Ethics and Public Administration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ethics and Public Administration - Essay Example Ethics are considered as accountability principles, which the public use to scrutinize government people s work in public sector. Government people s and public manager’s decision and code of conduct are directed by ethical principles that are public’s perception of the correct actions by public managers and government people. Therefore, to ensure effectiveness and transparency in their public work, government people subscribe to various ethics theories. Government ethics debates centers on the question of whether it is moral and ethical for government people to deceive the public to acquire and maintain their power. Whereas, people cringe at the legitimating mendacity though by government people s, people have the true Walzer’s admonition that â€Å"no government people can survive in politics without getting their hands dirty. The discussion will analyze the official deception defense as outlined by Machiavelli and Walzer, ethical theories that guide political behavior and code of conduct and finally outline why government people are justified to get their hands dirty. Discussion Any debate concerning ethics in public management is fraught with controversial issues such as the apolitical service culture, conflict of interest among others. Having public ethics and theories help to put distinction that ensure that government people s act based on set moral and ethical principle. Ethics also put an extra burden on government people s concerning their behavior conduct; therefore, government ethics strive to create an increasingly open atmosphere within the public operations, (Bowie, 2002, p. 52). Ethical issues that government people s experience are complex and dynamic and these issues are unique to public service that demands public managers to take choices concerning ethical issues on regular basic. Whereas people commonly believe that government people s are naturally challenged by telling the truth, very few citizens would like to conce de that government people are on certain occasions justified to get their hands dirty, (Oberdiek, 2006, p.55). However, there are compelling circumstances and ethics on special occasions that require government people s to lie not to jeopardize public interests. As early mentioned, public services is guided by ethical theories based on the nature of their public work, for instance, some political service and behavior support deontological ethics theory. Deontological theory is a duty or obligation grounded ethics, and deontologists assert that ethical rules bind government people s to their duty and they consider the right or wrong aspect of the action and not the effects of the action consequences, (Coady, 2006, p. 31). Deontologists are concerned with the government people s’ fidelity to principles and overlook the results or outcomes of a certain act, in their moral worth determination. Kantianism or the ethical theory of Kant is considered deontological because it mainly revolves around an individual’s obligations instead of their emotional feeling and end objectives – the center of this concept is the duty of a government people or what he should do in a certain situation. Kant’s ethical theory asserts that true ethical and moral acts are grounded on the highest sense of duty and the right and fair actions but not on the self-interest or highest utility on a broader aspect (irrespective of the possible effects for government people