Week 2 - Values, Ethics, and Leadership Notes PDF

Week 2 – Values, Ethics, and Leadership Notes: Lecture 1: Readings: 1. Barker and Mau, Chapter 2: Values and Ethics in Public Admin. − Define and explain the importance of administrative values − Understand both the old and new values that are found in values and ethics codes for public...

Week 2 – Values, Ethics, and Leadership Notes: Lecture 1: Readings: 1. Barker and Mau, Chapter 2: Values and Ethics in Public Admin. − Define and explain the importance of administrative values − Understand both the old and new values that are found in values and ethics codes for public services − Identify the elements of political neutrality and their significance for the actions of public servants − Outline the elements of accountability and apply these elements to determine the success of accountability arrangements − Develop an understanding of how to resolve ethical dilemmas facing public servants a) Public Service Values − Values: enduring beliefs that influence the choices made by individuals, groups, organizations − Three categories of administrative/public service values o Ethical: fairness, accountability o Democratic: democracy, responsiveness o Professional: efficiency, excellence - Lots of overlap: most or all values can be considered ethical values as they provide direction on appropriate or ethical behaviour − Shared values generate sense of community, limit need for rules as they give direction, organizations work better  − For us, values provide a clue to understanding the behavior of bureaucrats and their relations with other actors in the political process − Most important public service values: neutrality, accountability, efficiency, responsiveness, and integrity o Neutrality: Political neutrality o Accountability: respect for legal, institutional, procedural means o Efficiency: measure of performance, limiting cost o Responsiveness: responding to the needs and demands of political institutions and the public o Integrity: refers to following ethics − New values: due to reforms and developments, new values include excellence, stewardship, integrity, respect for people, respect for democracy o Reflect reforms like NPM emphasizes the measurement of performance and the provision of flexibility necessary to achieve greater innovation) b) Political Neutrality − Politics-Administration Dichotomy: public servants are concerned with the implementation of policy, not making/judging it o But, this line is becoming more frayed as both politicians and public servants actively participate in policy development o New dichotomy: politics-management dichotomy (task of public servants is to manage and discover creative measures by which to deliver services) − Appointments: Public servants should be appointed and promoted based on merit not affiliation − Political Partisanship: Officials in senior positions are required to refrain from partisan activity − Public Comment: Public servants cannot express publicly their personal views on government policies or admin − Anonymity and Ministerial Responsibility: Public servants should provide objective advice to their political superiors in private and in confidence − Permanence in office: Career security and expertise, influence regardless of political party c) Accountability − Administrative Accountability: assigning responsibilities based on agreed-upon goals, obligation to answer for these responsibilities, surveillance to ensure compliance, possible sanctions and rewards − Horizontal accountability d) Integrity (Administrative/Public Service Ethics) − Emphasis on ethics (resisting corruption, lying) − Important for public trust, efficient administration, value of public service as a career e) Code of Ethics − Values vs Rules depicted in Code of Ethics book (debate) − Benefits: reduces uncertainty, tool for accountability, builds trust in government − Problems: difficult to apply and enforce, hard to employ fairly across all departments − Other ways to encourage ethical behavior: training Review Questions: 1. How are the values and ethics related in the federal Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector? 2. Discuss three threats to the non-partisanship of public servants 3. Use the four components of accountability to demonstrate how difficult it might be to ensure accountable government 4. How may the values in the federal code conflict with each other? 5. What could be done to strengthen the politics-administration dichotomy?