Introduction
Ethics, is termed as moral philosophy, and is a branch of philosophy that involves systematizing, recommending and defending the concepts of the wrong and right behavior. The chief areas of the study in ethics incorporate; meta-ethics, which is the theoretical meaning and position of moral propositions and how their true values if any can be determined; normative-ethics, which concerns the realistic means of determining the moral line of action and applied ethics which considers how the moral results may be achieved in particular situations. Meta-ethics is the area, within which ethics seeks to comprehend the nature of normative ethics and its focus on how we know, understand, and mean when we speak about what is wrong and right. The studies of how ethics is identified can be divided into non-cognitive and cognitive and is similar to the contrast between non-descriptivist and descriptivist. Non-cognitive ethics asserts that when we judge something as wrong or right, this fact is neither false nor true because we might, only be expressing our sentimental feelings concerning these things. On the other hand, cognitive ethic may be perceived as the declaration that when we speak about wrong and right, we are talking matters concerning fact. The ontology of ethics is all about value-bearing properties or things, such as the kind of stuff that is referred to by any ethical propositions. The non-descriptivist and cognitive reckon that ethics does not require any specific ontology, in view of the fact that ethical propositions do not refer. This is acknowledged as an anti-realist position by realists who on the other hand ought to clarify what kind of entities, states or properties are relevant to ethics, why there are valuable, and why they guide or motivate our actions (Bruce, pg 123).
Normative ethics
Customarily, normative ethics which is also termed as moral theory is the study of what exactly makes the actions either wrong or right. These theories present an overarching moral principle one might appeal to, in resolving some complex moral decisions. During the last two decades of 20th century, the moral theories turned out to be even more complex and are basically no longer solely concerned with wrongness and rightness, but are more concerned in different sorts of moral status. In the middle of the century, the investigation of normative ethics started to decline as meta-ethics developed in prominence. This spotlight on meta-ethics was in a way caused by the popularity of logical positivism and concentrated linguistic focal point in analytic philosophy (Bruce, pg 145).
Virtue ethics
There is also the virtue ethics which portrays the personality of a moral agent as the driving force for ethical behavior, and is a term that describes the ethics of Aristotle, Socrates, and other ancient Greek philosophers. Socrates was one of the earliest philosopher’s to encourage both the ordinary citizen and scholars to turn their attention from the external world to the circumstances which concerned the humankind. In his analysis, he affirmed that knowledge had a bearing on all the human life and thus should be placed highest, than all the other knowledge which he termed as being secondary. Self-knowledge is regarded as important for success and inherently is an essential good since a self-aware individual will act wholly within his capabilities to reach his pinnacle, whereas an ignorant individual will flounder and come across difficulties. To Socrates, an individual should be aware of every piece of information as well as its context which is related to his existence, if one wishes to achieve self-knowledge. He posited that individuals have the will power to naturally perform what is good, if they really know what is right since bad or evil actions are as a consequence of ignorance. For instance if a criminal is actually aware of the spiritual and mental consequences of his actions, he can never commit or even consider committing the criminal actions. Any individual who recognizes what is truthfully right will automatically do it, as knowledge is correlated with virtue, just as it is equated with happiness. The other ancient philosopher, Aristotle hypothesized an ethical issue that can be termed as self-realization and in his analysis, posited that if an individual does something in accordance with his nature, it will make him to become more conscious of his full potential, and as a result be content to do well. Frustration and unhappiness is thus as a result of the unrealized potential of an individual, and this leads to poor life and failed goals as nature does not do nothing in vain. Consequently, it is of the essence for individuals to act in accord with their nature and develop their underlying talents so as to be complete and content. Happiness as a virtue should be held by administrative mangers as the goal since all other matters, such as wealth or civic life, are simply means to the end. Self-realization, and the awareness of an individual's nature as well as the development of his or her talents, is the certain path to happiness. Consequently, ethics in administration is found in virtue perspectives as prudence, justice, courage and temperance. From an administrative ethics perspective duty, obligation rules and consequences are good examples of the greatest good for greatest number (Bruce, pg 256).
