Leadership Values: US Marines Case Study and Conflict Analysis Report

This report delves into the critical role of leadership values within organizations, using the US Marines as a case study. It examines the importance of ethical conduct, highlighting core values such as commitment, courage, and honor. The analysis explores how these values contribute to organizational culture and success. Furthermore, the report identifies potential conflicts that can arise from differing values among leaders and followers, including those related to vision, personality, culture, and ethics. The study emphasizes the need for aligning values to foster a cohesive and ethical environment. The paper discusses the practical application of the US Marines' training to build ethical corporate cultures, emphasizing the significance of ethical decision-making and the creation of a supportive work environment. Ultimately, the report underscores the importance of understanding and managing values to promote effective leadership and organizational harmony.

Running head: LEADERSHIP
Leadership
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:........................................................................................................................... 2
Section 1: Important Values to the Organization....................................................................2
Values for Ethics:................................................................................................................ 3
Commitment Value for Organization:..................................................................................3
Courage value for the Organization:...................................................................................4
Honour value for the Organization:.....................................................................................5
Section 2: Values that creates conflict between leaders and followers...................................6
Conflicts due to value of Vision and Goals:.........................................................................7
Conflict due to value of Personality:....................................................................................7
Conflict Due to Cultural Values:..........................................................................................8
Conflicts Due to the Moral Values:......................................................................................8
Conflict Due to the Honour Value:.......................................................................................9
Conflict Due to Ethical Values:............................................................................................9
Conclusion:............................................................................................................................ 9
References:.......................................................................................................................... 11

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Introduction:
Every organization in the society holds some group of values even if it is not spelled
out or recorded within the organization. This values actually leads the organizational
perspective and the actions of it. These organizational values help a particular organization
to define the beliefs and the culture of its employees and stakeholders (Gehman, Trevino &
Garud, 2013). When this set of values is followed by the organizational members, the
organization becomes more united and tackles several of issues easily.
Within a particular organization values are very much important because it helps the
organization to grow and develop (Bourne & Jenkins, 2013). Values are the core material of
any type of organization since proper decision making under suitable circumstances is
important and these decisions must reflect the values of the organization. These decisions
are basically the reflection of the values which the organization holds and these values
drives the organization towards a specific type of purpose. These purposes are the
satisfaction of the organizational needs. This organizational value reflects how the
organization reflects itself and operates within the global context.
This paper deals with the case study of the ‘Leading an Ethical Corporate Culture?
Apply Seven Lessons from the U.S. Marines’ and from the case study key values within the
US Marines are highlighted and discussed. As mentioned previously, values are the general
sets of behaviour of important individuals of the organization. It is to be ensured that the
employees of the organization must follow the same set of values in order to avoid conflicts
due to differences in values. These potential values which are responsible for creating the
conflict will be also evaluated in this paper.
Section 1: Important Values to the Organization
While considering the organizations like the US Marines, ethics are the one of the
most important aspects of it. Unethical behaviour can create damage to the individuals who
are engaged with it and can also damage the unit cohesiveness and morale (Kouchaki &
Smith, 2014). Thus, the ethics respect to the organization must be learned by the marines.
To learn this ethics an ethical culture must be created within the US Marines. This ethical
culture consists total seven numbers of lessons and the values are one of them. The US
Marines holds various types of values within the organisation and most of them are
important to the organization for motivating the leaders. In the following sections these
values will be evaluated briefly.

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Values for Ethics:
From the case study code of the ethical values are one of the most important values
for the organization. These values are given importance because it actually provides some
practical sense for the business as it facilitates the process of decision making every day
(Brophy, 2015). The process of the decision making is done by clarification of how the
organizational members should act in a particular type of situation. A group of some
internalized values is able to improve the ethical behaviour of the organization and the
individuals of it. In addition, a particular set of values is able to provide the organization a
competitive advantage for a long period of time because the values incorporates the power
of inspiring the members of the organization. For the organizations there are three core
values from the US Marines. These three core values are the commitment, courage and the
honour.
Commitment Value for Organization:
Commitment is one of the core values of the US Marines. This commitment value
within the organization support mutual benefits and a strong relationship (Albdour &
Altarawneh, 2014). The commitment within an organization can help to manage the
relationships which are very much effective in the areas of conflict management, bonds
building, trust building and for interpersonal effectiveness within the organization.
Commitment is also considered as a personal thing which is a strong indicator of the
persistence, resilience and self-discipline.
Motivating the leaders towards their work is very much important for the
organizational success. For motivating the leaders, the commitment is the most important
value. The commitment of the leaders towards organization is the level which determines
how much the leader is engaged with the organization to fulfil the organizational goals. This
value becomes very much important for the organizations because highly productive
employee is very much crucial for the organizations and the level of the productivity is
dependent on the commitment of the employee. Through the highly productive employee
organizations can gain competitive advantage within the market. The commitment of the
leaders and the followers or the employees is also important for the organizations in the
respect of the employee turnover. Whenever an employee or the leader is committed
towards the organization it is generally going to result a lower employee turnover which is
profitable for the organization.
The commitment assists to effect a change which is important for the organizations
when it is not getting any type of growth (Dhar, 2015). This is because there must be
suitable changes with proper commitment that will provide a clear roadmap to organization

