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 the female soldiers. The sergeant would always assign fewer tasks to the female soldiers. Almost daily, I saw those female soldiers sitting in the motor pool area doing close to nothing and their motivation was decreasing as well. One day, I asked the sergeant privately why he marginalized the female soldiers from various tasks. His response was those tasks required male strength and those female would not able to get the job done on time. After a few weeks observing our daily physical trainings and daily work, I noticed that few of my female soldiers did have some physical challenges. However, I was not convinced exempt females from those tasks are not the right thing to do; because the perception might get that sergeant in trouble and it is not fair to the females. I challenged him to come up with another alternative, which will also enforce them to work together as a team. For instance, if the task is truck recovery, then he could have sent few of the females as the drivers or safeties for that mission. That way everyone is participating and no one is left behind feeling they are not contributing. This will prevent the false perspective of favoritism and might even eliminate another 15-6 investigation. I...
