Introduction
Hail and Farewell is the traditional military event that celebrated for welcoming new members and bid goodbye to outgoing members. It is celebrated to ensure the change in command and supports a sense of continuity through change in the organization. It ensures the change in command and senior enlisted leaders the United States Army uses the government resources and provides an ethical and formal welcome to the new commanding officer and honor the old one. The ethical activities and morality choices play an important role in managing the organizational change. The paper will focus the ethical dilemmas in the hail and farewell event. It will focus the senior leaders who misused the position and the government resources. By the end of the paper, you will learn about ethical failure in the organizational activities and impact of poor decision-making on the government and employee resources. It will cover the impact of major ethical failure in the organization such as abuse of positions, misuse of employees’ resources, and others.
Ethical failure cases in the United States Army
The ethical violation is a bad decision unintentionally and intentionally that breaks the organization’s code of conduct and generates negative results. Many ethical failures have reported in the organization that affected the employees and organizational performance. It is reported that a big boss was retiring from the job and his second-in-command called the secretary to arrange a Hail and Farewell party and provide honor to the boss. The second-in-command directed the secretary to send a memo to the staff and get the contribution from each employee. The secretary was assigned to arrange the plastic utensils, paper plates, napkins, and paper tablecloth. Every employee was expected to contribute $25 for gifts and food.
The second-in-command was selected the new big boss and his new branch chief called the secretary to arrange a promotion party. The secretary was assigned to arrange the napkins, paper tablecloth, paper plates, and plastic utensils. Moreover, every employee was expected to make a payment of $25 for gifts and food. The branch chief was promoted as second-in-command and her senior analyst had planned to arrange the promotion party. Again, the senior analyst called the secretary to make arrangements for the promotion party. The secretary contacted the ethics and office to report the disciplinary action .
The cases cover the misuse of position and government resources in the organization. It is reported that the senior leaders were mostly involved in the ethical violations. The government and employees resources were used for personal purpose. It was unethical actions that affected the employees and the organizational culture.
Impacts of Ethical violations
Ethics describe principles and values that use the enlisted leader and govern his/her activities and decision. It plays the significant role in managing the organizational effectiveness and creating the corporate culture that is comprised of transparency, honesty, and fairness. The ethics education policies have developed in the United States Army to improve the behavior of the employees. The moral development program has been arranged for the military leaders to enhance the physical and intellectual attributes of the leaders. It is ensured that the ethics is required in the soldier role and it plays an important role in shaping the character development of Army professionals .
The investigators have described that the use of the government resources for unofficial hail and farewell functions is an ethical failure in the organization. The use of the government property is allowed for the official purpose under the ethics principles. It is unethical to utilize the government and employees resources for personal gain. The ethical violations of violations of (5 C.F.R. 2635) have reported in the above ethical failure case. Subpart C of the Standards of Ethical Conduct for executives and employees branch (5 C.F.R. 2635) has created the rules and policies for gifts among the staff. The law covers the different general standards such as gifts to superiors, limitation on the use of exceptions, and gifts from employees receiving less pay. The law describes that the employee cannot make donations and gives a gift to the superior and the employee is not allowed to receive the gifts from other employees who have less pay .
It is reported that the second-in-command and branch chief has arranged unethical retirement and promotion party. They received donations of $ 25 from each employee including the secretary and arranged immoral hail and farewell. They misused their position and forced the employees to make donations that created a negative impact on the organization culture. The secretary has loosed her trust in the leadership and complained in the ethics office against that action. The employees have suffered due to that issue and make illegal payments. However, they are prohibited from donating, giving, and soliciting contributions for food and gifts.
Impact of unethical leadership decisions on the organization
The leadership decisions play an important role in managing the organizational culture. The strong corporate code of ethics is necessary for establishing sound moral behavior. Value and ethics are central to the United States Army. It is identified that the leaders have influenced the followers towards unethical decision-making and behavior. It affected the performance of the organization and the employees and reduced trust in the organizational environment. It has affected the core organizational values, integrity, professionalism, teamwork, caring, and stewardship.
Leadership is the top authority to guide and direct others towards ethical behavior and create a good decision for achieving the organizational goal. It has identified that the unethical decision of the second-in-command and branch chief has affected the organization’s code of ethics, employee motivation, trust, and emotions. Leadership is responsible for managing the team and promoting the ethical culture. The leaders provide ethical awareness and ensure that every employee is performing in a certain manner. The soldiers and other employees follow the organization’s code of conduct and perform various activities in an accurate manner .
Conclusion
It is concluded that the leadership is directly involved in the ethical violation and breaks the code of conduct. The leaders influenced other employees to participate in the unethical activities and make contributions for hail and farewell. They misused of power and reduced trust and honesty in the organizational culture. Ethical violations affect the organizational environment and increase immoral activities. The leadership is directly involved in creating the fair, transparent, and corporate culture that play an important role in increasing the organization and employees performance. The leaders should use the power in promoting the ethical behavior that improves the organizational effectiveness.
References
Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure. (2014). Encyclopedia of Ethical Failure. Retrieved from http://www.jag.navy.mil/distrib/instructions/EncylopediaofEthicalFailures(2014).pdf
Legal Information Institute . (2016). Subpart C. Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/5/part-2635/subpart-C
Paul, R., Nigel, D. L., & Don, C. (2008). Ethics Education in the Military. England: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
United States Department of the Army. (2007). U.S. Army Counterinsurgency Handbook. U.S.A: Skyhorse Publishing Inc.