Administrative managers
The ethical consideration and professional ethics in the education in administration, which is complemented by many case studies, illustrates the numerous ethical problems the administrative managers face. Observations in the field of ethics and the significance of administrative ethics reveals that the, responsibilities of administrators are identified, as obligations of embracing legal obligations, avoiding conflict of interest, commitment to professional excellence, loyalty, formality, justice, whistle-blowing and prudence. The need for obligatory administrative managers, code of ethics, the traditional sources of moral values including hedonism, cynicism, stoicism, sophism and Machiavellianism should be enforced. The incompatible strains of administrative ethical thought, their implications and development, covers the acceptance and institutionalization of moral philosophies. Administrative ethics also involve the revelation as a basis of ethics, the exercise of unadulterated reasoning, and experimentalism. The administrative managers should ensure that existentialism, naturalistic moral philosophies, ethical systems based on empirical study of society, utilitarianism, moral philosophies, and logical positivism are in place in their work places. The administrative ethics infer that administrative managers in organizations must make moral judgments while dealing with employees. Consequently, there are views of the administrative ethics that the administrative managers ought to either follow the guidelines of an organization or resign from office. They should not be held morally accountable for the wrongs of their organizations since by denying these assumptions may perhaps make the administrative ethics impractical. However, by being perceptive how these views are acknowledged, we may understand how the administrative ethics are achievable and what forms they ought to take. The 20th century saw a significant evolution and expansion of critical ethics theory, subsequent to the Marxist theory which attempts to place individuals within the superior structural frameworks of action and ideology. The postmodernism and post-structuralism scholars aver that administrative ethics must comprise of the relational and complex conditions and actions since the simple alignment of ideas of the particular acts are not always possible. Nevertheless, many theorists find genealogy or narrative, to be a useful tool for understanding the administrative ethics because the narrative always deals with some particular past experiences in all their complexity instead of the requirement of separating the actions of an idea. However, the ethical resistance of the helpless employees and the administrators’ capability to exercise power over them is consequently what impose unenforceable responsibility on them because of the other's deficient of power. The obligations that are enforced may, by the virtue of the force exerted on them, not be freely undertaken and be in the realm of the ethical issues. Until the state apparatus or legislation enforces a moral order that in some way addresses the sources of resistance, these issues will linger in the administrative ethical realm. For instance, if an animal experimentation is illegal in a society, it may no longer be termed as an ethical issue. Similarly, one hundred and fifty years ago, having a black slave in America or not could have been deemed as an ethical option but this issue has been engaged into the fabric of an enforceable societal order and is consequently no longer an ethical issue (Bruce, pg 279).
Applied ethics
Applied ethics is a kind of philosophy that tries to relate the ethical theory to real-life situations and comprises of various fields, including bioethics, engineering, business ethics and public service ethics. Applied ethics is practical in some aspects for determining some public policies, by administrative managers who need to make difficult decisions concerning the employees. The kind of questions addressed by applied administrative ethics may include: Is doing euthanasia immoral? Is procuring an abortion immoral? Is affirmative action wrong or right? A more definite question could be: If an individual can do better in his/her life than I can, is it moral for me to sacrifice for them if required? If devoid of these questions there is no clear fulcrum on which to balance politics, law, and the practice of arbitration since the capability to formulate the questions come before the rights of balancing. The administrative ethics principles can guide the administrative managers or officials in decision-making as well as service to their workers. Also fundamental to the idea of administrative ethics is the perception that actions and decisions are founded on what best serves the worker's interests, as opposed to the official's self-serving financial, political or personal interests. In the field of moral psychology, administrative ethics is an issue in philosophy that is appropriately regarded as part of the discipline of psychology. Some term it as moral psychology, which refers to the study of moral development, but others have a tendency to use the phrase more broadly to include ethics and psychology. Some of the major topics of this field are moral development, moral character, and moral responsibility particularly as related to virtue ethics, psychological egoism, altruism, moral luck, and moral disagreement (Bruce, pg 278).
Conclusion
Administrative ethics in the civic sector is the moral consideration and justification for the decisions which are made during the conclusion of the managers daily duties when working with employees in non profit organizations and governments. The administrative ethics are accountable standards by which the public are able to scrutinize the work being performed by the managers of the organizations, since the decisions are based on the ethical principles and the opinion of what the common members of public views as being correct. Having such a peculiarity can make certain that the administrators are not in any way acting on an in-house set of ethical principles since they are not striving to question if the principles might hold to further employees scrutiny. Administrative ethics have placed an additional burden on the managers as regards the behavior of their individual lives as well as that of the workers. The administrative ethics is actually a challenge that makes every effort to fashion a more open atmosphere within the governmental and organizational operations. Individuals in general are more contented with dichotomies but, in administrative ethics the issues are most regularly multifaceted and the best projected actions address many diverse areas concurrently. In arriving at administrative ethical decisions the answer is on no account a yes or no, and is neither a wrong or right statement. Relational ethics are related to administrative ethics and are used in qualitative research, particularly in ethnography since they help to build a bridge between the managers and the workers.
References
Bruce, Willa. Classics of Administrative Ethics, Westview Press Publishers, Sahakian, 2001.
