Case study about ethical work behavior in gov

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Chapter2-7 Ethics and values in the public sector

Becoming Ethically Competent

• What knowledge, skills, and abilities does one need to be ethically competent?

• This is not an easy question to answer as there is considerable debate about the matter.

• Aspects of ethical competency are:

1-Understanding of legitimacy in governance (lawfulness and effectiveness in governing)

2- An awareness of one’s commitments in relation to one’s own interests and the interests of others

3- Most importantly an attitude of respect for the collective effort within an organization including participation in and promotion of a culture of justification.

Defining Ethical competency

It is difficult to imagine that a government manager would be regarded as “ethically competent” if he had no knowledge of the profession’s code of ethics, relevant ethics ordinances, or ethics laws.

It is not imaginable that one could become ethically competent without having the skills and ability to recognize an ethical issue and act appropriately to resolve it.

Ethical competency can be defined in terms of integrity: personal, professional, and organizational

Areas of integrity

Personal integrity

Professional integrity

Organizational integrity

Personal, Professional & Organizational integrity

• Integrity: Demonstrating fairness, honesty, and ethical and legal awareness in personal and professional relationships and activities

• Integrity requires knowledge of business/administrative and personal ethics in addition to the ability to understand issues of ethics and integrity in specific situations

• Practices that contribute to core content of integrity are:

1-Personal integrity. Demonstrating accountability for personal actions; conducting personal relationships and activities fairly and honestly.

2-Professional integrity: Conducting professional relationships and activities fairly, honestly, legally, and in conformance with the Code of Ethics.

• Professional integrity requires knowledge of administrative ethics and specifically the Code of Ethics.

Integrity cont. … organizational Integrity

3-Organizational integrity means fostering ethical behavior throughout the organization through:

A-personal example

B-management practices, and training in administrative ethics

C- ability to instill accountability into operations

D-ability to communicate ethical standards and guidelines to others

Abilities of ethically competent administrators:

• James S. Bowman and others contend that ethically competent administrators must understand and practice moral reasoning, be able to sort through competing values, and engage in prudent decision making.

• More specifically, they note that four abilities are needed by ethically competent administrators:

(1) moral reasoning based on principles

(2) recognition of ethics-related conflicts

(3) refusal to do something unethical

(4) application of ethical theory

An ethically competent manager

• Becoming ethically competent is not a simple or straightforward task. Yet, it is doable.

• It is imperative that men and women entering the profession of government management become ethically competent public servants.

• An ethically competent manager must have:

1- An awareness of and sensitivity to ethical concerns in his/her organizational environment

2- Be able to differentiate between ethical and management issues when circumstances warrant a distinction.

ELEMENTS OF ETHICALLY COMPETENT MANAGERS:

For purposes of this course, an ethically

competent government manager is

(1) committed to high standards of personal

and professional behavior

(2) has knowledge of relevant ethics codes

and laws

(3) has the ability to engage in ethical reasoning when confronted with

challenging situations,

(4) is able to identify and act on public service ethics and

values

(5) promotes ethical practices and behavior in public agencies and

organizations. see exhibit 2.1

EXHIBIT 2.2 Ethical Competencies*

Be knowledgeable of ethical principles

Be aware and informed of relevant professional codes of ethics .

Recognize and promote constitutional principles of equality, fairness, representativeness.

Recognize and support the public’s right to know the public’s business .

Respect the law .

Serve the public interest .

Engage in ethical reasoning .

Recognize and differentiate between ethical and management issues .

Respect and protect privileged information .

Embrace and promote ethical behavior and practices in the workplace.

Refuse to do something unethical .

Maintain truthfulness and honesty .

Guard against conflict of interest or its appearance .

Be responsible for one’s behavior .

*not prioritized

Ethical Competencies

• The competencies in Exhibit 2.2 are drawn from the public service literature and key principles in the Code of Ethics of the American Society for Public Administration.

• They also reflect the central elements in the definition of ethical competency offered above.

• Ethical competencies can be divided into three groups :

A.Knowledge: understanding of an organized body of ethics information

B.Skills: the verbal, manual, or mental use of people, data, or things ethically

C.Abilities: the power to perform a given ethical act

Serving the public interest

• High on the list of competencies is “serve the public interest.”

