Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

Ethics is an essential aspect of public service, but it is often left out of discussions on the development of the field and its major functions. Ethics is sometimes treated as a specialized topic studied for its own sake. For ethics to guide the attitudes and behavior of public administrators, it must be integrated into the way administrators think about their practice and incorporated into their everyday behavior.

I come to the exploration of ethics from a general scholarly interest in political- administrative relations. In my research and teaching, I seek to understand how public administration contributes to the political process, how politicians and administrators interact with each other, and how administrators relate to citizens. Examining these topics naturally brings up the issue of appropriate limits and goals, particularly regarding the behavior of public administrators. What is, and should be, the role of professional public administrators in governance? What are the characteristics of political-administrative relations? What do we expect administrators to do—and not to do? How do administrators relate to citizens? How should they balance their accountability to elected superiors and their professional standards with their responsibility to the public? The normative side of each of these questions involves “big” ethical issues, and these are the focus of this text.

John Gaus (1950) argued many years ago that a theory of public administration is also a theory of politics. I agree and hope to make the case for a further broadening of our understanding of the field. A theory of public administration in the political process is also a theory of ethics.

I believe that the same logic also applies to understanding the ethics of administrators in nonprofit organizations because of the basic similarity in the nature of administrative responsibilities in the governmental and nonprofit sectors. The city manager who works with the city council and serves the public, and the nonprofit executive director who works with a board of directors and serves clients, share many important characteristics in their work, in the ethical challenges that they face, and in their duty to serve. The text is also concerned with administrators who have little direct interaction with the public, whether in national or state government or in nonprofit organizations. Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

This text is a primer that introduces the reader to the fundamentals of administrative responsibility and ethics. It links these ideas to the nature of the administrative process and the work of professional administrators. It seeks to help the reader understand why ethics is important to people who choose to be administrators in governmental and nonprofit organizations and how to relate their own personal values with the norms of the public sector. Furthermore, the text offers assistance in working through the complexity and controversy surrounding ethical problems in public administration. It avoids prescription—thou shalt, thou shalt not—as much as possible and seeks instead

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to enable the reader to form his or her own judgments about ethical choices. It is an introduction to fundamental issues that equips readers to make informed choices about their own behavior. It also provides a foundation for exploring the topic in more depth in other courses or training opportunities.

I approach this text with 16 years of teaching ethics and professional practice—a core course in the master of public administration (MPA) degree—and more years teaching related topics. I hope to create in these words-on-pages some of the dynamic exchange that occurs in the classroom as students grapple with the important issues in administrative ethics. From this experience, I know quite well that this text does not “teach” ethics, in the sense of trying to fill in a blank slate. The reader already has a basic understanding of what it means to be an ethical person. Like my students, the reader comes to this text with a reservoir of ethical and moral values upon which he or she can draw. Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

In addition to my teaching, I bring perspectives from the experience of being an administrator, a program director, and department head. Some important generic issues in supervision, interpersonal relations, resource use, reporting, and planning are encountered even in the rather disorganized sphere of academic administration. I also benefited greatly from a year on leave working in Washington, DC, from 1976–1977 at the Department of Housing and Urban Development as a National Association of School of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA) Fellow. Furthermore, a lot of my research and training involves interacting with politicians and administrators, both in the United States and other countries. I think that I have come to appreciate the kinds of challenges that administrators face and how often there is an important ethical dimension to these challenges.

