important positive characteristics considered by an organization. Peterson and Seligman (2004) defined core virtues as “an abstract ideal, encompassing a number of other, more specific virtues that reliably converge to the recognizable higher-order category” (p. 35). Accordingly, core values and core virtues refer to categories of values and virtues which include expressions of thematically similar values and virtues grouped together⁴. Smolicz (1981) supposed that core values and virtues are forming fundamental components