<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><p>This article focuses on military role identity by assessing the relations between demographic variables and warrior and peacekeeper role identities and by examining the potential influence of these role identities on self-esteem, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in a cross-national sample. A questionnaire was distributed to military members in four participating countries: Belgium, Estonia, Canada and the Netherlands (<italic>n</italic> = 831). The findings show that demographic variables (i.e., age, gender, marital status and unit) are related to military role identity, and that military role identity predicts self-esteem, organizational commitment and OCB. In particular, multiple regression analyses demonstrate that peacekeeper role identity predicts self-esteem, organizational commitment and OCB, whereas warrior role identity only predicts organizational commitment and OCB, and further, that peacekeeper role identity is a stronger predictor of the outcome variables measured. The theoretical and practical implications, including providing commanders with information to assess their units’ mindsets, and mechanisms to improve self-esteem, commitment, OCB, are discussed. Finally, the limitations of this study and its potential for future research are described.</p></abstract>

This article focuses on military role identity by assessing the relations between demographic variables and warrior and peacekeeper role identities and by examining the potential influence of these role identities on self-esteem, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) in a cross-national sample. A questionnaire was distributed to military members in four participating countries: Belgium, Estonia, Canada and the Netherlands (n = 831). The findings show that demographic variables (i.e., age, gender, marital status and unit) are related to military role identity, and that military role identity predicts self-esteem, organizational commitment and OCB. In particular, multiple regression analyses demonstrate that peacekeeper role identity predicts self-esteem, organizational commitment and OCB, whereas warrior role identity only predicts organizational commitment and OCB, and further, that peacekeeper role identity is a stronger predictor of the outcome variables measured. The theoretical and practical implications, including providing commanders with information to assess their units’ mindsets, and mechanisms to improve self-esteem, commitment, OCB, are discussed. Finally, the limitations of this study and its potential for future research are described.

Warrior and peacekeeper role identities: associations with self-esteem, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior

Journal of Military Studies

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

This article focuses on military role identity by assessing the relations between demographic variables and warrior and peacekeeper role identities and by...

Warrior and peacekeeper role identities: associations with self-esteem, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Dec 31, 2019

Page range: 3 - 15

Received: Oct 08, 2018

Accepted: Apr 17, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jms-2019-0002

Keywords
military role identity, self-esteem, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship

© 2019 Buijs et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Warrior and peacekeeper role identities: associations with self-esteem, organizational commitment and organizational citizenship behavior

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Dec 31, 2019

Page range: 3 - 15

Received: Oct 08, 2018

Accepted: Apr 17, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/jms-2019-0002

Keywordsmilitary role identity, self-esteem, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship

© 2019 Buijs et al., published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.

Keywords
military role identity, self-esteem, organizational commitment, organizational citizenship