The Need for Visibility: The Influence of Social Media Communication on Swiss Armed Forces Officers

Abstract

Social media is becoming increasingly central within armed forces’ communication strategies. While there is research on the external impacts of social media communication, less is known about the effects on actual employees. Thus, the focus of this contribution is to collect and analyse the wishes, needs, and attitudes of officers of the Swiss Armed Forces that relate to social media communication in particular and communication in general. Designed as an explorative study, 34 semi-structured interviews were conducted and a qualitative content analysis was carried out. Besides some rather instrumental issues related to social media communication, three soft factors related to and affected by (social media) communication emerged. These are visibility, identification, and commitment. The three concepts are interrelated and at least partly dependent on each other. The analysis of the interviews and the theoretical embedding show the high sensitivity of cadre members towards organisational communication as well as the many ways in which communication affects their work, motivation, and well-being.