Effects of Psycho-Cultural Factors on Adopting Changes in Defense

Abstract

There is a constant need for the defense/military institutions to undergo continuous development in order to adjust to modern standards and requirements, often necessitating systemic changes. As part of this development, since the end of the Cold War, defense organizations in many Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries have endeavored to adopt advanced strategic management practices from their Western counterparts in terms of integration process into NATO and the EU.

However, these efforts have not always been successful. The attempt of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries to adopt changes within their defense organizations, particularly in strategic defense planning area through institutionalizing Planning, Programming and Budgeting System (PPBS) serves as such a case. Scholars often highlight factors altering this failure, focusing on the issues like centralized decision making, lack of understanding, resistance to change etc.

This paper analyzes other influencing factors, namely the importance of considering psycho-cultural factors while introducing changes within defense organizations and explains the main reasons for failure in successfully adopting PPBS. The study was conducted using qualitative methodology, primarily case study, to comprehensively analyze the topic.

Based on the findings, the authors conclude that in CEE countries psycho-cultural apsects significantly influence the implementation of changes in the defense sector in parallel with the factors mentioned above. In the case of CEE countries, these psycho-cultural factors are reinforced by the post-socialist legacy, which is characterized by a lack of creativity, collaboration, coordination, and consensus building, leading to reluctance and resistance to changes when it comes to adopting modern practices.

Overall, the findings validate the hypothesis proposed in the paper - disregarding psycho-cultural factors in the process of change implementation contribute to the failure.

The study also demonstrates the effectiveness of supporting the change implementation process through the utilization of Organizational Change Management (OCM) which is actively employed by Western organizations in the defense sector.