Does The End Justify The Means?

Episode 19:  The Long John Flap

Klinger:   Father, over here.  I would like to ask your advice on a spiritual matter.

Father:     Why certainly.

Klinger:   If you need something – I mean, if you’re really cold 

or something – it wouldn’t be a mortal

sin to steal from somebody who was kind of a rotten 

person anyway?  Would it?

Father:    Have you stolen something?

Klinger:   These (passes out from hiding a pair of long johns)

Father:    Oh, my.  Aren’t they nice. Whoever you took these from  must be very cold now.

Klinger:    Father, if I give them back, the certain person I took them from would like to have me killed.  I’ve really been trying to avoid that lately.

The 4077 are experiencing a cold snap.  Hawkeye receives a pair of long johns from home, which become a coveted item in camp and are traded among the personnel, until they are stolen and returned to Colonel Blake to try and find the original owner.

One of the complications of leading in a world of relative morality and blurry boundaries is how easy it is to allow the end to justify the means.  These are those occasions when unethical or even illegal actions are engaged by organizations to achieve the desired outcomes, at whatever cost.   As leaders, our perception of the greater good should never compromise the truth of what actually is good.  Without clear absolutes, boundaries or vision our core values and integrity are at risk of becoming the casualty of morally and ethically questionable methods.