Indonesia Conference Directory

The presence of personnel in units, especially in carrying out basic tasks, is in the military. Absence without permission, or called desertion, is considered illegal, which is one of the crimes regulated by law. Esprit de corps is the unit spirit which functions as a member of the unit. Esprit de corps was built since the recruitment process. Leadership plays an important role in maintaining esprit de coprs unit strength. The units adherence to its members is expected to be able to suppress the intention of deserting unit members. This quantitative study aims to empirically determine what factors directly influence member desertion intentions. By using the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) estimation technique on 300 respondents who are Navy soldiers, the results show that esprit de corps is the most significant variable to reduce desertion intentions. Indicators of more unit values provide the most powerful influence in explaining esprit de corps. Leadership is also like that but not as strong as esprit de corps. Whats interesting is the influence of leadership is very strong against esprit de corps. Attention to members through direct communication is a very strong indicator of leadership in increasing unit esprit de corps.