Military Leader? Despite the Fact Essay

When faced with adversary, he cannot be fearful of losing face or seeming disloyal but instead must ask 'what actions are necessary to take for the greater good?' Even when a military leader disciplines a subordinate for disobedience, these actions are because of the requirements of safety and the need for adherence to institutional rules, not because of personal anger. Military officers must hold fast to an "objective professional ethic" of responsibilities owed to themselves, to the institution, to their leaders, and to the American public.[footnoteRef:3] When personal and individual obligations conflict with those of the collective ethos, the need to preserve institutional authority must be upheld. For example, "where it would be improper for a manager at IBM to invade the privacy of her employees, the officer is morally obligated to do so" rather than place others in the service at risk.[footnoteRef:4] [2: Margaret Hermann, "Assessing leadership constraints: A trait analysis," Social Science Leadership Automation, 1998, 15] [3: Snider, D., Nagl, J. & Pfaff, T. "Army professionalism, the military ethic, and officership in the 21st century." Strategic Studies Institute, 1999, 8] [4: Snider et al., 1999, 8.]

The stakes are very high in decision-making in the military, and even though there must be an adherence to mission and protocol, the leader cannot forget his or her personal sense of ethics as a soldier which are larger than one's loyalty to a single leader or order.Blind loyalty or a disregard for the philosophical underpinnings of the mission and the ethos of the unit can cause the military to forget its higher values and the reason men and women fight and die on the battlefield.[footnoteRef:5] A strong military leader is willing to voice an opinion, even if that opinion may not be the popular one or the well-respected. He or she may need to defer to superiors if that opinion is ignored -- or to stand up in the face of outright abuses. Refined personal judgment as well as a strong internalized code of military discipline is required to strike this delicate balance between obedience and judgment as a leader. [5: Kermit Johnson, "Ethical issues of military leadership," 27]

Bibliography

Hermann, M. "Assessing leadership constraints: A trait analysis." Social Science Leadership

Automation, 1998.

Johnson, K. "Ethical issues of military leadership."

Pfaff, T. "Resolving ethical challenges in an era of persistent conflict." SSI.

Snider, D., Nagl, J. & Pfaff, T. "Army professionalism, the….....