Militär identitet
En kvalitativ studie om att vara anställd soldat i Försvarsmakten
My study was conducted to provide a deeper understanding of the identity of employee soldiers in the armed forces and their experience of their role in the military context. To describe and identify the soldier's identity formation, values and norms working in group processes are taken into account. As the individual identifies her or himself whit the group, the various phenomena as hostility to other military groups arise. The individuals weld together with other group members to form strong normative relationships within the group. Through a qualitative research approach eight soldiers in a regiment in western Sweden were interviewed, four of them were group executives or deputy group leaders and others were ordinary soldiers. The interviews were interpreted based on the symbolic interactionistic theory; Mead and Goffman. The results of this study indicate that soldiers are working largely based on non-monetary reasons and that varied tasks, the salary and career are do not primarily matters. The team spirit is strong, contrary to the perceived problems of the military organization. Despite a lot of commuting to and from their daily lives, the soldiers see their job as very important and stimulating. The respondents appear to such a great extent be shaped by their work situation that this noticeably affects them in their civilian identity work.