• Serving the public interest requires a government manager to place the public interest above his self-interests or the organization’s self-interests.

• This is not an easy thing to do because “Working inside organizations, you will feel pressures to carry out orders you feel uneasy about, and, to get ahead, there will be temptations to compromise yourself and your principles or instincts.” This is not serving the public interest, is it?

The ethically competent manager

• Defining the public interest from the vantage point of government management is not always a straightforward matter.

• Still, it is incumbent on (required that) ethically competent managers to make every effort to carry out their duties in a manner that is consistent with the public interest.

• The ethically competent manager must draw on her/her knowledge of the public interest and possess the necessary skills and abilities to ensure that the public interest prevails.

Respect for the law

• Intertwined with serving the public interest is “respect for the law.”

• The rule of law is critical to public governance, and it is expected that those sworn to uphold the law will do just that, although there can be a place for legitimate, principled dissent (disagreement).

• Public managers may not be elected officials who are charged with the responsibility to enact laws that govern the country. However, they are vital actors in implementing the law.

• The ethically competent public manager understands his/her role and must act in a manner that is lawful and respectful of his elected or appointed bosses.

Differentiate between ethical and management issues

Several competencies are related to skills and abilities.

• A key skill and ability is to recognize and differentiate between ethical and management issues.

• This is no trivial matter as it is often difficult to discern (distinguish) which is which and sometimes the two are undistinguishable.

• However, to mistake a management issue as an ethical issue or vice versa can result in mismanagement or improper intervention.

• Consider the matter of solicitations in the workplace (Case 2.1)“Workplace Solicitations”. This case can be considered an ethical or management issue.

How employees are solicited can make the difference in

determining whether it is an ethical issue or a

management issue.

If employees feel pressured to “go along to get along” there would most likely be considerable anxiety and

ethical distress.

Embrace ethical practices and behavior in the workplace

• Another key competency, “embrace ethical practices and behavior in the workplace,” also relate to skills and abilities.

• While most managers would find this skill has merit, few managers actually do it. Why? Because often supervisors and top management fail to recognize the value in emphasizing ethical behavior until there is a serious issue or problem.

• Managers tend to be reactive rather than proactive. Also, higher level managers may be unaware of misconduct at work.

• If employees do not report ethical problems, organizational managers may not recognize problems until a crisis is at hand.

Ethical reasoning

• Becoming an ethically competent manager also means having the ability to engage in “ethical reasoning”, an approach to resolve issues and dilemmas that can be both taught and learned.

Ethical reasoning: Becoming aware

• Public managers typically approach “doing the right thing” from a utilitarian perspective.

• That is, they try to make decisions that benefit the greatest number of citizens (or employees when decisions apply only to the government workforce) while minimizing the potential harm.

• This “do no harm” approach is attractive because it is straightforward and, on many occasions, easy to understand.

• What do practitioners do when faced with especially difficult ethics moments? Some apply a blend of normative philosophies— utilitarianism, principles (rights and justice), and virtues—the “ethics triangle.”

Four Methods of Ethical Reasoning

• Others apply ethical reasoning, which incorporates some aspects of the classic normative approaches but also emphasizes a decision- making logic and process.

• Dennis Witmer has studied ethical decision making and contends that:

“Ethical judgment and behavior are conditioned by individual influences, such as age, experience, and employment tenure, and external influences, such as the prevailing reward/punishment structure, ethical work climates, organizational policies, and codes of conduct”.

• Central to Witmer’s behavioral model of ethical reasoning are:

1.The individual’s sensitivity to an ethical situation

2.The ability to exercise judgment in selecting a choice that results in ethical behavior.

• Thus “ethical decisions are a product (in part) of sensitivity and perception of the ethical issues and the reasoning used to arrive at some conclusion about what to do in the situation.”

Terry L. Cooper’s Model of Ethical reasoning:

• Terry L. Cooper places ethical reasoning at the center of choice intended to resolve an ethical problem.

