The Ethics of Public Administration
Ethics is a notoriously slippery concept. What is "wrong?" What is "right?" These may seem like simple questions with simple answers, but they in fact can invite great debate and confusion. In public administration, ethics is especially complicated. Public administrators must operate within many ethical levels, including personal ethics, professional ethics, organizational ethics, and social ethics. Thus, the actions of public administrators must satisfy not only their own personal standards of morality, but also the standards set forth by professional associations, the agency or government at large, and the society as a whole. Obviously, this is not always possible, resulting in conflicts and ethical dilemmas. What if a policy enacted by the government is in direct conflict with a public administrator's personal feelings? Is he or she ethically obligated to carry out this policy? Or would an ethical public administrator refuse to carry out the policy, perhaps even fight against it? Does it depend on the situation? In this Discussion, you examine what it means to be an ethical public administrator.