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The Relationship of Risk to Rules, Values, Virtues, and Moral Complexity: What We can Learn from the Moral Struggles of Military Leaders
- Source :
- Journal of Business Ethics
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2021.
-
Abstract
- Leaders are faced with ethical and moral dilemmas daily, like those within the military who must span from large-scale combat operations to security cooperation and deterrence. For businesses, these dilemmas can include social and environmental impact such as those in mining; and for governments, the social and economic impact of their decision-making in their response to COVID-19. The move by Western defence forces to align their foundational principles, policies, and “soldier” dispositions with the changing values of the countries they serve are starkly illustrative of challenges faced by all leaders. While admirable, such changes face the apparent contradiction of enhancing individual moral agency within a hierarchical organization that maintain enforceable codes of conduct. Ethical leadership theory provides aspirational goals, but lacks empirically based guidance on how to implement policies that facilitate values-based behavior. Using a discourse theory analysis of a moral dilemma vignette with Royal Australian Air Force personnel, this research identifies important aspects of agency and subject position that must be addressed if such policies are to succeed. These findings show that the potential contradiction can be addressed by acknowledging the contrasting tendency to bureaucratic process by leaders at upper levels, while lower-level leaders address moral issues by incorporating their subjectivity and making a conscious deontological choice between humanity and comrade loyalty.
- Subjects :
- Economics and Econometrics
media_common.quotation_subject
Agency (philosophy)
Discourse
0603 philosophy, ethics and religion
Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)
Military
Moral agency
Political science
Virtues
0502 economics and business
Contradiction
Deterrence theory
Business and International Management
media_common
Original Paper
05 social sciences
Environmental ethics
Values
06 humanities and the arts
General Business, Management and Accounting
Ethical leadership
Leadership
Agency
Vignette
060301 applied ethics
Bureaucracy
Business ethics
Law
050203 business & management
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15730697 and 01674544
- Volume :
- 179
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Business Ethics
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....0f6ed7b9511ca7527371365a8cd844c3