• Cooper’s model “does not assume that ethical decisions are, can, or should be purely rational and principled.” Rather, human feelings are an inseparable part of our ethical life.

• Values and judgments are critical to the decision-making process to resolve an ethical problem.

• The individual must learn how to draw upon one’s moral imagination to project probable consequences of the ethical choices one makes in a given situation.

How then should we go about learning how to reason ethically and acquire other ethical competencies?

Ethical reasoning emphasizes the dynamics and interplay between alternatives, values that might be derived from principles or virtues,

and commonsense judgment to resolve a challenging ethics

moment.

One answer to the above question is to examine real-world cases and controversies—or what can be described as case learning.

Case Learning

• How do cases help us learn about ethics and reason through a dilemma? How do we make sense of cases? What do cases offer that other learning approaches do not?

• First, cases are excellent for bringing abstract concepts down to earth. Trust, integrity, ethics, and the public interest, for example, are abstract concepts that must be grounded in reality; cases approximate reality.

• Second, cases put situations in context which is crucial to an in-depth understanding of a difficult ethical situation.

• Most dilemmas are complex and challenging because they are surrounded continuously changing events and circumstances.

Case learning cont.

• Third, and perhaps most importantly, cases encourage learning by discovery, which is widely regarded as very effective in enabling the learner to retain information, concepts, and knowledge.

• Unlike lectures, which put the emphasis on the presenter’s oral skills and the learner’s listening skills, case learning emphasizes trial-and-error, self- analysis and assessment, and, in instances in which the learner is a member of a group, active learning.

• “The case method develops the readers’ ability to reason by requiring that they perform analysis, engage in exploratory discussion, and find ‘best possible’ rather than right/wrong solutions.”

• Readers often generate solutions to problems they may never have experienced; it is thinking “outside the box.”

Case learning cont.

• Learning with cases means engagement with ideas and other learners.

• It emphasizes the ability to process contextual details and connect the dots.

• It is a combination of problem solving and, like a 10,000-piece puzzle, putting the pieces together to form a large picture of the situation. Learners develop “a holistic understanding of the subject area.”

Case learning cont.

• Cases lend themselves very well to learning how to engage in ethical reasoning.

• Moreover, the cases can be effectively dealt with by learning how to address five ethical reasoning questions—see Exhibit 2.3.

• These five questions, if asked skillfully and thoughtfully, will help you reason through an ethics issue.

• Most importantly, with practice and experience, when that ethics moment arrives—and it will—you will be much better prepared to deal with it.

EXHIBIT 2.3 Ethical Reasoning Questions

1. Is there an ethical issue? The answer to this question depends on one’s ethical sensitivity and ability to evaluate a situation.

2. What is the ethical issue? An ethics issue can easily be mistaken for a management issue and sometimes the two overlap a great deal.

3. What might be done to resolve the situation? Once the issue is defined, a set of alternatives should be thought through in order to decide which alternative is the best course of action.

4. Does the preferred course of action satisfy the needs/preferences of the primary stakeholders, including yourself? This is where one’s values enter into the decision.

5. Is the action itself ethical? An unethical means to an ethical end is no more justified than an ethical means to an unethical end.

EXHIBIT 2.4 Guidelines: Steps in Preparing for a Case Analysis

1. Go through the case as fast as possible, asking yourself, “What, broadly, is the case about and what types and amounts of information am I being given to analyze?” Often the problem or decision is laid out at the start and/or end of the case.

2. Read through the case very carefully, underlining key facts and making marginal notes. Data presented in tables or figures should be analyzed, a key maneuver some readers tend to avoid. For each exhibit ask yourself, “What is its point? What does it tell me?” Then ask yourself, “What are the issues facing the decision makers? Do the issues focus around a single point? Do they form a principal or main decision question?”

3. Go through the case again, elaborating the issues that are important to the principal decision.

EXHIBIT 2.4 (Continued

4. Develop a set of alternative solutions that will deal with the required decision and describe these solutions so you appreciate what they will involve.

5. Analyze each alternative in terms of the disciplinary criteria or issues important to the decision. Consider how it will deal with each of the issues you have identified.

