Ethics, Moral and Values in the context of Military Leadership for Gen-Y: An Indian Armed Forces Perspective

Abstract

Military ethos embodies service to the nation. Since the inception of our country, t he Indian Armed Forces have defended the nation through the dedication of its soldiers. The nation is proud of their discipline, integrity, loyalty, patriotism, selfless service, and courage. However, with the changing concept of warfare to network-centric operations, there is a requirement to induct highly professional manpower, the so-called Gen-Y workforce. The present work is aimed at carrying out a reality check of our present value system and assess the fault line. In our attempt to gauge the present state of Ethics and Values in the Armed Forces today, we embarked on an analytical study encompassing, assessment of ‘Organizational Culture’, ‘Ethical Climate’ and along with it an opinion survey of ‘Erosion of Values’. To arrive at the corrective measures, views were also sought on a variety of issues connected with ethical decision making, un-ethical practices commonly observed, ethical temptations which a military leader falls a prey knowingly or unknowingly.