Denne artikel har to formål. For det første introducerer den skellet mellem metode og metodologi. For det andet beskriver den kort de tre metodologier, der dominerer inden for samfundsvidenskaberne – ...den variansorienterede, den procesorienterede og den meningsorienterede – og illustrerer brugen af dem med et gennemgående eksempel. Metoder er redskaber. De kan være kvalitative eller kvantitative. Metodologier er forståelsesrammer, der bedst forstås som sprog. Ligesom man ikke kan gøre sig forståelig på et andet sprog ved at oversætte ord for ord, kan man ikke uden videre overføre logikken fra én metodologi til en anden. Det betyder ikke, at oversættelser nødvendigvis er umulige, men at det er meget svært at oversætte uden at anderkende sproglige eller – i dette tilfælde – metodologiske forskelle.
Denne artikel har to formål. For det første introducerer den skellet mellem metode og metodologi. For det andet beskriver den kort de tre metodologier, der dominerer inden for samfundsvidenskaberne – ...den variansorienterede, den procesorienterede og den meningsorienterede – og illustrerer brugen af dem med et gennemgående eksempel. Metoder er redskaber. De kan være kvalitative eller kvantitative. Metodologier er forståelsesrammer, der bedst forstås som sprog. Ligesom man ikke kan gøre sig forståelig på et andet sprog ved at oversætte ord for ord, kan man ikke uden videre overføre logikken fra én metodologi til en anden. Det betyder ikke, at oversættelser nødvendigvis er umulige, men at det er meget svært at oversætte uden at anderkende sproglige eller – i dette tilfælde – metodologiske forskelle.
The purpose of this article is two-fold. First, it introduces the distinction between methods and methodology. Second, it briefly describes the three methodologies prevailing within the social ...sciences: the variance-oriented, the process-oriented and the meaning-oriented methodology. These are illustrated with a recurring example. Methods are tools. They may be qualitative or quantitative. Methodologies are interpretive frameworks, best understood as languages. As you cannot expect to be understood in another language if you translate word by word, you cannot transfer the underlying logic from one methodology to another. Notably, this does not imply that translations are impossible, but that it is extremely difficult to translate without recognizing linguistic or – as in this case – methodological differences.
The purpose of this article is two-fold. First, it introduces the distinction between methods and methodology. Second, it briefly describes the three methodologies prevailing within the social ...sciences: the variance-oriented, the process-oriented and the meaning-oriented methodology. These are illustrated with a recurring example. Methods are tools. They may be qualitative or quantitative. Methodologies are interpretive frameworks, best understood as languages. As you cannot expect to be understood in another language if you translate word by word, you cannot transfer the underlying logic from one methodology to another. Notably, this does not imply that translations are impossible, but that it is extremely difficult to translate without recognizing linguistic or – as in this case – methodological differences.
Traditionally, the military is seen as an unequivocally authoritarian organization. With survey data collected at the Royal Danish Military Academy, this study shows that that is a qualified truth. ...Thus, cadets enrolled directly from the noncommissioned officer corps—those most acquainted with the norms of the armed forces—do not weigh authoritarian leadership values over nonauthoritarian ones. Instead, their view reflects that for the experienced leader, the context, and not overt ideals, enables them to choose the leadership tools they expect will prove most effective. On the contrary, cadets enrolled based on their civilian merits clearly prioritize authoritarian values. This is particularly true among cadets returning to the military after a break, former professionals, and former draftees alike. Their view also reflects experience, but a different kind of experience, as they have primarily encountered the military hierarchy from the receiving end.
This article calls for military sociologists to contribute to the study of excitement motivation. Bravery has always played a dominant role in depictions of soldiers in popular culture, and the ...importance of concepts similar to excitement has been recognized in disciplines adjacent to sociology for decades. Given the transgressive nature of combat, we would intuitively expect soldiers to have their need for thrilling experiences satisfied during deployment, and hence their level of excitement motivation to have decreased when they return from war. However, the opposite seems to be the case. Soldiers return wanting more, and we lack a theoretical explanation why this is the case. This article starts closing this gap by offering one possible reason. And, most importantly, it calls for other researchers to offer other explanations as well. The explanation suggested here is that just like real drug addicts build up a physiological tolerance to narcotics, soldiers can become “adrenalin junkies” because their tolerance toward excitement is “pushed upward” by being exposed to danger. This explanation is tested, and finds partial support, using panel data with soldiers from two Danish companies, serving in Helmand, Afghanistan in 2011.
Recent studies show that soldiers' level of excitement increases when they are exposed to the hardships of war. However, we know little about what meaning the soldiers themselves associate with the ...general concept of excitement. Using qualitative interviews conducted with Danish troops before and after deployment to Helmand, Afghanistan, this article starts closing this gap. Thirty-eight interviews were conducted (22 before deployment, 16 after). Here, two interviewees, selected by means of a concurrent quantitative panel study, are in focus. The in-depth analysis of these interviews-as well as results from the larger pool of qualitative and quantitative data-reveal that the soldiers sees the pursuit of excitement as intrinsically tied to their professional identity. They may be in it for the thrill, but they deny the notion that excitement is about breaching social norms. On the contrary, an important reason for being deployed is the prospect of gaining real soldier experience, and the more danger you have faced, the more you seem to emphasize this aspect. Accordingly, becoming a true soldier implies transgressing yourself while observing the norms of the military institution.
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Exposure to the extreme stress of warfare may affect soldiers' perceptions of others and society. Using panel data from two companies on a tour of duty to Afghanistan in 2011, this article analyzes ...how different dimensions of soldiers' public service motivation are influenced by deployment to war. As expected, soldiers' compassion decreased and commitment to the public interest increased, while self-sacrifice did not change systematically. Deployment to war was expected to affect inexperienced soldiers more than their experienced colleagues, but this hypothesis was only partially satisfied. The key contribution of the article is the use of panel data and the examination of motivational changes. Moreover, studying soldiers' public service motivation enables us to connect public administration and military sociology and thereby to establish a better understanding of motivation in extreme settings.
To what degree do future military officers resemble the traditional hierarchical leadership ideal, and to what degree do they resemble an emerging new kind of network-based leadership ideal? Military ...organizations are constantly changing in response to pressures from within the organization and surrounding society. Today, such changes exert themselves in novel recruitment strategies for a new generation of military leaders. Previous studies have shown how a new network-organizational paradigm has come to the fore in military leadership and officer recruitment. However, the core requirements of military leadership-remaining calm under pressure and demonstrating an ability to lead others and inspire followership-remain the same. Military psychological scholarship has often focused on subgroups within the military rather than general differences in personality between military and civilian populations. We remedy this limitation in the literature, and use the Big Five taxonomy and a unique dataset consisting of the personality profiles of an entire cohort of Danish officer cadets (n = 190) and a large (n = 1,568) Danish population-representative sample. We compare officer cadets to civilians using a three-level matching procedure, finding that the pool from which future military leaders are selected, the military cadets, are less neurotic, more extraverted and somewhat more conscientious than their civilian counterparts, traits that we theorize fit with the core requirements of traditional military leadership. The results indicate that cadets are no less open or agreeable than their civilian peers, traits that we theorize are related to a balancing towards the network-organizational paradigm.
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