PPD 240

impartiality standard

understanding and rejecting the possibility of bias, public managers are ethically obligated to promote the public interest which demands impartiality ethical public managers strive to retain objectivity and reduce bias in actions and decision making. This can be done by steering away from any avoidable influence that may cloud vision, prejudice a decision, induce favoritism.

"As George Washington I would do anything in my power for you, but as President, ..."

"... I can do nothing for you"

how to balance public's right to know with public managers' right to privacy? what should policy makers think about?

- public right to know related to idea of trust of public managers being held to higher standard - perjury, plagiarism, sexual harassment and other illegal activity come under what the public is obligated to know - transparency = accountability = trust - generally, right to know trumps privacy for public managers

Why is trust important to public managers?

- so that we have more confidence in federal civil employees - link forged by stern ethical standards and expectations - for the ability to govern effectively through voluntary compliance - ethics, trust, and government power are linked, more trust means more power

use 7.4 to identify what you need to know before you blow the whistle

-Facts, channels exhausted, soul search 1. serious enough to risk org and you? 2. ready for action to become known and be hated? 3. Are you sure of the facts? 4. are you sure your superiors are not fixing it? 5. is it in public interest 6. accept consequences if wrong?

analyze in ethical terms the publicity test for accountability in 3.3.

-involves what other people see you as -are you willing to have other people fidnd out about it -more about your concern with perception than doing the right thing -more concerned with how it will impact your personal relationships etc.

Threshold test: police escort wrongfully set up for celebrity and it crashes

-vulnerability (potential injury) -proximity (know span of control) -capability (can help without excessive risk) -dependency (no other options) This is the most challenging dilemma a manager faces because it is a problem a manager did not cause. These tools offer a principled way to discriminate among responsibilities. This test is commonly applied when immediate physical danger is threatened, it extends to injury of any sort.

3 reasons that public targets the ethics of public managers

1. ethics is important in its own right 2. the need for public trust 3. higher standards of behavior for public managers

5 Different roles of public managers

1. personal, family, community 2. professional, work ID 3. agency job 4. jurisdiction, citizen 5. humanity, sustainability

6 universal patterns of moral development according to Kohlberg

1. punishment and obedience orientation: "will I be punsihed if I don't do it?" 2. instrumental relativist orientation: "is this serving my self interest?" 3. interpersonal orientation: "will I win my friends' and family's approval?" 4. law and order orientation: "am I doing my duty to my role/ authority?" 5. social contract legalistic orientation: "am I respecting other's rights?" 6. universal ethical principles orientation: "would anyone perceive my actions as correct?" greater good, universal good

Conflict of Interest & significance

A clash between personal self interest and the public interest, with the potential to undermine impartiality. - role diagnosis stands guard against COI - must separate public and private life in order to make clear, professional ethical decisions that induce trust - avoiding COI is a standard widely accepted in different societies

is cost-benefit analysis neutral?

Cost-benefit analysis is still ethically lopsided. Public policy analysis and regulatory review use cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis to examine decisions in which lives, health, safety, and quality of life are expressed in dollars. ---the translation of all things into dollars in order to mathematically analyze the costs and benefits of a decision - narrow view, inconsistent, devaluation of the future, ethically lopsided

nepotism

Favoritism shown to relatives, often in employment; usually refers to unlawful or unethical behavior.

3 Elements of "Go-No-Go"

Is the decision legal? Is the decision ethical? Is the decision effective?

NIMBY: what is it? why important?

NIMBY=not-in-my-backyard NIMBY has to do with self-interested resistance. rejects solutions that sacrifice one locale or group to a common good more broadly enjoyed. This is important to public service because collective action in an interdependent world is bound to hurt someone's pocketbook, sensitivities, surroundings, values or principles collective problem solving is possible only if we allow the possibility of someone getting hurt in some fashion and to some degree. There is a trade-off when making a decision and government. This trade-off allows acting in the public interest and distributing costs and benefits differently to different segments of the public.

Difference between public service and government service

Public service is doing (actively carrying out the law) and for that reason is defined as much by its public mission- what the manager is doing- as by public law or other formal criteria. Govt is responsive to their electorate Public service is a bureaucrat hired by the government to work for the public sector, while government services are elected or appointed members of the government for social or public services. Size and shape is dynamic and multidimensional and contains different organizations that join together (nonprofits, health, businesses, churches)

difference between trustee and delegate in representative democracy

Trustee: a role orientation that emphasizes the individual's judgement and conscience in making decisions Delegate: role orientation in decision making that emphasizes executing the people's will Trustee acts statesmanlike in the community's best interest as the decision maker sees it The delegate is more like a conduit who purposefully brings the constituencies views to bear and faithfully reflects them -delegates are not given a voice in opinion where as trustees are, voters abide in them the ability to make decisions where as delegates are completely responsive to constituents

what is the appearance of impropriety

What a rational person could reasonably believe; Professional managers are expected to attend to the public's perceptions of the way their activities and decisions look and the public response. Public service must look right, smell right, feel right and avoid the appearance of impropriety (holding company money in wallet to transfer later)

blowing the whistle

after careful examination of the facts you go outside routine channels to disclose wrongdoing

public service

agencies and activities tending toward the public side of the continuum, broader than government service

framing

altering the language used to frame a decision process

Conflict b/w state law and constitution: role of public manager & why

always committed to the constitution, the public manager must uphold the constitution above all else as his primary role as a civil servant in order to create public trust and personal accountability within an organization

