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Cohesion and Performance in Military Occupation Specialty Training
Geoffrey J Orme1, James E Kehoe1,2
1Australian Army, PO Box 223, Concord West, Sydney, NSW 2138.
Military Medicine
|October 24, 2019
Summary
Military team cohesion, including bonding with peers and leaders, increases during training and positively impacts performance and mental health. This study examined cohesion in Australian Army recruits across different specialties.
Area of Science:
- Military Psychology
- Organizational Behavior
- Team Dynamics
Background:
- Team cohesion is crucial for military performance and mitigating work stressors like depression and low morale.
- Previous research indicated cohesion increases during Australian Army recruit training across horizontal, vertical, and organizational bonding.
- This study extends prior work by examining cohesion's relationship with group performance in specific military occupational specialties.
Purpose of the Study:
- To determine the relationship between team cohesion and external measures of group performance.
- To assess team cohesion across three Australian Army military occupational specialties: infantry, quartermaster, and administrative clerk.
Main Methods:
- Surveyed 261 infantry, 22 quartermaster, and 39 administrative clerk trainees, along with their instructors, using adapted Platoon Cohesion Index questionnaires.
- Trainee questionnaires were administered thrice during their courses; instructor questionnaires were completed post-training.
- Data analyzed for correlations between trainee-reported cohesion, instructor-reported cohesion, and individual/group performance metrics.
Main Results:
- Trainees' ratings of horizontal, vertical, and organizational bonding increased throughout training, with vertical bonding consistently highest, followed by horizontal, then organizational.
- Trainee and instructor ratings of horizontal bonding showed a strong significant correlation (r=0.70), while vertical bonding showed a weaker correlation (r=0.21).
- Trainee grades were not significantly correlated with section horizontal bonding (r=0.29), but section mean grades correlated with instructor ratings of horizontal bonding (r=0.44).
Conclusions:
- Australian Army recruits demonstrate increasing team cohesion throughout training, mirroring previous findings.
- Vertical bonding with leaders is generally stronger than horizontal bonding with peers, which is stronger than organizational bonding with the wider Army.
- Health professionals can explore team bonding dimensions to address military members' mental health concerns (depression, distress, morale) and promote protective effects of cohesion.
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