Ethics in the Military Leadership

What is Ethics? Webster’s dictionary website defines ethic as an area of study that deals with ideas about what is good and bad behavior: a branch of philosophy dealing with what is morally right or wrong. We have ethical training in the military to create a universal standard of behavior because morals are so variable and linked to religious belief. Military leadership cannot tell people what religious behaviors to have, but they can create a universal ethical guidance. Many people might think of ethics as common sense and may not take it seriously. Sometimes we need reinforcement like ethics training to illustrate what right and wrong look like, and hope people will do the right thing intuitively. I believe everyone has their own ethical and moral values that they follow. For me, my ethical and moral values are to have justice in order to treat everyone equally or equitable treatment, compassion towards others, and improve working skills with others.

Often we may think we can readily distinguish between right and wrong, but it can be a lot harder than anticipated. For instance, one way to treat everyone equally in my unit means no favoritism. In order to prevent favoritism, everyone needs to take special precaution of his or her action. If a leader realized or suspected that he or she is showing favoritism, I would challenge that individual to seek help from other leaders or professionals. This is not what the military teaches, we want our leaders who make ethical decision because we have read and understood the Army doctrine. If we have to ask our boss every time there was a question of ethics, then nothing would get accomplished. For example, I had a platoon male sergeant that I thought was playing favorites to ...

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...of their subordinates. Ethics training creates standard to illuminate what right and wrong looks like. Often in times, we draw our decision depends on our ethic belief and situation depended. There are no best ways to solve an ethic problem because every situation may be different. That is why we often need to reinforce what we believe is important to us and that includes having equitable treatment among ourselves, be sincere towards others, and challenge ourselves to learn to work with others that are different. If we able to master of producing good deeds to others at all times, then the world will be a harmonize place.

Works Cited

1. Webster Dictionary website: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethic

2. Chaplain Major Sean Wead, “Jus In Bello: A Moral Lifeline in the Maelstrom of Combat”

3. CGSC Course, Block 100 Critical and Creative Thinking