The Department of the Navy

The Department of the Navy oversees the Navy and the Marine Corps. The Department of the Navy has located the Navy Ethics Compass website under the Legal Community of the Navy. I expected to find more information on the Department of the Navy’s ethics training program but I was only able to access the limited information on the public side of the website. The Department of the Navy (DON) Ethics website requires a Common Access Card to access this website.  

The Department of the Navy Core Values Charter (n.d.) lists three main values: Honor, Courage, and Commitment. The one-page charter lists several bullet points under each main value which describes the actions associated with each value. Several bullet points under Honor coincide with APA Principle B: Fidelity and Responsibility and APA Principle C: Integrity. The four Courage bullet points align with APA Principle D: Justice. The Commitment bullet points address areas covered in APA Principle A: Beneficence and Nonmaleficence and Principle E: Respect for People’s Rights and Dignity ("Department," n.d.).  

I reviewed the 55 PowerPoint slides of the 2012 Annual Ethics Training on the Home page of the Navy Ethics Compass website. The focus of the training is on ethical behavior associated with post-government employment, fund-raising, speaking, teaching, and political activity. While these areas of ethics are applicable for senior officers, I found the training not relevant to the average sailor and marine. A common theme in the training is that ethical questions should be addressed to the Ethics Counselor. While visiting an ethics counselor may be appropriate in some circumstances, soldiers and marines should know what constitutes ethical behavior and be able to take immediate and appropriate actions in daily circumstances. The Home page also included the 2011 Annual Ethics Training, but I did not review those 65 slides.  

The Navy’s Code of Ethics (10 November 2005) states:  

DO

·         Place loyalty to the Constitution, the laws, and ethical principles above private gain.

·         Act impartially to all groups, persons, and organizations.

·         Give an honest effort in the performance of your duties.

·         Protect and conserve Federal property.

·         Disclose fraud, waste, and abuse, and corruption to appropriate authorities.

·         Fulfill in good faith your obligations as citizens, and pay your Federal, State, and local taxes.

·         Comply with all laws providing equal opportunity to all persons, regardless of their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or handicap.

DO NOT

·         Use nonpublic information to benefit yourself or anyone else.

·         Solicit or accept gifts from persons or parties that do business with or seek official action from DOD (unless permitted by an exception).

·         Make unauthorized commitments or promises that bind the government.

·         Use Federal property for unauthorized purposes.

·         Take jobs or hold financial interests that conflict with your government responsibilities.

·         Take actions that give the appearance that they are illegal or unethical. 

The Navy’s Code of Ethics and The Navy Ethics Compass website do address similar standards to the APA Ethics Code. However, the Navy’s Code of Ethics is not as structured or defined as the APA Ethics Code. The Navy Ethics Compass website includes a Reporting Unethical Conduct page that complies with APA Standard 1.05 Reporting Ethical Violations ("Reporting," n.d.). There is also an OPNAV Ethics Guidance page dated August 2008 on the website but the seven documents listed on the page are topics relevant to flag officers.  

The site includes a statement from the Secretary of the Navy on ethics. An excerpt from the Secretary of the Navy Statement on Ethics released in 2007 states,

“No organization, however, especially one as large and geographically widespread as ours, maintains excellence in ethics without constant vigilance, good training and education, and a willingness to make the tough call because it’s the right thing to do.”

 

The Department of the Navy has established core values and a basic code of ethics. The values and code of ethics are important principles that need to be taught to all Naval and Marine Corps personnel in ways that will apply to their workplace interactions.  

 

References

 

Drew, J. (2011). Becoming an ethical warrior [Image]. Downloaded from:  http://www.dvidshub.net/image/380289/becoming-ethical-warrior

 

U.S. Department of Defense, Department of the Navy. (2012). 2012 Annual ethics training presented by the Office of the Assistant General Counsel (Ethics) [Powerpoint]. Retrieved from: http://ethics.navy.mil/content/2012training/training.html

 

U.S. Department of Defense, Department of the Navy. (n.d.). Department of the Navy core values charter. Retrieved from: http://ethics.navy.mil/content/corevaluescharter.aspx

U.S. Department of Defense, Department of the Navy. (2005). Navy code of ethics. Retrieved from: http://ethics.navy.mil/content/codeofethics.aspx

U.S. Department of Defense, Department of the Navy. (2008). OPNAV ethics guidance. Retrieved from: http://ethics.navy.mil/content/opnavethicsguidance.aspx

U.S. Department of Defense, Department of the Navy. (n.d.). Reporting unethical conduct. Retrieved from: http://ethics.navy.mil/content/reporting.aspx

U.S. Department of Defense, Department of the Navy. (2007). Secretary of the Navy statement on ethics. Retrieved from: http://ethics.navy.mil/content/secnavmsgstatement.aspx

U.S. Department of Defense, Department of the Navy. (n.d.). The ethics compass. Retrieved from: http://ethics.navy.mil/Default.aspx