Ethics
and Behaviors
How
does my organization portray its values?
I have been retired now for over four years, so I
cannot truly claim an organization. I
will however, use the U. S. Air Force as my organization since I know it best. My organization established three core values:
1) integrity first, 2) service before self, and 3) excellence in all we do. These values have not changed since they were
adopted.
The Air Force portrays these values as all-encompassing
and fundamental to all of its people for four reasons: “1) The core values
identify the attributes all Airmen should live; 2) They point to what is
universal and unchanging in the profession of arms; 3) They help us get a fix
on the ethical climate of an organization; and 4) they serve as beacons
vectoring us back to the path of professional conduct (Air Force Staff Writers,
2015, p. 2). Closely following the core
values ensures the Air Force will not degrade from a climate of ethical
commitment into a climate of corrosion (Air Force Staff Writers, 2015).
If you behave consistently with each of the values your
actions will almost always be moral. Adherence
to the values is not optional and all violations are taken seriously. Expectations are understood. Peers will confront substandard performance with
each other directly.
Fine
line between morality and legality
“Because some believe our operating procedures or the
requirements levied upon them from above are absurd, they tend to “cut corners”
or “skate by.” As time goes by, these actions become easier and they become
habitual until the person can no longer distinguish between the “important”
taskings or rules and the “stupid” ones. Lying on official forms becomes second
nature. Placing personal interests ahead of the mission becomes a natural
response. And they develop a ‘good enough for government work’ mentality” (Air
Force Staff Writers, 2015, p. 2). Gallagher (2012) describes his Unethical Continuum
in a similar manner.
Generally, people start out rationalizing things they have
learned somewhere and believe them to be okay because everyone does it so, they
cut a corner or misrepresent their work. Just as in the Unethical Continuum they get
comfortable and try something more severe the next time. The difference is with the Unethical
Continuum people slowly work their way up to an illegal action with serious
consequences. In the Air Force, the individual
committed an illegal act the very first time he cut a corner. The individual also placed their interests
ahead of the lives of an entire aircrew. I encountered two instances of this
behavior in my career. Both cases had to
do with aircraft maintenance. Both Airmen
signed off maintenance actions they had not performed. Both were discovered after the fact.
One was discovered during a higher skill-level follow-up
inspection by the supervisor. When the
supervisor asked the Airman, the Airman lied and argued that he had, indeed,
done all of the work step-by-step using the technical order. He did not remove any of the panels called
for in the procedures. The Airman had violated
each of the core values. If the Airman
had not lied when confronted the punishment would not have been as harsh. But he did and it was. In the end the Airman was convicted on two
felony counts by a military court.
Further orders from the court was forfeiture of all pay and allowances,
a bad conduct discharge, and one-year confinement.
The other case was a Non-Commissioned Officer (E-5)
Staff Sergeant at a different base. He
was experienced, qualified, and skilled.
He signed off a discrepancy that had been recurring in flight but could
not be duplicated on the ground. He was
angry that he had to look at it again. So,
he signed it off without ever turning on the system.
The airplane flew and reported an in-flight emergency
for a fire with smoke and fumes. The
entire crew was grounded for a few days due to the smoke and fumes, but
otherwise no one was hurt. The Staff
Sergeant’s trainee reported him after the incident.
Arrogance and insensitivity stayed with the Staff
Sergeant through his court martial. I did
not attend, but I heard he refused to acknowledge that he could have prevented
the emergency, if he had done his job. The
court convicted him and he got the same thing as the other person I discussed with
two exceptions: reduction in grade to Airman Basic (E-1) and five years
confinement.
Conclusion
These two cases show how immoral decisions can result
in illegal actions. As Gallagher said, “every
choice has a consequence so, make choices wisely” (Gallagher, 2013). The first case followed Gallagher’s (2013)
slippery slope by the numbers; he had gotten away with the behavior before,
became confident, and started sliding.
The Staff Sergeant had never been in trouble and there was no indication
he had done anything like it before.
The individuals in the two examples I provided were
not ethically intelligent. They did not
think with compassion for other people. Had
they done so they would have seen the real impact of their decision (Weinstein,
2014). Instead, they only concerned
themselves with their own interests.
Both knew what they did was wrong, if not morally, then legally, but
they chose their own interests over everything else. And, they made the wrong choice. They had a moral obligation to their oath of
enlistment, the Air Force core values, the professional body to which they belonged,
but most importantly, they had a moral obligation to the human lives that would
trust their maintenance and fly on the aircraft.
Since they made their choice based on their own self-interests, the egoist would argue that they acted morally (LaFollette, 2007). LaFollette (2007) taught us that “a person will
continually engage in an activity only if it has the effect of satisfying what she
perceives to be in her full interest" (p. 277). For all of these reasons, I believe any moral
theory that is based on the pursuit of self-interests alone is not moral and is
not much of a theory.
Morality is something that should be so simple that
anyone can act appropriately in a situation.
But we humans are not satisfied until it is so complicated that no one
can understand the concept anymore.
There are no right answers, but there are no wrong answers either. However, chose an unpopular position and you
will find that there is more than enough judgement to make up for it.
~Pete
References
Air Force Staff Writers (2015). The Air Force core values. Air Force Doctrine,
Volume 2, Air Force core values. Retrieved from http://www.doctrine.af.mil/Portals/61/documents/Volume_2/V2-D05-Core-Values.pdf
Gallagher C. (2012, January 27) Straight talk about
ethics [Video file]. Chuck Gallagher. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gUJ00vNGCPE
LaFollette, H. (2007). The practice of ethics. Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing.
Weinstein, B. (2012, August 24). Keynote Speech Excerpts
from The Ethics Guy [Video file]. The Ethics Guy. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=eLxbHBpilJQ
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