One of the first things I was taught as I prepared to become a Non-Commissioned Officer was that I should strive to avoid creating ethical dilemmas for my soldiers. This means that I shouldn’t issue orders whose fulfillment would require my soldiers to do unethical things such as “Lay out your gear in one hour. If you don’t have X then you will be punished.” When you give orders like this with no legitimate outlet (like giving them enough warning so thy can buy what they need) you promote a lawless atmosphere in which your soldiers will resort to theft from others to keep from being punished.

            Officers (and leaders in general) seem to forget this quite often.  Barracks life is a great example. About 90% of the barracks I have lived in or had soldiers living in have had a “No Sex” policy. Now when a commander drafts this policy letter and is signing it on his desk he has to know (unless he is a complete chimp) that even before the ink is dry on the paper the order has been violated (likely more than once). So why issue it?

            Issuing this type of order simply undermines a leaders authority. Parents understand this (the good ones). After all if you have a rule you know will be broken then you have laid the groundwork for further disobedience. Once you have refused one order why not more?

            When a leader makes a habit of issuing meaningless edicts it is a guarantee of inevitable failure and poor unit performance. It isn’t pretty. This is why private businesses with “morality” rules tend toward abysmal failure. You simply can’t legislate some things and trying to do so simply creates entire classes of lawbreakers who move closer to utter disdain for all of the rules. Doesn’t work for soldiers, doesn’t work for kids, and doesn’t work for business. Set your soldiers (or workers/kids) up for success not preordained failure.