Military leadership and emotion regulation in acute situations that contain moral dilemmas

Abstract

The aim was to gain a deeper understanding of individual emotion-focused coping strategies and institutionalised norms as regards emotion regulation in a short-and long-term perspective in relation to acute stressful situations that contain moral dilemmas. 15 participants at different hierarchical levels in the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) were interviewed. Several individual emotion regulation strategies and organisational norms for emotional expressiveness were identified. These were integrated into a theoretical model. The study contributes by explicating a context-specific emotion culture that gives limited space for emotional expression as it is necessary to remain firm and cold in acute situations that include moral dilemmas. Leaders must be able to minimise emotional displays in order to contribute to operational efficiency (termed emotional containing capacity). Potential conflicts between a well-developed emotional containing capacity in acute situations and long-term adaptation to organisational norms in daily life after missions and practical implications are discussed.