Tillväxtens friktion : En studie om dynamiken mellan internationella insatser och nationell försvarsförmåga

The Swedish Armed Forces has always had as its indisputable function to defend Sweden.Focus has been national; to defend the country’s borders and its sovereignty has always beenthe center of attention. In the later years the threat has changed. A substantial disarmament has taken place and focus shifted to international military operations. A major part of the officers is committed abroad, which has both positive and negative impacts on the organization. The situation has once again changed. Sweden is rearming and the Swedish Armed Forces is expanding. To expand is in itself a taxing task to accomplish, but since there is a shortfall of officers this task is even more demanding. At the same time, Sweden’s internationalcommitment is proceeding with unaltered vigour. The combination of rearmament, a shortfall of officers and a significant international commitment causes a friction. We have chosen to name it the friction of expansion. The intention of this study is to clarify which influence Sweden’s international commitment hason the Swedish Army, when it already has a shortfall of officers and is given the task of expanding. The study is qualitative in its design and the empirics are based on interviews with seven officers with substantial experience of both production of units and international operations. Data from interviews are encoded and four themes emerge, personnel factors, capability factors, organizational- and structural factors and lastly production factors. These themes are divided into fifteen sub themes that more intricately describe the result of the study. As a frame of reference Bolman and Deals four perspectives on organization and leadership is used. The study shows that the Swedish Armed Forces and Sweden benefits from participating in missions abroad, but the commitment must be balanced with growth. There is a need to look over the number of deployments and reduce the number of officers deployed abroad