Quiz

ETHICS IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION:

CHAPTERS SEVEN AND EIGHT

CHAPTER SEVEN:

 Two Faces of Irresponsibility

 Using a public organization’s information and access to key people for personal gain

 Bending the direction of policies and programs away from their mandated objectives

 A conflict among internal and external controls reflects faulty design and is conducive to unethical conduct.

CONFLICTS AMONG INTERNAL

AND EXTERNAL CONTROLS

 Sexual orientation and law enforcement.  What are the facts?  What principles were at risk?  What is the cause of the problem?  What are some solutions?

 Natural Death  What are the facts?  What external controls were in conflict?  What internal controls were in conflict?  What three things were wrong with the Natural

Death Act itself?

COMPONENTS OF

RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT

 Individual Attributes  Give examples

 Organizational culture  Give examples

 Organizational Structure  Give examples

 Societal expectations  Give examples

COMPONENTS OF

RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT

INDIVIDUAL ATTRIBUTES

 Need to recognize certain conditions  Moral ambiguity

 Self interest and altruism

 Contextual forces that condition priorities  Values reordered as situations change

 Paradoxes of procedures  Give order and yet can become ends

 Moral Qualities

AMERICAN REGIME VALUES

 The Constitution –3 main values (p.171)  Name them

 Cooper’s list beyond the Constitution  Name 4

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE

 Objective responsibility is enhanced through clear accountability

 Subjective responsibility is enhanced at every level through the constitutional nature of the organization.

 Heightening both focuses efforts toward achieving goals.

ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

 Informal set of myths, rituals, values and norms that exist alongside the formal structure

 Culture may subvert the best efforts of leaders desiring to build an ethical organization  Individuals who are ethical are hired and

trained  Accountabilities may be clear  Culture can still subvert

 Discourage ethical behavior  Encourage unethical behavior

MEASURING ETHICAL

CULTURE

 Kinds of Values  Intrinsic

 Intrinsic thinking about ethics focuses on the personal ethics: on personal conscience, an individual's sense of responsibility, and personal integrity.

 Extrinsic  The extrinsic dimension focuses on practical ethics. It

involves seeing oneself as responsible for the common welfare, as willing to do what is required to carry out good deeds, and as feeling an obligation to do good.

 Systemic  Systemic thinking about ethics is all about moral code. It

speaks of respect for rules, compliance with regulations, and clarity of ethical principles.

VALUE SCIENCE

 Axiology  Robert S. Hartman

 Nazi Germany  “The engineering of good.”

 Axiometrics  Wayne Carpenter

 Philosophy student  Helicopter decision simulator

SOCIETAL EXPECTATIONS

 Expressed through  Participation

 Must be carefully planned and systematically structured

 Can be frustrating, time consuming, anxiety producing

 Two results: maintains the people as the focus and assists in clarifying laws

 Laws and policies  Some cohesion needed in pluralistic diversity  Two results: provide constraints on administrators

and link administrator with executive, judicial, legislative offices.

KEY RELATIONSHIPS

 Societal Expectations prime

 Individual attributes must support public interest

 Organizational structure must provide access

 Organizational culture must include norms that encourage support of law and engagement with the public

COMPONENTS OF

RESPONSIBLE CONDUCT

CHAPTER 8: SAFEGUARDING

ETHICAL AUTONOMY

 Responsibility  External

 Superiors  Politicians  Citizens  The Law

 Internal  Values  Beliefs  Principles

 Ethical Autonomy—public good above loyalty to party, person or organization

DEALING WITH UNETHICAL

SUPERIORS AND

ORGANIZATIONS

 Cases of conflicting loyalties

 Motivation to blow the whistle: four perspectives  Power relationships (intimidation?)  Conceptions of fairness and justice  Perceived impact on overall welfare  Attributions of intentionality and friendship

 Examples  Fitzgerald—DOD cost overruns led to

ostracization  Coplin—upgrading meat, understaffed to

retaliate  Ellsberg—Pentagon Papers, retaliation but

ultimate exoneration

CONSEQUENCES

 Ambiguity of effectiveness and possibility of retaliation

 Often not fired outright or because of the related issue

 Challenger space launch  Boisjoly, engineer, warned against launch  Fired after hearing  PTSD  Optimistic re power and importance of decision

WHISTLEBLOWERS AND

ORGANIZATIONS

 “Crackpots” or normal people?

