Leadership during stress : French military leadership experiences and concepts during stressful events from a Swedish perspective

The author has written a bachelor thesis on the subject of leadership and stress with the aim of finding differences and similarities of stress handling in the French respective Swedish armies. The methods used when gathering data for the thesis have been interviews with eight officers and cadets from the French Army and Écoles de Saint-Cyr Coëtquidan and a participant observation of a stress-exercise in the terrain of Camp Coëtquidan, where the author accompanied a platoon from the fourth battalion at École Speciale Militaire. The analysis is split up into four questions, which serve the author the means to reach the aim of the thesis. The questions are: - What defines leadership in military settings? - How is leadership affected by stress? - Is stress useful? - Are there differences in stress handling? Comparing a Swedish view with a French one. After each analysis question is finished the author draws concretised conclusions, aiming to draw even closer to the core of the answers. Lastly the author closes in on the subject of leadership and stress, granting himself the permission to freely discuss the results of the thesis as a whole. A more profound view is given, as to why there is a need for further research into the matter of leadership and stress in the French Army. This is offered along with suggestions that [French Army] experience-based research can contribute to the training of future officers and leaders of soldiers in the French Army.Erasmus