What do you know? Easing Soldiers´ transition to the civilian labour market by making knowledge understandable

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to broaden the understanding of how armed forces make the knowledge of their soldiers understandable to civilian actors and the soldiers themselves. A case study was carried out in which the Bundeswehr (the German armed forces) was used as a case. Observations, questionnaires and interviews were used as data collecting techniques. The dynamic theory of organisational knowledge creation (Nonaka, 1994; Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995) was used to analyse the data. Empirical data show that the Bundeswehr uses qualified letters of recommendation and other forms of documents and certification of soldiers´ education and assignments to communicate towards civilian actors. The Bundeswehr are making efforts to further standardise and formalise these processes. Through externalisation of soldiers´ knowledge and combination with knowledge from the civilian labour market, soldiers could create an understand of their own knowledge, where it can be used in a civilian context, how this relates to their individual situation and how this constitute possible individual career paths. By using several different forms of knowledge conversion, it is possible that the chance for a soldier to receive a career related recommendation which is suitable, increases.