Introduction
Observing good ethics especially in public administration is essential in the modern society. Ethics inform individuals’ daily life decisions making providing them with standards for delineating between the right and wrong. Ethical societies promote coordination and transparency without deception. Ethics in public administration includes values such as loyalty, honesty, integrity, openness, fair-mindedness, respect and forthright communication. It involves defending, systematizing, and recommending notion of right and wrong behavior (Geuras & Garofalo, 2010). A successful public administration practitioner needs to make intelligent decisions on circumstances that present with ethical predicament. It is important to balance serving the best wellbeing for a client and overall society. The paper reviews Vigoda-Gadot (2007) and Alexander & Stivers (2010) articles with the intention of developing knowledge of ethics in public administration.
Vigoda-Gadot, E. (2007). Citizens' Perceptions of Politics and Ethics in Public Administration: A Five-Year National Study of Their Relationship to Satisfaction with Services, Trust in Governance, and Voice Orientations. Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, 17(2), 285-305.
Vigoda-Gadot explores the concept of Organizational Politics (OP) that he considers of high relevance in applied psychology and business administration. Employees perceive their workplace as less ethical in terms of power struggles, ethical decisions and political climate. Politics frequently indicate the presence of inequitable distribution of resources and injustices among clients and employees. This results to underperformance, low levels of job satisfaction, under commitment in the organization, employees’ negative attitude towards the organization and high levels of strain and stress. Often, Workplace politics list negatively as manipulative and self-serving (Vigoda-Gadot, 2007).
The article indicates that studies argue that employees perceive OP as self-serving actions to achieve benefits at the expense of others, self-interests and advantages. This is contrary to the interests of the entire work unit or organization. This behavior is frequently associated with defamation, illegitimate ways and manipulation of power to attain personal interests. Therefore, organizational politics are labeled as immoral, corrupt behavior and unethical (Vigoda-Gadot, 2007). Organizational Politics relates to efficiency of decision-making processes and human resource systems. Lack of fairness and justice in political systems leads to higher perceptions of OP hence poorer organizational outcomes. PO climate may contribute to the perpetuation of unjust and unfair decisions. Frederickson & Ghere (2013) supports these sentiments by noting that when an employee feels unfairly treated because of political considerations or self-interests of the public official, he or she will react by reducing his or her trust or satisfaction with the in governance.
Influence tactics, internal politics, power relations, and ethics are innate to debates on modern public administration. Analysis on PO contrast with organization’s rational model that portrays achievement of mutually agreed upon goals. Unfair Public administration demonstrates in many ways their organization that inherently ties itself on governmental and political systems. Public organizations are more political than the private ones.
Furthermore, the article discusses the idea of ranking by arguing that political nomination is problematic in public administration evident in complex employees recruitment that should follow professionalism instead they face political pressure. This result to low rate of promotion thus does not reward employees according to their efforts. There is criticism on Governments and public administration because of internal politics that detract from professional decision-making (Vigoda-Gadot, 2007). This leads to negative conflicts hence affecting equity and fairness in job promotion and resource distribution in a society. This is because public immorality and unfair treatment by national agencies originating from internal and political conflict that is irrelevant and nonprofessional.
Alexander, J., & Stivers, C. (2010). An Ethic of Race for Public Administration. Administrative Theory & Praxis (M.E. Sharpe), 32(4), 578-597. Doi:10.2753/ATP1084-1806320405
Alexander & Stivers (2010) argues that organizational politics in public administration create tension in political and professional ranks of public servants because of high suspicion and doubts on bureaucratic actions and decisions. This shows that there is no moral and ethical disconnection between bureaucracy and democracy. Democracy is important in promoting public sector reforms success and organizational performance since bureaucratic management depend on its values and mutual trust among people from all ranks. Ethics represent most of bureaucratic values, which help public sectors in improving democratic and managerial values. It is clear that political perception and ethics give a better understanding of outcomes and dynamics of public sector machinery. Ordinary citizens learn their rights and aware of organizational politics through personal contacts with people, experiences in public agencies and media (Alexander & Stivers, 2010).
Alexander & Stivers (2010) article also explores the idea of racism by noting that racism manifests lack of ethics in administration of policies hence positioning citizens outside governance and maintain their low subordinate status basing on their race. Race has a persuasive social reality because discrimination creates barriers among people of different races. This is evident that public administration cannot work effectively with the presence of racism in any society. The society is more homogenous than skin color differences but correspondence of class and skin color is stunning at times. Professional ethics are conservative since those who are in authority have the powers to demarcate different job clusters according to their racial interest instead of following professionalism. This act portrays lack of ethics since they apply abstract principles of justice in racial lines (Alexander & Stivers 2010). Racism is continuously becoming a culture that people view as a norm and public administrators unfortunately apply it consciously or unconsciously. The conscious or unconscious discrimination of the subordinates on the racial basis denies organizations good performance because they lack an opportunity to explore their expertise (Geuras & Garofalo, 2010).
References
Alexander, J., & Stivers, C. (2010). An Ethic of Race for Public Administration. Administrative Theory & Praxis (M.E. Sharpe), 32(4), 578-597. Doi:10.2753/ATP1084-1806320405
Frederickson, H. G., & Ghere, R. K. (2013). Ethics in public management.
Geuras, D., & Garofalo, C. (2010). Practical ethics in public administration. Vienna, VA: Management Concepts.
Vigoda-Gadot, E. (2007). Citizens' Perceptions of Politics and Ethics in Public Administration: A Five-Year National Study of Their Relationship to Satisfaction with Services, Trust in Governance, and Voice Orientations. Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, 17(2), 285-305.
