Do military leaders resist organizational challenges?

Armed forces in many Western countries have been facing societal change processes for more than twenty years, including value changes, government savings, and more recently, an unstable security environment. The starting point here is that there is a relationship between processes of societal change and organizational challenges. The purpose of this study is to examine how military leaders manage and respond to different kinds of organizational challenges, focusing on resistance. The empirical material was collected using a grounded theory approach. Informants possessing wide experience of leadership participated in this study. The qualitative analysis describes the coping strategies, acceptance, and resistance found among military leaders when dealing with organizational demands. Challenges caused by societal changes are experienced as negative aspects of organizational structure. This may be an explanation for why military leaders cope with them by applying both resistance and acceptance. However, our main conclusion is that resistance to change stays within a culture of obedience.