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regarding turnaround from the lack of growth. The commitment value for the organization is
divided into some sub-categories. The first one is the affective commitment. The affective
commitment towards the organization is the value which refers to the loyalty that the leader
or the employees holds. For this loyalty the leaders and the employees are willing to fulfil the
organizational goals. The effective commitment value also enhances the job satisfaction of
the employees as the employees follow the principles and the corporate objectives of the
organization. This category of the commitment produces a supportive work environment
within the organization which improves the productivity of the organization.
The second commitment is the continuance commitment. This value of commitment
leads to the fact that employees and the leaders believe that the leaving cost of the
organization is too high. In this case the employee and the leaders believe that they will not
get the same benefits after leaving the current organization. This is actually a typical type of
commitment which leads to the fact that employees need to stay in the organization because
they have to.
The third one is the normative commitment. This value refers to the fact that
employees are committed to the organization because the employee believes that he or she
needs to stay out from some perceived obligations (Yucel, McMillan & Richard, 2014). This
is the type of commitment in which the employees need to stay in the organization because
they ought to.
Courage value for the Organization:
The courage is another core value of the US Marines which is considered the key of
great leadership within the organization. The courage is very much vital within the
organization because it helps to bring success in an ambiguous, uncertain, complex and
volatile type of environment that constantly demands increased speed (Comer & Vega,
2015). These speeds are related with the taking of actions, making of decisions and creation
of values to engage with the organization in a meaningful and constructive way. This
important value of the US Marines is categorised into six different sections. These are the
Physical Courage, Social Courage, Moral Courage, Emotional Courage, Intellectual Courage
and the Spiritual Courage.
Physical Courage: The physical courage value of the employees is related with the bravery.
The employees who holds these types of values are always ready for taking risks for their
organization. In such of the cases the commitment value also works within them. Though the
physical courage is important in many cases but it is not the most needed value among the
employees and leaders of the organization no organization wants their employees to be in
some physical danger.

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Social Courage: The social courage value of the employees is about expressing their own
thoughts. This is very much helpful for the organization in the sense that everyone will be
express their ideas within the organization so that new ideas will be developed. Furthermore,
this will help the organization to point out the flaws within the organization as everyone will
be able express their ideas.
Moral Courage: Moral courage value is all about doing the right things always. Those
peoples who possesses this value will always do the right thing in a particular type of
situation even if this is ridicule and risky for them (Pury et al., 2014). In the organizations
moral courage helps the leadership by making perfect judgement and what actions need to
be taken for a particular type of behaviour. This helps the leaders to identify their
responsibilities which is important for any type of organization.
Emotional Courage: The theory of emotional courage value in the leadership states that
this is about open feelings to all (Palmer, 2017). Peoples holding this value are generally
shares their feeling to the others in a full spectrum, in both positive and negative way. The
emotional courage value is all about self-awareness and truthfulness of the employees
which are very much important for the organizations. Also, this is related with the self-
acceptance and moving out from the self-comfort zone when required by others which are
required by the organizations in many cases.
Intellectual Courage: In the theory of the leadership, the intellectual courage value states it
is a typical type of value which helps the peoples to learn from the challenges. The
employees or the leaders who holds this value are always ready to deal with confusing or
difficult concepts and able to struggle to gain understanding of a particular situation or
concept. This value of the employees and the leaders are required by the organizations this
intellectual courage helps to solve complex structural problem of the economy, environment
and the society which are a big challenge for the organizations.
Spiritual Courage: Spiritual Courage value is the leadership theory which answers the
purpose why being here to the employees. This is an important value which the leaders must
hold to describe the purpose of the employees within the organization. When the employees
have their purposes within the organization, they will be more motivated towards their work
which is essential for any type of organization.
Honour value for the Organization:
In the US Marines the honour is demonstrated as the honourable thing even if there
is no one to witness it. When the employees do some type of honourable things solid

