Foundations of Public Service Ethics
The Normative Foundations of Public Service Ethics
Public administration is a critical concept in any given society. Consequently, ethical practices hold an integral part of administering public services. Because of the fundamental nature of democracy, the primary emphasis of this article review focuses on the normative foundations of public service ethics. The importance of public service ethics will feature in the discussion. Ethics are the acceptable codes of behavior in the formation of the standards to guide society.
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Normative foundations of public service ethics are substantially essential as they assemble to the democratic ideal of the common good. The normative foundations of public ethics are necessarily the accepted standards that justify and defend one’s conduct, which dictates the decisions regarding consequences and obligations in various situations. They are the generally accepted approaches to determining the ethical behavior in the public administration. However, ethics in public service follow the guidelines of technical principles.
Normative foundations of public service ethics demonstrate in various ways. An example of public service ethics regards the mode of communication in government offices. The society expects that civil servants provide services with honesty and communicate their messages to the public in a manner understandable to them. For instance, in case the message is intended to a foreigner or non-native speaker, public service ethics provide the need for an interpreter. The interpreter ensures a flow of information to and from the recipient to enhance understanding of the subject matter. Such provides a basis for mutual understanding and execution of message and intended purpose.
According to DeForest & McKeown (2012), public service values are the “heart of the profession.” The morality of human actions in public services defines the habits adopted by people to make judgments. Therefore, the morality of an action depends on its consequences (Cooper, 2004). Public service ethics play the role of securing responsible administrative behavior in the public sector. Human beings are selfish by nature, and to regulate the consequences of their actions, public service values are established to influence a rational approach of the judgment of people’s actions. In this regard, public service ethics are founded on several normative foundations.
Virtue: An individual’s moral character forms a critical basis for securing ethical behavior in the public service. In light of the U.S constitution, a strong belief was that open offices should be occupied by the individuals who portrayed flawless moral characters (Cooper, 2004). Such values derive from upbringing background, honesty, dedication, humaneness, and impartiality behaviors. Such values for critical components in public service ethics should be considered in the administrator’s actions.
Public Interest: It is essential to consider the responsibilities of the public servants while administering justice. In consideration of various public service positions, individuals are oriented to exercise discretion while performing their duties to promote particular virtues. Individuals have the obligation to devote themselves to achieving a common interest without partiality (Cooper, 2004). For instance, the U.S constitution demands public servants to promote equality, accountability, justice, and federalism, among other virtues (Cooper, 2004). The virtue of public interest impacts a lot the establishment of public ethics for administration. Due to this fact, the idea of public interest provides the proper direction in case gross misconduct or scandal occurs in society.
Principles from Philosophy: The laws of philosophy also forms a potential normative foundation for public administration ethics. Considering this claim by DeForest & McKeown, while administrators are tied by the regulations to uphold certain principles and values, they still have to consider the consequences of their actions through individual lenses. On this note, the theme of utilitarianism plays an important role.
Citizenship Theory: Regarding this theory, the administrators hold the role of the citizen in trust to pursue the activities previously done by citizens, but now entrusted to those with professional skills, resources, and technical training to assume such duties. On this basis, the administrators ought to portray responsiveness to the citizens, and recognize them as the locus of absolute loyalty and nurture rational reflexion DeForest & McKeown (2012). In a democratic society, public servants bear the obligation to pursue a common interest. Conversely, the administrators’’ actions should initiate public participation in democratic governance.
The Importance of Practicing Ethical Public Administration
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Upholding public ethics in governance is of paramount importance. Ethical administration aids in making viable decisions to solve conflicts of interest. A decision based on ethics regards an administrator as a person of integrity. In this perspective, it is expected that diligent people judged based on their ability to solve conflicts will be placed at the top positions of leadership. In other words, upholding ethics in public administration drives the public to view an individual as a potential leader capable of handling critical matters.