Chapter 3 - Ethics in Public and Private Administration

aslokman/ads452/Oct2021 1
ETHICS IN PUBLIC
ADS 452 & PRIVATE
ADMINISTRATION
2
• At the end of the learning session, student should be

able to;
• Explain public sector and public sector ethics
• Discuss the evolution of public sector ethics
• Explain ethical infrastructure/integrity system
• Explain public service values
• Differentiate public and private sector ethics
LEARNING OUTCOME
aslokman/ads452/Oct2021
PUBLIC SECTOR ETHICS
WHAT IS PUBLIC SECTOR?

(Amundsen & Andrade, 2009)
The government with all its ministries, department, agencies,

federal/state/local administration and public enterprises.
It is administrative level in charge of implementing decisions

and policies made by the political level otherwise known as civil
service, public service, state administration or bureaucracy.
aslokman/ads452/Oct2021 3
4
• Public service ethics concerns with; (Lilla, 1981)

• The morality of public policies
• Moral obligation of career public officials
• Public service ethics evolved from the notion that
public officials are professionals who are detached
from politics.
• They serve their superiors (politicians) by executing
directives and feeding information based on their
expertise.
• The underlying ethos of public administration is
democracy.
5
• After the WWs, public officers no longer only following

superiors’ orders but have the power to manage
resources and programs with unclear guideline.
• Thus, officers have the power of discretion.
• Friedrich vs. Finer (1940’s) debate on the discretionary
power of public officers set the base for administrative
responsibility.
6
BASE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE

RESPONSIBILITY
Friedrich
Finer
7
EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC SERVICE

ETHICS
Democratic Weberian Market Community

oriented oriented oriented oriented
Adapted from Mazur (2013)
8
IMPORTANCE OF PUBLIC
SERVICE ETHICS
Implement
Vast activities
government’s
conducted by
decisions &
public officers
policies
A specific set of
Serving the
public service
public interest
values
A different
Discretionary
context and power of public
principles of officers
operation
9
• Otherwise known as ethics

management, ethics regime or
integrity system (Amundsen &
Andrade, 2009).
• It acts as the tool for the
government to promote ethics,
inculcate values, monitor &
evaluate the ethical behavior of
ETHICAL public officials.
INFRASTRUCTURE • The tools can take 2 different
approaches to ensure ethical
behavior (Rohr, 1989) ;
• Compliance/ rule based (Low
road)
• Integrity/ values based (High
road)
10
• Compliance approach focused on

prevention of unethical conduct
by detecting integrity violations,
sanctioning employees who
transgress law, rules or
organizational norms (Lawton et
al., 2013).
• Integrity approach focused on the
ETHICAL advocacy of ethical behavior and
INFRASTRUCTURE values by promoting and
educating employees on the
ethical acceptable decisions and
actions.
11
• A Code of Ethics (COE) is an

integrity- based approach to
behavior.
• COE generally appears when an
occupation is organized into a
profession.
CODE OF • Profession is a group of persons

who want to cooperate in serving
ETHICS the same ideal better than they
could if they did not cooperate
(COE) (Davis, 1991).
• COE can serve either as a moral
reference or a convention
between professionals (i.e.
doctors, engineers, lawyers,
architects.
12
• COE serves as an ethical guide to

how public officers conduct
themselves in the course of their
duty.
• It is known as an external control
CODE OF to behavior and is an integrity-
based system.
ETHICS • It is more than just law as its project
(COE) ideals & tailor ethical behavior, a
mechanism to clarify values & bind
individuals to a broader group &
public values (Cooper, 1990).
• It can be aspirational, guiding and
regulatory in character.
13
• COC is also a rule-based

approach to behavior.
• It is a set of rules outlining the
responsibilities of or proper
practices for an individual or
CODE OF organization (Amundsen &
Andrade, 2009).
CONDUCT • ‘Principles, values and standards or
(COC) rules of behavior that guide the
decisions, procedures and systems
of an organization in a way a)
contributes to welfare of its
stakeholders and (b) respects the
rights of all constituents affected
by its operations’ (IFA, 2007)
14
• Public official has the duty to take all

necessary action to comply with the
code’s provision.
• The code specify standards of integrity
CODE OF & conduct to be observed by the
public officials, helping them to meet
CONDUCT the standards and inform the public of
conduct expected of the public
(COC) officials (Amundsen & Andrade, 2009).
• Examples of COC – UN International
Code of Conduct for Public Officials,
Council of Europe’s Model Codes of
Conduct for Public Officials
15
• This is an integrity approach to

behavior.
• The focus is to use training and
education to curb unethical
behavior of individuals.
• It enables organization members
to understand, share and apply
ETHICS values stated in the COE (de Colle
& Gonella, 2002) and identify &
TRAINING deal with ethical problems while
developing moral intuitions in
everyday actions & choice
(Sacconi, de Colle & Baldin, 2002)
• Ethics training helps public officials
judge the moral legitimacy of their
decisions & enable them to apply
moral principles and values into
the decisions.
16
• An ethics committee is a special

