Challenges to career development in uniformed services of Lithuania

Open Access

Abstract

Purpose. HRM in uniformed services is researched significantly less than in the civil service which in turn is under researched in comparison to businesses. Recent studies of public employment (e.g. Demmke & Moilanen, 2012) show that due to variety of factors public employment is becoming less attractive in the labour market. However, there is little data that this is the case in the uniformed services in particular. This study aims to evaluate career development experiences of military and statutory servicemembers in Lithuania to collect and interpret data about their understanding of management of the career development and career perspectives both within their services and the broader labor market. Design/methodology/approach. The purpose of this study was to analyze career development mechanisms in the uniformed services (statutory and military services), by identifying advantages, disadvantages of career development systems in the context of emerging challenges to these services, identify connections between successful career development and the sense of social security among servicemembers. The career development analysis was based on 3 career development stages regulated by both statutory and military regulations. 16 experts – all servicemembers were interviewed for the purposes of this study. Based on the interview analysis of how the career development is applied in the respective services a set of comparative criteria were developed to expand the three stages in the initial regulation overview. Findings. Research data showed that two distinct uniformed services in Lithuania are coping very differently with the challenges. This study revealed several important weaknesses of career development mechanism as they are applied in Lithuanian statutory service: lack of sense of social security by servicemembers, insufficient initial training, no clear objective setting mechanisms. In military service lack of information about career opportunities and competition among members for access to qualification courses were found to be important issues. However, the military service career development was found to be more advanced and successful than that of statutory service. So fundamental conclusion of this study is that the military service achieves better outcomes through means of career development than statutory service. Research limitations/implications. Two main groups of factors (internal and external) affect career development process. This research aimed to view the career development through the career outcomes from the perspective of service members themselves. That is why a qualitative research method was chosen as a pilot research on challenges. Qualitative research (interview) was used to find similarities, differences, advantages and disadvantages of career development mechanisms in statutory and military services. Experts' answers to questions on the issues of career development systems advantages and disadvantages of the stages were not sufficiently detailed, so it is hard categorized and did not reveal detailed insights and connections. This disadvantage can be regarded as a restriction on the study, which will be addressed in further studies with other empirical research instruments. However, the survey data were sufficient to distinguish the basic problems of career development in statutory and military services, clearly identified a link between a successful career development and sense of social security. A key implication that we see is that the military service career development instruments are far advanced as opposed to other uniformed services and does demonstrate the benefits of explicit creating career development mechanisms. Practical implications. Comparative analysis of career development mechanisms of the statutory and military services identifies the essential advantages and disadvantages of these systems. For a greater sense of social security, military service has achieved more than other services. Therefore, based on the results of the study suggest that social protection directly determines the success of the career development process, its protection may help to improve the career management system, especially in the statutory service. Originality/Value. There is the lack of research dealing with the career development process specifically in the uniformed services. While career development in terms of legal regulation in statutory and military services justify very similar, in practice, these processes are treated as separate, unlinked elements. This means that best-practices have low chances of being transferred within the public service as whole. As more and more institutions move towards creating career development mechanisms we see a need for more evidence on what predicates success of these mechanisms. That's why such a comparison of two similar councils in terms of career development can help to identify not only individual strengths and weaknesses, but also help in finding solutions to the identified problems, drawing as best practices from each other.