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reputation of the organization is built. In addition, doing the honourable things will create
trust on the organization of the consumers and the stakeholders.
According to a study in the Redstone test centre honour is the expression of doing
the right thing which will represent the employees and their organizations. The honour value
is very much important within the organization because it creates trust within the
organization among the employees (Last, 2013). As per the theory of leadership honour
helps to define the person which actually defines the organization. The honour value of the
employees is a critical success to the organization because it enhances the ingredients
which are required for accomplish the mission of the organization. As this will help to focus
on the mission, better output will come for the organization. The honour value is also related
with the commitment value.
The honour is also an important concept for the organization leaders. A good leader
always finds various different ideas for honouring the employees of the organization because
it makes the employees motivated to their works which is actually beneficial for the
organizations (Dinh et al., 2014). This is because that the honour is considered as the
recognition, respect, openness and honesty. In a basic structure of business three main
things are focused which are the processes, technology and the culture of the organization.
The honour value builds a strong and a proactive culture at the intersection of the operations
and technology which are critical for an ongoing success. Honour within an organization
support the growth of the business and help to reach the success. Also, the honour builds a
sense of fair play within the organization and also, increase the satisfaction of the
employees. The honour instils dignity and the pride which are again important for the
success for any organization. Thus, honour value is very much important within the
organization.
Section 2: Values that creates conflict between leaders and
followers
In the above section it is determined how the values of the leaders motivate them
consistently and which value of the US Marines seems to be most important for the
organizations. While the values are very much important for the organizations for reaching to
the success it can also create conflicts within the organization. The prior reason behind
values create conflict within the organization is arrival of different types of issues for a same
concept (Le Pelley et al., 2015). In most of the cases these conflicts occur between the
leaders and the employees or the followers within the organization and the main reason
behind this is possessing different values as mentioned previously. This conflict between the
leaders and the followers can bring various types of issues within the organization. The

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ethics of the leaders are controlled by the value of them and these ethical behaviours is the
related with the positive outcomes where the unethical behaviours does the opposite job
which is the negative outcome. Several of research implies that values can be considered as
ethical in the sense of the relationship of leader-follower. Again, this relationship is varied
across, culture, individual and situation. This indicates that value is a function of culture and
it is possible that the value conflict will arise across different cultures. Thus, in the following
sections the values of the leader which can creates problem within the organization will be
described briefly.
Conflicts due to value of Vision and Goals:
The value of the leaders creates vision and goals for the organizational success
which also inspire the followers (Farndale et al., 2014). What type of vision and goals are
created by the leader is depends on the values which the leader is possessing. When the
leader is possessing positive values for creating vision and goals for the organization the
conflict between the leaders and followers or the employees are less likely to occur. In such
situation when the leader is possessing some negative values chances of occurring the
conflict is very much high as the leader might be wanted to get the organizational success in
some unethical way. Thus, conflict arises in the organization between the leader and the
followers regarding the unethical vision and goals.
Conflict due to value of Personality:
From the case study of the US Marines it is also assessed that the value also
controls the personality of the leader and the followers or the employees. For a successful
leader the nature or the personality of the leader must be charismatic type with having a
forceful personality. The conflict in the organization also arises due to these personalities as
various leaders and followers are having different types of personalities. There are mainly
total four types of personalities which are the Dominant Personalities, Conscientious
Personalities, Influential Personalities and the Steady Personalities.
Dominant Personalities: The peoples who possesses the value of dominant personalities
generally confrontational and direct (Lai et al., 2015). Leaders or followers having this type of
values try to address an issue very quickly. This type of peoples is impulsive.
Conscientious Personalities: This type of peoples is set in their ways and they are very
much difficult to convince. These peoples take a systematic approach whatever they do.
Influential Personalities: Leaders or the followers who have this type of personalities
adapts the team environment as a home. This type of peoples has a very good bonding with
their colleagues which helps them works perfectly in an organization.

