Exam
Ethics can be defined as the beliefs and ideologies that may influence a person or peoples attitudes and behaviour. Among the ethical theories that exist, there are three major ethical theories.
Deontology is one among the three major theories. It states that what will make something bad or good, wrong or right is the fact that it abides/conforms to some rationale. It works with the basic principle of fulfilling of duties for other persons or towards ones own self. The authors of this theory are W.D. Ross and Immanuel Kant.
Care ethics is another theory among the three major theories. It states that what will make something bad or good, wrong or right is the fact that it involves the caring of other people and the relationship that you have with them. It works with the basic principle is the performance or caring out of actions of caring towards those who need your support are vulnerable. The authors of this theory are Carol Gilligan, Michael Slote and Virginia Held.
Virtue ethics is another theory among the three major theories. It states that what will make something bad or good, wrong or right is the fact that it promotes or embodies or traits that are acknowledged as right or wrong (e.g. courage, justice). It works with the basic principle is actions are productive or reflective of the good or bad character that is embodied in lasting and developed habits or traits. The authors of this theory are Aristotle and Confucius.
Illegal and unethical behaviors are more so the same though they may differ depending on the setting and the policies that may be in place. Illegal behaviour can be defined as the behaviour which a government has termed as an offence and correction mechanisms put in place to correct the people who have fallen victim of illegal behaviour. Unethical behaviour may be termed as the way one might conduct hem/herself that the society disapproves. In some cases it is possible to have unethical behaviour and not have illegal behaviour. This is because what may be termed as unethical might not necessarily be illegal. A good example might be someone who uses profuse language is unethical but is not illegal.
For the case of Mr. Jones, It is unethical for him to supervise the contract that has been awarded to his friend. This is because of the fact that the two are in a relationship and Mr. Jones will not be objective but rather subjective and will always try to please or favor his friend. In the decision making model by Cooper, subjective and objective responsibility is of paramount importance when making ethical decisions. The ethical problem will lie solely on Mr. Jones. If Mr. Jones is to find discrepancies if he is to still continue supervising the contract he will not feel obliged to tell his friend since he will fear that he might offend the friend. In the view of objective responsibility, Mr. Jones should have removed himself from supervising a contract that has been awarded to his friend because of conflict of interest. More so the friend as well will not take it politely if he sees that Mr. Jones airing out some shortcuts which he might take while caring out the project.
The agency should allow for Mr. Jones to step down as the contract supervisor for this specific project and appoint another contract supervisor. This would be the moral thing to do for the company to ensure that the company’s credibility is maintained and upheld. This will also ensure that Mr. Jones still maintains his relationship with his friend.
Theory
The term theory can be defined as a set of ideas which are intended to give out an explanation of how particular process should be carried out. This will solely depend on the context or the domain of concern. Public policies are often derived from theories that have been carefully thought through in terms of their impact to society at large and legislated upon before they are implemented into law. This is basically carried out by the government or the public administrative body. Public policy may also be viewed as the rules and regulations that have been put across by the public administration for the people to abide by or follow.
Public administration has some special features that make it possible for one to distinguish it from the private administration. These features are political direction, Absence of Profit Motive, Legal Framework, Consistency of treatment, Public Accountability, Large-scale administration and Essentiality of some public services.
Political Direction can be termed as having an inclination to politics. Public administration or sector is political whereas the private administration has no political affiliation or in other words not political.
Absence of Profit Motive simple tries to imply the aspect of carrying out activities without the main am of making a profit. Public administration carries out its mandate for the benefit and the wellbeing of the society or the public by providing services while the private administration is for a few individual with specific ventured interest. Private administration has the main aim of making a profit in all of its activities and endeavors.
Legal Framework simply means working within the confines of a legal boundary. Public Administration has a set of rules and regulations that guide its operations and are directly monitored by the Government. It mainly looks at the staff and how they discharge their duties. The private administration even though has no legal framework that its staff has to confine to as they discharge their duties. Even though the activities in the private administration also are subject to some legality, their activities are less legally constrained.
Consistency of treatment is another differentiating feature between the public and the private administration. In the public administration, the officials are required to maintain a high level of consistency by law when dealing with the public. It is however not the same for the private administration. Consistency is a must but for them is so as to maintain a reputable business name. They can choose whoever to discriminate against depending on the amount of business they are bringing.
Public Accountability is another differentiating feature between the public and the private administration. It is defined as the key performance indicators to the public administration. For the public administration they are always on the spotlight by the general public on how they execute their duties. This is contrary for the private administration. They do not belong to the public and can not be accountable to the public.
Large-scale administration is another differentiating feature between the public and the private administration. The public administration may as well be termed as a large scale. This is because it is across the board in a specific country. The private administration is fairly small and may contain less than 100 people in some cases.
Essentiality of some public services is another differentiating feature between the public and the private administration. Public administration carries out some major services that are termed as crucial and essential to the public. They may include health, national security, communication and transportation. On the other hand the private administration may venture into activities that only benefit a few individuals. They might be essential but only to the few individuals that are getting the services.
Law
- Briefly summarize the outcome of the legislative act or court decision you selected (synopsis of law, case, etc.)
Legislation is the process of making laws in a given state or country. The process in the US is usually undertaken by two arms of governments the legislature and the Congress. The two arms of government are responsible in creating laws that govern public policy in the country. Public policy decisions are influenced by lawmakers who consider the suitability of passing a law to safeguard the interests of the state. One of the legislative laws that have been passed in the country is the public health advocacy bill that was passed to safeguard the health of American citizens and promote community health care. The country health sector has been under threat of collapse and the need to initiate a public health bill received support form both houses.
