Organizational Change and Employee Concerns in the Finnish Defence Forces

Abstract

The Finnish Defence Forces (FDF) have, in accordance with other public sector organizations in the Nordic countries, undergone many change processes in this millennium. Changes in the FDF have been related to government savings and more recently the fluctuating security environment. The purpose of the study is to show how these change processes have meant somewhat different things to men and women in the FDF, and these differences have an intersectional character. In order to explain, how potent experienced changes are in explaining the concerns of the personnel, and how they possibly interact with gender, age and personnel group, we analyzed survey data by using logistic regression. The survey was addressed to all salaried personnel of the FDF in 2015. The analysis showed that the logic of the examined, personally experienced, organizational changes deepened divisions produced by civil/military and gender hierarchies.

Emotional and Aesthetic Labor of Finnish Military Officers

“…Norheim-Martinsen (2016) argues that Europe's defense sectors have become more like other normal public (and private) sector organizations with the same dynamics and demands. Many military organizations, including the FDF, have adopted the principles of new public management (NPM), which means more transparency, accountability, and a more market-oriented approach (Leinonen et al 2018;Norheim-Martinsen 2016). According to Norheim-Martinsen (2016), current military personnel are constantly interacting with society.…”

“…Both Norway and Sweden have established gender-neutral and selective conscription, whereas Denmark has selective conscription for men and voluntary service for women. Apart from maintaining male-only conscription, the Finnish military has adopted many other traits of post-modernization (Leinonen et al 2018).…”

“…The number of women in the FDF is 19% of all personnel (Defence Command 2019). Most of them are civilians working in the support sector (Leinonen et al 2018). The number of women both as conscripts and as military officers is 3%; of 2999 military officers, only 80 are women (Defence Command 2019).…”

The Lutheran Military Chaplaincy in the Finnish Defence Forces’ Organisation Today. A Multi-Method Approach

“…The features of the FDF as a total institution include that, for example, all the activities are under the same authority, it has tight and predetermined (Liuski 2019). (Leinonen et al 2018). (Hilverda et al 2018, pp.…”

Finnish Military Officer Identities and Micro-Political Resistance

“…This continues to be the main task of the FDF, particularly for geographical reasons. According to Leinonen et al (2018), this has also retarded the process of professionalization in the FDF. In the following section, the national characteristics of the FDF and Finnish military identities are presented.…”