A message in A Few Good Men got me thinking about the organizational norm of the Marines of giving orders and following orders. A main ethical point that I saw in the movie was the assuming responsibility of giving and accepting orders. It was customary in the Marine division to act upon an order without question. Colonel Jessup even said that lives would be in danger if his orders weren’t followed. Failure to fulfill an order goes against the organizational norms of the Marines. These organizational norms included loyalty to the “code.” Santiago wasn’t loyal to the code, and Colonel Jessup ordered a “Code RED” on Santiago. The result of the Code RED was the subsequent death of Santiago. Who should be held responsible for the death? The one
