This could also be dangerous, as it could mean that people with better political connections, but little real knowledge could be making life-altering decisions about the drugs Americans use, the food they consume, and detailed foreign policy decisions that require sensitive knowledge about small nations abroad. Still, at minimum, bureaucrats must understand that they are, in fact, policymakers, and develop a system of ethics to deal with the demands their duties require, even if they do bring specialized knowledge to their work. This idea of the essential nature of ethics is, granted, not new or radical, but it is a paradigmatic deviation from the morally neutral model of bureaucratic conduct favored before. (7).
Although systems of ethics are often viewed in a derisive fashion as mere formalities it is important that bureaucratic ethics have teeth and muscle behind them, to foster a sense of public trust. The hostile attitude of bureaucrats as living red tape may derive from their extreme unresponsiveness to the world outside of their bureaucratic territory, and their arrogance regarding public sentiment.
Critique
The author seems to make a valid point when he notes that bureaucratic principles exigencies must be defined. In other words, there must be some universal principles which bureaucrats are supposed to serve, and a notion of a greater public good to which bureaucrats must be responsible. Anyone who has ever dealt with a bureaucracy has been confronted with a civil servant who seems to value procedures more than people. A public servant's duty is clear -- he or she is supposed to serve the public, and an official who does not will fail to get reelected. However, in the current system, it is all too easy for someone who is an efficient...
Chapter 4: Administrative responsibility: The key to administrative ethics Administrators are responsible for complying with the law -- and also for complying with the administrative responsibilities. Ethics requires a delicate balancing of objective and subjective responsibilities on the part of administrators. All this is easier said than done, of course. The administrator's role is complicated by a network of often conflicting responsibilities -- responsibilities to his or her own ethics, to
Any kind of other personal information that is collected will be securely stored and monitored by the Chief Investigator. ("Information Privacy Principals," 2010) 5.2 Give details of the arrangements that have been made for the safe storage of the data and also the measures, which will be adopted to protect confidential records about research participants? (a) During the study. All data will be securely stored under lock and key. (b) After the
The bottom line for many - in terms of moral obligation - is the fact that Americans rely on their government to: a) protect them from attacks from terrorists (which the government did not to prior to the attacks on 9/11); b) spend their tax money responsibly without corruption (which neither the Congress or the White House has done in recent years); c) only wage war when the nation is
2). These are important issues because fire chiefs are routinely confronted with actual ethical dilemmas that involve conflicting or competing public and private values as well as corresponding conflicting professional responsibilities (Haraway & Kunselman, 2009). This point is also made by Pammer and Killian (2003) who cite the expanded responsibilities of both fire chiefs and line personnel in recent years. According to these authorities, "A successful fire chief today
Personal and Organizational Ethics and Values between for-Profit and Not-For-Profit Organizations For-profit and not-for-profit companies often operate very differently from one another. Here this will be shown with a comparison between the American Red Cross (a not-for-profit company) and the Coca-Cola Company (a for-profit company). The background of each one of them will be addressed, and they proposed solutions and recommendations will be discussed. Each company has its problems, whether
Bureaucratic Ethics If democracy and the concept of democratic governance is the foundation of bureaucratic ethics, do administrators and public officials relate to the U.S. Constitution in that sense? Are ethical behaviors by those in public office the result of the creation and the practice of democracy? Many of those who are elected to public office must take an oath to abide by the principles contained in Constitution of the
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