Ethical Behavior, Public Interest & Public Employees - Essay Example

Ethical Behavior, Public Interest & Public Employees Qn Why ethical behavior and decision making makes for good business and forgood public administration Employee conduct is what is called ethical behavior. Ethical behavior constitutes the following areas of ethics’ codes, mandatory financial disclosures, checks on honoraria, and including gifts from lobbyists (Author, Year, p.451). In addition, all public administrators must conduct themselves in high esteem. Several cities, in fact seven out of ten American cities “regularly reviewed their employees’ ethical conduct” (Author, Year, p.452). In this regard, Americans attached a remarkable value on the conduct of their employees in their governance structures. Author (Year) noted that, universities had "recognized the importance of public ethics. The field’s national accrediting body requires graduates, education in ethics, and all introductory public administration textbooks include a discussion of ethics” (p.451). In this regard, the US government requires all its employees to learn the importance of good ethics in the work place while at college. Therefore, ethical behavior effectively becomes the most important aspect for business and public administration. Managing the critics of good governance remained the biggest challenge for multinationals and public organizations in the USA. For this reason, Author (Year) notes, “Congress has enacted laws and presidents issued executive orders that…insure the integrity of federal employees” (p.451). This has enabled the federal employees to stick to laid down structures of governance and financial regulations. Author (Year) further notes, that this results to improved integrity “clarity, simplicity, and straightforwardness” (p.451). Therefore, all federal employees adherence to enacted legislation while offering their services in all federal offices led to accountability and efficiency. A favorable working environment is crucial in the administration of allocated duties at the work place. According to Author (Year), federal employees must be protected to enable them “disclose a suspected violation of law, rule or regulation without fear of reprisal” (p.452). In fact, 14 percent of government workers “feel pressured to compromise ethical standards in the course of their jobs” (Author, Year, p.452). In this regard, the federal government needs to ensure that its employees are adequately protected from intimidation by powerful cartels in their administrative functions, which is eliminating the “encounter [of] ethical dilemmas at work” (Author, Year, p.452). Employees’ morale is equally important with the result being a commitment to high standards. One benefit of providing an enabling environment at the workplace is to achieve greater efficiency and productivity. Author (Year) argues about the empowering nature of ethical concerns in organizations (p.452). In this regard, enactment of other laws by the government is important because this will boost their morale. Finally, observation of ethical standards is essential in the civil service administration. However, the fascinating part regards the civil servants viewing themselves as custodians of ethical guidelines (Author, Year). In this regard, the public servants are answerable to the general populace. Ironically, the public sees “government morality in America is [sic] lower than business morality,…, and register even greater umbrage over government scandals than does the general public”(Author, Year, p.452). This is further compounded by the various cases in the public sector. Therefore, the civil servants are expected to “walk the ethical walk”, and have impeccable moral standards. Question2. Compare and contrast philosophies of the public interest. Explain justice-as-fairness as the most workable philosophies for organizing the public organization Justice is the best policy for organizing any public entity since it enhances efficiency and corruption-free organizations. In effect, it eliminates various mal-practices at workstations. This expose, will critically compare and contrast the seven schools of thought in the public interest. These schools are the bureaucratic accountability, organizational humanism, normative theory, intuitionism, utilitarian, and the fairness theory of justice. Bureaucratic accountability is associated with making suitable decisions for the interests of the public. It is a decision-making associated with scholars. The bureaucratic accountability bases public-interest decision making after evaluation of legal principles and judicial precedents (Author, Year, p. 453). However, proponents of organizational humanism theory are driven by attractive treatment of all people (Author, Year). In this regard, public servants should arrive at decisions based on humane perspectives. For instance, affirmative action should be based on value-based considerations, but there should not be a decline due to these considerations (Author, Year, p.454). Thus, the two theories are different in that, the latter, falls short of providing a clear policy guideline on public administration. Nevertheless, bureaucratic accountability considers the existence of “external controls” among them “laws, courts, publicity, legislative surveillance, bureaucratic decentralization, and citizen making” (Author, Year, p. 454). However, what seems attractive may not necessarily be the best decision. For instance, in affirmative action, an outstanding performing student might be left out in college admissions because a student from a marginalized community is selected in his or her place, which lacks a moral justification. Normative theory proponents are for decision formulation based on the general interest of the public. The normative theory is divided into intuitionism, utilitarianism, and the fairness theory of justice. All these theories have one thing in common in that they pay emphasis on the public. However, there are fundamental differences. For instance, intuitionism theory-advocated by Aristotle argues that one should be