Why do military trained personnel feel they have better work ethic than their civilian counterparts and vice versa? Peter D. Feaver (2001) fellow researcher of the international security program noted a statement by former Secretary of Defense William Cohen declared that a "chasm" is opening between the military and civilian worlds. Even though civilians have good work ethics, military personnel have the equally valuable yet different work ethics because of the training they received. A study, conducted by researchers at Princeton University, “found that while senior officials [of] the military services received higher evaluations from employees than their [civilian]non-service counterparts in the areas of leadership and work climate, they did not score as well on management “(Ballenstedt, 2007). The combination of the attributes of both military and civilian workforces would create the ultimate principled work ethic warrior. Even though civilians claim to work harder on being legally and morally ethical; both the military and civilian work forces’ ethics combined would contribute to a better work ethics. The combination between leadership and management would lessen the amount of business failure in the ethical legal battles of today’s social and personnel industry within global enterprise. The combining of leadership skills from the military and the knowledge in corporate social responsibility of the civilian sector is most beneficial to today work forces. Together military style leadership and civilian style management can make for better work ethics: though military and civilian personnel receive training differently, there a difference between leading and a managing techniques, and the fact that they are more similarities as ...
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...2006, December 06). Military ethics. Some lessonslearned from Manuel Davenport. Retrieved on April 17, 2011 from http://www.airpower.au.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj06/win06/ficarrotta.html. Air& space Power Journal.
Feaver, P., Kohn, R.( eds. Soldiers and Civilians: The civil-military gap and american national security. Cambridge, Mass.: The MIT Press, 2001.
Hemingway M. (2007, March 6). Civilian vs. military. Retrieved from http://integrator.hanscom.af.mil/2007/March/03082007/03082007-17.htm
Kermally,Sultan. (2004). Gurus on people management. London, GBR: Thorogood Publishing,. p i. http://site.ebrary.com/lib/devry/Doc?id=10088338&ppg=1
Sekerka, L., Bagozzi, R., & Charnigo, R. (2009). Facing ethical challenges in the workplace: conceptualizing and measuring professional moral courage. Journal of Business Ethics, 89(4), 565-579. doi:10.1007/s10551-008-0017-5
U.S. Army. An Army White Paper: The Profession of Arms. West Point: Center for Army Profession and Ethic (CAPE), December 2010.
In A.J. Bacevich’s 20 December, 2007 essay, The Paradox of Professionalism: Eisenhower, Ridgway, and the Challenge to Civilian Control, 1953-1955, he postured it with three direct and interrelated questions of civil-military relations, genuine civilian control, and civil-military relations to achieve national security. Then, he positioned his next several paragraphs that identified overarching issues associated with his questions, such as: Americans take civil-military relations for granted and display the perception that if there is "no coup? No problem.” Additionally the author specified that historians oversimplified the relational and control factors amidst the national civil authorities and senior military leaders, journalists reported information where they were not abreast of the facts, and Clinton's administration avoided relational conflicts with senior military leaders and that the Army pursued its self-interests in military tradition. The paragraphs lead to the author’s primary message and his thesis statement.
In A Tactical Ethic, Moral Conduct in the Insurgent Battlespace, author Dick Couch addresses what he believes to be an underlying problem, most typical of small units, of wanton ethical and moral behavior partly stemming from the negative “ethical climate and moral culture” of today’s America (Couch, D., 2010, p. 15). In chapter one, he reveals what A Tactical Ethic will hope to accomplish; that is identify the current ethics of today’s military warriors, highlight what is lacking, and make suggestions about what can be done to make better the ethical behavior of those on the battlefield and in garrison. He touches on some historic anecdotes to highlight the need for high ethics amongst today’s military warriors as well as briefly mentions
Integrity first is the first core value that we in the Air Force live by. “People’s decisions to do what is ethical are greatly influenced by their surroundings, particularly by their organizational surroundings such as the “ethical climate” and the “ethical culture” of the organization” (Velasquez, 2012, p54) Getting trained the incorrect way is the most common mistake made in the Air Force for aircraft maintenance. If you were to question why we do things the wrong way the most common answer has always been “because that is how we have always done it”. This value is the most common one in my career field based on the fact that we work on multi million dollar aircraft and are expected to perform maintenance without anyone looking over our shoulder. A pilot will walk up to the aircraft walk around it quickly get in having full confidence in...
This paper aims to provide a brief history of the ethical issues of hazing in the military. The impact on various stakeholders is also provided before an analysis of the causes of hazing in the military and recommendations on how military leaders can promote tradition and a sense of belonging in a hazing-free military.
