Reflections From a Deployment to Afghanistan: The Relevance of I-O in a War Zone

1. Reflections From a Deployment to Afghanistan: The Relevance of I-O in a War Zone By: Douglas R. Lindsay, Lt. Col.,PhD Presented by: Matt Brown

2. Working for the Military • Promotion and compensation are dependent upon a combination of education and application. • In order to obtain senior ranks, one must have earned a master’s degree. • The heart of the military personnel system is the concept of mobility. • Every two or four years one will move to a different location and/or position. • Lt. Col. Lindsay was given two-weeks notice that he would be deployed to Afghanistan for 6 months.

3. Taking Advantage of Deployment “Opportunity” • Lt. Col. Lindsay decided to expand his applied knowledge and also provide some experience and context that would help him as an instructor. • Specifically, how does the military go about such a monumental undertaking of deploying and redeploying tens of thousands of military personnel in support of the war? • I-O topics covered in this endeavor included: training, selection, performance, leadership, compensation, assessment, motivation, and satisfaction.

4. Preparing for Deployment • Preparing his family was a significant effort. • Thought back to the topic of work-family conflict and gained a new appreciation for this concept. • Coupled with the emotions of deploying, the notion of going into a combat zone created a significant amount of stress and anxiety. • Military attempts to alleviate some of the stress by compensating the individual in the form of benefits and specials pays. • Needed to attend training to sharpen skills before deploying.

5. What Motivates Service Members? • Service members who have year-long deployments or have been deployed multiple times. • How do they manage such a balance? • What is motivating them? • Is it internal or external? Why do some choose this lifestyle but others don’t? • What is their compensation? • How do they cope with being in such an environment? • Both positively and negatively. • Observed many examples organizational citizenship behaviors and few counterproductive work behaviors. • Personnel got the job done while working 15+ hours a day, 7 days a week.

6. Working for NATO • Worked with all branches of U.S. military branches in addition to other individuals from over 40 different countries. • Different countries are responsible for different functions. • Different leadership styles presented themselves from each culture. • Biggest challenge was how to assess, measure, and sustain performance with the constant influx and outflow of personnel.

7. Advantages of Experiences for I-O Psychologists • Can help us bridge the science-practice gap. • By being able to operate on both sides of the divide, will gain a better appreciation for the challenges that each side has in trying to read the other side. • Gives us a greater base of experiences from which to draw. • Allows one to view work as more sophisticated and informed. • Opens up new avenues of research to those in the I-O career. • Helps give us more credibility with those that we work with or those that we serve. • Using deployment experience to teach students.