Ethics Under-Pressure Training!                                November 2005

Have you ever been a member of an organization that had such an ethical meltdown that the top management declared a "values stand-down" day? No? Then you must not be a member of the U.S. Army recruiting corps. Values stand-down day is Army lingo for correcting a growing number of abuses by Army recruiters who have resorted to unethical practices to meet enlistment quotas amid an increasingly reluctant population of young men and women. Stories of Army recruiters roaming the malls and streets of America in search of enlistments are true and are not necessarily unethical but . . . can be. A New York Times story (May 12, 2005) reports that Army statistics show that substantiated cases of improprieties have increased from 199 in 1999 to 320 in 2004.

So how do you stop an ethics meltdown on a dime? Require everyone in the organization to get an ethics inoculation by attending ethics training for a day. The U.S. Army is not the only organization to believe in this foolishness. In a previous life I had as a member of a large public university, I was required (along with every member of my department) to attend a two hour training session on sexual harassment . . . why? Because one faculty member was alleged to have taken advantage of his position to develop relationships with female students in his classes. As it turns out, this fellow was finally given a "don't ask, don't tell" good by from the university.

The university administration closed the door and covered its you know what by mandating ethics under-pressure training for all members of the department!