‘A Time of War’: contextual and organisational dimensions in the construction of combat motivation in the IDF

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the construction of combat motivation in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), arguing that although Israeli society at large is in a ‘Post Heroic’ era, the ‘Heroic Spirit’ is revealed during emergencies. A total of 1535 questionnaires were administered among combat soldiers during large-scale operations fought during national emergency and during small-scale routine operations. The results reveal differences in the construction of combat motivation typical for emergency vs. routine, as well as for reserves vs. regular units. These results indicate that the Post Heroic era is a condition that could be shifted according to cultural, organisational and individual determinants. This paper discusses the roots of these constructions and their implications on the theory of combat motivation and combat experience.

KEYWORDS:

• Combat motivation
• Post Heroic warfare
• unit cohesion
• risk aversion
• IDF

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Uzi Ben-Shalom

Uzi Ben-Shalom, PhD, is the chair of the department of sociology and anthropology in Ariel University and joint head of the military and security community in the Israeli Sociological Society. His areas of academic interest are the behavior of soldier in combat, military leadership and the military profession in Israel.

Yizhaq Benbenisty

Yizhaq Benbenisty is an organizational consultant and a Ph.D. candidate. He is a serving military officer in the IDF. His areas of academic interest include organizational sensemaking and sense-giving. He is also interested in organizational climate and unit level military psychology.