My research reflects a blending of my early focus on urban politics and political leadership and my deepening interest in administrative leadership and values. I explore professional administration in a political context. Although much of my writing has focused on local government, my teaching addresses issues at all levels of government and in nonprofits. I conduct empirical research on topics that have a normative dimension and examine the normative implications of my quantitative research. I have merged empirical research findings with analysis of the development of public administration to suggest a new (but I believe historically grounded) way to conceptualize political-administrative relations. This approach stresses the complementarity of politics and administration rather than a dichotomy or strict separation as the conceptual foundation of the field. This model informs my approach to administrative ethics. Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

The Ethics Primer for Public Administrators in Government and Nonprofit Organizations, Second Edition presents a simple theme that, of course, gets complicated in the telling. People enter the field of public administration, just as the reader enters this text, with an interest in public service and a set of values shaped in part by that interest. These values reflect most of the essential elements of ethical thinking, but they are not developed in a very sophisticated way. Like most adults, people who have not formally studied administrative ethics tend to have values that are grounded in respect for conventional norms. Also, they tend to have fairly substantial respect for people in positions of “authority.” This condition creates tension between the sense of duty to serve and act responsibly, on the one hand, and the deference to the superiors and Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

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established rules, on the other. Most people who have not expanded their knowledge or thought systematically about ethics and the nature of public service are dependent on external sources of direction.

I hope this text will help the reader broaden and deepen his or her understanding of the nature of the public service duty and major approaches to thinking about ethics. I hope the reader will internalize this knowledge so he or she is able to form independent judgments about ethical options based on universal values. The reader will not necessarily reject the external influences he or she receives, but will be better able to weigh his or her own reasoned sense of what is right against what others say is right. Finally, I hope the reader will be able to use this knowledge to take actions that are ethically sound based on a careful consideration of all the relevant options. Because the reader is already or is preparing to become an administrator who is responsible for directing other persons and shaping his or her organization, I hope this text will also help the reader see ways that he or she can raise ethical awareness in others.

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Acknowledgments

I have been a member of the faculty in the School of Public Affairs at Arizona State University and want to thank my colleagues and students there for their support of my research on ethics. I also want to express my gratitude to a number of colleagues and students at North Carolina State University who helped, both directly and indirectly, with the original text. Debra Stewart helped me understand the importance of the development of ethical reasoning and how it changes over time. Jim Brunet offered comments, suggested sources, and made a test drive in a class he taught with an earlier version of the manuscript. Former doctoral students Dr. Jack Kem and Dr. Julie Raines wrote dissertations on ethics topics and added to my knowledge of the issues and the literature in administrative ethics, and current doctoral students Ljubinka Andonoska and Chin-Chang Tsai at Arizona State University conducted research that contributed to the new edition of the text. Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

I have had unique opportunity to work on the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Code of Ethics review process for the past two years. I am grateful to the 31 members of the working group who diligently examined the current Code of Ethics and thoughtfully proposed revisions that build on ASPA’s prior codes. It was a pleasure working with Jim Nordin, member of the ASPA National Council and retired federal government administrator, who co-chaired the working group with me. My understanding of professional ethics has been deepened by this experience.

My wife, Claudia, has been both patient and supportive over the extended period of this writing project. She is also a model of the ethical professional who exemplifies the duty to service at the highest level in her practice of medicine.

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CHAPTER 1

Introduction—and a Pop Quiz

This text is a primer on administrative ethics, a term that refers to the ethics of persons who occupy career leadership and staff positions in government and nonprofit organizations. It brings to mind oxymorons, which are a form of satiric humor. “Military intelligence,” “jumbo shrimp,” and “airline food” are popular examples. To be honest, “administrative ethics” is probably pretty high on the list of commonly used oxymorons, but more to the point at the start of this text is the possibility that “ethics primer” itself connects two elements that are incompatible. To cover a complex topic such as ethics in the public service in a small, introductory book may seem to be an impossible task. Is it sufficient to briefly introduce and provide initial instruction—the dictionary meaning of a primer—for a subject as weighty as administrative ethics?

