"National Defense Research Institute."

Includes bibliographical references (p. 57-68).

Introduction -- What Is Sense of Community? -- The Importance of Sense of Community -- How to Increase Sense of Community and Commitment -- Subgroups with Specific Sense of Community Concerns -- Four Kinds of Communities -- Studying Sense of Community in the Military -- Avoiding Possible Adverse Consequences of Increasing Sense of Community -- Conclusions.

A universally accepted definition of what a sense of community is remains elusive, but policymakers agree that increasing that sense has tangible benefits for the U.S. military in improvements to commitment, performance, retention, and readiness. This report examines the role of the Defense Department's personnel support programs and focuses on nine tools for increasing sense of community: group symbols, rewards and honors, common external threat, making military membership attractive, group size and individuality, personal influence, personal investment, contact and proximity, and group activities. The report also analyzes which groups would most benefit from programs to increase a sense of community and how to avoid pitfalls when attempting to increase that sense.

Also available on the internet via WWW in PDF format.