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Steady Personalities: The employees and the leaders having the steady personality are
very much predictable and consistent (Eysenck, 2013). They will never cause any type of
distraction within the work environment and prioritise the group harmony the most.
Now a clash will definitely occur within these four types of personalities because in a
group between the opposite types. In first case when considering the steady personality
people and a dominant personality people, conflict will definitely arise as the steady
personality peoples will not provide any response to the peoples of dominant traits and vice
versa. The steady peoples will be passive while the dominant peoples will be aggressive and
this will create conflict in the organization respect of the important decision-making process.
Also, there will be a clash between the conscientious people and influential peoples in the
organization. This is because the influential peoples are too much impulsive which not
perfectly match with the conscientious peoples as they are very much detail oriented. Again,
these conscientious peoples will have problems with the other three type of peoples due to
the nit-picks which are not needed and by some time slowing down the overall project.\
Conflict Due to Cultural Values:
From the case study of the US Marines it has been assessed that the cultural values
are important for the leaders and followers. Though this is important to the followers and the
leaders these cultural values can cause a huge conflict within the organization because
different peoples hold different types of cultural values (Trueba, Jacobs & Kirton, 2014). This
type of conflicts occurs when different types of cultural beliefs and values clash with each
other. The leader and the follower might be approaching to concept perfectly but the way of
approach might be different due to different cultural values. Due to this the leader and the
followers interprets each other wrong and an organizational conflict arises. This conflict due
to the cultural values can also because of the strong emotions where the issue of the
disagreement can be insignificant.
Conflicts Due to the Moral Values:
Moral value is also important for the US Marines to work perfectly in their domains
which assessed from the case study. Though this is important for the US Marines, these
moral values can create conflict between the leaders and the followers within the
organization. These moral values occur due to the acting of the disputants that they act
within the different social worlds, according to different types of meaning (Mooijman et al.,
2017). Also, one of the conflicts arises in the organization due to the trouble of breaking the
pattern of interaction within a particular group and that is due to own moral orders of the
leaders and the followers. Also, when considering two separate groups, the way of making
sense to the life can be different for the groups. In most of the cases, the actions taken by

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the one group will be considered good to the same members while the members of the other
group will consider this as an evil or a foolish action vice versa. This happens totally because
of the moral orders of the group members that creates the conflict within an organization.
Conflict Due to the Honour Value:
In the pervious section it has been identified that how much the honour value is
important for the organization. Though it is important for the organization, still it is one of the
main reasons of organizational conflict. This type of honour related conflict occurs in the
organization due to the own belief of the leaders of the organizations (Juth et al., 2013).
Within an organization the leaders are liable for honouring a follower or an employee. These
decisions are based on the beliefs of the leader. Suppose, two followers or employees
performs a similar type of tasks and both of them got the perfect outcome but the leader
honour only one of them because that person was the best from the leader’s perspective
though the two has got similar type of results. Thus, the other follower may believe that the
leader is biased to that person and it will be the reason of the organizational conflict between
the leader and the followers.
Conflict Due to Ethical Values:
Ethical value is one of the most important value in the sector of the US Marines. All
the mariners of the US Marines believe in same ethical ways of performing the operations
which they learned from their training. As all the mariners believe in same ethical value no
conflict arises between them but for the other organizations this is not the same case and
one of the main reasons behind the arise of the organizational conflict is the ethical values.
Ethics is something which is controlled by the values (Lefkowitz, 2017). This conflict does
not arise in the US Mariners but arises in the other organizations due to the fact that
everyone in the US Mariners believe in the same ethical values because they trained so but,
in the other organizations different types of peoples holds different types of ethical values.
While the leader is trying to suggest a follower to perform a task in a particular way, it can be
unethical way for the follower. So, he or she can refuse to perform that task in given
particular way. This is the main reason behind the occurrence of the conflict in the
organization. Also, this conflict can arise in the vice versa situation where the leader may
find that the follower is doing something which is unethical to him or her.
Conclusion:
From the above discussion it can be concluded that different types of values are very
much important for the organizations. In this paper the case study of the ‘Leading an Ethical
Corporate Culture? Apply Seven Lessons from the U.S. Marines’ has been analysed
successfully and from that case study three core values have been determined which are

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very much important for the organizations. These three values are the core values of the US
Marines that are Commitment, Courage and Honour. Commitment is one of the most
important value for the organization because it helps to build a strong relationship within the
organizations and provides mutual benefits. From the discussion it has been assessed that
the commitment is so much important for motivating the leaders towards their works.
Commitment to the organizations of the employees is very much beneficial for the
organizations because of the low employee turnover. Also, this provides competitive
advantage to the organizations in the current market situation. The courage value of the US
marines is also important for the organizations because the employees and the leader who
holds this value can bring the success for the organization in a complex, ambiguous, volatile
and uncertain situation which are extremely important. The third value of the US Marines
which is the Honour value is also very much precious for the organizations as it builds a solid
reputation of the organization in the market which is extremely important for the
organizational growth.
This paper also having a broad discuss about the other values which the follower and
the leaders possesses from the values of the US Marines. From the discussion it has been
assessed that there are some values, present which can create organizational conflict due to
differing values for the same concept. From the case study this these conflicting values are
the value of organizational vision and goals, value of personality, cultural values, moral
values, honour value and the ethical values. All of these conflicting values are described
briefly in this paper and how they are creating the conflict is also discussed. As these
conflicting values are also important for the organization, further it must find some way to
mitigate these organizational conflicts.

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