Korea Army’s Value as a Way to Character Education for Military Personnel

Abstract

Purpose: This paper intends to identify the core values of the Republic of Korea Army (ROKA) and the foundation for character education. The ROKA aims to win the ground war as the central force of national defense. Method: In order to accomplish the research purpose, the researcher critically reviewed the literature related to the Korea Army value and character education including policy reports, army papers, and academic articles. Results: The ROKA is trying to establish a new military culture and value system to responds to changes from the internal and external environment and to educate the so-called MZ generation soldiers who are majority of the military personnel. Value refers to a resource that satisfies an individual's needs in a subjective sense, and a hierarchy occurs according to an individual's tendency or desire. If these values persist for a long time, they will also have a hierarchy at the social level, too. In addition, an organizational culture is formed in the direction of pursuing the values even in the military organizations. Conclusion: In this respect, this paper presents the values that the ROKA pursues, the organizational culture formed around these values, and the directions of character education system to imbue the core values.