6. Compare the alternatives to see which seems to best meet the criteria or deal with the issues.

7. Make a recommendation based on the comparison of the alternatives.

8. Prepare a statement, if appropriate, of what needs to be done to implement the recommendation.

• Source: Adapted from K. Harling and J. Akridge, “Using the Case Method of Teaching,” Agribusiness 4: 1 (1998): 1–14.

Key points in analyzing cases

The cases span a range of topics and situations about which public managers need knowledge such as understanding:

(1) the motivation that leads to (un)ethical behavior

(2) the context in which individuals choose the right or wrong course of action

(3) the manner in which a troubling situation is resolved for better or worse

(4) why ethical leadership among peers and subordinates is crucial

(5) why rules and laws, although plentiful, are not sufficient to produce ethical behavior

(6) how professional associations contribute to building organizations of integrity

• By wrestling intellectually and thoughtfully with the many situations that cause problems, readers build up a commitment to ethics and implementing them correctly.

• Knowledge and commitment go hand-in-hand with developing reasoning skills to assess alternative choices and values that produce ethical behavior. All cases are decision driven.

• That is, the reader is faced with deciding what to do about an ethically difficult situation. Some cases place an emphasis on the need to take action when an ethics breach is observed among peers or top management.

• Moral muteness or turning one’s head are choices but are not always the best thing to do.

• Confronting a coworker or an organizational superior who is engaging in questionable ethical behavior is very difficult and can have serious repercussions (Case 5.4 “What’s a Whistle- Blower to Do?”).

Summary of Ethical Competency

• Finally, becoming ethically competent means that one must promote public service values and appropriate behavior in public organizations.

• The cases in this course illustrate how this is done through exemplary leadership, codes of ethics, benchmarking an organization’s culture, and the development of ethics standards for inclusion in hiring decisions, promotions, and annual evaluations.

• To repeat, the key ingredients in ethical competency are: Commitment → Knowledge → Reasoning → Action → Promotion.

• At times, total immersion in ethics cases and controversies may feel like “messy” learning. But messy learning is part of making sense out of the many complex dimensions of ethical and not so ethical behavior.

• However, if you probe, explore, and analyze the cases and controversies with diligence and serious intent, you will surely have taken a significant step toward becoming an ethically competent government manager.

Preview of cases

• Several cases deal with the stress and strain that occur when one’s duty and sense of morality clash or when obeying the law collides with one’s conscience. (See Case 3.8 “When Duty and Morality Clash” and Case 3.9 “Follow the Law or Your Conscience?”)

• Other cases are about “Encouraging Ethical Behavior” involving successful and unsuccessful efforts by government managers to foster ethical behavior.

• Laws, rules, and regulation are often used to combat unethical behavior but frequently fall short of producing ethical behavior. Ethical leadership and management are necessary additions to laws and rules to produce ethical governance.

• Other cases explore “Building Organizations of Integrity.” Integrity in governance is the bedrock of a healthy democracy. Government employees are the front-line providers of vital public services which, if compromised by unethical acts, undermine democratic governance.

• Some cases require the reader to distinguish between ethical problems and management problems (see 5.1 “What Would You Do if You Were the Sheriff?” and 5.9 “City of Progress I”).

• Other cases present situations in which one must decide how to do the “right” thing when organizational pressures encourage one to do the “wrong” thing (see 5.4 “What’s a Whistle-Blower to Do?” and 5.5 “When the Chief Asks You to Lie”).

• Another case involves a city manager who must rebuild an organization that has experienced ethical failure (see 5.8 “Escape from an Ethics Swamp”).

• The last case in each of each section is accompanied by the five ethical reasoning questions presented earlier in this chapter. The reader is challenged to apply these questions to other cases as well.

3-Professionalism and ethics

• Medicine, clergy, and law are the classic professions. Contemporary practitioners—doctors, ministers, lawyers—must complete lengthy education and training programs to acquire the knowledge and expertise to enter into a life-long practice.

• With knowledge not possessed by an ordinary person, the professional also has the ability to inflict harm on others, although that is certainly not the intention. This is where ethics becomes an inseparable part of being a professional.

