The Navy's Moral Compass: Commanding Officers and Personal Misconduct

Abstract

This paper examines the excessive and increasing number of US Navy commanding officers fired for personal conduct recently, analyzing data covering the last 11 years. It proposes that this is a systemic problem, symptomatic of Navy cultural issues and a confusing ethical context in society, combined with a failure to effectively set and uphold an ethical standard within the service. It proposes that the Navy needs to make adjustments in policy, training and personnel processes in order to stem the tide of personal misconduct by commanding officers. Specific recommendations include elevating the priority of this issue and emphasizing the need for change, setting ethical standards through policy and refinement of Navy core values, and modifying the Officer Fitness Report format to specifically address moral character. Finally, if successful, this paper will open the door for debate and reexamination of the Navy s policies, standards for command and ethical foundations.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 24, 2011
Accession Number
ADA553001

Entities

People

  • Mark F. Light

Organizations

  • United States Army War College

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Human Systems
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Department Of Defense
  • Education
  • Military Personnel
  • Military Strategy
  • Naval Operations
  • Naval Personnel
  • Navy
  • Personality
  • Personnel Management
  • Schools
  • Standards
  • Students
  • Training
  • United States
  • Universities
  • War Colleges

Readers

  • Joint Military Operations and Doctrine.
  • Organizational Psychology.
  • Strategic Security Studies