Sergeant Majors: Establishing a Positive & Ethical Climate - Essay Sample

Introduction

Explain how ethical fading could impact a sergeant major's ability to assess a moral climate and align organizational conduct, policy, and norms with stated values. Ensure you provide a current and relevant example to support your answer. L208 and L210.

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Sergeant Majors play an essential role in establishing and sustaining a positive and ethical climate in organizations. They are responsible for encouraging, supporting, and assessing the efforts of their people. Sergeant Majors, as leaders of their people, are supposed to give their group examples so they can follow. They are expected to carry out themselves in accepted ways, ethics, and values because they know what is right. They are therefore encouraged to behave in such ways that can help organizations reach their full potentials. Establishing and assessing their organizational ethical climate helps them to produce leaders of good character (Allen, 2015).

Ethical fading is the overlooking of morals aspects of an ethical decision. Self-deception is a tool in ethical fading. An ethical decision involves a balance between self-interest and moral values. By over-looking moral values, one might behave selfishly and still consider themselves noble. Ill beliefs about oneself might also cause mistakes in one's judgment concerning moral values and the harm their misconduct can create. If an individual can avoid ethical fading, then he is capable of making an ethical climate in an organization. Ethical fading stands in the way of ethical environment or culture in an organization. A sergeant Major who is deceiving himself to be moral cannot make decisions that others will follow. After all, they should lead by example, as others follow. Ethical fading is a conflict in that, for one to carry out unethical behavior, he knows something has to be overlooked (Tenbrunsel & Messick, 2004).

Example of ethical fading; one 'smart soldier' taking an online course for his whole squad to meet the demands of mandatory training. It is morally wrong that one soldier has to take all the nine online tests for a member of his team. It is good that they will pass the criteria; however, it is not their efforts. A Sergeant Major who allows such misconduct cannot maintain an ethical climate in an organization because he is a poor decision-maker who makes decisions in his favor. For decisions to be made wisely, one has to think critically (Harris, 2015).

There are some standards essential for skilled reasoning in daily life. These standards are; clarity, accuracy, depth, logic, and fairness. An argument cannot be considered sound if it violates one of these standards.

Clarity; this means it's free of confusion and can be easily understood. Free from ambiguity. When reasoning is to clear, then it cannot be determined whether it is relevant o accurate. It is difficult to understand the statement at all. Thinking should be clear because it is challenging to tell beyond one's thinking.

Accuracy; it should be free from mistakes. It should be correct. A sentence can be bright but not accurate. Most times, thinking is clear until one has researched and come up with actual results.

Relevance; relating to the matter in question; logical relation to. A statement can be clear and accurate but not relevant. Thinking can stray from the issue or problem at hand. It is vital to assume that an individual has not assessed thinking fully unless he has exhausted all the information and concepts concerning it.

Logic; this is the part that makes sense in a statement. It is adhering to the principles of reasonability and sound judgment. When a sentence is making perfect sense, supporting a matter, then it is logical. Thinking can be conflicting (Palmer, 2013).

An ethical climate is that atmosphere that gives support and encourages individuals to do the right things with the right intentions and for the right goals where behavior consistent is within the army. Sometimes these leaders may put in place some rules and regulations; this does not necessarily mean that their groups will follow the law. This calls for monitoring and taking action to promote the ethical climate in the organization. For these Sergeant Majors to maintain a pleasant environment in their organization, they have to observe behaviors in their unit and to gather feedback. Getting feedback may not be secure, so they might use specific individuals to gather feedback. They have to create an environment that promotes trust and confidence. An excellent ethical climate is that it provides a healthy environment about how people feel about their responsibilities and duties. This environment creates some sense of belonging, reward ethical behavior, and protect units and individuals from unhealthy ambitions. A poor moral climate has threats like lack of transparency, dishonesty, or conflicting interests and ideas (Wimbush & Shepard, 1994).

To develop a tasty or healthy ethical climate, Sergeant Majors should be more involved in their organizations. They should also know their jobs and learn to establish trust among their juniors and even seniors. These leaders should also appreciate honesty and open criticism

To support the ethical behavior, the conduct of the organizational members must be aligned with values, policies, and formal moral code of the organization. The legal systems must be in alignment with the precise methods to create that healthy ethical environment. The Sergeant Majors provide their organizations with the structure of values that help them carry out their daily duties. Their statement has close to no impact on organizational values. Still, when they monitor these doctrines and policies strictly and take action to correct some misconducts, they get more productive. Watching how effective these values put in place and creating an excellent opportunity for the growth of their organization are some of the significant roles of Sergeant Majors. Failure to do so means that they have ignored their sole responsibility of nurturing future responsible leaders (Adams et al., 2001).