Based on my experience in teaching administrative ethics in a short-course format and as a component in a broader course for many years, there is an important precondition. What makes it possible to introduce this vast topic in a meaningful way is the fact that the reader already knows a great deal about ethics. I am assuming that the reader is an adult—young or otherwise—who is either interested in entering the public service or already works for a government or nonprofit organization. As we shall see, both relative maturity and self-selection for a public service position are important to one’s knowledge of and attitudes about administrative ethics. Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

Ethics is fundamental to one’s work in public service. This does not mean that it is simple or should be treated in a simplistic way. Still, if the topic cannot be discussed in a concise and straightforward way, ethics will be irrelevant to many of the people who work in public service. There are challenging standards and values that should be upheld, and these may be understood in broad terms as well as being the subject for specialized study. This text does not start the process of finding ethics, but it does provide an introduction to examining the nature of standards to which public administrators should adhere in order to meet their far-reaching responsibilities and challenges. Stated differently, this primer is not intended to give the reader a little bit of ethics that might be expanded by additional study. The intention is to provide a lot of ethics with an introduction to their origins and meaning that can be expanded with additional study as well as with reflection based on growing experience.

The tone of this text is personal, the style is a dialogue, and the purpose is exhortatory. The first and second person will be used extensively. “I” will direct comments to “you.” It is not possible to create the interaction of the classroom, but an effort will be made to encourage an exchange in which your response in the form of answers to questions that I pose will help to carry forward the dialogue. Finally, I believe that knowledge provides the basis for understanding and action, and the discussion in this text will provide extensive information. The underlying intent,

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however, is not pedagogical; that is to say, to teach you the subject of administrative ethics. The purpose is to exhort you to engage yourself in ethics, to be more aware of the ethical dimension of public service, to be ethical in a more thoughtful and thoroughgoing way than before, and to do more to encourage others to be ethical.

Implicit in this intent is an approach to ethics that stresses both reducing unethical behavior and promoting the exercise of positive ethical responsibilities. Too often discussions of ethics in the public sector focus on unethical practices and ways to avoid or prevent bad behavior. These important topics are addressed, but more attention is given in this discussion to actions that administrators should take. Harm comes from inaction—the failure to do what is right to meet the highest standards—as well as from engaging in clearly unethical actions. It is important to recognize that doing what is right can raise complex issues and require courage.

Thus, the purpose of the text is to promote ethical behavior by public administrators on both individual and organizational levels. Specifically, the text enables the reader to do the following: Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

1. Appreciate that ethics is integral to the nature of democratic public administration 2. Understand the responsibilities of public administrators and the bases of

administrative ethics 3. Understand the tenets of the codes of ethics for various professional organizations

in the public sector and how they are applied 4. Be aware of and avoid the pressures and forces in public administration that can

contribute to unethical behavior 5. Develop the knowledge and skills needed to deal with ethical problems that arise

in public service 6. Strengthen the ethical climate in organizations

All of these serve to support ethical action. It is obvious that this text will cover a great deal of intellectual territory. The

discussion of topics is limited to the presentation of the material that is relevant to the line of argument that I am developing. Necessarily, this approach leaves the reader without the full exposition of a topic that it would receive if it were being considered on its own. Readers may pursue topics in more depth by following the guide to the literature provided in the endnotes. I seek to offer a serious but accessible conversation about ethics in the text, and a more scholarly examination of ethics in the endnotes.

POP QUIZ: DO YOU HAVE A CODE OF ETHICS? I do not expect that you will already have a well-formed, explicit code of ethics that you follow in your administrative work. Before examining the subject matter of this text in more depth, however, it is useful to establish a baseline. Here are some questions you can answer for yourself before proceeding further in the text:

What is or should be your code of ethics for work in government or nonprofit organizations? Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

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What are the standards of right and wrong that should guide your work—the “do’s and don’ts” of public service?

If you will take the time now to record your thoughts, we will refer back to what you have written and compare your responses to other professional students in public administration.

UNDERSTANDING THE SETTING FOR ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS The discussion of “administrative” ethics applies both to those who work in government and in nonprofit organizations. Our appreciation of “new governance” includes the recognition that public needs are addressed by organizations in both the public and nonprofit sectors (Kettl 2002). Why is ethics a special concern in these particular organizations? It is important that administrators operate within legal and organizational controls. They serve the public, but not as private professionals who operate on a fee- for-service basis. Although there are important differences between the two sectors, the similarities are even greater and staff members in each can benefit from knowing more about the ethical challenges of the other.

