The aim of this study was to investigate whether constructive or destructive leadership behaviors are the best predictors of soldiers' experienced meaningfulness of work and general job satisfaction. Data were collected among 300 employed soldiers using a questionnaire. The questionnaire contained questions about the immediate leader's constructive and destructive leadership, meaningfulness of work and general job satisfaction. The results show that the constructive leadership factor inspiration and motivation was the best predictor of both experienced meaningfulness of work and general job satisfaction. None of the destructive leadership factors gave a significant contribution to the models although both the passive and active forms of destructive leadership showed a weak to moderate significant, negative correlation with experienced meaningfulness of work and general job satisfaction.

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The purpose of this study was to assess personality traits, psychological fitness, and hardiness among conscript soldiers volunteering for international missions (n = 146), by comparing them with conscripts from the same year class and unit who did not apply for international missions (n = 275). The sample consisted of all mandatory enlisted soldiers assigned to a supply and maintenance regiment. There were no demographic differences between the groups. The volunteers reported greater stress tolerance, concern for others, extraversion, and self-confidence than the non-volunteers. There were no differences between the groups in orderliness, temper instability, or independence. Volunteers repeatedly reported greater psychological fitness for military missions and greater hardiness over the period of military service compared to the non-volunteers.

International operations have become one of the main tasks for the Swedish Armed Forces (SAF). The SAF and Swedish National Defence College organize annual international staff exercises with the purpose of training officers to carry out effective staff work. This study analyzed a staff exercise using Edmondson’s team learning model in a military setting. The model was developed by including group cohesion. As defensive routines are a threat to team learning behavior, the possible presence of these was examined. The results indicate that team leader coaching is crucial to support all the variables in the model. The added variable of group cohesion contributed with insights on how the commander used task solving to create group cohesion. Some examples of defensive routines were also revealed but there seemed to be challenges in identifying such routines in this type of exercise setting.