Civil-Military Collaboration and Research Perspectives

Defence workforces are complex, comprising regular force military members, reservists, defence civil servants, and contractors working for private military and security companies. These groups of personnel are employed towards the same overarching goals related to national and international security, and are often highly integrated in the performance of their functions. At the same time, despite the often high levels of partnership and integration, different personnel management systems are in place. These cultural differences affect their integration, the nature and quality of their collaboration, and ultimately affect personnel outcomes such as performance and retention, as well as organisational and operational effectiveness.

Defence organizations around the world are increasingly recognizing the importance of optimizing intergroup integration, and many are adopting terminology to imply they form a cohesive whole [select examples include, the Defence Team (Canada), the Whole Force Concept (United Kingdom), One Defence Team (Sweden), Total DefenceWorkforce (New Zealand), Total Force Concept (United States), and the Adaptable Force (Netherlands)]. Since most research has traditionally focused on regular force military personnel, gaps in research on personnel in the other components – that is, research focused on reservists, defence civilians, and defence contractors, will be addressed in the context of this panel.