Barossa Night: cohesion in the British Army officer corps

Abstract

Contrasting the classical explanation of military group cohesion as sustained by interpersonal bonds, recent scholars have highlighted the importance of ritualized communication, training and drills in explaining effective military performance in professional armies. While this has offered a welcome addition to the cohesion literature and a novel micro-sociological method of examining cohesion, its primary evidential base has been combat groups. Indeed, despite their prominent role in directing operations over the past decade, the British Army's officer corps has received relatively little attention from sociologists during this period. No attempt has been made to explain cohesion in the officer corps. Using a similar method to recent cohesion scholars, this paper seeks to address this imbalance by undertaking a micro-sociology of one ritual in particular: 'Barossa Night' in the Royal Irish Regiment. Firstly, it draws on the work of Durkheim to examine how cohesion amongst the officer corps is created and sustained through a dense array of practises during formal social rituals. It provides evidence that the use of rituals highlights that social solidarity is central to understanding officer cohesion. Secondly, following Hockey's work on how private soldiers negotiate order, the paper shows how this solidarity in the officer corps is based on a degree of negotiated order and the need to release organizational tensions inherent in a strictly hierarchical rank structure. It highlights how the awarding of gallantry medals can threaten this negotiated order and fuel deviancy. In examining this behaviour, the paper shows that even amongst an officer class traditionally viewed as the elite upholders of organizational discipline, the negotiation of rank and hierarchy can be fluid. How deviant behaviour is later accepted and normalized by senior officers indicates that negotiated order is as important to understanding cohesion in the British Army's officer corps as it is amongst private soldiers.

Infrapolitics and role abeyance: How Irish military officers experience university

“…In this sense, the exercise of infrapolitics also has a political aspect, but remains generally in the realm of small-p politics, and even micropolitics. Similar observations have been made previously of militaries, however, through the concept of a 'negotiated order' (Bury, 2017;Hockey, 1986;Strauss, 1978). What Scott allows us to see, however, is that even those within the structure of 'domination' in his words still have agency, and if they disagree with how this power over them is wielded, they will seek ways to evade this.…”

“…In terms of the wider literature, by supplementing role theory with Scott's ideas, it also provides a coherent framework in which other work on militaries as dynamic social structures (e.g. Bury, 2017;Hockey, 1986) can be understood, and provides further evidence of a 'negotiated order' (Strauss, 1978) existing in the military context.…”

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“…This description, reminiscent of what has been described in occupational psychology as shared mental models (Floren et al, 2018; Salas et al, 2016), reduces communication to a goal-oriented function that precedes cohesion but neglects affective functions of communication affecting cohesion. For example, communication substantiates collective appraisal, aids in negotiating order, and can regulate stressful experiences (Brown et al, 2015; Bury, 2016; Dwyer et al, 2021; Gilbar et al, 2010). Hereafter, communication will be added as formal and informal exchange of information to coordinate actions and evaluate events and experiences.…”

The Changing Nature of Reserve Cohesion: A Study of Future Reserves 2020 and British Army Reserve Logistic Units

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