Appreciation at Work in the Swiss Armed Forces

This study explores the impact of appreciation at work among military professionals. Based on the concept of “Stress-as-Offense-to-Self” ( Semmer, Jacobshagen, Meier, & Elfering, 2007 ), appreciation is a possible resource due to boosts to self-esteem. We measured appreciation at work with a scale differentiating several forms and sources of appreciation. Data were gathered by an online survey of 228 male career officers and career noncommissioned officers of the Swiss Armed Forces. Appreciation at work correlated positively with job satisfaction and negatively with feelings of resentment. Moreover, appreciation at work explained incremental variance over and above job control, social support, and interactional justice. These results underline its distinction from other resource variables. Legal employment conditions of the military professionals include working hours in accordance with ongoing requirements without upper limits established. Moderator analysis showed that appreciation buffered the effect of long working hours on job satisfaction. Furthermore, appreciation mediated the effect of illegitimate tasks on job satisfaction as well as on feelings of resentment. Overall, these findings imply that it is worth building an organisational culture based on appreciation at work. Implications for research and military training are discussed.