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MORALE IN THE ARMED FORCES AND ITS EFFECTS ON

OPERATIONS

Introduction
1. Armed Forces will get what the society has to offer them. Our social
order has witnessed a great transformation since last couple of decades.
Materialistic approach has crept in the nation as a whole. The element of
sacrifice, concept of right or wrong and selflessness have been overtaken
by greed and a money-oriented outlook. Our Armed Forces will get
effected from this malaise very soon because they are not working in an
airtight compartment. With some more time, our soldiers too would start
getting polluted with acquisitive trend. This will create desperation in men
in uniform. Personal traits like professionalism and pride in uniform may
also decline.
2. With the socio-economic changes in our society, psycho-social
transformation in the last decade has been phenomenal. It would be naive
to think that the rank and file can be kept insulated from new influences.
Therefore, the task of motivation of our soldiers has become even more
demanding. Proper dedication to the cause of national defence and
motivation is req. Nevertheless, the situation when compared with the civil
departments is still far better. The system is functioning but needs a
periodic tuning. Moreover, the object of scientific study of the problem of
motivation is to provide, as in all sciences, a more useful conception than
the conventional intuitive wisdom usually referred to as “common sense”

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Aim
3. To analyse the socio-economic problems and military culture/
environment in particular with a view to recommending measures to
revitalise high morale and motivation standards in the Armed Forces.

PART - I
SOCIO- ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT
Main Elements of Socio-Economic Environment
4. Culture. Our present social values are significant flavour of previous
cultures and ethos. Most human motivation takes place in social settings.
Regardless of whether a person is actually in a group, working against a
group or isolated from a group, most human action and the motivation
behind it are social in nature.
5. Ideology. In Pakistan, being an ideological country, Islam remains
the centre of gravity of our national policy. All systems, i.e. political,
economic and social will have direct and significant influence of religion
and ideology. Religion has always been and will remain the prime factor in
shaping, evolving and bringing any changes in the prevailing social
structure.
6. Prevailing Social Conditions. Since independence of our
country, there has been no consistent policy, which was followed by the
successors in the originally planned perspective.
7. Political System. Pakistan has been somehow unfortunate in
finding a competent and viable leadership, which could give strength and
stability to the political belief and institutions
8. Economy. Except the period of President Ayub Khan, Pakistan’s
economy has remained in disarray. Governments, for the last many
decades, have neither formulated policies to ameliorate the economy nor

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had the political will to contain government expenditure within the ambit of
government revenue, resulting in the problem of fiscal deficit.
9. Education System. The undisputed vehicle for move to
development is education. Its frontiers extend to ideological, political,
economic and social areas. Education is now getting highly technical in
form and spirit for which special consideration may have to be given
towards educational planning.
Analysis
10. Regeneration of Moral and Ethical Values . Main causes of
deterioration of moral values of our society include the emerging trend of
materialism, poor governance, political and economic turmoil, and
corruption, abuse of merit and above all lack of accountability.
11. Strengths of Society and Culture
a. Inheritance. Islam and Ideology.
b. Simple Way of Life.
c. Family Bonds and Community Structure.
d. Religion
e. Society and Moral Values.
12. Pitfalls/Ills of Society
a. Lack of Education.
b. Unemployment.
c. Poor Governance.
d. Abuse of Merit.
e. Trend of Materialism.

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PART – II
EVALUATION OF PREVAILING MILITARY ENVIRONMENT
Selection/Recruitment and Training
24. Selection/Recruitment. Except for Balochi’s, the education standard
for the recruitment of soldiers has been raised to metric since 1994. The
entry through back door/safaris is the first step, which leaves negative
prints on their minds, which they are likely to carry throughout their military
life.
25. Training. The basic recruit training has undergone periodical
changes from time to time to bring qualitative improvements in the soldiers
by the time he passes out from the centres. However, there remains a dire
need to bring the training in line with the future battle field and the way the
future war would be fought.
26. Basic Training. Recruits join respective centres with a lot of pride,
self-esteem and highest degree of motivation. In centre when they
experience their major employment on money making projects,
employment on self-help basis projects and grass cutting rather than
seeking worthwhile military training, they get de-motivated and disoriented.
Unit Environment and Culture
a. Orientation and Socialization. In most of the cases a soldier
is neither given any time to settle himself in the new
environment nor he is accustomed through proper orientation
nor socialization in the new set up.
b. Administrative Aspects. Certain administrative aspects like
shortage of single/ married accommodation, lack of recreational
facilities and messing facilities etc are serious problems. All
these combined, compromise the element of self-respect,
honour and pride in uniform1.

