Cadets motivation types and their relationship with various indicators of attitude to the military profession

Abstract

Traditionally, military service differs from other professions in special requirements of patriotism, loyalty and corporate ethics. These qualities are developing in the process of socialization during training at the military academy and the motivation for military service is critical in this context. The article presents the results of a sociological study of the issues of military-professional motivation and value orientations of air forces cadets. The results of the analysis revealed that the cadets primarily comprised three types, that is, the Idealists, the Pragmatists and the Skeptics. Different types of motivation correlate with different indicators of attitude to the military profession. The Idealists are more likely to share the institutional values of the military service, identify themselves with various categories of servicemen and are planning to serve in the military for the long period. The Pragmatists are attracted by career opportunities of military service and material advantages to the greatest extent, though they also share the traditional military values and keep loyalty to military organization, are planning to serve in the military organization for sufficiently long time. The Skeptics are displaying less sympathy for the institutional values of the military service, orders and discipline, they also are planning to serve in the army for a relatively short time. The obtained data are consistent with value shift marked by sociologists and support the existence of two ideal types of motivation for military service. The author concludes that idealistic type of cadets have the greatest potential as most patriotic and faithful. The pragmatic type of motivation appears to be less reliable, given a dramatic decrease in the number of pragmatically motivated cadets from the first to the fifth course, and replacement of this type by Skeptics. The Pragmatists generally agree with the military values, but their devotion to the army is lower in comparison with the Idealists, and life circumstances with a high probability can lead them to the completion of military career. .