ES and Navy Partner for Leadership Development (Excerpt from September 1999 Circuit)

Last month, 35 Business Conduct Officers and Ethics support personnel from across Northrop Grumman gathered at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., to share best practices with the Academy staff. The focus of the workshop was integrating ethics, values, and leadership development to retain talented individuals within the organization.

ES³ Sector President Jim Roche kicked off the workshop with a challenge for all attendees. "Over the past 15 years, defense industry ethics programs have centered on establishing codes of conduct, articulating procedures, and creating processes for employee inquiries and reports, such as our OpenLine," he said. "As a result, our ethics programs are up and running strong; however that was the easy part. Developing and empowering leaders with the skills necessary to make ethical business decisions in increasingly complex and ambiguous situations is the harder work that lies ahead."

Echoing Dr. Roche's challenge, Admiral Hank Chiles, Distinguished Chair of Leadership, U.S.N.A., described how the Academy "home grows" leaders who are morally and mentally fit by teaching them to think.

"Prior to making a decision, one should consider the long-term ramifications of the action--people directly impacted within the organization, as well as the general public," Chiles explained. Using real-life case studies, Chiles requires midshipmen examine the ethics of problems that have no explicit right or wrong answer, in addition to performing traditional technical analyses.

Commandant of Midshipmen Rear Admiral Gary Roughead continued the leadership development discussion by admitting his task was somewhat easier than industry's because his typical student is down-selected from a population that leans towards a highly structured environment.

Roughead explained that his challenge is to ensure midshipmen can perform in any situation--from the classroom to the battlefield. Midshipmen are sent on "summer cruise" during June and July each year to gain practical experience outside the Academy walls. They are placed in environments that facilitate teamwork and enable them to make difficult decisions in chaotic conditions. Roughead concluded his discussion with the importance of a balanced curriculum.

"The judgments our young people have to make are more complicated than ever before," he said. "We must ensure they are morally, mentally, and physically up to the challenge."

With the challenge articulated, the Northrop Grumman workshop attendees developed priorities for the months ahead. Clearly, providing employees with relevant information that enables strong decision making is important. For example, educating the work force on Export Control earlier this year served to prevent future disclosures and promotes healthy International business growth.

As a result, additional subjects will be added to the training docket in the future. Distribution methods for information will also be expanded. Web-based and CD/ROM training software will be deployed by January 2000. In addition, the Training and Development organization is preparing new leadership development courseware for employees.

Most importantly, leadership commitment to high ethical standards will continue to be demonstrated throughout the sector. Clearly, Northrop Grumman's long-term success relies on a work environment of shared values, high ethical standards, and compliance with laws and policies.

"We must actively respond to threats to our business, but we must continue to do so ethically, intelligently, and very, very efficiently," said Jim Roche. "We remain committed to offering superb products, demanding fair and open competition, and competing well and ethically on every program."