Abstract
In this article we show that there is a misfit between the ideals of the military and the expectations of those entering the organization from the outside. According to Boltanski’s conventional sociology, organizations can be understood as encompassing a reservoir of moral principles that prescribe admirable kinds of behavior and distinguish the organization from others.The principles that dominate a particular organization attract people whose value constellation fits the organization’s. Traditionally, the military has been seen as holding a particular set of values, and the officer has been seen as exemplifying these values to other members. In Denmark, the military, and officer education in particular, have undergone far-reaching changes, includingadmitting 50% of military cadets on the basis of a civilian bachelor’s degree. In this article, we investigate whether these new cadets also share the values of the modern military. We show that the military has changed its reservoir of moral principles from the “management of violence” to an “adaptive” ideal, but new cadets have only partially adapted the new moral principles. They recognize the need for flexibility and networking, characterizing the new ideal of the “agileofficer,” but they still place a much stronger emphasis on traditionally domestic and industrial values, such as duty, loyalty, effectiveness, and reliability. The organization may have changed, but the persons entering it seem to fit ideals of the past.