Chapter II: Work Ethics PDF

CHAPTER II WORK ETHICS INTRODUCTION An important dimension of ethics in public administration is work ethics. It represents commitment, dedication, involvement, sincerity, love, productivity, punctuality, and efficiency. He or she possesses administrative morality that is essentially rooted...

CHAPTER II WORK ETHICS INTRODUCTION An important dimension of ethics in public administration is work ethics. It represents commitment, dedication, involvement, sincerity, love, productivity, punctuality, and efficiency. He or she possesses administrative morality that is essentially rooted in a conviction in the desirability of ethical conduct. Work ethics is a value based on hard work and diligence. Workers exhibiting a good work ethics in theory should be selected for better positions, more responsibility and ultimately promotion. Workers who fail to exhibit a good work ethics may be regarded as failing to provide fair value for the wage the employer is paying them and should not be promoted or placed in positions of greater responsibility. Hence, Work ethics is basically the belief that work is a good moral. CHARACTERISTICS OF HAVING GOOD WORK ETHICS 1. Honest 2. Values diversity 3. Respect others 4. Cooperative UNETHICAL CONDUCT AS DISPLAYED BY SOME OF THE PUBLIC SERVANTS: 1. Indulging in corruption in high places by colluding with politicians, contractors, and corporate groups etc. 2. Committing petty bribe 3. Misuse of power for personal benefits 4. Biased decision to favor influential persons 5. Pilferage of public funds from government schemes and projects 6. Manipulation/withholding of information 7. Deliberate delays in service delivery 8. Non-application of mind, negligence and dereliction of duty 9. Collusion with tax payer to cheat the public exchequer 10. Intellectual dishonesty 11. Not speaking truth/hiding truth to please bosses out of fear of reprisal 12. Misuse of government facilities 13. Nepotism 14. Cover-up of Crime, frauds and financial irregularity 15. Being a party to electoral malpractices 16. Abdication of responsibility and passing the buck Major factors behind poor quality of output of public system is the carelessness and heartlessness on the part of government functionaries. Most of them do not have a feeling of ‘oneness with their organization and their job. They do not put in their best in their work ad are halfheartedly involved in their duties. STRATEGIES FOR IMPROVING WORK ETHICS 1. There should be prescribed specific norms of productivity and work performance for organizational units even individual. 2. A comprehensive and inclusive performance appraisal system should be adopted. This would be feasible of the job is descriptive and role and responsibilities of each position are specified. 3. There should be maximum delegation of powers at every level with a concurrent system of effective monitoring and work audit. 4. Punctuality and promptness in administrative affairs must be valued and along with the quality of work performed; these should became the criteria for reward and punishment in organization. 5. The seniors should lead by setting an ethical example. They should motivate their juniors to take initiatives, and responsibility, and also be enterprising and efficient. Public administration is designed to serve ‘public’. it outh to be people-oriented and even people0centered. Public administrative organization are human organization and they ought to humane in their policies, decisions, orientation and behavior. Being respnsive to people’s need enjoins upon civil servants to be responsive to their psychological needs of being cared for, nurturedm and helped.