Ethics
and Discretion in Public Administration
TN Dhakal
Background
The idea of ethics and the administrative discretion can be
traced in the Western as well as in the Eastern religious philosophies which laid
the foundation for philosophical ethics. Socrates – Greek philosopher
determined a general ranking of "universal morals" in order to find out
certain criterion that could test what course of action to take in any
immediate situation. Socrates assigned value orders as well as certain
"means to ends" that would determine alternatives for ethical
philosophical generalization and creating a basis for administrative
discretion.
The
modern world has seen an increase
in interest in the
areas related to
the ethics in Public Administration,
however there is little study on ethical
and philosophical dilemmas
related to the
concept of ethics
in public administration. It is
important to focus on the
importance of administrative
ethics, as there has been very little effort spent on identifying what exactly
constitutes the crux of ethics in administration.
Frederickson and Ghere
(2005) address both
the managerial and individual moral
dimensions of ethical behavior as well as new challenges to administrative
ethics posed by globalization.
Public
administration has certain issues with
regard to ethics implementation and finds it troublesome in its application.
This framework is based on stable
institutional and the role
relationship levels, among both
public employees as
well as the organization.
Ethics reflect the basic common
values and standards where every member of the organization
consider important for the proper functioning of public service.
It comprehensively discusses the
general core values, specific
standards of conduct,
actions to safe-guard
integrity and measures
on handling situations where there has been possible
violation of ethics. It helps to structure the discussion on public-service
ethics and it serves as a
toolkit or general guideline
for the development of codes of conduct at
various levels.
Originally, the ethics
framework identifies general
core values which are the
rule of law
(“lawfulness”), impartiality/objectivity, transparency (“openness”), accountability, professionalism (“expertise”), duty
of care, reliability (“confidence, trust”) and courtesy (“service
principle”).
Osborne and Gaebler
(1992) in reinventing government discussed two different
areas the first, involved identification of factors which promoted
the productivity of
governance and the second involved setting a new vision
and mission policy. It was
proposed that the productivity
of governance can be increased by adopting more ethical
measures in terms of distinguishing between
the results and
quantity of resources used. The ultimate accountability and ethics
of the action of the government is needed to its citizens.
Principles of ethics
·
Ethics of the sovereign
good
principle
discusses on a set of guidelines based on individual actions. Here ethics of the
sovereign good is identified
to be a
set of values from
which the different
views on ‘what is
good’ can be judged. It can also be seen in real
world scenarios that many people have
different versions of the
same ethical concept. People try to twist the concept to fit their
needs based on their conception of the “good”. Therefore it is important to
identify the viewpoint that holds the true
spirit of the ethical guidelines.
·
Ethics of the service of
goods
- This principle promotes values by the ethics of the
service of goods which are mainly efficiency
and maximization of the inputs to outputs. 3 aspects are important like logic of reciprocity,
its view of the collective, & its criteria
for judgment.
Determinants of ethics in public
administration
The
major determinants of administrative conduct in the public sector include:
1st, the
determinants of ethics
in public administration with regard
to the individual attributes of
public/civil servants include
ethical decision-making skills and professional values.
2nd,
the organizational structure dimension is explained by clear accountability, collaborative arrangements,
dissent channels, and participation procedures.
3rd
the political organizational culture includes artifacts, beliefs and values, and assumptions.
4th
Leadership is important
in the development, maintenance,
and adaptation of
organizational culture. Ethical
behavior is encouraged when
organizations have a climate where personal standards and
employee education are emphasized,
where supervisors stress
the truth, and where employees
regularly come together to discuss ethical
problems.
5th,
societal expectation
includes public participation, laws,
and policies.
The
advanced set of
fundamental criteria that integrate
the process of
dealing with ethical dilemmas in public administration
are:
1) Democratic accountability of
administration,
2)
The rule of law and the principle of legality,
3)
Professional integrity and
4)
Responsiveness to the society.
While
employing ethics it should be taken into
account both legal issue and the societies’ expectations. Thus this
requires to following four functional concepts:
1) Accountability
of public bureaucracy which helps identifies the relationship between
legitimate actions and its link to administration.
2) The rule
of law and legality wherein public administration should be governed by the
law.
3) Concepts
of professional integrity and autonomy among public administrators which
could help to promote the principle of
meritocracy.
4) Concepts of
responsibility and immediate
action of public administration
to its citizens.
It is necessary to
have a management which makes available the
standardization of professional
ethical values. In public governance moral structuring could include the
following aspects that would help for advancing ethics in administration:
·
Instruments for answerability
·
Supervising systems through local and
outside question forms
·
Forging of helpful measures to motivate
moralistic attitudes award ethical acts
·
Application of audit techniques at an
Inter-governmental level
·
Official socialization (for example,
structuring, knowledge and guidance)
·
Establishing of whistle-blowing
mechanisms cautiously
·
A greater plea for an active citizenry.
·
Outlining managerial tasks
·
Effective communication.
Discretion
Using the discretionary power Andrew Jackson (1829-32) in
USA introduced administrative discretion which was misused and termed as “spoils
system". In today’s administrative discretion, some issues affect the way
organizations function and the way the public feels towards
administrations/agencies as a whole. In this way public administrators are seen
as "moral agents"; they are given the task to exercise discretion,
and reflect the society’s values. In theory, the public expects administrators
to be the exemplary role models of society and follow laws and regulations.
Importance of administrative discretion:
·
the law could not explain all details
which requires discretion
·
due to the accessibility it requires
discretionary power
·
for effective communication it requires
discretionary approach
·
for solving the immediate problems
at the field
·
making the public officials responsible
for their works
Few
issues of administrative discretion:
·
Misuse of power
·
Lack of judicious approach for
dealing with the social issues
·
Low level of performance
·
Increment
of Corruption[1]
·
Need
ethical persons
·
Useful in
an environment where moral values exist
At the End
Morality’s
choice of good and sound ethics requires for developing a strong moral fibre.
It is true that knowledge
and morality are interrelated and
one could not be moral
if the other do not know what morals are and what is good for
mankind. All thought and action
therefore has to
originate from the knowledge of what is good or bad and
then, be judged by ethical and
moral standards. So for constant
engagement with the questions
of virtue it requires
morality which would make
people better as
they would focus more on their own moral standards.
The basic
aim for introducing ethics in
administration would therefore be
not the triumph
of one principle or
ethical imperative over
the other, but rather the reduction of incongruence
among them and the provision of conditions
for their harmonious
coexistence, mutual support and
complementary fulfillment. Therefore in
public administration, ethics
provides a fair
degree of flexibility when it
comes to framing a
rational decision.
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