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c. Esprit-de-Corps Unfortunately, this aspect is advocated and
preached to the extent of disregarding even the negative
influence on soldier’s moral values. There is tendency to keep
the interest of the unit supreme irrespective of it being right or
wrong.
Economic Aspects
Soldiers are being looked after satisfactorily in terms of pay and
allowances, provision of clothing and kit items, free accommodation and
food, free medical treatment to his family and dependent parents.
However, we ignore that civilian employees live close to their houses and
are not twenty hours on duty. They look after their lands; livestock and
some even run business after and in certain cases during office hours.
Resultantly, total paid emoluments to the soldier are out of proportion. The
purchasing power of a soldier has considerably been reduced and it has
become very difficult for a soldier to even fulfill the basic needs of his
family. Social/family obligations remain a constant of most of our soldiers.
Hence the discontentment is bound to prevail rather increases when a
soldier discovers that civilian around him earn much with diminutive efforts
and without any discipline constraints.
Analysis
27. Preservation of Military Environment. The involvement of Armed
Forces in non-professional pursuits, prolonged interaction with non-military
institutions/organizations, socio-economic disorder, and influence of
society through social interaction have polluted the Army environment and
culture. The military though has an effective self-defence mechanism yet it
cannot remain completely immune to the influence of evil ridden society.
28. Improvement in Working Environment/ Basic Needs/
Dissatisfies. Fulfilment of basic needs and healthy working environment

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are conducive grounds for high motivational standards. However, in view of
our beleaguered economy we cannot afford to provide all of this at lavish
scale. It, therefore, devolves on the Armed Forces to ensure somewhat
worry-less working environment and certain other welfare measures to
help remove existing economic pressure.

PART - III
ISLAMIC MOTIVATION AND LEADERSHIP
Essential Elements of Islamic Motivation
29. Islamic Ideology. Teachings and practices based on the guidance of
Holy Quran, Sunnah and Hadith form the basis of motivation and material
benefits have no relevance in Islamic teachings which are Faith (Eemaan),
Taqwa and Jehad.
Leadership
30. To be a successful leader one must have the ability of understanding
the fundamentals of human psychology so as to be able to influence the
human behaviour for the accomplishment of common objective. Fol are
major inadequacies in this aspect:-
a. The officers remain busy in professional courses and are not
given adequate training in the field of leadership.
b. Islamic leadership, which is most effective way of motivation,
has not been given adequate space in training and emphasis in
practice.
c. The chance of success and bearing fruit are more if
combination of approach methodology is followed.
Analysis
31. Faith in the Cause. Our soldiers are being trained primarily with the
aim of improving fighting skills and not much is done to strengthen the

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cause for which they are required to acquire the fighting skills.
Unfortunately, a noble and sacred cause is getting obscure in the winds of
materialism and due to our neglect in propagation and implementation of
Islamic ideology.
32. Leadership Training. Colonial image of our authoritarian leadership
style still persists. A leadership well versed with man management
aspects, having sound character and high moral values and due
consideration for the subordinates is vital to enhance motivation of soldier

PART – IV
RECOMMENDATIONS
Improvements in Military Environment
33. Fulfilment of Basic Needs. Following is recommended in this
regard: -
a. The raise in pay should be linked with inflation rate and catered
for in the Annual Budget as a permanent feature.
b. Higher rental charges both for officers and men to afford an
opportunity to every married individual to live with his family.
Scale be fixed as percentage of Basic Pay.
c. Improvement of medical facilities
34. Generation of Professional Pride.
a. Men should not be assigned any task, which hurts their dignity
and honour.
b. The segregation culture in hospitals and schools should be
eliminated progressively.
c. Nepotism and favouritism must not come in way of justice and
fair play in running of unit affairs.

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35. Reward and Punishment System. Merit should receive highest
priority while rewarding the individuals particularly at the time of promotion/
giving appointments.
36. Morale and Esprit de-Corps. Special attention should be paid to
build the morale and esprit de-corps in the unit. Determined efforts should
be made to make new soldier get adjusted in the unit life and routine
according to a planned programme.
37. Reduction of Gap b/w Leaders and Led.
Islamic Values
38. Religious Indoctrination. The soldiers should be motivated
according to well thought out and planned programme to make them
realize the cause they are serving for. In this regard, following is
recommended: -
a. All professional activities be planned in such a manner that
either there is no clash with the prayer timings or break is
given.
b. Austerity and simplicity in life styles should start from the top
military leadership, to be emulated all the way down.
39. Accountability
a. The process of accountability should be expanded to all
spheres of life/departments and implemented without any
discrimination and at a faster pace.
b. Judicial reforms should be undertaken at priority to provide
speedy justice and eradicate corruption in the society.
CONCLUSION
40. To maintain a higher degree of ethics and professional pride, sldrs
must be kept insulated from the social and moral decay of our society. This
demands that we must periodically analyse social and economic changes

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with a view to affect improvement in our military environment. The
fulfilment of our troops basic and higher order needs must resolve due
attention of our senior leadership. We must understand and effectively
employ various motivation theories wherever they are applicable. We must
build on our strongest foundation of faith and spirit of Jehad to greatly raise
morale of our Armed Forces.

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