Motivation and Mission Satisfaction in the 5th SWISSCOY Contingent

Abstract

In June 1999, the Swiss government made its decision to support the Austrian contingent (AUCON) – serving in the German KFOR Brigade – with the so-called “Swiss Company” (SWISSCOY). This overview offers insight into Swiss soldiers’ motivation during their deployment to Kosovo from October 2001 to April 2002. SWISSCOY is a predominantly unarmed logistical unit integrated into the Austrian KFOR Battalion (AUCON). It supports AUCON primarily in the domains of transportation, water preparation, fuel, and civil-military co-operation. The primary goal of this research project was to monitor the motivation of 130 Swiss soldiers. How motivated were they at the beginning, at half-time, and shortly before the end of their mission? In addition to this descriptive approach, we also aimed at examining crucial independent variables supposedly related to motivation (such as perceived quality of infrastructure, perceived quality of training, financial incentives, social support at home, attractiveness of daily activities, perceived benefit of the mission, etc.).

Citation

Bennett, J., Boesch, R.P. and Haltiner, K.W. (2005), "Motivation and Mission Satisfaction in the 5th SWISSCOY Contingent", Caforio, G. and Kümmel, G. (Ed.) Military Missions and their Implications Reconsidered: The Aftermath of September 11th (Contributions to Conflict Management, Peace Economics and Development, Vol. 2), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 467-477. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1572-8323(05)02028-X