Professional Ethics: Leader's Business

Abstract

Ethical conduct within the officer corps has come under very close scrutiny during the past twenty years. Much research has been accomplished, exhaustive studies conducted, guidance published, the training programs established and continually refined in order to ensure that military leaders are prepared to execute their duties properly. Yet officers face ethical challenges of varying magnitude on a daily basis, and some invariably fall victim to compromising themselves. The purpose of this paper is to study the role that senior leaders play in the ethical development of their subordinate leaders. It examines past ethical climate studies, common dilemmas existing in units, current guidance and training, and individual and leader values. Most importantly it focuses on the ethical responsibilities of senior leaders. The essay concludes that our leadership base is ethically healthy; however, continued emphasis must be placed on the chain of command to ensure that institutional and leader driven requirements that present ethical challenges are identified, reduced, and dealt with consciously.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Feb 20, 1990
Accession Number
ADA222920

Entities

People

  • Kevin P. Byrnes

Organizations

  • UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Classification
  • Commerce
  • Education
  • Employment
  • Enlisted Personnel
  • Governments
  • Human Behavior
  • Leadership
  • Military Education
  • Personnel Management
  • Schools
  • Second World War
  • Statistics
  • Students
  • Training
  • War Colleges
  • Warfare

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Military Training and Readiness Simulation
  • Strategic Security Studies