Primary Ethical Responsibilities of Public Administrators Public administrators have a greater than responsibility than most, as their actions have consequences that may affect the general public. I would suggest that the primary ethical values public administrators should possess are respect, trustworthiness, and fairness. Public administrators are charged with implementing policies and practices, as decided through the democratic process. They are charged with a tremendous responsibility of being the operational wing of government. Firstly, respect is key; public administrators cannot serve the public well if they do not possess a respect for the public. Ensuring the dignity of any citizen receiving a good or service is essential to the duties of a public administrator. This ties with trustworthiness, as people will only hold the government in high regard if they view it as trustworthy. Public administrators are key to this process as the public may view the one administrator they encounter as “the government”; the public often assigns an image of a government entity based on any treatment they personally received. This is why fairness is also an integral value public administrators need to possess. The public needs to understand that they are equal, and that everyone possesses the same rights and privileges. All of these ethical values can hinder or enhance the image and perception of government, and often people equate perception with reality, so they become even more
Leaders in the public sector are expected to maintain a level of morality and integrity which serves the interests of society, while at the same time demonstrates personal responsibility, diplomacy, and truthfulness. Therefore, when attempting to arrive at appropriate ethical decisions, public administrators must possess the capacity to exercise moral imagination. However, moral imagination is not enough. Responsible administration in the public sector also requires acting based on the “right”
"Classical Organizational Theory deals with the 'systematic processes necessary to make bureaucracy more efficient and effective.' Name three scholars that are credited with the development of classical organization thought that most correctly fit into this definition of Classical Organizational Theory. What were the basic arguments articulated by each in their contributions to the development of Classical Organizational Theory?"
The management of an organization plays an integral part in determining the direction and performance of the organization. The manner in which the management of an organization is handled has a profound effect on the organization. The success of an organization is dependent upon a flexible and skilled management and workforce. The management of an organization is responsible for shaping up the organizational behavior and ultimately the culture within the organization. Public management faces a multiple of challenges and opportunities, how the management deals with these issues translates to efficiency in management. The personal judgments and skills of public managers can make a significant impact in public management. If
On this specific case the dichotomy will involved the request made by the seven members of the city council who are usually elected every two years and whose responsibility is to rectified my current position. The support that the city council is asking for seems to be purely political, and the council also expects my full support while presenting face on this 1 % income tax proposal in front of city residents. That is a dichotomy where a public server like me gets frequently involved. However, Frederickson (2015) also states that as a public administrator there is an inherent duty of policy legitimacy and an ethical obligation to protect the interests of the underrepresentated. It is also expected to administer city affairs according to the law, and bureaucratic standards of efficiency as well as fairness (Frederickson,pg.20).
Christopher Hood, discusses in his article, A Public Management for All Seasons, three types of value systems employed in a critique of a public system, sigma type values, lambda type values, and most important to this analysis theta type values.( Hood, 1991, pg. 10) A Public Management for all Seasons. Public Administration, 69(1), P.3-19. Theta values, Hood describes, as values centered on “honesty, fairness, and mutuality through the prevention of distortion, inequity, bias, and abuse of office.” (Hood, 1991, pg.11) These values are not only inline with but shared by the United States Justice system, who like the theta value system, measures success and failures by consent of the public, earned legitimacy, and due process. (Hood, 1991, pg.
The lesson public administrators should gain from reading this book is the deceitfulness that exist today. Much like Dr. Clark, many individuals who are so aggressive at achieving their goals, will stop at nothing to be successful in achieving those goals. Public Administrators should pay close attention to the tasks they are involved in, and always remember to "step back" and look at the "big picture." These lessons learned are very important, especially in today's societal values of the fair and equal treatment of mankind. With the rise of the human rights activist, and even the animal rights activist, society is now closely looking at the moral and ethical ways "we" treat each other.
There are six pillars in the field of public administration—Efficiency and Effectiveness, Responsibility, Accountability, Legitimacy, and _____--are all values which can be traced back to the history of the birth of the nation. The Declaration of Independence (1776) summarized the purpose of government, and the political rights of citizens that government is established by the people to protect their rights to “Life, liberty and happiness (Jefferson, 1776).” In fact, according to Thomas Jefferson, “The care of human life and happiness is the first and only legitimate object of good government (Jefferson, 1776.” Unfortunately, the first government established after the Declaration of Independence under the Articles of Confederation (1777) did not last long.
