Future Reserves 2020: perceptions of cohesion, readiness and transformation in the British Army Reserve

ABSTRACT

The British Army Reserve, and in particular its logistics component, is currently undergoing profound organisational transformation as part of the Future Reserves 2020 (FR20) program. Yet, to date there has been no sustained quantitative analysis of perceptions of cohesion, readiness and morale in the Army Reserve. Moreover, there has been little quantitative examination of FR20’s impact to date. This paper addresses these gaps in the literature by undertaking an examination of the above variables using survey data from a representative sample of AR logistics soldiers collected longitudinally. It finds that cohesion is highly important in explaining variance in perceptions of readiness and morale, and that perceptions of cohesion, readiness and morale are relatively high in the force. Nevertheless, the data indicates that FR20 has failed to increase these significantly over time. Similarly, it finds that confidence in FR20 delivering increased military capability is also declining. These findings are important for understanding FR20’s impact to date and future trajectory.

KEYWORDS:

• British Army Reserve
• cohesion
• readiness
• Future Reserves 2020
• morale

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Supplemental material

The supplemental data for this article can be accessed here

Notes

1. I am indebted to Guy Siebold for this point.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by an Economic and Social Research Council scholarship and part-funded by the British Army.

Notes on contributors

Patrick Bury

Patrick Bury is a Lecturer in Defence and Strategic Studies at the University of Bath. He is a former British Army infantry officer.