Solidarity in Service: a Study on Military Motivation

Sociology often neglects the impact of modern society for motivating military service members. Previous studies often bifurcate the motivations of military service into two camps: institutional motives reflecting group identity and external motivations impacted by social, structural, and economic factors outside of the military. This bifurcation of military motivations often places civil society and the military in opposing relations to each other, while neglecting how the military utilizes both forms of motivation to sustain manning requirements. This thesis utilizes fifteen semi-structured interviews of Active Duty, Guard, and veteran military service members to understand why they chose to serve and how their motivations are impacted by experiences while serving. Participants all reported a wide range of factors across three dominant motivational themes: institutional, occupational, and personal., Contrasting from the traditional literature that prioritizes institutional forms of military motivation, I argue that post conscription service members rely on a combination of institutional, occupational, and personal motivations when deciding to join the military, and throughout their service. Although institutional and occupational motivations are still important for service members, personal motivations were the most important and recurring theme among all participants. Negative motivations were also prevalent among almost all participants and may be more impactful than institutional and personal motivations, resulting in service members choosing to exit the military at the end of their service contract. The results of this study may contribute to the advancement of sociological knowledge on the military, which could also benefit broader sociological studies on institutions and labor in modern society.