• The admonishment (a firm warning) “do no harm” requires one to be competent (knowledgeable and skillful) and aware of his ethical responsibilities to his client.

• Stated differently, it is not sufficient to claim to be a professional based entirely on possessing expertise. One must also possess ethical principles to guide the application of expertise.

• Public administrators as well claim to have expertise and ethics in carrying out their duties.

• Public administrators possess expertise in many specialized fields, such as budgeting and finance, personnel and human resources, information technology, computer engineering, management systems, public works, police, and fire services.

• Each specialty has a professional education requirement and an association that provides its members with ethical guidance.

Another preview of cases

• The cases and controversies in this section suggest just how challenging it is to be an ethical public administrator even though a code of ethics defines the practice. The concluding case (3.10 “Withholding Information: When Is it Ethical or Unethical?”), for example, involves a candidate for a highly desirable city manager job who decided to withhold information that might embarrass the city.

• As the case unfolds, the candidate is put through a difficult public scrutiny that nearly costs him the job.

• Finding an ethical balance in a case is no easy task, and some would say that there is no balance. Other cases raise issues of trust, loyalty, conflict of interests, and serving the public interest.

4- Encouraging ethical Behavior

• Why do “good” people who want to be ethical sometimes find themselves in an unethical situation?

• Could it be that they don’t know what the bright(clear dividing) lines are that define (un)ethical behavior? Perhaps there are no bright lines, or they are fuzzy at best.

• So, the important question becomes, what can be done to encourage ethical behavior and discourage unethical behavior?

• These challenging questions are likely to be asked for many years to come. Does this mean that there are no answers? No.

• It means that our understanding of (un)ethical behavior is incomplete at best and very inadequate at worst. Still, there is no shortage of efforts to encourage behavior that is deemed acceptable and ethical

• One significant way for managers to encourage ethical behavior is to serve as a role model. Kenneth Ashworth (2001, 166) advises that while there is some risk in “attracting attention to yourself or appearing stuffy, you should not be reluctant to see yourself as a model of ethical behavior.”

• The cases and controversies in Chapter 4 illustrate in part why good people can find themselves in an ethical quandary(dilemma) and why many tools and practices (codes, standards, rules, performance evaluations, and just common sense) intended to encourage ethical behavior are not always successful in doing so.

• The concluding case in this chapter is an excellent example of how public officials in a progressive agency are all too often unaware of the ethical dimensions of an issue until they are stuck in an ethics swamp.

• One could say that they suffered from ethical illiteracy.

• Another case presents a city manager with the challenge of advocating against a statewide referendum that would cut taxes and necessitate a reduction in city services. Does advocacy exceed the limit of acceptable professional behavior?

• Other cases deal with:

• Religious expression in the workplace.

• The behavior of a public employee who finds himself in a nasty quarrel (argument) with a neighbor.

• Going along to get along with the boss who wants to put the best face on a difficult situation.

• A decision by a city manager to accept or reject a pay raise that exceeds the raise limit of city employees.

• Strengthening the ethics culture of the organization by adding an ethics component to employees’ annual evaluations.

• Could the sheriff be accused of trying to manage the morality of employees? Do police officers have a right to privacy in how they conduct their private lives?

5-Building organizations of Integrity

• The task of strengthening ethics in governance remains a “work-in-progress.”

• Important steps forward have been made recently in public management ethics. These steps include curbs on nepotism, financial disclosure, conflicts of interest, post-employment relationships, secrecy, use and abuse of equipment and property, and other measures.

• These “don’t do” admonishments (warning), along with the establishment of a galaxy of government ethics laws and regulatory commissions, have done much to improve governance.

• Yet, lapses are not uncommon and, some would argue, are occurring with increasing frequency. The 2007 survey of ethics in government by the Ethics Resource Center (ERC) supports this view.

• The ERC report finds that six of every ten local government employees say they witnessed misconduct at work over the past twelve months, with abusive behavior and placing one’s own interests ahead of the organization most common .

• Additionally, the survey found that one of every four local government employees say they work in environments conducive to misconduct. Other surveys report lower levels of misdeeds but still underscore the need to strengthen the ethics culture of the government workforce (Menzel 2008).

