Original scientific paper
Social Prestife of Officer Proffesion in Croatia - A View from Within
Tomislav Smerić
Abstract
Study on a convenience sample of 268 senior and junior officers in the AFRC, conducted in the course of 2001, revealed a significant gap between the perceived and the desired level of social prestige of officer profession. This gap is wider than the one established in similar studies in other European countries. Croatian officers think that level of prestige of their profession has significantly decreased since the end of the Homeland war. Their expectations are divided regarding its increase in the context of integration of Croatia in NATO. The influence of subjects’ personal characteristics, their status in the military organization and their social origin on the relatively low level of perceived social prestige of the profession hasn’t been confirmed. A connection has been found between the perceived level of prestige of the profession and the level of job satisfaction, especially regarding the availability of certain aspects of the job (opportunity for promotion, salary). The difference between the level of prestige of the profession as perceived by the officers and by the public has been established indirectly. Results of the study point to the assumption that the shaping of the assessment of the social prestige of the profession is influenced by problems connected with the crisis of the restructuration process of armed forces in the postwar context and the behaviour of those social actors who intermediate images of officer profession between officer corps and the public.
Keywords
social prestige; officer profession; armed forces; public opinion
Hrčak ID:
2833
URI
Publication date:
26.12.2001.
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