To simplify the discussion throughout the text, four terms will be used generically to describe both the governmental and nonprofit setting: organizations, administrators, political superiors, and citizens or clients.

Organizations refer to governmental entities such as a city government as well as to nonprofit organizations. Depending on the context and the nature of the organization, the term will encompass the specific unit to which one is assigned; for instance, a section, the whole department, or the entire organization. For example, a municipal police officer will deal with some ethical issues in his or her area of assignment, such as the patrol division, with some in the department as a whole and with others as an employee of city government. For a staff member in a small nonprofit agency, the distinctions may not be useful or necessary, but larger nonprofits will have similar divisions. Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

Administrators refer to the civil service or career staff in government and the professional staff in nonprofit organizations. These positions range from the top executives (city managers in municipal government or executive directors in nonprofit organizations) to the staff members who handle a variety of specialized tasks. Some will have supervisory responsibilities and, therefore, are the administrative superiors of the staff they supervise. Others work without subordinates; for example, analysts and many frontline service providers including teachers, counselors, eligibility specialists, or police officers.

Political superiors, on the other hand, refer to persons who set the official goals and policies for the organization and oversee the administrators. In government organizations, this category includes both elected executives and members of legislative bodies as well as the politically appointed and politically oriented top layer of officials chosen by political executives such as the president, governor, or “strong” mayor. In local governments and special purpose agencies such as school districts, the political

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superiors hold positions such as council member, board member, or commissioner. In nonprofit organizations, these persons sit on the board of directors.

Finally, the words citizens and clients refer to persons served by governmental and nonprofit organizations. In some respects, this is the least satisfactory of the generic terms. When stressing the recipients of a service, the word client is generally a suitable term for both government and nonprofit organizations, but it works less well for persons who are audited by an IRS agent or given a speeding ticket by a police officer. Those who do not choose their treatment may not feel that they are a “client” or are being “served,” but we will still include them in this category. Citizen implies not just the person who is impacted by organizational action, but also the person who provides the support and legitimacy for government (Denhardt and Denhardt 2011). Citizenship has come to be intermixed with the discussion of immigrant status, and to some it is a legal term reserved for those who are native-born or naturalized in the United States (Lucio 2009). We will consider citizens to include all residents who are members of the community that interact with government. How officials in governmental and nonprofit organizations interact with residents who are not documented is an important ethical issue. Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

The term citizen does not have the same meaning for the nonprofit organizations whose leaders are not chosen by or directly accountable to the public. Still, nonprofit organizations also have broad responsibilities to persons beyond those who receive services or provide contributions. If a nonprofit organization is perceived by the public to be wasteful and ineffective, it will probably not be able to survive just because it keeps a small group of clients happy. Furthermore, nonprofits operate within a legal framework that is sanctioned by government and the people. Thus, the basic idea of a service and fiduciary relationship between the organization and the people or some segment of it is common to the public and the nonprofit sectors.

These terms suggest the four responsibilities that are shared by government and nonprofit administrators. These responsibilities are the foundation for identifying the nature of the duty of public administrators: their responsibility to serve individuals, their responsibility to be accountable to the “people” and promote the public interest, their responsibility to their organization, and their responsibility to political superiors and to uphold the law and established policy. Some administrators in governmental and certain nonprofit organizations have the authority to exercise coercive power to support the discharge of their assigned responsibilities.1 Others in government and nonprofit organizations invite persons in need to accept services or assistance; they don’t coerce them to do anything. Frequently, it is citizens who initiate the contact to request or demand actions, remedies, or attention. In any of these circumstances, public administrators relate with citizens in a distinctive way. This is not a market-exchange relationship in which a service or commodity is offered, and customers can decide whether the price and quality are acceptable. In some interactions between citizens and officials, citizens are dependent and vulnerable and have no other source for the service. In other interactions, citizens are the “bosses” of officials. The citizens or clients who interact with public administrators have reason to expect that they will be treated fairly and with respect, that they will be informed and listened to, and that they will receive the service or benefit that they deserve.

