Abstract
Empirical studies on leadership under demanding conditions, such as leadership during wartime, are rare in the area of leadership literature.
To the author’s knowledge, guidelines or recommendations on how a military leader manages the death of a unit member and the stress that may follow, do not exist within the Danish Defence.
Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to examine how Danish military leaders have handled casualties within their unit during the war in Afghanistan and Iraq and to explore the motives behind their actions. This is done to create a guideline, which can be applied by future military leaders, who faces casualties within their unit.
Through qualitative methods, the empirical data was collected with the use of semi-structured interviews. Four officers with prior experience of handling casualties within their unit were interviewed. The interviews were conducted using an interview guide based on inductive method. Later, theories within sense-making, combat morale and sustained combat effectiveness were applied to discuss the actions of the officers.
This paper concludes that during the event of sustaining casualties, the military leaders conducts actions based on tactical and operational considerations. After sustaining casualties, the actions of the military leaders differ, however common points were (1) debriefing, (2) defusing, (3) organised group hearings, (4) private peer to leader conversations, (5) gradual return to hostile areas and (6) unit meetings with the army psychologist and chaplain.
The motive behind their actions were often based on a intuitional feeling of what was right. They aimed at creating unit cohesion and the acceptance of showing emotions. They focused on solving their given tasks, on keeping the unit together and to adhere to known routines. These actions and many more were performed, successfully preparing the unit for further combat actions.
Likewise, when assessing their actions in the light of combat morale and sustained combat effectiveness, the officers actions, such as successively introducing the unit to hostile environments or constructively changing working conditions, may have been beneficial in order to sustain a high degree of combat morale and combat effectiveness. In regards to the theory of sense-making, debriefing and defuseing can be effective tools for military leaders to use, in order to affect the sense-making process within the unit.