Is plausible deniability ethical?

claim that a superior had no knowledge of wrongdoing by subordinates to avoid responsibility; not ethical -The subordinate may want to shield the boss and make it possible for the boss to be able to deny knowledge of wrongdoings, sometimes termed plausible deniability. The end result is that plausible deniability is usually implausible and unethical, and its costs are figured in terms of credibility. We cannot hide behind our ignorance. If these decision are by-products of indifference, thoughtlessness, or carelessness, then unanticipated or unintended results point to inexcusable ignorance.

Low Road approach to administrative ethics

compliance to the rules, staying out of trouble ---- largely restrictive, coercive, punitive, and even threatening route. This approach to ethics is designed to spur obedience to minimum standards and legal prohibitions.

Civil disobedience

conscientious dissent featuring loyalty to fundamental law, taking public responsibility for the dissent and accepting the legal consequences. violations of law with the intent of effecting a change in current policy, regarded as unjust by the citizen taking action, substitutes a standard from outside the administrative system

anchoring

creating a reference point for comparison, can skew options to seem more or less extreme than they are

Competence standard

demands from public managers not perfection but perfecting, that is, an effort to do the best that can be done given the state of the technical art and within reasonable limits. Expert judgement is still judgement. In a world of scarce resources and unknowns, performance, product, effort,, and outcome define competence. Competence standard is bounded by realistic limits and driven by high public expectations. an agency's commitment to competence is an ethical standard, They specify knowledge and skill, and the application of that knowledge and skill, to the standards of performance required in the workplace.

High Road approach to administrative ethics

developing and maintaining norms of integrity to induce trust "ethics in the raw" non-institutional by nature ----- Relying on moral character, this route heads towards moral judgement, it counts on ethical managers individually to reflect, decide, and act. Integrity is a basic ethical value that draws on appropriate values and principles.

free-rider

individual who avoids their fair share of the costs of producing public services

Accountability in public service

low road high road, answering to someone (legislature, executive, supervisor, citizens) for something (decision, program, mistake), 1. hierarchal authority 2. performance appraisals

"respect for generations"

public managers live in a dynamic time warp, with a foot in the future, thinking about the long term effect of today's decision

What is a financial disclosure MC

public or confidential disclosures of financial interests that might conflict with the impartiality of a public official, supporting mechanism for the prohibition against conflict of interest

Natural Law

religious perspective on right and wrong

Legal Positivism

right of citizens to unbiased judgments in cases of law

stakeholder

significant players in ethical dilemmas and have interests or concerns in something. These include ethical managers, who have a duty to maintain integrity, and others who are threatened by negative impacts of a decision.

moral relativism

the belief that ethical standards are culturally determined - the view that ethical standards are culturally determined and cannot be generalized across cultures We reject moral relativism as a valid theory of ethics. There are some moral rules that all societies must have in common because those rules are necessary for society to exist.

teleology

the consequences of the action determines its ethicality Speaks on behalf of impartiality and benefiting the greatest number of people concerned Based more on morality and doing good

deontology

the duty or principle behind the action determines its ethicality From such a standpoint no matter how desirable the consequences, there are certain things professional public managers may not do and other things they must do Based on rules

saliency of an ethical decision

the intensity or perceived significance of an ethical decision

tragedy of the commons

theory of economics according to which individuals, acting independently and rationally according to each one's self interest, behave contrary to the whole groups interest by depleting some common resources example: cows depleting resources of the open pasture, inevitable with resources -The paradox is that private self interest- selfish, greedy, and unrestrained short term individual utility- plunders the common pot. Unbridled self-interest threatens shared resources, often the very source of the prize. Protecting common pool resources is a governmental purpose.

Theory of countervailing responsibility?

there are three types of opposing aspects of administration responsibilities, political, professional, and personal, that can often clash and create tension Political responsibility: Actions that is accountable to or consistent with objectives or standards of conduct mandated by political or hierarchical authority Professional responsibility: Action that is informed by professional expertise, standard of ethical conduct, and by experience rooted in agency history or traditions Personal responsibility: Action that is informed by self-reflexive understanding; and emerges from a context of authentic relationships wherein personal commitments are regarded as valid bases for moral action

ethics

thinking systematically about morals and conduct and how we treat other people, guidelines for action that draw on what is right and important

cognitive dissonance theory

when hiring a person who really impresses you, you ignore their las job performance evaluation -people want their attitudes and actions to match or be consistent and when they do not, people feel discomfort or sometimes even distress

what is the rational decision-making model?

when individuals use facts, analysis, and a step by step process to come to a decision 1. identify the problem 2. gather information 3. analyze the situation 4. develop opinions 5. evaluate opinions 6. select an alternative 7. act on decision