The purpose of this study is to illustrate the role of ethics in policy analysis and decision making. What is the real role of a policy analyst? There are situations where there is a conflict in interest between different stakeholders, what should the policy analyst do? Decision making can be a really tough call to do sometimes. Should the analyst go with the easier solution? In the upcoming case studies, we will reveal the importance of ethics in policy analysis in different fields. Let`s take a closer look on some of the key issues that we are going to discuss and analyze later on in details.
Key Issues:
A social policy analysis for an urban renewal/ development case.
A social/health policy analysis for an anti-drug campaign that is targeting local schools.
An environmental policy analysis for commercial fishing in a lakeside.
Analysis:
According to the stakeholder analysis that Henry received, there is a lot of opposition from the critics regarding the new Metroville City Planning Department development project. This came as a result that the stakeholder analysis demonstrated that the project will benefit the middle-class and rich ones on the cost of the poor who will most probably lose their homes by being reallocated. How Henry should handle the situation is already stated by Social Policy Association Guidelines on Research Ethics (2012) in the Obligations to society section that states “Social policy researchers have a general responsibility to undertake research that will
Malinda, who is working as a policy analyst for a state welfare agency, created an evaluation for the anti-drug program. Regardless for the efforts, the documents and data gathered showed that drugs usage has been increased. Professional wise as an analyst, Malinda should deliver the evaluation results as they are to state legislature. On the other hand, she would still highlight the importance of this project and to avoid cutting it (back up the Director of Agency report) as it creates a huge impact on the society, at least on the long-run and results may take more time to improve. This solution demonstrates both integrity and professionalism; as a person who has worked on planning and implementing the campaign, she would do whatever it takes to keep it going and prevent the cut. Also, as a professional policy analyst she can`t hide the evaluation of the campaign that shows no progress for the campaign (on the contrary, it shows negative results).
Joe who is an analyst for a state commercial fishing agency, should report the analysis that he came up with the reveals the fact, that the main reason behind the low amount of fish availability is due to excessive commercial fishing and developments around the lake and not due to pollution and environmental factors as it was stated by the governor who happened to be the director of the fishing agency. This is a perfect illustration for the homocentric ethic according to Carolyn (1990) who stated “A homocentric ethic is grounded in society and is based on the assumption that policies should reflect the greatest good for the greatest number of society and that, as stewards of the natural world humans should conserve and protect nature for human benefit” .
Lessons Learned and Recommendations:
My recommendation for Henry is stick to the ethical social policy guidelines. The downside of this act may be an investigation for the misuse of federal funds and the misbranding of the Metroville City Planning Department. On the other side, this will lead to serving the public interest and make sure that the project will meet its objectives. However, as a last resort, I suggest that Henry should communicate the analysis internally first in order to avoid any complications. The lesson learned, is that preliminary project researches should be done more effectively to make sure that it will meet its objectives and serve the right parties. Another lesson also is tracking mega projects, especially ones that directly affects the citizens to make sure that the funds is being allocated in the right place.
Malinda should work more on coordinating with the state legislature on guidelines that provide her with larger time spans for reports creation. The campaign might be cut due to its inefficiency from the legislature point of view due to the reports that are going to be delivered by Malinda, yet further communication between both entities should provide more insights for the campaign and its impact on the schools. The lesson learned from this case is trying to set multiple KPIs for these kinds of campaigns as references for productivity and efficiency and to get back to before taking decisions of great importance. In addition, Malinda should take a closer unbiased look on the campaign details, perform a SWOT analysis for example and start working right away on its development in order to achieve a larger impact that can be read through evaluation reports.
My recommendation for Joe is to go public if communicating the matter internally didn’t come up with positive results. This may lead to severe ramifications to the mayor (and head of the commercial fishing agency) and Joe himself, yet it will be a reference case that illustrates the interference and damage that politics can do for the environment. The lesson learned is try not to appoint leaders in positions where usually there would be a conflict in interest to ensure achieving public interest. The head of the commercial fishing agency has a pivotal role which is making sure that neither the government nor the private sector is abusing nature, in a way the harms us all environmentally. Also, keeping an eye on private sector is important as they usually tend to maximize their profits (like the seafront developments did) at the cost of harming the environment.
All in all, ethics in policy analysis will always be a matter of great importance. Communities that are ethical when it comes to policy creation, editing and implementation are the most advanced ones. Having an unstable moral compass in the policy analysis field is devastating as we have seen in the previous case studies, regardless the field which the policy is related to. Hopefully, this paper highlighted the significant role ethics in policy analysis and its impact on the community.
References:
Merchant Carolyn, (1990). Environmental Ethics and Political Conflict. A View from California, 12, 45-46
(SPA, 2014). SPA Guidelines on Research Ethics. Retrieved from http://www.social-policy.org.uk/one-off-publications/spa-guidelines-on-research-ethics/
