AD ALTA
JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
The SWOT analysis is a highly useful and simple tool for
identifying the actual state, the necessary changes, potential
risks, and the necessary steps to turn weaknesses into strengths
and eliminate risks. It represents a comprehensive method of
qualitative evaluation of all relevant pages of a defined topic. It
is an orientation tool that is particularly useful at the beginning
of planning, designing or making decisions. In practice, it serves
as a tool for identifying the strategic position of a company
organization or group of individuals. The analysis allows
perceiving a given system (process, object) using four
viewpoints: S (Strength), W (Weakness), O (Opportunities), and
T (Threats). The SWOT analysis identifies internal resources and
confronts them with conditions and changes in the external
environment. The analysis always results in a strategy
formulation. The principles and use of SWOT analysis are
recorded in many literature e. g. [17], [18], [19], [20], [21], [22]
and others. The primary meaning and contribution of SWOT
analysis lie in the comprehensive and thorough identification of
external and internal influences and links toward strategy
formulation [17], [18]. The SWOT analysis is a versatile tool
that can be used in different areas.
The methodological procedure of SWOT analysis is not
standardized. Individual phases of SWOT analysis are:
preparation for SWOT analysis, identification and evaluation of
strengths and weaknesses of an organization, identification and
evaluation of opportunities and threats from the external
environment, factors evaluation, calculation of output values of
analysis and display of vectors and creation of strategies
alternatives: S-O (Strengths-Opportunities), W-O (Weaknesses-
Opportunities), S-T (Strengths-Threats) and W-T (Weaknesses-
Threats). Identification of the internal environment was
performed using a form to identify strengths and weaknesses.
The form also has a Why field, which tells us why the indicator
is a strong or weak point. The strengths and weaknesses of the
current state of preparation of soldiers for a second career
implemented by the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic
is described in Table 1 and Table 2 (see appendix A).
Identification of the external environment was conducted using a
form to identify opportunities and threats. The form also has a
Why field, which gives us the reason for the opportunity or
threat indicator. The opportunities and threats of the current state
of preparation of soldiers for a second career implemented by the
Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic is described in Table
3 and Table 4 (see appendix A). The research objective is to
evaluate current approaches to helping soldiers of the Czech
Armed Forces in their career transition and based on the SWOT
analysis output to suggest possible implementation measures.
4 Results
The findings of the interviews and questionnaires are divided
into four quadrants of the SWOT matrix - strengths, weaknesses,
opportunities, and threats. Each of the factor is listed in the
following tables, in which it has its designation and description.
Table 1 and table 2 list and describe internal factors - strengths
and weaknesses. Table 3 and table 4 list and describe external
factors - opportunities and threats.
The prerequisite for this analysis is that the observed S, W, O,
and T values, as well as the resulting strategy, can make a
significant contribution to the system change. From the above
information, three necessary recalculation modules according to
M. Jenčo and L. Lysá [23] were created. The base table shows
the dependencies between the factors entering the internal
(strengths and weaknesses) and the external environment
(opportunities and threats). In the tables 5 - 8, you can see the
value of each factor on a scale of 1-5 depending on its
importance (V
f
). The modified version of the Fuller Triangle is
designed to meet the requirements and efficiency of the proposed
application. Thus, it is a pairwise comparison of factors based on
the following assessment. A value of 3 means that the first of the
two factors are more important than others. A value of 2 means
that the factors being compared are equally important. A value of
1 means that the first of the two factors is less important than the
other. Subsequently, the weighting factor W
f
is calculated using
the equation:
(1)
Table 5 illustrates the evaluation (V
f
)
and weight (W
f
) of each
strength and all of the strengths in total. Table 6 illustrates the
evaluation (V
f
)
and weight (W
f
) of each weakness and all of the
weaknesses in total. Table 7 illustrates the evaluation (V
f
)
and
weight (W
f
) of each opportunity and all of the opportunities in
total. Table 8 illustrates the evaluation (V
f
)
and weight (W
f
) of
each threat and all of the threats in total (for table 5 - 8 see
appendix B).
The output table (Table 9) contains the factor names, their
weights (W
f
), evaluations (V
f
), and the weighted evaluations
(P
f
). The weighted evaluations provide a primary value for
vector expression of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats. The vector sum gives us the direction of the final vector,
which reflects the strategic orientation of the analyzed system.
Coordinates of the final vector are displayed in Table 10.
The resulting graph (depicted in Figure 1) imitates the shape of
the evaluated vectors representing the evaluator’s direction. W-O
represents the “mini-maxi” strategy. The purpose of creating
strategies is to find ways to exploit the current state and to
improve it in the future. The aim of the W-O strategy is to
improve weaknesses by taking advantage of opportunities (for
table 9 and 10 and Figure 1 see appendix C).
5 Discussion
What actions can Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic
take to minimize the weaknesses of current approach to the
preparation of soldiers for a second career using the external
opportunities that were identified?
Mainly four Czech veteran associations help their members in
job search. Most often by keeping their own databases of job
seekers and associating them with potential employers and by
sharing job offers on social networks. For this purpose, it would
be appropriate to use existing portals operated by the Ministry of
Defense of the Czech Republic, such as the www.army.cz
website, where potential employers could fill in a job offer form,
which would be provided to soldiers directly on the site or
through internal portals, to which all soldiers have access to. If
soldiers were allowed to create a user profile and fill in data
grouped on the basis of a curriculum vitae, there would be the
possibility of sharing information also in the opposite direction -
viewing soldiers’ profiles by employers with the option to make
contact.
The preparation of soldiers for a second career in selected
NATO countries usually starts 2 years before the termination of
the military service and continues several months after it when
soldiers are assisted during their adaptation to the civilian sector
and even in their new job. We propose at least one year before
the expiry of the military contract to decide whether a soldier
will be released from service or not, thus ensuring a sufficiently
long period of time for good preparation for the transition to the
civilian sector. Retraining should be a key factor when
considering weaknesses. The maximum duration of courses
should be extended from three months to at least six months,
starting 12 months before and at any time up to three months
after termination of service. Furthermore, it is necessary to
reconsider the current offer of retraining courses - exclude the
courses that do not meet the requirements of the labor market
and which lasts a disproportionately short time. On contrary, to
when:
e
f
- marks a factor evaluation (f - number),
n - represents the number of factors in the given field,
e
all
- is the sum of all the assessments in the field.
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