| Abstract [eng] |
The subject of the Master thesis \"Career process management in the Lithuanian armed forces (King Mindaugas hussar’s battalion case)\" is becoming more relevant. Due to aggressive Russian policy, commitments to the NATO and the European Union, constant aim to ensure the country's national security, Lithuania shall promote necessary reforms in the Lithuanian military, other statutory organizations and public sector, which would result in the higher level of effectiveness in different authorities. One of the most important tasks in the statutory organizations – starting with the police, customs, public security service and ending with the military – is personnel career management (planning, organization, management, control and motivation). Therefore, an advanced career management system, that matches the objectives and the skills of statutory officials, will enable to implement the qualitative and quantitative requirements to the NATO and the European Union level, improve the quality of tasks, combine the objectives of the officials and interests of the service. Officer career management processes must be systematic, consistent and ongoing process, starting from the beginning of his/her service, lasting until his/her release in the margin, and even include the officer's activities in the stock and integrating it into society. Officer career management is closely and directly connected to the activities of the officer, personal characteristics and assessment of his/her potential opportunities, as the combination of all of these factors leads to the most effective way of applying officers skills. The accurate officers’ career management system, training and preparation, their appointment to the position, for which they have the best set of personal qualities and professional capacities, have a significant influence on the effectiveness of the military and the country's security. The mentioned factors as a whole reveals the scientific problem – the lack of attention and existing deficiency of systematic approach to the career management processes in the Lithuanian military, have an essential impact on the officer’s level of preparation (knowledge and know-how) in the military. The objective of the master thesis is to research and study about the career management processes in order to provide suggestions on how to improve the management of the career processes in the Lithuanian military by establishing the preconditions to increase efficiency in personnel administration. The tasks of this master thesis are: 1) to describe the theoretical aspects of the career management; 2) to describe the officers’ career management processes based on the legal documents; 3) to perform a comparative analysis of the career processes management systems; 4) to find out about the problems of the officers’ career management processes in the Lithuanian military; 5) provide suggestions on how to improve the processes of the military officers’ career management in the Lithuanian military. To be able to fulfill the objective and accomplish the tasks of this master thesis, the following research methods were applied: the systematic analysis of the legal acts, scientific literature, articles, web content, online information sources, and data collection, systemization and comparative analysis. The analytical part of the paper was accomplished by using the qualitative data collection method and applied in a semi-structured interview. Based on the results of this paper, one of the hypotheses was denied, whereas two other hypotheses were validated. The implementation of the officers’ careers is not compiling with the requirements and instructions of the Officers career concept that was approved in 2012. The Lithuanian military in order to achieve its goals and objectives, do not take into account the needs of the officer's personal career. The assessment of the officer’s career is not executed in an objective manner. However, the evaluation of this result affects the officer's further career opportunities and his/her appointment to a senior position, as well as giving him/her a higher military rank. The investigation has shown that the effectiveness of the management of the processes of military officers is interfered by the following factors: 1) inaccurate approach from the organization regarding the personal career needs; 2) not entirely adequate actions of the officer regarding his/her personal career; 3) lack of personnel; 4) inadequacy of the legal acts, that are underlying the security components of the officer’s career (military officers training, degree and promotion award scheme, the assessment procedure, the procedure for entry into the rotation, margin, the order of receiving the state pension for the officers and soldiers) compare to today's environment; 5) information about the career opportunities; 6) lack of incentive to pursue a career; 7) rigid and narrow concept of the officers’ career direction, that is concentrated on the objectives of the organization and directed to one group of the officers in the field of the infantry. The master thesis consists of 3 sections. The first part of the paper discusses the theoretical aspects of the concept of a career, its process management and specifications in organizations, and Lithuanian military officers’ career planning system. The second part of the paper consists of the comparative analysis of the career process management systems in private businesses, public administration and militaries in Lithuania and foreign countries. The final part of the thesis is written to justify the methodology, describe the situation of the administration in the military of Lithuania and in the King Mindaugas hussar’s battalion, analyze and compare the findings of the research, and provide the conclusions and recommendations of the study. |
