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Both the military and non-military organizations (NMO) bring assets, skills, and capabilities to a humanitarian crisis, however, their capabilities and competencies are very diverse. Identification of the specific competencies and capabilities that are core to these types of organizations can enable better planning by both military and NMOs, allowing them to achieve greater effectiveness and efficiency in the humanitarian response. The purpose of this paper is to explore the core capabilities of the military and NMOs engaged in humanitarian operations.

The work builds on existing literature on the core competency of the corporation. The authors extend the concept of the ability to identify, cultivate, and exploit the core capabilities in the private sector to the organizations that want to respond efficiently and effectively to disasters. The authors develop a core competencies test for such organizations.

The research identifies the competencies and capabilities that are core to the US military and NMOs for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. By identifying such abilities the authors establish a vein of research for exploring the role of such organizations to facilitate greater understanding among academics, policy makers, and decision makers in public administration, public health, and international aid.

Existing literature in humanitarian logistics does not adequately address identification of those competencies and capabilities that are core to the military organizations and NMOs and are most needed during the operational life cycle of a humanitarian crisis. In addition to identifying them, the authors compare the core capabilities of the military and NMO.

This paper seeks to contribute to a more effective co‐ordination of humanitarian operations by military and civilian organizations involved in a peace support mission in response to a complex emergency.

The information processing view, in particular Galbraith's typology of generic mechanisms for achieving co‐ordination, is taken as the theoretical framework. This framework is subsequently applied to the co‐ordination of humanitarian operations by military and civilian organizations. Empirical data are derived from a set of expert interviews with both military and civilian respondents in The Netherlands and a four week visit to Kabul and Baghlan, a province in northern Afghanistan. During this visit 40 military respondents have been interviewed and over 60 meetings have been held with local authorities, humanitarian organizations, small entrepreneurs, refugees and local villagers. Finally, conclusions are drawn and recommendations are provided with regard to a more effective co‐ordination of humanitarian operations in a peace support mission.

The article's main finding is that “self‐contained tasks” in combination with lateral relations are the dominant co‐ordination mechanisms. “Slack resources”, though observed in practice, is not considered a viable co‐ordination mechanism since this implies an excess, and thus waste, of scarce resources. “Information systems” are, unfortunately, not well‐developed leading to mismatches between policy and practice. Keeping “self‐contained tasks” as the major co‐ordination mechanism, the main recommendation is to develop and implement innovative “information systems”, that can also be used to support “lateral relations”, in particular those between military and civil actors.

The paper applies the information processing perspective to a unique and important subject, namely co‐ordination between military and humanitarian organizations in peace support missions.

This study intends to investigate the extent to which the Sri Lanka Army can be described as a learning organization.

The main tool of analysis used was the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) developed by Marsick and Watkins, with the exclusion of the sections on financial and knowledge performance.

Using the DLOQ, the research found that the dimensions of a learning organization proposed by Marsick and Watkins are present in the Sri Lanka Army, although with some aberrations between different ranks.

The study was conducted without a directly connected dependent variable.

This study shows how even a non‐profit‐oriented organization like the Sri Lanka Army can be informed from a concept like the learning organization, and indeed emphasizes the overarching need for a military organization to operate as a learning organization. Therefore, this research has reiterated the fact that the learning organization is a prescription that all organizations, even not‐for‐profit ones, should ardently pursue. The research also offers recommendations for improvements in the performance of the Sri Lanka Army by identifying certain weaknesses.

By initiating the use of the DLOQ in the Sri Lankan as well as a military context, the study has opened the doors for administering the DLOQ and similar tools for measuring the extent of organizational learning and the presence and strength of learning organizational characteristics in Sri Lanka.

The uncertainty of the current economic environment increases the risk of organizational failure. The traditional approach intends the crisis as a phenomenon that can be managed according to some predetermined and well-defined procedures. Although this traditional approach emphasizes on the technical dimension, it does not take into account the organizational dimension, which instead plays a crucial role in the circumstances of today’s crisis. The purpose of this paper is to investigate which are the most effective organizational practices able to promote an adequate culture prevent or manage effectively crisis situations.

A group of Italian military and civil opinion leaders took part in the study. Authors hypothesized that the military organizations, being defined as “High Reliability Organization,” have organizational characteristics that allow them to manage crisis situations more effectively, and, for this reason, they can be taken as a reference by civil organizations.

The results show noticeable differences about organizational attributes concerning the two organizations. According to the results, military organization has the most appropriate organizational dimensions to prevent and manage the crisis situations.

Based on the results, military organization is suggested to be taken as an example by civil organizations in the process of organizational change necessary to obtain reliable performance.

The originality of this paper lies in the empirical and theoretical framework provided to analyze risk and crisis management, based on the comparison between military and civil organizations. The paper aims to be a starting point from which a positive process of cultural osmosis between the two organizations can be promoted.

This paper aims to present a study on the organization of military logistics under “hot” conditions in an expeditionary crisis response operation. The authors' main research question is: in what way is armed forces logistics sourcing organized in the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan?

To answer their research question, the authors conducted a case study including field research at military sites in Afghanistan. The case study is focused on military organizations that operate in a hostile and ambiguous environment. The authors compare sourcing of three categories of support services, i.e. facilities management, maintenance & logistics and security.

The authors' results include a systematic overview of the organization of command, logistic and accounting (sourcing) in the ISAF mission, involving multinational military partners and contractors. Second, the authors show how Canada, NATO, The Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the USA sourced the three categories of services mentioned in terms of sourcing profiles. Focusing on contracting, the authors outline which strategies NATO and the countries mentioned used in practice. And finally, differences and similarities are highlighted in the area of funding and accounting.

