Understanding and Explaining the Marginalization of Part-Time British Army Reservists

• Date: 01 October 2021
• Published date: 01 October 2021
• Author: Vincent Connelly
• DOI: 10.1177/0095327X20948591
• Subject Matter: Special Forum: The Distinctive Characteristics and Expanding Role of Military Reserves

2021, Vol. 47(4) 661 –689

Understanding and

Explaining the

Marginalization of

Part-Time British

Army Reservists

Vincent Connelly

1

Abstract

Recent changes in the British Army mean part-time reservists and full-time regulars

need to become better integrated. However, there has been a long history of

workplace tensions between the full-time and part-time elements in the British

Army. This mirrors those found in many civilian workplaces. Focus group data with

105 full-time regular British Army soldiers confirmed that time and emotional

commitment are strongly linked in a full-time professional workplace that has strong,

definite, and enduring boundaries. This, alongside demands for conformity and

stratification by rank explained the high risk of marginalization of part-time reser-

vists. The legitimacy of part-time reservists, especially in the combat arms, was often

challenged. Using this explanatory framework, some implications and practical ways

that tensions may be reduced between full-time and part-time members of the

British Army, and other armed forces facing similar tensions, were highlighted.

Keywords

reserve component, professionalism/leadership, military culture, military

effectiveness

1

Department of Psychology, Health and Professional Development, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford,

United Kingdom

Corresponding Author:

Vincent Connelly, Department of Psychology, Health and Professional Development, Oxford Brookes

University, Gipsy Lane, Oxford OX3 0BP, United Kingdom.

Email: vconnelly@brookes.ac.uk

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Article

662 Armed Forces & Society 47(4)

The British Army has had a full-time regular and a part-time reserve element for

over 300 years and there have been many attempts to more closely integrate the two

(Connelly, 2018). The United Kingdom (UK) Armed Forces, in line with other

Western nations, are being restructured to create a more flexible and cost-

effective force. Central to this modernization is the adoption of the “Whole Force”

concept (total force) where the regular full-time armed forces are required to inte-

grate more fully with defense civilians, external contractors, and part-time reservists

under the Army 2020 program (Ministry of Defence [MOD], 2018a).

The Whole Force concept differs from previous initiatives by more radically

imposing organizational change based on financial targets and explicitly mandating

the diversity of labor-use in order to optimize costs (Bury & Catignani, 2019).Thus,

the part-time army reserve in the UK is required to grow and integrate more effec-

tively under the Army 2020 change program and some argue this may be difficult to

achieve (Bury, 2019; Edmunds et al., 2016). This underlines a major challenge of the

Whole Force concept; the mere existence of diverse labor types can reinforce and

institutionalize separateness among employees and lead to difficulties in successful

integration (Goldenberg et al., 2016; Heinecken, 2009; Kelty & Bierman, 2013).

Individualized reservists, who have a “transmigrant” identity, moving between civil-

ian and military identities, may be seen to breach the implicit contracts between the

individual, military, and state and threaten the group norms held by regular soldiers

(Gazit et al., 2018; Jenkings et al., 2018). The British Army, like many Western

armies, has found it difficult to accommodate diversity and difference into the

uniformed workplace regarding women and minorities (Dandeker, 2015; King,

2013). Reservists are also different and diverse and may challenge the workplace

norms of the full-time regular soldier. Recent work claims that reservists in the

British Army have a marginalized status (Cunningham-Burley et al., 2018). It is

important to understand any factors that may potentially impede integration between

the full-time and part-time element of the British Army and may be applicable to

any army with part-time soldiers. Therefore, this study examines regular army

perceptions of part-time army reservists. The framework used to analyze these

perceptions (Lawrence & Corwin, 2003) will give an insight into how regular army

perceptions of part-time reservists are influenced by regular army norms of time,

commitment and conformity to a profession with strong workplace boundaries, and

pressures for internal conformity and high stratification.

The British Army Reserve

The British army reserve is a regionally based organization with about 350 local

training centers (drill halls) spread across the UK, consisting of up to 30,000 part-

time reservists, split among 70 major units. The units’ roles span all combat, combat

support, and combat service support military roles (see MOD, 2017, p. 40, for a

definition) but with a predominance of combat support and combat service support.

Both ex-regular soldiers and individuals with no prior military experience can join

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