 Whistleblowers are perceived more positively now, possibly because many health and safety issues emerge

 Importance of enhancing moral development  Alternatives to whistle blowing  Trusted dissent channels  Collaborative communication and problem-

solving channels

PRESSURES DISCOURAGING

BRINGING ISSUES TO LIGHT

 Political pressures  Nixon’s “Malek Manual”—how to exact

compliance

 Team Player Ethic  Ethical autonomy threatens smooth running  Code of Ethics for Government Services (1958)

 Loyalty to principle and country above person, party, or government entity

 Exposure of corruption  Support of code; public office seen as public trust

 Often superiors do not abide by code

 The Agentic shift  Shift from autonomous or self-directed and

systemic or organizational.

CAUSES OF TEAM ETHIC

 Nature of public organizations  Lack of profit motive leads to focus on

appearances--“Impression management”  British more apt to blow the whistle and resign  Consequences more damaging to US protesters

 Private sector norms  Boardroom ethic of loyalty prevents speaking out

 Anti-tattling Conditioning  Bureaucratic norms

 Lose loyalty to politicians, law, citizens  Subservience strengthens as one moves up

AGENTIC SHIFT

 Milgram’s shock experiments—obedience to hierarchy

 Nuremberg Trials—Eichmann “following orders”  Even his “clichés” reflected absorption into the

organization  Link with empathy broken; only link with

superiors

 Zimbardo’s prison/warden simulation  Had to be stopped early

ORGANIZATIONAL REMEDIES

 US Office of Special Counsel (OSC) – 1978  Report in 1997 shows strong progress in

encouraging and protecting whistleblowers.

 ASPA statement on whistleblowers (1979)  Importance of policies that articulate ethical

standards  Regular communication of expectations to

employees  Dissent channels for alternative views to be heard  Management’s focus on merits of complaint

rather than assumed motivations

INDIVIDUAL RESPONSIBILITY

 The Nuremberg Principles  Individuals are ultimately responsible for their actions  Neither official role nor obedience to authority excuse

 Final Safeguard  Individual responsibility counterbalances agentic shift  When organizational goals displace legal mandate and

public good displaced by private interests, commitment to responsible conduct combats corruption, along with public push for accountability

 The virtue of the practitioner protects the common good  Majority of whistleblowers, even those suffering serious

negative consequences, would do it over again

PRESSURES AGAINST

ETHICAL AUTONOMY

 Organizational dominance  Whyte (1956) The Organization Man  Scott and Hart (1979) “role hierarchy”

 Organizational delimitation and transcendence  Ramos (1981)—”Market dominated social reality”

 Personal actualization subordinated to economizing  Antidote: para-economic model of society--enclaves

 Professional, political, and community identities as well as organizational/bureaucratic

 Workplace Bill of Rights  Ewing (1977) Freedom Inside the Organization

 Corporations suppress freedom of speech, press and assembly; due process; privacy; freedom of conscience

 Law of contracts plus Roman law encourages subordinate compliance

COMPONENTS OF ETHICAL

AUTONOMY

 Delimitation of Loyalty

 Cultivate personal , professional, citizenship, and community relationships outside the organization

 Establishment of legal and institutional mechanisms

 Contain organizational power

 Protect individual rights

 Self-Awareness

SELF AWARENESS

 Ethic of Awareness  internal focus—self-esteem, role awareness, self-

direction  Increasing control over non-conscious aspects of our

behavior  Kohlberg (1984) stages of moral development

 1. Obedience and punishment  2. Self-focused need satisfaction  3. Social approval  4. Rules and authority  5/6. Principled thinking that transcends punishment, needs,

approval or rules.  Role Evaluation

 Is it legitimate for anyone?  Is it legitimate for me?  Is it legitimate in its enactment?

 Bork firing Cox, Watergate prosecutor  AG Richardson resigned, Deputy AG Ruckelshaus fired