Who drives an officer’s career,the individual or his institution? The case of French officers

Abstract

The phenomenon of managerialisation, whose impact is being felt by the state, as well as its elites, helps bring about the emergence of the individual. The military is not immune to the organisational transformations that follow in its wake. By analysing the career path of French officers, this study explores the effects of this managerialisation. The research question as formulated sets out to determine whether it is the individual or his institution that drives the career of the French officer. The empirical study is based on very dense primary data collected from actors who play a key role in forming the French military elites: general officers, in some cases, directors of military schools, who have, in turn, been students, instructors and designers of this career path of the military leader. The results reveal that despite an unprecedented process of civilianisation within the military institution, the career of military leader is proving to be more immutable. The career path of the French officer can thus be read as a marker of military institutional identity.

Points for practitioners

As an institution, the military may seem to mirror the major evolutions of society, in particular, the phenomenon of managerialisation, which is making its impact felt on the state, along with its corollary, individualism. Analysing the career of French officers makes it possible to explore the effects of this managerialisation. The study results reveal a mitigation of the effects of this phenomenon, also called civilianisation in the case of the armed forces, and, on the contrary, reveal the invariant character of the career of military leader, pillar of the military institutional identity.