Navy Leaders and Ethics

해군 리더와 윤리

A series of immoral conducts are repeatedly occurring by some commanders and high-ranking officers in the ROK navy. They are seriously compromising not only harmony and solidarity of the organization, but also pride and morale of members of the service. They seem to be results of the fragile ethical background of the service as well as of failures in military education and training on ethics. This paper sees backgrounds of weak ethical foundations of the navy as follows: the enduring legacies of cultural factors, such as the toxic military culture of the Japanese colonization, dark side of mariners' traditions, the sea-aversive Confucian culture, and unique characteristics in any small organization or society, etc... This paper also suggests the current ethnic systems of the navy are primarily based on responsive measures against misdeeds, rather than fundamental prescriptions for immoral behaviors, in the absence of ethical instrument for warriors. The paper also emphasizes the importance of developing character-based leadership, founded on, above all, respects for human integrity and strong sense of honor. Moreover, the importance of accountability in charging the command, as advocated by the US navy, is also stressed in order to establish a more robust ethic ground within the navy. Based on these analyses, the author proposes that in order to become a stronger and healthier fighting force, the navy needs to make continuous command efforts and organizational innovations to improve ethic principle and moral standard of the service, to strengthen ethics of naval leaders by a robust system of ethical education and training programs, and ultimately to solidify a navy culture in which moral passions and energies are spreading over.