Dialectical Perspective of Truce-Making Processes: Integrating Women into Close Combat Roles in the Armed Forces

Abstract

This paper investigates the intricate process of integrating historically excluded social groups into long-established routines. Drawing on a dialectical perspective, the research explores how persistence and change emerge through the interplay of opposing forces, shedding light on the dynamics of integrating new participants while ensuring stability in established routines. The empirical focus is on an Armed Forces’ ground combat training (GCT) course, examining the integration of the first female officers after the formal ban on their participation in close-combat roles was lifted. The findings reveal a nuanced evolution of routine adaptation and truce reformation, characterized by three dialectical cycles: tentative truces, experimental truces, and enactment truces. These cycles involve negotiations between continuity and reformation, accommodation and resistance, and modification and preservation, uncovering a dialectical dance where organizational actors invest intense effort in maintaining the status quo while accommodating ambiguity and settling tensions. The findings extend our understanding of routine dynamics by illuminating the performative aspect of truce-making, highlighting the effortful processes involved in accommodating new participants. This paper establishes a connection between routines and dialectics, providing novel avenues for exploring complex organizational challenges and emphasizing micro-strategies employed by routine participants to address differences in practice. It also contributes to the field of organizational inclusion by offering a dialectical understanding of integration, showcasing the intricate dynamics involved in integrating historically excluded groups into established routines.

Citation

Alvarenga, A., Safavi, M. and Burke, G.T. (2024), "Dialectical Perspective of Truce-Making Processes: Integrating Women into Close Combat Roles in the Armed Forces", Mahringer, C.A., Pentland, B.T., Renzl, B., Sele, K. and Spee, P. (Ed.) Routine Dynamics: Organizing in a World in Flux (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 88), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 17-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X20240000088002