The United States Air Force is comprised of 313,722 personnel. These personnel all have varying backgrounds and both positive and negative values and motivations for being in the world's greatest Air Force. With such diversity, there will be situations that challenge the first Air Force Core Value, "Integrity First." All Airmen will either find themselves in or be pressured into a situation that will challenge their ethics. Knowing how to decipher your way out of any ethical traps is the crux of Dr. James Toner's six tests and is the concept I value most from module 6. Being able to navigate ethical dilemmas is an important facet of a Non-Commissioned Officer (NCO). Without this skill NCOs risks being taken advantage of and failing to
People sense same ethical dilemmas differently, and even those with ethical sensitivity may feel or understand the dilemma in different ways. For example, some may think reporting misconduct to supervisors outside the chain of command is an unethical act because it is disrespectful to the immediate superior. Some, however, believe that such an individual act, as long as benefiting the general welfare of the group, is not in violation of a code of ethics (Fang, M., 2006). It is important to understand an ethical dilemma before the actual decision-making process begins.
Ethics matter in any kind of business or organization, but they are especially significant when it comes to the US Army (Blackburn, 2001). The reason behind this involves the chain of command and the risk to life and limb that are such large parts of military life. When a soldier in the Army has no ethics, he or she can cause trust and respect problems with other members of his or her unit. The US military is a stressful organization for most people involved with it, and people's lives are on the line frequently. Issues like PTSD and other medical problems are commonplace for those who leave the military and must adjust to civilian life, so it is very important that those who are in the Army work with their colleagues and higher-ups to get the help and support they need during and after their service. There is more to ethics in the Army than the problems that military individuals can face, though.
While these three points are extensively discussed and dissected, it is apparent that the key factor that makes us professionals is the ethical standard that we must hold every individual soldier, from the lowest private to the highest general, to. One of the major points that are missing is what happens when the ethical standard is breeched and how it is dealt with.
Journal 3: What did you learn about yourself, others, and the Army from your lessons on ethics, self-awareness, and resilience?
For the last 237 years the United States Army has developed, flourished, and produced quality Soldiers to protect and uphold the morals and values that Americans hold dear to their hearts. There are three specific fields of expertise that make United States military service members the best in existence. Those fields include military technical, moral-ethical, and political culture expertise. One might ask what these different abilities have to do with the Human Resource (HR) field for the NCO, but these are the areas that play the biggest role in the HR field of the Non Commissioned Officer (NCO).
When people ask “why the Air Force Academy?” it is genuinely a difficult question to answer. It forces me to reflect on the reasons why the Air Force Academy is different than any “normal” school I could attend. It seems to me that some students view their time in college not to learn or to grow as a person, but to do the least amount of work possible to get a degree, while having the most amount of fun possible. At the Air Force Academy, not only is this behavior frowned upon, it is virtually nonexistent. Instead, there is a culture of personal growth, high educational standards, and moral conduct.
Consequently, I believe it is vital for leaders, such as me, to continuously ensure we are considering ethical standards while critical thinking and to compare all decisions to our ethical codes and standards. Truly, one unethical decision can do extraordinary damage to Airmen, their families, units, the Air Force, and public perception and support. As a leader, I am more proud of my commitment to our ethical
Becoming familiar with the appropriate course to choose when involved with ethical decision-making can be frustrating at times; simply because each situation warrants a specific course of action than the other or one before. In any case, group leaders must be ready to execute hard choices when such
The US Air Force is a great example how leadership can foster an ethical environment. The ability to treat everyone with respect and fighting for the rights of all individuals goes hand-in-hand when servicing the public. Is it possible to agree with all cultural beliefs? No. However, you can learn to accept that everyone conforms and believes what they have learned to be important to them.
Ethics is our most noteworthy preparing and authority requirement today and into the following century. In addition to that most divisions don't direct ethical training, nothing is all the more destroying to individual offices and our whole profession than uncovered outrages or found demonstrations of officer unfortunate behavior and untrustworthy conduct. The impacts of dishonest acts and conduct take numerous structures.
Ethics is a hard concept. There are numerous ideas of ethical reasoning to follow. However, every situation is different and require a different reasoning approach in order to effectively justify. As a future Naval Officer, I will continue to learn everyday either through the knowledge of someone that have gone before me, or my own experience in the numerous challenges ahead of me. Nevertheless, in order to effectively lead I must remember the main questions and be able to effectively answer it. What is right? and How do you decide? If I can continue to effectively answer these questions without doubts and worries in me, I believe that it will be worth sacrificing for. Not all ethical dilemmas are created equal, I will have to make unpopular
Over the course of my lifetime, I have faced numerous ethical dilemmas. The way that I have handled these situations defined my personal beliefs currently and how I will behave in the future. Within this paper, I aim to provide real life examples and everyday situations where I have been confronted with decisions that determine how ethically sound I am. I will explore my perspective on ethics and how vital a role they play in my decision making process. Overall, I hope to demonstrate how considerably evident ethics are throughout my personal, career, and societal experiences.
Since the dawn of time, ethical behavior has been a recurring thought that is a constant throughout the decision making process by many businesses. However, ignored more times than one care to admit. In addition, in recent years the ethical dilemmas continue to plague organizations and their leadership. Organizations and their leaders make decisions daily that can ultimately lead to embarrassing outcome. The subject of ethics is never meet easy, nor is it straightforward in any context. Ethics is a forever-evolving phenomenon that expands throughout organizations as well as your personal lives (Cheney & Frenette, 1993; Fielder, 1964; Jennings, 2012).
Lastly, I will also show that Ms. Rice and I share the goal of ethical leadership, but there have been times in both our careers when we have fallen into the ethical trap of Loyalty Syndrome and lacked Healthy Skepticism discussed during this course. Ms. Rice was blindly loyal and therefore, failed to question an Air Force General’s opinion regarding a routine mission that cost many lives. I too was loyal and failed to question my Chief during a routine Below-The-Zone (BTZ) murder board that cost many hours of work and respect.
In many organizations, codes of conduct, mission statements, organizational values and well-defined company cultures are the framework or set the foundation for in which many organizations run by. Unfortunately, even with all of these, a breakdown in business ethics occur every day at work. Often times you will employees fail to practice fundamental business ethics ranging either far or close to home. Throughout my military career in particular, ethical lapses affect individual employees as well as the different divisions and support units as a whole. Although when we [military] take the oath and throughout our basic military training to join U.S. military service are engrained with our Air Force core values, Integrity First, Service