The Ethics Resources Center study points to a glaring( very obvious) information

gap between top management and employees regarding the extent of

misconduct (see Figure 5.1).

Organizational leaders just don’t know how much misconduct is occurring. This

situation in combination with a nonconducive work environment and

ineffective intervention contributes to a high rate of misconduct that places the

public trust at risk.

Practicing public managers have become increasingly drawn into the world of policy making.

Public managers are expected to be leaders, not just implementers of policy handed down by their elected or appointed bosses.

Consequently, they face the challenge of leading “without fear or favor”—an enormous challenge

Another preview of cases

• The cases and controversies that follow are illustrative of the contemporary nature of ethical challenges faced by governments— human rights, justice, duty, fraud, abuse of power.

• For example, the competency “refuse to do something unethical” is highlighted in two cases: 5.4 “What’s a Whistle-Blower to Do?” and 5.5 “When the Chief Asks You to Lie.”

6 - Ethics in the Workplace

• Working in a government or nonprofit organization can be rewarding and exciting and also filled with many ethics decisions.

• While public organizations, small and large, typically have a personnel manual that details what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior, there is no assurance that an employee is fully aware of the “dos” and “don’ts”.

• Moreover, every organization has its own culture and values about “how we do things around here.” Sometimes that can mean that how we do things around here is the right way and there are no exceptions.

•

• An employee who finds himself in disagreement either has the choice of conforming or finding a new job.

• In a worst-case situation in which the employee cannot leave his job, he may find himself victimized by the organization. Working in the “shadow of organization,” as Robert B. Denhardt (1991) puts it, can eventually challenge the individual’s moral autonomy and strip him of his humanity.

• How many times have you found yourself saying, “the organization made me do it”?

Whistle-blowers

• A whistle-blower is generally someone who refuses to accept an organizational imperative to go along to get along.

• A whistle-blower is a person who reacts to fraud, waste, and the abuse of power by going outside normal reporting channels (the media for example) and exposing the unacceptable act.

• Few of us are or will be whistle-blowers and most of us will not find ourselves in a work environment where fraud, waste, and the abuse of power are commonplace.

• Still, we are very likely to find ourselves in a workplace where ethical bright lines are not always clear and we will have to exercise ethical judgment.

Whistle-blowing and Free Speech in the Workplace

• 4 conditions must be satisfied to justify whistle-blowing: • Organization is doing (or will do) something that seriously harms others

• Employee has tried and failed to resolve the problem internally

• Reporting the problem publicly will probably stop or prevent the harm

• The harm is serious enough to justify the probable costs of disclosure to the whistle-blower

• The cases in section 6 illustrate the need for ethical judgment when one is confronted with common and uncommon situations.

• Cases in this chapter focus on soliciting funds from fellow employees, holding auctions, inflating performance evaluations, hiring family members and friends, and falsifying government documents in the name of the public interest.

7- The Complete Ethical Manager: A- Be knowledgeable of ethical principles

• Everyone has an ethical worldview and while there can be significant differences within and across cultures, there are fundamental ethical principles that we learn early in life.

• These ethical principles include fairness, justice, human dignity, benevolence, compassion, equity, and more. Without these guiding principles, the ethically incompetent manager might mistreat people.

B- Be aware and informed of relevant professional codes of ethics For a government manager, these codes include:

• Occupational codes

• Practices embraced by professional associations

• Aspirational codes that raise the level of ethical discourse such as the code of the American Society for Public Administration

C - Recognize and promote constitutional principles of equality, fairness, representativeness

• Public service demands that those who serve others keep these principles uppermost in mind.

• The daily routine of the government workplace can distract one from these principles, but it does not minimize their importance.

• Public service requires a continuous awareness of how to serve the public.

D-Recognize and support the public’s right to know the public’s business • State sunshine laws (transparency) and the Freedom of Information Act

signed into law by President Lyndon Johnson in 1966 are designed to keep government open and accessible to citizens, the media, and organized interests.

• Openness and transparency are critical safeguards that keep a democracy alive and well.

• The administrative side of governance is especially difficult to observe and access for ordinary citizens.

