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Running head: ETHICAL ISSUES AMONG MILIYARY RANKS 1

ETHICAL ISSUES AMONG MILIYARY RANKS 1

Ethical Issues Among Military Ranks (DRAFT 1)

Ethics in the military has been an issue of concern not only in the United States but the entire world. Military operations become marred with diverse issues that raise ethical concerns (Staal & DeVries, 2018). The United States military has witnessed cases of unethical problems that have challenged professionalism among the ranks. Ethics defines military conduct principles and legal requirements for military professionals. General performances and conducts in military organizations raise ethical issues in military operations. When addressing ethics in the military, decision making is an aspect that cannot be underrated. Military personnel continuously face situations that pose an ethical dilemma. Deciding on such a position requires a high degree of caution. Professionals in the military have made decisions that have raised ethical questions based on the motive and the results from the decisions made (Kem, 2016). Such decisions are, therefore, subject to question due to the adverse outcomes associated with such decisions. Professional, ethical decision making needs observing with regard to military ethics. Decision making, therefore, form essential components in the co-text of military ethics.

Performance appraisal also forms an essential issue in military ethics. Military organizations continually evaluate and review personnel performances and review them regularly. The development of individual development plans is subject to professional ethics. In reviewing performances, favoring some individuals and conflicts of interest may arise. Promotions may also be biased where senior officers may promote junior officials without considering the merits and qualifications required for such promotions (Thompson, & Jetly, 2014). Military officials are faced with an ethical dilemma in decision making because they have to balance between the public interest, professionalism, and personal security.

Problem Statement

Military organizations have failed to honor professional ethical guidelines. In these circumstances, there is a need to evaluate and assess the ethical issues that create performance challenges in military organizations. In the United States, there have been several cases of unethical behaviors in the military. High-rank military officials have abused their power by awarding tenders to some companies they have interest in. Some have awarded tenders to their own companies or companies belonging to their relatives. Such aspects create ethical concerns, and the individuals are subjects to laws prosecution for failing to honor military professionalism. Fraud has also been a big concern in military ethics. Military professionals have used government properties and funds fraudulently (Sullivan & Wilson, 2017). Such fraudulent acts have indicated a big failure in military ethics. Military personnel on the battlefield also face various aspects of the ethical dilemma. They are supposed to observe human rights and international treaties. While simultaneously, they must protect their country from external threats, including terrorism. Besides, they have to defend themselves against attacks from enemies. Executing these obligations puts them at risk of not observing some moral and ethical issues.

References

Kem, J. D. (2016). Ethical Decision Making: Using the ‘Ethical Triangle,.’ In 2016 CGSC Ethics Symposium.

Staal, M. A., & DeVries, M. R. (2018). Military operational psychology. Psychological services.

Sullivan, B. A., & Wilson, J. M. (2017). An empirical examination of product counterfeiting crime impacting the US military. Trends in Organized Crime, 20(3-4), 316-337.

Thompson, M. M., & Jetly, R. (2014). Battlefield ethics training: integrating ethical scenarios in high-intensity military field exercises. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 5(1), 23668.

Ethical Issue Among Military Ranks (DRAFT 2)

Research Question

The research questions for guiding this research study are:

1. Does the military organization meet professional ethics in their organizational performances?

1. How do the military ethical guidelines overlap the leadership in a military organization?

1. What scenarios in military organizations raise ethical concerns towards the leadership of these organizations?

Research Strategy

A research strategy is vital in organizing the process of acquiring data and information on the military ethics research topic. In gaining insight on the issues of ethics in military leadership, the sources of information need defining as a guideline on the process of acquiring the research study information. The most important aspect of a research study entails getting an understanding of the term and concepts in the research topic. I will use class reading materials to get essential information on the meaning of the words and ideas relating to ethics in military leadership. The course reading materials serve as the primary resources for gaining insight on the research issue terms and concepts.

Another critical strategy I will employ is deriving the correct keywords. I will use the keywords to search for articles from a different database on the internet. In various online libraries, you can obtain research information on ethics in military leadership. EBSCOhost serves as an essential resource for a researcher, and in this case, its utilization provides reliable information on military ethics. Google Scholar also forms a valuable reference resource that offers vast knowledge on the research topics. Getting the data from these resources will include the use of keyword related to military ethics. The keywords to be used in the information search include ethics, military, leadership, and ethical challenges.

Literature Review

Ethical challenges in military organization leadership have been an important issue not only in the United States but also in other global military organizations. Despite the organizational efforts in ethical operations, observing professional ethics has been posed as a challenge (Ginnett, 2019). A higher rank official is assigned a role that does not fit their skills. Military organizations fail to provide adequate professional training for the more senior rank military personnel. Lack of regular training for the leaders creates leadership challenges that create professional, ethical practice downsides. Leaders without proper training cannot manage and decide on military operations, which creates a problem for the leaders in military organizations to make a decision based on the ethical principles and guidelines. Promotions have transpired based on ethnicity and self-interests in which resulted in the recruitment of incompetent leaders. Inadequate training and recruitment of unqualified leaders raise the alarm on the issues of the practice of ethics in military organizations.

