Impact of Environmental Factors on Selection of Defence Services Officers

Abstract

Objective - "Change is the only constant" is a cliché but it is important to identify the factors which are changing to emerge as challenges before the military leadership of tomorrow. The societies are bound to be affected by the changes taking place in the environment. Generally, every society is affected by the four types of environmental factors. These are political, social, economic and technological. Since in India, democracy is deep rooted and the philosophy of the defence forces is same and has neither changed nor is likely to change, this factor is not under study here. So, the purpose is to study the impact of other environmental factors on selection of Defence Services Officers. Methodology/Technique - The study has been carried out by personally visiting all the Service Selection Centres of the Indian Armed Forces and presenting a questionnaire to large number of junior, middle and senior level serving and retired officers at various places. Only 449 officers responded which included 190 junior officers, 133 middle-level officers and 126 senior officers. The response was put through SPSS software system and analysed. Findings - The analysis clearly revealed that environmental changes in the society over a period of time do impact the qualities in the youth which have direct bearing on their selection for officers in the armed forces. Since the selection is based on finding the officers like qualities available or trainable in the youth, the impact of environmental factors is directly affecting the intake of the youth resulting in deficiency of officers' cadre in the armed forces. Novelty - The research contributes to develop scientific knowledge in environmental change effect on selection of defence officers. Type of Paper - Empirical Keywords: Qualities; Environment; Socio-Economic Changes; Armed Forces. JEL Classification: H56, J11.