Ethics: Can Public Land Management Agencies Learn from the Military

Abstract

Abstract : Professional ethics has long been considered a foundation for the leadership of the U.S. armed forces and receives considerable emphasis in the military's leadership development programs. Current trends indicate an apparent erosion of the ethical fiber of the U.S., making the military's emphasis on the subject of professional ethics timely and highly appropriate. In contrast, the three largest Federal public land management agencies, (the U.S. Department of Interior's National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service), do not include an ethics component in any of their national leadership development programs. This study explores national trends with respect to professional ethics, the military's approach to developing an ethical foundation in their leaders and the approach of the public land management agencies. In addition, the two professions, the military professional and the professional public land manager, are compared in terms of the ethical dilemmas that each must face. These starkly different professions surprisingly face very similar ethical issues in the conduct of their duties. Conclusions suggest that public land managers, and their respective agencies, could benefit from an increased emphasis on the subject of professional ethics. (sdw)