Enhancing Hungarian Special Forces through transformation--the shift to Special Operations Forces

Abstract

The objective of this thesis is to highlight the challenges posed by the further development of the Hungarian Special Forces (HUNSF) and to provide a viable alternative for facilitating the consolidation. The study utilizes historical examples of Special Forces units, organizational design theory and statistical analysis of the empirical research of HUNSF's bureaucratic environment. The key findings are that the challenges HUNSF faces show similarities with the evolution of other Special Forces and the challenges are in connection with the actual development stage of HUNSF as an organization. The analysis of the empirical research revealed that the permissiveness of the bureaucratic environment depends most on: the degree of military organizational value alignment between the Hungarian Defense Forces (HDF) and HUNSF, and HUNSF's perceived disrespect toward the HDF. Moreover, HUNSF, in its present stage of organizational evolution, must become more appreciative of its potentially accommodating bureaucratic environment; the current dependence on influential individual sponsors must be replaced by institutionalized sponsorship; for HUNSOF to become an enhanced HDF asset, the present special forces capacity must turned into a Special Operations Forces capacity on the tactical, operational and strategic level with adequate representation. The thesis provides a viable alternative for implementing the necessary adjustments.