To increase an organization's effectiveness, leaders must uphold their culture. To do so, it is of the essence to lay down some rules and regulations that must be followed to the latter to achieve the goals set. These units go through training that upholds their morals and discourages misconduct. Peer pressure or some challenges may lead to misbehavior. There are, however, some programs set up to eradicate such misconduct and build the norm of making better choices like avoiding misbehavior. An ethical climate helps individuals recognize wrong or unethical behavior. To align the conduct with cultures, these organizations have put punishment measures across the organizations. All people must be punished for misconduct regardless of their authority. There are different forms to punish these individuals. In some places, there are specific bodies put in place to punish them, or sometimes they are just punished within their jurisdiction. For instance, extra duties imposed on the offender or confinement to the barracks (Chatman & Cha, 2003).

A Reward system is a crucial component and plays a significant role in organizational alignment. It is ethical to recognize and motivate individuals who work hard to achieve specific goals in organizations. A Reward system is a program set up by an organization to encourage individuals, groups, or units. An organization should, in this case, have an effective reward system, strategies, and policies that aid in rewarding individuals or groups fairly and consistently aligned with its values. The reward system comprises of pay raise or promotion or even gifts. When a group or individuals are rewarded, it promotes an ethical climate. Hard work and ethics are praised, and others are motivated to do so (Sender, 1997).

Ethical alignment requires a substantial and sustained effort over a long period and the full involvement of senior leaders. Maintaining a moral climate requires prolonged efforts of individuals and groups to achieve it. These individuals must put in more effort t encourage each other to choose ethical behaviors. Senior leaders like Sergeant Majors should watch their juniors to uphold their organization's goals and values. This is quite yielding because it requires everyone to play their part to achieve a common goal. These juniors should volunteer to help their seniors to put these rules in place (Drake & Schlachter, 2008).

Once the assessment has been performed, organizational leaders analyze the results and combine forces with a focused leader plan of action to address misalignments between the climate and the standards. They use their counseling programs to align the conduct, policy, and norms with stated values. Counselling has a powerful impact on an individual's behavior. It involves talking to someone in a way that helps with his problem. It means telling someone what to do about a situation. Leaders should consider counseling individuals with issues because it helps build an ethical climate. It gives the impression that the leader is concerned about an individual and is willing to offer assistance. In doing so, they put up programs in organizations with specialists to help them. The goal of this program is to develop these individuals so they can reach their potential, reaching the organizational goals. Sometimes this counseling is guided by the policy, while sometimes it is to improve the employees 'well-being.

2. Explain how extending influence through developing a relationship can assist a Sergeant Major in applying the principle of strategic communication to ensure you provide a current example to support your answer.

Negotiation is a conversation between two or more parties intended to reach a common goal where a conflict exists. Consultation is an essential issue in our daily lives. In mediation, there are terms like interest. Interest is a party's motivation factor. The benefit is usually of economic, security, desires, concerns, and other issues. When negotiating with an organization, one should not consider satisfying the goals of the entire organization but just the department and those on the negotiation table. Sergeant Majors use negotiation most of the time. Mediation in the military usually is reactive rather than intended, especially in matters of danger. To get into a beneficial consultation, the Sergeant Major has to understand some critical issues and follow a structured approach (Taylor et al., 2003).

Preparation; Before a negotiation, some issues will need to be taken into account. For instance, those who will attend and the venue of the negotiation. This will help avoid issues like conflict and unnecessary arguments. The Major should ensure that he is aware of these essential things prior.

Discussion; at this stage, both parties put across their understanding of the situation. The Sergeant Major should use some skills like questioning and listening o details. One should also take notes and not ignore any issue as some may need clarification. Each party should be given sufficient and equal opportunities to speak.

Clarifying goals; at this stage, each group should outline their interests, goals, and disagreements. During clarification, it is possible to find a common goal or ground of the argument. This stage is vital because it might hinder parties from reaching a shared desired outcome. For the Sergeant Major to influence those within and outside his chain of command, he has to ensure he has clarified his goals.

Negotiate towards a win-win outcome; a win-win outcome means that each side feels like they have gained something. This is the ultimate goal of negotiation. At this stage, the sergeant has to compromise or give suggestions considering his goal, which is much better than not cons...