committee established to
‘examine current concerns about
standard of conducts of all public
ETHICS officials… make recommendation
to change present arrangement to
COMMITTEE ensure the propriety in public life’
(OECD, 2000)
17
• An ombudsman/ombudsperson is a
public official representing the public
interest by investigating and address
complaints made on maladministration
or violation of rights.
• An ombudsman has the duty to
resolved the complaints through
recommendation or mediation
between two conflicting parties.
• Ombudsman do not have power to
initiate legal proceedings or
ETHICS persecutions but provide supports and
options to whistleblowers or persons
OMBUDSMAN with ethical concerns.
• Ombudsman is independent from
power influences, impartial and
neutral, its responsibility is recognized
by the community, on their
responsibility, maintain confidentiality
and privacy to those who reports a
problem.
• It is a legal and compliance 18
approach to behavior.
• The laws are to sanction corrupt
behaviour of public officials.
• Most countries have Penal Code
to punish misconduct that is not
acceptable in public service.
• Two most frequent criminal action
of public officials are partiality in
ANTI- decision making and abuse of
office/public trust.
CORRUPTION
• A dedicated anti corruption
LAWS law/ethics law specify stringent
standards for public servants
• For example, Ireland’s Public
Bodies Corrupt Practices Act
19
• Agency that is created specifically

to oversee unethical behavior and
may focus on investigation of
unethical behavior, prevention of
ANTI- unethical behavior or guidance to
avoid unethical behavior or a
CORRUPTION combination of all three (Lawton,
Rayner & Lasthuizen, 2013).
AGENCY
• Initial reason of creating the
(ACA) agency is due to the corruption
committed by public officials.
20
• There are 4 models of ACA

(Heilbrunn, 2004; Quah, 2007) as
follows
• Universal model – power to
investigate, prevent &
communicate
ANTI- • Investigative model- small &
centralised investigation
CORRUPTION commission
AGENCY • Parliamentary model- reports
to the Parliament & free from
(ACA) executive & judiciary
• Multi-agency model – several
different agencies working
together
21
PUBLIC SERVICE
VALUES
• Public values are central to public administration.
• Public values are values that provide normative consensus
about (Bozeman, 2007);
• rights, benefits, prerogative to which citizens
should/not be entitled
• the obligation of citizens to society and the state, vice
versa
• the principles upon which the governments and
policies must be based
• Public values is a criteria for action (Molina, 2009) as public
administration is action oriented (Denhardt & Denhardt,
2006)
• The challenge is different values co-exist within government
& different behavior is expected of public officials (Lawton
et al., 2013)
22
CATEGORY OF PUBLIC SERVICE

VALUES (KERNAGHAN, 2003)
Ethical Democratic Professional People
Integrity Rule of Law Effectiveness Caring
Fairness Neutrality Efficiency Fairness
Accountability Accountability Service Tolerance
Loyalty Loyalty Leadership Decency
Excellence Openness Excellence Compassion
Respect Responsive Innovation Courage
Honesty Representative Quality Benevolence
Probity Legality Creativity Humanity
23
PUBLIC VS PRIVATE
ETHICS
• Public sector has a different context and
environment compared to the private sector due
to three reasons (Van der Wal, 2016);
• - Public problems are complex and often
faced with unresolvable ‘wicked problem’
• - Public sector involves various stakeholders
• - People working in public organizations have
unique values and interest in dealing with
public issues – ‘an altruistic motivation to serve
the interests of a community of people, a
state, a nation or humanity’
24
PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTOR

DIFFERENCES
Features Public Private
Strategic goal Public good Profit
Financial goal Reduction of cost, Profit, Market share
effectiveness
Stakeholders Taxpayers Stockholders, owner,
market
Budget priorities Government, Public Market
Environment Wide & complex Organization
Governance Multi actors Board of Directors
stakeholder
Decision making Pluralistic Monopolistic
Justification for National security Protection of IP
secrecy
25
PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTOR

SIMILARITIES
Both sector involved in planning, organizing, coordinating &

controlling activities.
Similar hierarchical structure of authority
Deals with human capital – face similar challenge in personnel

issues
Emphasized on discipline and frugality of resources usage
Influencing each other in work reforms – competition, output

measures, corporate management style
Maintains similar accounting aspects
26
• The many challenges faced by

organizations are (Sims, 1992)
• International competitions
CHALLENGE OF
• New technologies
ETHICAL • Increased quality
BEHAVIOUR IN • Employee motivation and
ORGANISATION commitment
• Managing a diverse workforce
• Ethical behavior

Chapter 3 - Ethics in Public and Private Administration

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Chapter 3 - Ethics in Public and Private Administration

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

aslokman/ads452/Oct2021 1

• At the end of the learning session, student should be

WHAT IS PUBLIC SECTOR?

The government with all its ministries, department, agencies,

It is administrative level in charge of implementing decisions

• Public service ethics concerns with; (Lilla, 1981)

• After the WWs, public officers no longer only following

BASE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE

EVOLUTION OF PUBLIC SERVICE

Democratic Weberian Market Community

Adapted from Mazur (2013)

• Otherwise known as ethics

• Compliance approach focused on

• A Code of Ethics (COE) is an

CODE OF • Profession is a group of persons

• COE serves as an ethical guide to

• COC is also a rule-based

• Public official has the duty to take all

• This is an integrity approach to

• An ethics committee is a special

• Agency that is created specifically

• There are 4 models of ACA

CATEGORY OF PUBLIC SERVICE

PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTOR

PUBLIC & PRIVATE SECTOR

Both sector involved in planning, organizing, coordinating &

Similar hierarchical structure of authority

Deals with human capital – face similar challenge in personnel

Influencing each other in work reforms – competition, output

• The many challenges faced by

You might also like