propelled by judgment in making decisions (Author, Year, p.455). In this regard, ones judgment is subjective and biased towards ones prior social socialization. Thus, favoring people who shares’ ones views. However, Utilitarianism proponents are in support of decisions based on the most benefits for the most people. For instance, the proponents of utilitarian theory are against affirmative action because they argue that it “makes only certain groups better off” (Author, Year, p. 455). This is a definite opinion that is debatable to many people. However, it is propelled by an obviously subjective judgment due to marginalization of various people who have been discriminated because of inequitable distribution of economic wealth, socially as well as in terms of their health. While utilitarian theory propagates for decisions based on most people, the fairness theory of justice calls for the avoidance of any decision, which will affect most people. Popper (1945) argued, “One should demand more modestly, the least amount of avoidable suffering for all” (as cited in Author, Year, p.455). For instance, one should not hire or promote persons who are from affluent backgrounds because this led to further suppression of “society’s most deprived groups” (Author, Year, p.456). Rawls argues that public-interest decisions should be based on requisite fundamental primary wants that are beneficial to all people (as cited in Author, Year, and p.456). In this regards, Fairness Theory bases decisions on what is acceptable to all. Therefore, both Utilitarianism and the Fairness theories are similar in that they are sympathetic of various groupings. In conclusion, it is crucial to grant federal employees the freedom to choose the philosophical theory that is effective in the service of public duties. In fact, Author (Year) notes, “high ethics associate with better governance and more successful public careers” (p. 452). In this regard, a better-trained federal employee is well prepared in their service delivery to the public. Consequently, this improves public confidence in the US government. Qn. 3. Based on information in Appendix, approximately how many civilians public employees work for the federal, state and local government of the United States today? How many people work for non-profit organizations? What are the average wages for upper-level jobs in each of these areas-federal, state, local and non-profit organizations? Statistics on Civilian Public Employees In the United States, there are close to “twenty-two and a half million civilian public employees or about one in every six workers” (Author, Year, p. 463). In this regard, it is correct to say that the United States has close to sixty seven and a half million workers. The State employs twenty three percent of all public civilian employees, which accounts for about 5,175,000 people (Author, Year, p. 463). In comparison, a majority of people are employees of the Local government. According to Author (Year), the Local government has employed 64% of all the civilian public employees. However, the federal government caters for 12%, which are about 2,700,000 civilian public employees (Author, Year, p. 463). In effect, the US Government employs a staggering sixty million employees directly and indirectly. One percent of employees work in non-profit organizations, which accounts for 225,000 workers (Author, Year). In this regard, non-profit organizations jobs remains the scarce opportunity most searched for by prospective employees who wish to join this sector. Average wages for upper level jobs There are clear disparities in wages between the lower cadre earners and the upper level executives. Notably, these wages are based on grades. For instance, Federal employees’ salaries are based on Grade 7 with new recruits are paid $40,000 while the salary basis for top level executives is Grade 13-15 with their salaries ranging between $90,000 and $155,000 (Author, 2012). However, the 8,000 senior executive service positions range $120,000 to $180,000 (Author, 2012). In this regard, this is still a very immense difference and calls for harmonization of wages to acceptable levels for all employees. The Local government employs more than fourteen million employees with a majority of them in the education sector (Author, 2012, p. 464). The local government wages are pegged on the number of people the Local government serves. For instance, town and city managers in cities with a population of more than 1 million are earning $231,000 as compared to $68,000 that their colleagues in smaller cities earned (Author, 2012). Thus, population density served by a Local government is an important factor in the determination of wages for local government employees. Lastly, there are about 1,300,000 non-profit organizations serving the public in the US (Author, 2012). The employees’ of these organizations are the best-paid civilian public servants. According to Author (2012), medical foundations’ executives earn a salary “ranging from $500,000 to more that [sic] $ 4,000,000 in the better endowed ones” (p.464). In this regard, careers in the non-profit organizations are viewed in high esteem. Thus, the populace envies people in these non-profit organizations. The disparity in wages creates social deliquescence since the largest social stratum earned the least wages. In addition, it results to a rise in petty crime rates and leads to moral decadence like prostitution, which steadily increases as people in the lower segment try to survive. In effect, this leads to increases in crime and high mortality rates. In conclusion, federal careers remain the best amongst the majority college graduates. Essentially, the government needs to provide a favorable enabling environment for recruitment into the public service. Merit should be the major factor of consideration during the recruitment exercises. In addition, innovation and remarkable talents should not be ignored since it contributes equality among citizens of the United States. Reference Author, A. A. (Year). Book Title. Place of Publication, Abbreviation: Publisher. Read More