Power use among armed forces organizations influences ethics issues in military organizations. Military leaders tend to overuse and misuse their powers to suit self-interests (Asencio, 2019). Senior military officers intimidate junior officials and compromise them to engage in operations that may be professionally unethical. Some officers also exhibit absolute power where they have the final say on crucial military operation issues. Such leaders do not welcome junior officers’ opinions and suggestions, which may result in unethical practice and misuse of power. Military organizations procurement officers also engage in unethical practice. Procurement budgets are, in most cases, overrated with higher commodity prices as compared to the actual rates of the procured materials. High-rank military officials also ward tenders to their close associates.

Decisions made by military officials may result in unfair and biased effects. Since leaders in military organizations get involved in diverse aspects that require decision making, the impact of such decisions may raise ethical issues. According to King & Sekerka (2017), choices exist based on morality and reason. The decision may also guide the norms outlined in the military operations legal guidelines. In cases where a leader makes a moral decision based on reliable reason, emergency of negative impacts influences ethical questioning. In this context, it becomes a challenge for military professionals to make decisions that are ethically binding to the entire military organization. Decision making in military organizations, therefore, pose a big ethical challenge to the organization’s leadership.

Leaders form important actors in professional ethics within the military organization. Leaders serve as examples to their followers. In this regard, followers learn through observing and copying their leader behaviors (Martínez-Córcoles & Stephanou, 2017). In scenarios where leaders engage in unethical and unprofessional acts, the entire team tends to follow and copy the trend from their leaders. Leaders in this perspective act as the guideline on how the whole military organization personnel should behave. The higher rank officials have much impact on the creation of a positive organizational culture based on behavioral leadership practices. Military organizations that engage in unethical operations, therefore, subject the leaders to ethical scrutiny. Ethics in military organizations, thus, stems from leadership styles and behaviors.

International actors also focus on military ethics in organizations. Many of the international organizations provide the ethical guidelines and the global principles of the ethics issues in the military as a way of addressing military engagement harm (Beer, 2018).  Organizations such as the United Nations create rules and regulations that govern military operation ethics. Such regulations act as a control of the military organization’s behavioral acts. Beer (2018) argues that unethical conduct in military organizations is subject to question by international cooperation standards. These international organization keeps close oversight and monitoring of global military organizations to ensure adherence to the internal ethical principles in the military organizations. Unprofessional and unethical leadership in the organization can, therefore, monitored and controlled by international organizations.

Regarding organizational ethics, military operations standards may have a negative effect. Professionally, social identity forms an essential component in the functioning of personnel as a group. The discriminative aspect of social identification creates an ethical concern for military organization leaders. Decisions made may be associated with the discriminative element as a means to distinguish one group from the other (Withnall & Brockie, 2019). The air force military department may social deviate from other military departments such as the navy. Such deviations create differences and poor relationships between different sections of military organizations. In such a context, the social identification aspect evokes the ethical concern in the leadership of military organizations. Social identity may also influence comparison and identification based on different characterizes of the military personnel. Identification may come about based on race, ethnicity, and gender. Such social identification based on these identities creates an ethical problem where those identified as a minority may not be treated equally in the organizational settings. The issue of social identity in military leadership necessitates questioning based on the ethical behaviors towards the diverse workforce in a military organization. Leaders may take advantage of social identities to get engaged in unethical practices in their leadership style.

From Frank’s point of view, military organizations experience potential due to the dynamic and complex nature of the operations environments (Frank, 2020). Military organizations have the power to formulate their policies and laws. The laws and policies are also subject to control by the government. The exercise of power by the government over military organizations creates an overlap between the government and military legal provisions and requirements. Control of overlay and power provides the ethical implication that military organizations may formulate policies based on their logic and morality. Such policies may have an ethical impact on the government and the public. In some contexts, governments regard military operations that may harm the public as unethical. The dynamic nature of the military operation environment also creates ethical implications. Deploying the military to operate in international environments raises ethical concerns as the armed forces group may not be aware of the new environment’s ethical principles and guidelines.

References

Asencio, H. D. (2019). Corruption—commonly defined as the abuse of public office for private gain—is present in all societies consequences for them. Global Corruption and Ethics Management: Translating Theory into Action, 263-268. Retrieved from https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=D0uNUnwAAAAJ&hl=en

Beer, Y. (2018). Military Professionalism and Humanitarian Law: The Struggle to Reduce the Hazards of War. New York, NY: Oxford University Press

Frank, L. (2020). New Times for Military Professionalism: Rethinking Core Competencies and

Dynamic Capabilities. Rethinking Military Professionalism for the Changing Armed Forces (pp. 63-82). Cham, Switzerland: Springer International Publishing

Ginnett, R. C. (2019). Crews as Groups: Their Formation and Their Leadership. Crew Resource

Management (pp. 73-102). Cambridge, Massachusetts: Academic Press Publishing

King, D. R., & Sekerka, L. E. (2017). Managing Competing Interests: A Review of Ethics in

Military Procurement. Public Integrity, 19(5), 444-468. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10999922.2016.1276789

Martínez-Córcoles, M., & Stephanou, K. (2017). Linking Active Transactional Leadership and

Safety Performance in Military Operations. Safety Science, 96, 93-101. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.03.013

Withnall, R., & Brockie, A. (2019). Military ethics: an operational priority. United Kingdom: BMJ Publishing Group