While the authors' study provides insight in the use of sourcing profiles identified in this paper, more research is necessary to identify criteria for explaining sourcing decisions of armed forces.

The paper provides a systematic overview for practitioners and scholars and enhances manageability and policy development relevant for those who prepare, execute, monitor and evaluate missions.

The authors' paper is one of the first to provide a systematic overview in operational defense sourcing relying on first‐hand field data. This area of study is fragmented and remains mostly closed for non‐military researchers.

This paper aims to illustrate the need for context-adapted models of military learning organizations (LOs), identify challenges to building LOs in the military and discuss how maturing as an LO provides military organizations a competitive advantage.

This paper highlights the primarily industrial focus of existing literature, discusses a sample of nuanced challenges to building military LOs and posits potential benefits of military LOs future operational environment.

Building military LOs is an area of research that remains underdeveloped. Advancing LO theory requires researchers to consider context and the challenges organizations may encounter during efforts to build LOs.

This paper highlights gaps and alignment in LO theory to advance the argument that context-adapted approaches to building military LOs are needed.

Previous studies show that the implementation of gender equality encounters resistance in military organizations, but it is often invisible or seen as confined to anonymous structures or troubled individuals. This paper aims to show how the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF) use organizational principles to resist implementing gender equality measures.

The study is a qualitative analysis of discursive strategies in the SAF’s 2013–2018 annual reports to government.

The organizing principles of instrumentality and distance, while existing in parallel with gender equality efforts, actually pursue logics that prevents the SAF from implementing gender equality. The principle of instrumentality in this context means that gender equality in the SAF is of secondary interest to organizational members. The principle of distancing from the problem includes strategies that alienate female from male officers.

The contribution of this paper is the finding that the use of organizing principles represents conscious organizational resistance to gender equality efforts. This kind of use needs to be revealed and criticized to change military organizations.

This study aims to empirically analyze the significance of various knowledge management (KM) elements to the environment in a military organization and establish the efficacy of performance indicators of civil organizations for a military organization.

The research methodology includes the development of a research model based on a comprehensive literature review. A sample of 454 Indian Air Force Veterans was obtained and structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis using statistical package for the social sciences (SPSS) analysis of moment structures (AMOS) was conducted to test the hypotheses. The study first employed exploratory factor analysis (EFA) for redefining the theoretical constructs and then confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to test the hypotheses.

The study empirically establishes the significance of various KM elements on the knowledge environment that creates, stores, transfers and applies knowledge to achieve military objectives. Findings indicate the complexity of KM in a military setup while applying the performance measures used in the civil organization.

The study expects to expand the scope of the KM literature to the militaries of developing countries and provide a methodology to the leaders and practitioners in the military organizations, and to study the available KM practices, models and tools in the civil world.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the present research is one of the first to generate empirical insights into a knowledge environment in military organizations and test its relation with parameters used in civil organizations. The paper would significantly contribute to the underexplored area of KM in military organizations and infuse a theoretical rigor into the KM literature.

Premature departure of highly skilled and experienced soldiers is detrimental to the excellence of a military organisation. The organisation can achieve knowledge superiority over adversaries, only if it acknowledges the organisation’s critical knowledge and undertakes necessary steps to preserve it. The purpose of this paper is to find out the critical types of knowledge loss in military organisations when a soldier departs.

This study uses grounded theory methodology with purposive/theoretical sampling of experts from the Indian Air Force, coding and constant comparative analysis to construct different knowledge categories. ATLAS.ti 8 was used for data coding and analysis.

This paper identifies eight types of knowledge categories in a military organisation and specifies the criticality of each category.

This study has been piloted on a single organisation with a limited number of samples. However, the results can be used in future research on exploring generalisation. This study is unique in providing useful insights into the types of critical knowledge loss in a military organisation. Research infuses theoretical rigour to the knowledge management (KM) literature and provides impetus to study various aspects of KM in a military organisation.

This study provides the first set of guidelines for the leaders in military organisations to develop a KM strategy for knowledge loss. Research lists specific and actionable areas of knowledge for the commanders to act with considerable savings to exchequer, time and effort. The result could be reasonably generalised for other military setups in the world.

This paper is highly innovative and would significantly contribute to the under-explored area of KM in military organisations and the KM literature.

The purpose of this study was to investigate military officers’ perception of the implicit expectations the organisation has for the officer’s private life and what implications it may have for gender norms at the organisation, family and individual levels.

A qualitative approach, using an inductive thematic analysis, was performed. The data was based on 20 interviews with military officers, including 18 men and 2 women.

Two main themes, with three subsequent subthemes, were identified. These themes were interpreted as being necessary for the military officer to be able to manage organisational demands. The first included the implicit expectations the organisation had for the family. The three subthemes included the officer’s acceptance of frequent travel demands, adapting private life in accordance to organisational demands and picking a partner that matches the goals of the organisation. The second identified main theme included the military officer’s descriptions of implicit expectations the organisation held for the officer’s partner. Three subthemes were identified, including the partner’s need to be independent and psychologically strong, to take the main responsibility for managing family life and to engage in emotion work with the extended family.

The findings identify important perceptions that military officers have regarding the military’s expectations for their private life and the adaptive behaviors regularly performed. These adaptive behaviors allow the military officer to be able to engage in work that sustains the organisation.