Snider, D. M. (2008). Dissent and strategic leadership of the military professions. Carlisle Barracks, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College.
Davenport’s various violations of the Code need to be considered from another point of view as an example of responsible disobedience. As Dr. Davenport and Antwone are both members of the military, there is a certain camaraderie experienced between them that the general public does not experience. Taking this into consideration, Dr. Davenport may be expressing responsible disobedience as he violates various standards in the Code in an attempt to respect the intricacies of the military culture (Cottone & Tarvydas, 2007). Because the military is a culture of its own, it is difficult to say whether any or all of the situations that resulted in an ethical violation were justified. It is easy to say that Dr. Davenport violated principle ethics during his work with Antwone but virtue ethics may support Dr. Davenport as he interpreted the standards in the context of the military culture (Cottone & Tarvydas, 2007).
LaSala, C. A., & Bjarnason, D. (2010, September). Creating Workplace Environments that Support Moral Courage. Retrieved from http://www.nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/ANAMarketplace/ANAPeriodicals/OJIN/TableofContents/Vol152010/No3-Sept-2010/Workplace-Environments-and-Moral-Courage.html
[3] Mike Schminke, Maureen Ambrose, and Donald Neubaum (2005), “The Effect of Leader Moral Development on Ethical Climate and Employee Attitudes,” Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 97, 2: 135-151.
I discovered how sticking to one’s morals should be the topmost priority for everyone involved in business, whether personal or professional. Regardless of what the consequences may be, the intensity of the problem, and the complexities it may bring, sacrificing one’s integrity should never be an option, as integrity goes hand-in-hand with the morals of an individual (Duggan & Woodhouse, 2011). They further go on to say that having individuals take part in building a code of ethics that supports employee integrity, they will act ethically. Also, I believe that companies should place more emphasis on the moral behavior of their employees, and clear-cut policies should be set regarding such ethical situations. Furthermore, I realized how serving justice while making decisions really helps in the long run, and that opting to go for the ideal rather than they deserved is not always the best option, and could hurt a company in more than one
Wright, T. A., & Goodstein, J. (2007). Character is not “dead” in management research: A review of individual character and organizational-level virtue. Journal of Management, 33, 928–958.
Organizations are constantly tested with various moral and ethical problems and dilemmas. Organizational leaders are the key to establishing an ethical climate in the workplace. By understanding and improving their own moral reasoning, and the biases that affect moral judgment, they enable themselves to make better decisions. This has a catalytic effect that positively increases organizational climate, ultimately improving all organizational behavior.
The world is a mixture of ethical relativism and moral objectivism, even though some commonalities of fundamental moral principles exist between certain societies, not every society subscribes to those moral principles. Ethical relativism is based on the premise that morality is relative to the norms of one 's culture. However, moral objectivism is the position that certain acts are universally right or wrong, independent of human opinion. A hybrid approach to these theological philosophies has helped me be successful in the military. As the military moves towards acceptance and understanding of the changing environment, leaders have to be prepared to react in an appropriate manner. The trick is to find the balance between the military values
Ethics is the responsibility of each individual person, but starts with the CEO and the Board of Directors, setting the right tone at the top and moves down through the organization, including setting the tone in the middle. A company’s culture and ethic standards start at the top, not from the bottom. Employees will almost always behave in the manner that they think management expects them, and it is foolish for management to pretend otherwise (Scudder). One of the CEO’s most important jobs is to create, foster, and communicate the culture of the organization. Wrongdoings or improper behavior rarely occurs in a void, leaders typically know when someone is compromising the company
Ethical behaviour is what all career people should aim to have. Not just the ethical attribute but exceptional behaviour with this regard.this is because in order to build a career, one must be governed by the rules of ethics to safeguard oneself and others. Ethics are essential in the workplace because a tough ethical code provides a non-threatening environment with high employee morale. The corporate social responsibility is important to everyone,therefore it should not be neglected by the employees and the organization. Ethics purely center on personal conduct. It involves personal choices that can make or break a person in the workplace or business. The major importance of having good conduct is to maintain a high level of respect not just for people but for the proffession. Most people who begin their working career have aspirations of excelling at their jobs and reaching the pinnacle of their profession while maintaining a sense of values; however employees often become blind with ambition and put aside their sense of ethics in order to obtain financial security and recognition for their efforts. There are many things that one can gain from having good behavioural ethics in the workplace. It will develop a discipline which will propel the work practices to a higher level and will help set a high standard. It will promote teamwork among the workersand will also buil...