The responsibility to the people—to serve the public interest—means that

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administrators should also go beyond one-on-one encounters with individuals to consider general concerns of groups of people or society as a whole. Promoting the public interest requires attention not only to current citizens but to future generations as well (Frederickson 1997). Public administrators’ awareness of social needs and changing conditions provides the basis for identifying possible changes in procedure or policy that they may initiate or propose to administrative or political superiors. They also have a broad responsibility to make good use of the resources that have been entrusted to them whether they come from taxes or contributions.

Public administrators should also be responsible to the organization of which they are a part. This does not mean that the administrator is totally bound by the organization or loses his or her own voice in discussions of ends and means. Still, public administrators are not sole practitioners like physicians or accountants who can set up their own practice. They operate within an authority structure, they work with others to advance organizational mission, and they have a responsibility to make the organization as strong, effective, and ethical as possible.

Administrators also have a responsibility to their political superiors. This relationship involves a complex mixture of control and freedom, accountability and independence. Political-administrative relations based on shared responsibilities are essential to the duty of the public servant.

THE SETTING CONTINUED: DIFFERENCES BETWEEN GOVERNMENT AND NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS There are basic similarities in the positions of administrators who work in government and in nonprofit organizations. Still, it is important to recognize some significant differences between these types of organizations as well.2 Nonprofit service organizations arise from a concern about an unmet need. Ott and Dicke (2012, 3) describe their origins in this way:

Throughout the history of the United States, individual citizens repeatedly have recognized a need or a problem, attracted others who share their concern, and built a voluntary constituency that was committed to ameliorating, solving, or eliminating it, even if the issue and the people associated with it were socially undesirable at the time. In instance after instance over the decades and centuries, this voluntary process has been used to influence changes in public policy and government support—or tolerance—for what was originally an unacceptable cause, case or issue, whether it be unacceptable politically, socially, or religiously.

Nonprofits have freedom and flexibility not available to governmental organizations. This freedom applies to generating resources, but nonprofits lack the relatively certain revenues of government and the coercive power to enforce the collection of taxes. Nonprofits have a basic mission that is central to the work of the organization, and it is usually much narrower in scope than the typical general-purpose government. Nonprofits are sometimes referred to as mission-driven organizations. In a sense, the mission has an overriding impact on all those who work for a nonprofit, and this Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma

17condition differentiates it from government. Consider this comparison. City council members are elected to determine the mission and goals of their city government; the choices the members make may be hotly debated within the council and in the larger community, and the specific goals may change dramatically over time. On the other hand, the persons who work in a nonprofit as board members or as staff members typically begin with a commitment to the organization’s mission. They are expected to allow the mission to “drive” them, although they make the detailed decisions about how to translate the mission into reality at a given time. If some persons want to pursue the mission differently or pursue a different version of the mission, they may choose to leave and even to start their own organization.

This option points to another basic characteristic that makes nonprofits distinctive: nonprofit organizations are competitive service organizations. They do not have a monopoly on the provision of a service, as is sometimes the case of government agencies. In addition, they do not provide a product through the market, as is the case of businesses. Still, they offer a purpose, a service, or a product that benefits society (like government) in a competitive setting (like business). To succeed, they must attract clients, volunteers, supporters, and contributors in the face of other organizations that are trying to have the same success. Thus, the staff members in nonprofit organizations are public servants who operate in a more open, flexible, and competitive environment. The underlying presumption of this text is that the shared commitment to serve (as well as the absence of profit motive) makes the staff in nonprofit and governmental organizations more alike than different Discussion Current Ethical Dilemma