• Government managers are duty bound to practice transparency, although at times it slows the wheels of governance.

• The road to acquiring this competency is knowledge of sunshine laws and a commitment to the true spirit of supporting the public’s right to know.

E-Respect the law

• Public managers play a key role in energizing laws and ordinances. Of course, it is not always clear what lawmakers or commissioners intended, but it is incumbent (required) on administrators to make every effort to carry out the law with as much clarity of intent as possible.

• Due diligence is the key principle that every government manager must subscribe to, no exceptions.

• How does one acquire due diligence (careful and watchful)? The answer is experience and learning from others in similar situations.

F- Serve the public interest

• Government managers are on the frontline of public service. They ensure that the public interest is not sacrificed to special interests.

• There is no legitimate alternative. The challenge is to be skillful and sharp enough to sort through competing interests to advance the public interest.

• Success in this competency lies in the manager’s ability to tolerate differences and be resilient in the face of conflicting interests.

G- Engage in ethical reasoning

• This competency centers on being ethically sensitive and being able to define a problem and assess alternative courses of action that can lead to ethically acceptable outcomes.

• Educational programs sponsored by universities, institutes, and professional associations offer ways to acquire this competency.

• Also, some governments have effective ethics training resources and programs that government managers build their reasoning skills.

H- Recognize and differentiate between ethical and management issues

• It is important for the manager to be able to discriminate between ethical and management issues and act on these differences .

• The variety of cases in this course provide the reader with plenty of practice in acquiring this competency.

• Still, the cases are not a substitute for direct experience.

I-Respect and protect privileged information

• In this time of lightening fast communication technology and powerful tools for seeking information, managers are challenged more than ever to guard against disclosing privileged information.

• Whether the information comes in the form of bids for government contracts or sensitive personal data, the ethically competent manager must be diligent and faithful in respecting and protecting information.

• The road to this competency is filled with difficulties. Nonetheless, sensitivity, knowledge, and due diligence are must-have qualities of the manager.

J-Embrace and promote ethical behavior and practices in the workplace

Kenneth Ashworth (2001) said “Conduct yourself so that your behavior may serve as the pattern for the behavior of your colleagues, superiors, and subordinates.”

K-Refuse to do something unethical

• Has anyone ever asked you to do something unethical? Ordered you to do something unethical? Chances are this has not happened to you or others with any regularity.

• Still, one instance in a lifetime may be enough to cause you to take a deep breath and think carefully(ponder) what you should do.

• Learning how to say “no” is easy to do in the abstract, but sometimes it gets down to (it is important) how you say “no.”

• This is a skill that can be learned through experience and study in professional educational programs and even on your own if you are sufficiently motivated

L-Maintain truthfulness and honesty

• A competency that will no doubt serve you well in your quest (efforts) to become an ethically competent manager. Yet, Maintaining truthfulness and honesty is a challenging competency to acquire.

• Most people do not intend to be dishonest. Learning how to practice honesty day-in and day-out ,however, not easy. Perhaps the admonishments( advice/firm warning) of Aristotle are valuable in this regard.

• As an advocate for virtue, he advised that one can only acquire a virtue through practice. Honesty and truthfulness have to be practiced and balanced with delicate diplomacy on some occasions.

M-Guard against conflict of interest or its appearance • This competency is reflected in every government code of conduct

that exists.

• Yet, avoiding conflict of interest is not always achieved. Even good managers may fail to avoid conflict of interest which leads to unethical behavior.

• Competent manager must be able to size up a situation to avoid both the reality and the appearance of wrongdoing .

N- Be responsible for one’s behavior

• Usually, a single administrator is not solely responsible for the actions taken in the agency that have real consequences for others.

• Usually, many people are involved. • When things either don’t turn out so well or could have turned out better,

it is easy to find that no one is at fault . This reality although true, also enables individuals to avoid responsibility.

• Taking responsibility doesn’t mean putting a mask over reality, but it does mean stepping forward when circumstances demand that responsibility be assigned and it means avoiding scapegoating.

• The road to this competency is especially challenging and must be traveled with sincerity and humility.

The End