SOF Ethics and Professionalism: Exploring Cultural Dynamics and Their Impacts on Unethical Outcomes
Abstract
Over the last two decades, Army Special Operations Forces (ARSOF) have been under immense pressure to conduct back-to-back deployments combating terrorism. The speed of operations and the goal of placing the mission first has slowly changed the norms and behaviors, calling into question the ethics and professionalism within ARSOF formations. The deterioration of ethical performance has fostered an environment that erodes the trust that policymakers and senior leaders have placed in these unique elements. In this work, we identify the importance of organizational culture by asking two overarching questions: How does Special Operations Forces (SOF) organizational culture influence behavior? And why is SOF organizational culture important? The team utilized Edgar Scheins framework on culture to evaluate SOF organizational culture from a qualitative perspective to understand the different SOF organizational culture levels. Then the team analyzed Civil Affairs Officers survey data to conduct quantitative analysis between organizational culture variables and how these may influence behavior and contribute to building trust. The thesis concluded by advocating for the resurgence of the basic tenets of coaching and mentoring leaders who would steward the legacy SOF profession now and into the future.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Dec 01, 2020
- Accession Number
- AD1126999
Entities
People
- Deandre L. Mcdonald
- Jose E. Rodriguez
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School