TOPIC 6 (Chapter 4)

ETHICS VS QUALITY
IN THE PUBLIC
SECTOR
DEFINITION
OF
ETHICS
Ethics is about doing the right thing within a
moral framework. It is the practical application
of morality.
(Goetsch & Davis, 2006)

Ethics or moral philosophy, ask the basic

question about the good life, about what is
better and worse, about whether there are any
objective right and wrong, and how we know it if
there is.
(McKinnon, 2004)
Morality or ethics deals basically with human
relationships – how humans treat other being
so as to promote mutual welfare, growth,
creativity and meaning, as they strive for good
over bad and right over wrong.
(Thiroux, 2001)

Ethics refers to responsibility and

consequences of behavior of a person or a
profesion towards the society...
(INTAN, 1991)
Human Factors that Contribute
to Unethical Behavior

1. Greed 5. Expedience

2. Impatience
6. Misguided ambition

3. Ego
7. Need
4. Fear
Organizational Factors that
Contribute to Unethical Behavior
(P. 74)
1. Failing to make ethics part of the
organization’s core values.
2. Failing to set a consistent positive example.
3. Putting personnel in ethical “corners”.
4. Failing to adopt, deploy, and enforce a
corporate code of ethics.
5. Applying unrealistic pressure.
6. Failing to reward ethical behavior.
 FACTORS
DETERMINING
ETHICAL BEHAVIOR IN
THE PUBLIC SECTOR
Trust & Total Quality (P.75-77)
• Trust is a critical element of ethics, which, in turn,
makes ethics critical in total quality.

• Elements of Total Quality that depend on trust and

ethical behavior are:

1. Communication
2. Interpersonal relations
3. Conflict management
4. Problem solving
5. Teamwork
6. Employee involvement and empowerment
7. Customer focus
• Trust can be build by being loyal to those not present,
keeping promises, and sincerely apologizing when
necessary.

• Ethics plays a critical role in the successful application

of total quality.

• Managers in a Total Quality setting must be able to

build trust in the organization and among its
employees.

• Motivating employees and continually developing their

job skills are important responsibilities of managers in
a total quality setting.

• However, for managers who are not trusted, he will

having a problem in fulfilling these responsibilities.
Values & Total Quality
• Ethical behavior begins with values.

• Values are those core beliefs that guide our behavior.

• Values that lead to ethical behavior include fairness,

dependability, integrity, honesty, and trustfulness.

• Individuals and organizations apply their knowledge

and skills most willingly to efforts in which they
believe.

• An organization will only produce a quality product or

service when the organization values quality.
• Individual employee and organization will apply
their knowledge and skills to what they value,
what they believe in, and what they feel is
important.

• Managers should work to establish an

environment in which values that lead to ethical
behavior and also can lead to peak
performance.
Integrity & Total Quality (78)
• Integrity is a combination of honesty and
dependability.

• When an individual or an organization has

integrity, ethical behavior automatically follows.

• People with integrity can be counted on to do the

right thing, do things correctly, accomplish tasks
and finish work on time, and keep promises.
• Managers with integrity will keep the best
interests of their organization and employees
when making decisions and will think about the
consequences of their actions before taking
them.

• This principle also applies to employees and the

organization as a whole.
Responsibility & Total Quality
• Accepting responsibility is part of ethical behavior.

• In a total quality setting, people are responsible for

their actions and accountable for their performance.

• Accepting responsibility helps build trust, integrity, and

all the other elements of ethics that are important in a
total quality environment.

• People who pass blame are not behaving ethically.

• Ethical people always say “we” instead of “they” when

speaking of their organization.
ETHICAL LEADERSHIP
Manager’s Role in Ethics
1. Responsible for setting an example of ethical
behavior.

2. Responsible for helping employees make

ethical choices.

3. Responsible for helping employees follow

through and exhibit ethical behavior after the
appropriate choice has been made.
Approaches that manager can use in
carrying out their responsibilities relating
to ethics (P. 80)

1. Best-Ratio Approach

2. Black and White Approach

3. Full-Potential Approach
Organization’s Role in Ethics
(P.81)
1. Creating an internal environment that
promotes, expects, and rewards ethical
behavior.

2. Setting an example of ethical behavior in all

external dealings.

3. Organizations must support managers who

make ethically correct decisions – not just
when such decisions are profitable but in all
cases.
Importance of Ethics in Public Sector

1) Ethics is the center of success or failure of

government.
2) Public Administrators are responsible to
formulate and implement the policy using the
public resources.
3) Public Administrators must adhere to the
ultimate centrality of the democratic values in
accomplishing their task.
4) Public Administrators’ decisions affect the
people’s live.
Three types of ethical consideration that
public servant always facing in performing
their job:

1) They are pressured to carry out tasks that

they consider to be wrong.

2) They are asked to overlook wrong actions by

someone else.

3) They gain useful information to the

government/organization but cannot get
anyone to listen to them.
4 Aspects of Work Ethics in
Organizational Management – INTAN,
1991

1. Quality values

- Crucial and must be held by all public

servants.

- Integrity, professionalism, intellectual

honesty, neutrality, leadership, co-operative,
creativity and innovative, customer oriented,
self-management and self-achievement.
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2. Accountability

- Responsibility and implementation of the

given tasks by the public servants, via
several rules and procedures, in order to
attain the organizational goals and objectives.

- Crucial in public finance management,

planning and implementation of government
activities and projects, disciplinary control on
the public service and implementation of
tasks and responsibilities.

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3. Effective time management

- To ensure that the public servants are able to

finish up their tasks quickly, accurately and in
time.

- To avoid executive stress and enhancing the

productivity --- via systematic work planning,
delegating, timely work management, avoid
and lessen work disturbances, effective
meeting management and implementing
‘Follow-up’ and ‘Follow Through’ principles.

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4. Effective decision making

- Need skillful organizational members in

decision thinking, and need to be
differentiated from decisions made by the
politicians.

- Activities in decision thinking --- problem

identification and information collection,
finding alternatives, predicting probabilities
and expecting the unexpected and making
decision, determine the risks and
probabilities, and identify the outcomes.
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 Point to Ponder
Everyone has
Beauty but not
Everyone sees
It !!

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 HOMEWORK:
• What are the factors that determines
ethical behaviors?

• Identify the models for making ethical

decision.

• Describe and differentiate the following

approaches to ethics: best-ratio; black-
and-white; and full-potential approach.
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