Emotional Climate in UN Peacekeeping Organization: An Exploratory Study

UN peacekeeping missions involve the participation of military personnel from different countries, and all the interactions between soldiers take place in a culturally diverse military environment. Deployment in a foreign soil, away from family and home creates a lot of physical and emotional challenges for the soldiers; therefore the emotional climate of the military base gains importance. This paper aims to explore the emotional climate and the factors influencing it in a UN military organization in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Africa. The data was gathered from 5 officers of Indian Armed Forces deployed in DRC, using e-mail interviewing technique in which participants’ responses were gathered using an interview schedule of open-ended questions. The findings suggest that overall a positive emotional climate of security and trust exists in the organization. Political context, commanders’ practices and the relationships among soldiers are the factors influencing and shaping the emotional climate. Future research into these factors is important to help identify positive climate practices (PEC) which have several implications for the soldiers’ performance, motivation, and well-being.