- Discuss how the laws you selected (Public or Private legislative or administrative law) can be an impediment to policy change or development? In other words, while law is viewed as process of change, how can it be viewed as an obstacle to change?
The public health law seeks to provide universal care for the American citizens and this will help in creating awareness and check up for the citizens. The bill was passed after a country wide outcry of deteriorating health standards in the country. The citizens pay high taxes and thus the government had a responsibility to improve the standards of living for the citizens in the country. The bill promotes universal health for preventable diseases as well as striving for community health care and awareness that are accessible in the United States.
- How have these laws or court decisions impacted/changed public policy? In other words, address the positive and negative consequences of the act or court decision you selected.
The public health law has been in effect in the whole country and has seen considerable changes in the health sector as the interest of the public have been considered. Through the APHA which refers to the American Public Health Association the public health law has received a lot of boost from government agencies and the civil society for the tremendous effort being done to improve the universal health in the country. The law seeks to protect Americans from preventable diseases by creating public awareness and hiring health providers across the country who work hand in hand with educators and other policy makers. Access to care has been one of the successes of this law and funding for key health programs in the country.
Implementation of Public Policy
Public policy refers to action plan by the public administration administrative to help tackle issues concerning the public welfare. Implementation refers to the execution part or simply putting to effect. Implementation of public policy may be termed as the act of putting public policy into effect.
Policy implementation is so difficult in the best of circumstances because it incorporates interest groups and numerous individuals collaborating and competing to influence the policymakers to conform in a specific or particular way. Various tactics and tools are employed or used by the individuals and the interest groups to influence the policy being implemented. It might be in support of the policy or to simply kill the policy which is being implemented. This fosters a lot of back and forth wangles by this two parties with some of them involving the public to actual go against the policy. This poses as a very big problem for the policy makers in trying to implement the policy.
Policy-makers and public administrators may strengthen prospects for more effectually implementing public programs. This can be achieved by the two parties looking at the social and political impact of every policy that they might try to implement in the future.
There are some impediments or obstacles that always arise when it comes to any policy implementation which is the social and the political aspects. The social aspect mainly deals with the society in general while the political deals with the government. The social aspect tends to focus on the society with regards to the policy. For example a policy that focuses on a universal health plan will solely be focusing on giving the public an affordable health plan. While a policy to increase the public servants pay is political. The two impediments even though not similar can be used by the individuals and interest groups for their own selfish gains.
A good example is when a government uses a social aspect to come up with a policy onto to ensure that it wins the next election. Even though the policy that they focus on and try to implement will actually do some good to the public it will not be implemented as easily as expected. The opposition will try as much as possible for the policy not to be implemented since if implemented it will mean political millage for the ruling party and guarantee them a second term in office. For the opposition, failure of the implementation will mean that the government in place cannot be trusted and that it has failed in its mandate to offer proper services to the public.
Research Method
Survey research
Deductive approach or reasoning is the process of coming up with facts or reasoning from a general statement to come up with a more logical and certain conclusion while the Inductive approach or Inductive reasoning is the process of seeking to come up with strong evidence to support the conclusion. The method being employed here is the inductive approach. This is because this approach is seeking to find evidence of why the police are having a lot of sick leaves and to proof if it really because of the deteriorating morale by the chief.
Prior to carrying out my research, I would first of all look ate the working environment together with the conditions that the police are forced to work with. These would include the working shift hours and the resources allocated to the police.
The research design I would employ would be the use of sampling. This involves the breaking down of the sample material or people into small groups or departments and hand them questionnaires as a method of data collection. This will make my work extremely easier since the sample questionnaires will contain a variety of data that will give me the exact or precise information from different sources. It will also save on time since I will only require a day for the questionnaires to be filled then a day for going through them.
The best way to carry out a random study is through the use of questionnaires. Questionnaires can be handed to the participants who will remain anonymous for the purpose of avoiding victimization. The questionnaires can be handed to the participants on their way home and they can drop them in a suggestion box where they can be collected for data analysis the next day. This will be the most cost effective way to carry out the survey. The only cost implication would be the printing of the questionnaires.
Validity refers to whether the information is okay and reliability is whether the information can be trusted or it is the truth. To ensure that the information is both valid and reliable the use of straight open ended questions will be employed with a range of answers that one can choose from as the correct answer according to their own judgment.
Data representation is a method of displaying results after carrying out data analysis.
In this case, graphs and the use of a pie chart would be the most appropriate way of representing the data and displaying the findings. This is because graphs and pie charts can be easily interpreted and understood even by a layman.
Experimental research
The classic research design is a research design that makes use of a randomized experimental approach where a sample of people is selected at random. The people are then divided into groups of two or three depending on the experiment focus.
The research is quantitative since it focuses on a group of people who are further sub divided into sub groups to get the data. Qualitative dose not focus on groups of data but on individual approach to come up with its findings.
This case I will choose Classical research because it allows for some ambiguity and anonymity. The difference between the classical and non classical is the classical approach uses randomized approach while the non classical is not random.
The pre and post test procedures that would be used are the age, weight. For the control and groups, the aspect of sex will be introduced so as to have two groups of participants in the mother groups. That is male and female. Time period will also be used so as to carry the research for duration of two weeks.
Validity refers to whether the information is okay and reliability is whether the information can be trusted or it is the truth. To ensure that the information is both valid and reliable the use of straight open ended questions will be employed with a range of answers that one can choose from as the correct answer according to their own judgment.
Statistical significance refers to the accuracy of the findings that will be derived from the carrying out of the study. The results will be analyzed statistically to determine the most effect group. The use of accurate weight of the participants and the time duration will be used to show confidence levels and to ensure significance of the study.
