The Role of Moral Formation in How Military Leaders Deal with Morally Challenging Experiences

The profession of being a military leader comes with great and complex moral responsibility; therefore, much emphasis is placed on their moral formation, emanating from their military training, including chaplaincy classes, upbringing, and operational experience. However, their moral formation has hardly been explored. The research behind this article aimed at gaining insight into the role military leaders attribute to the moral formation they received in dealing with morally challenging experiences. Semi-structured interviews with military leaders were conducted and they were thematically analyzed. Participants perceived a gap between the high moral standard that the military organization sets for itself, including the moral education of military leaders, and the morally ambiguous reality of the organization, including officer training. Moral questions related to the deployment of the armed forces only became truly relevant when military leaders experienced them first-hand. Although the potential of chaplains has been broadly recognized, the contribution of military chaplains to the moral formation of military leaders has appeared to be limited. We conclude that it is crucial military leaders receive proper moral guidance in dealing with morally challenging experiences. In practice, chaplains are well-equipped to support military leaders in moral decision-making although several obstacles need to be tackled first.