The Measurement of Morale among Belgian Military Personnel Deployed in Crisis Response Operations: A Longitudinal Survey Design
Abstract
The goal of this paper is to report results from periodic surveys of Belgian military personnel carried out for the Mental Readiness Advisor of the Defence Staff by the Department of Behavioral Sciences of the Royal Military Academy. These periodic surveys serve to evaluate indicators of well-being during Crisis Response Operations. Before 2005, data collection methods were not standardized (the survey instrument differed from mission to mission) and there was no central database, making it impossible to analyze trends and compare units and missions. So, to remedy this situation, the Belgian Defence Staff decided, in 2005, that the existing questionnaires used to investigate well-being before, during and after Crisis Response Operations should be standardized. On the basis of the previous ones, a new standardized sociological survey instrument was constructed. Contrary to psychologists who make extensive use of psychological scales to approach latent constructs, most sociologists tend to use single items to evaluate constructs. The main advantage of single items questions is that more questions, and therefore areas of interests, may be investigated; the disadvantage, however, is the relative lack of reliability, of range of the latent concept they explore in comparison with scales. The questionnaire developed for the Belgian Defence Staff is oriented towards the collection of practical information and is therefore not designed to meet psychometric criteria like validity or reliability. Nevertheless, we found in this survey items related to morale defined as a tripartite model including soldiers satisfaction, motivation and group cohesiveness. The aim of this paper is to show how, a priori, we can derive information related to morale in order to inform commanders from a questionnaire not constructed specifically to measure this concept.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA472726
Entities
People
- Jean-francois Fils
Organizations
- Royal Military Academy