Personnel retention is crucial for the optimal functioning of any organization, military organizations being no exception. However, the latter are now forced to compete with civilian organizations for personnel. This major problem has pertained since the end of the Cold War. The Slovenian Armed Forces have had difficulties regarding recruiting and retaining personnel for many years, and the current world security situation has only highlighted the issue. A renewed awareness has emerged as regards the need to improve existing practices in the area. Military, as a typically traditional and rigid organization, cannot neglect the fact that younger and different generations are entering the labor market, and that it will have to adapt in order to succeed. In the Master thesis, we focused on identifying factors that are important for the retention of Slovenian Armed Forces' personnel from an institutional point of view, however, through the prism of Bronfenbrenner’s socio-ecological model; the latter enables us to demonstrate the complexity and interconnection of different levels of personnel retention. To this end, in addition to the review of relevant foreign and domestic literature, three interviews were conducted with experts from the defense system (Ministry of Defense and Slovenian Armed Forces), who, on the basis of their professional experience, enabled the identification of the factors and offered possible solutions to the current situation. The macro-level, with factors of organizational culture and legislative framework, was found to be the most important for personnel retention. This implies that predominantly institutional improvements should be introduced. The Master thesis is based on the theories of personnel retention (job embeddedness theory, organizational psychology theory and theory of social psychology).
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