Elective authorities are naturally involved in all kinds of political interactions, and their ability to predict, manage and regulate conflicts can be a key to success. Politics is an integral part of the government, thus, ability to embrace the political style of leadership can help the public manager to be successful. These includes the capacity to build relationships with the major stakeholders, pursue policy objectives and interest, persuade opponents and negotiate the best deal.
On a macro level, public administration and business management are similar in their overall functions. “At the broadest level, some organizational theorists contend that administration is administration whatever its setting, and that the problems of organizing people, leading them and supplying them with resources to do their jobs are always the same (Kettl, 2012, p. 38).” In his paper, “Public and Private Management: Are They Fundamentally Alike in All Unimportant Respects?,” Graham T. Allison explains that in comparing public and administration and business management, “it is possible to identify a set of general management functions (Allison, 2012, p. 4).” Regardless of their end goal, each administration must form strategies by setting goals, priorities and creating procedures. Public and private organizations must manage internal components by organizing staff, defining job responsibilities, hiring and managing personnel and creating budgets. Furthermore, they must manage external constituencies such as other agencies, the press and public (Allison, 2012, p. 5). His observations stem from Wallace Sayre’s famous words, “public and private management are fundamentally alike in all unimportant respects (DiIlulio, 1993).”
To counteract this affliction, public administration must become the focal point of good managers and leaders that embraces a centralized methodology, works unilaterally, and is empathetic towards societal norms. Furthermore, to prevent nuances during process considerations must conceptualize relational structures that improve productivity while advancing constitutional morals and ethics. (Cropf, 2008, p. 233). Unfortunately, in the case of bookkeeper turned director, she allowed her moral compass to misdirect her by not following council expectations as defined in her interim duties. Reality many times drives behavior, in this case it resulted in Suzie’s conflicting apathy towards the shelter that placed it over the established execution of her duties ultimately resulting in her actions while being considered “compassionate,” in the end were declared “unethical” (Cropf, Giancola, & Loutzenhiser, The Public Adminstration Casebook, 2012, p.
According to the book entitled, Diversity and Public Administration: by Harvery L. White and Mitchell F. Rice, they stated that Public administrative curriculum consist of public personnel management or human resources management; public management; public budgeting; organizational theory and behavior; research methods and qualitative analysis; policy analysis; and ethics (White & Rice, pp.124). In 1970, an organization called National Associations of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration was established to promote training and education in public service. National Associations of Schools of Public Affairs and Administrative accomplishes its goals and objectives through direct services such as:
To become a public administrator, you must have the ability to work with different people from different background, different age groups, and various economy classes. A Public administrator cannot be biased towards one group of people and turn around and be favorable towards the other. As an administrator, you have to be transparent to everybody that you encounter, even people that you will be working with, and people that you are working for. According to the publication, “Ethical Dilemmas in the Public Service,” by the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management, describes that the ethical issue that government officials face in any organization is nepotism and bias. The reason why this event occurs is that some of the individuals in the public administrative positions are not transparent in the workplace and are also influenced by personal gain.
It also shields administrators from scrutiny and serves the interests of elected officials who can pass responsibility for unpopular decisions to administrators. This strict separation of policy makers and service deliverers can lower the quality of governance and service. Then there is the topic of ethics. Neither professional standards nor individual conscience can be alone the framework for public administrative ethics but both are present. So, the downside of dichotomy is there would not be a flow of ideas and concerns between the politicians and the administrators.
Next, is administrative responsibility? Simply put this is a shared responsibility between public officials. Our officials need to determine a way in order lead without division of said responsibilities. This should be performed collectively and not just individually.
When the word Public Administration come accross one’s mind, people would think of government civil workers and bureaucracy in government office. However, Public Administration is wider than that. It comprises of many part among them are technical issues,financal issues and ethical issues.Among many of them is the importance of manegerial technique, a characteristic where an organization such as government office should have in order to organize, planned, co-ordinate and budgetting. Government office is a big