Ethics, Smethics
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Dwight Vick
March 4, 2020
As a graduate student, I was guilty of thinking ethics lectures and courses were unnecessary. I thought, either you are ethical or you are not.
We all had a personal code ethics that draws us toward public service. We answer to a higher calling. We all share one experience in public sector ethics where our commitment to our country, our profession, and the communities personally and professionally defines us. If one does not have such a calling, one would not enter the profession. We discussed theories and their applications in lecture. But my question lingered, “Why discuss ethics?”
When I began teaching, I realized the importance of the topic, the course. If I did not communicate my own connection to personal and professional ethics as a citizen and public servant, students would not connect the course to their own.
I began lecture discussing that seminal moment when I became aware of ethics in the public sector. It occurred as a child when I first heard late President John Kennedy’s infamous inaugural statement, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” I shared that in lecture and asked students, if they were comfortable doing so, to share quotes, readings, and experiences that established and/or cemented their sense of ethics. Most students discussed their personal commitment to professional ethics. Often times and unfortunately, their commitment began with negative past experiences and ones they encountered in the workplace.
I have taught ethics as an individual course or included it in lecture. Richter and Burke’s book, Combatting Corruption, Encouraging Ethics discussed deontology and utilitarianism and how, as public sector employees, we are torn between defining right and wrong by rules rather than by consequences and developing happiness and well-being for all we serve whose interests must be treated equally. Throughout the lecture or course, we discussed John Rohr’s contribution in Ethics for Bureaucrats where he recognized that bureaucrats must choose between having the authority to make discretionary decisions and efficiency and effectiveness over what is ethically correct. Bureaucrats, who are protected through due process, must then legally justify their decisions to the public, elected officials, and themselves. Michael DeRosia’s March 20, 2010 article on The Five Core Values of Public Administration —transparency, accountability, ethics, professionalism, and leadership—linked theory to practice, discussed ethical standards in each course and linked them to ASPA’s 1984 Code of Ethics.
By the end of the course, ethics was no longer esoteric to students. The teaching experience reaffirmed my commitment to balancing effectiveness and efficiency with doing the right thing. But these lectures are primarily geared toward Masters of Public Administration students. What are we doing, as a profession, to educate our professional brethren?
Our field encompasses more than the director or the street-level bureaucrat working in education, social work or emergency management. Each field has its own code of ethics that is similar to ours. But in our time and in our place, with many legislative bodies and executives at all levels of government contracting out public sector services, how can we guarantee these for- and nonprofit organizations will implement public sector ethical standards? Has the 40-year-old contracting-out movement resulted from our profession’s inability to effectively implement a code of ethics within an agency? Are we sacrificing utilitarianism at the alter of deontology? Here’s an example.
Several friends work in social service agencies such as a child protective services in their states. The employees struggle with what is right and agency’s policy. Do they remove a child from the home where their basic needs are not met or do they work with the family unit to help them overcome their problems? The employee turnover rate is very high because of this dilemma. My friends complain that those persons who remain in the field lose sight of ethics and justify their decisions that are based more upon, “Their gut,” than what state policy allows or requires. This belief works its way not only into families and the courts but also into the general public whose trust in the organization, maybe even government itself, diminishes. This situation forces the state legislatures and governors where my friends work to contract out child protective service programs. This leaves families, foster parents and the public wondering if the change, which began as a result of a lack of ethical application within the field, will lead to no change at all.
What are things we can do, as ASAP members, as professors and as public servants, to not only educate ourselves beyond the graduate classroom but also the general public about these efforts?
I know for me, to do this, would not leave me feeling guilty.
Author: Dwight Vick, Ph.D. is a 28-year-long ASPA member. An adjunct professor, he owns D.A.V.E – Dwight A. Vick Enterprises, a consulting and grant writing business.
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Ethics, Smethics
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.
By Dwight Vick
March 4, 2020
As a graduate student, I was guilty of thinking ethics lectures and courses were unnecessary. I thought, either you are ethical or you are not.
We all had a personal code ethics that draws us toward public service. We answer to a higher calling. We all share one experience in public sector ethics where our commitment to our country, our profession, and the communities personally and professionally defines us. If one does not have such a calling, one would not enter the profession. We discussed theories and their applications in lecture. But my question lingered, “Why discuss ethics?”
When I began teaching, I realized the importance of the topic, the course. If I did not communicate my own connection to personal and professional ethics as a citizen and public servant, students would not connect the course to their own.
I began lecture discussing that seminal moment when I became aware of ethics in the public sector. It occurred as a child when I first heard late President John Kennedy’s infamous inaugural statement, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” I shared that in lecture and asked students, if they were comfortable doing so, to share quotes, readings, and experiences that established and/or cemented their sense of ethics. Most students discussed their personal commitment to professional ethics. Often times and unfortunately, their commitment began with negative past experiences and ones they encountered in the workplace.
I have taught ethics as an individual course or included it in lecture. Richter and Burke’s book, Combatting Corruption, Encouraging Ethics discussed deontology and utilitarianism and how, as public sector employees, we are torn between defining right and wrong by rules rather than by consequences and developing happiness and well-being for all we serve whose interests must be treated equally. Throughout the lecture or course, we discussed John Rohr’s contribution in Ethics for Bureaucrats where he recognized that bureaucrats must choose between having the authority to make discretionary decisions and efficiency and effectiveness over what is ethically correct. Bureaucrats, who are protected through due process, must then legally justify their decisions to the public, elected officials, and themselves. Michael DeRosia’s March 20, 2010 article on The Five Core Values of Public Administration —transparency, accountability, ethics, professionalism, and leadership—linked theory to practice, discussed ethical standards in each course and linked them to ASPA’s 1984 Code of Ethics.
By the end of the course, ethics was no longer esoteric to students. The teaching experience reaffirmed my commitment to balancing effectiveness and efficiency with doing the right thing. But these lectures are primarily geared toward Masters of Public Administration students. What are we doing, as a profession, to educate our professional brethren?
Our field encompasses more than the director or the street-level bureaucrat working in education, social work or emergency management. Each field has its own code of ethics that is similar to ours. But in our time and in our place, with many legislative bodies and executives at all levels of government contracting out public sector services, how can we guarantee these for- and nonprofit organizations will implement public sector ethical standards? Has the 40-year-old contracting-out movement resulted from our profession’s inability to effectively implement a code of ethics within an agency? Are we sacrificing utilitarianism at the alter of deontology? Here’s an example.
Several friends work in social service agencies such as a child protective services in their states. The employees struggle with what is right and agency’s policy. Do they remove a child from the home where their basic needs are not met or do they work with the family unit to help them overcome their problems? The employee turnover rate is very high because of this dilemma. My friends complain that those persons who remain in the field lose sight of ethics and justify their decisions that are based more upon, “Their gut,” than what state policy allows or requires. This belief works its way not only into families and the courts but also into the general public whose trust in the organization, maybe even government itself, diminishes. This situation forces the state legislatures and governors where my friends work to contract out child protective service programs. This leaves families, foster parents and the public wondering if the change, which began as a result of a lack of ethical application within the field, will lead to no change at all.
What are things we can do, as ASAP members, as professors and as public servants, to not only educate ourselves beyond the graduate classroom but also the general public about these efforts?
I know for me, to do this, would not leave me feeling guilty.
Author: Dwight Vick, Ph.D. is a 28-year-long ASPA member. An adjunct professor, he owns D.A.V.E – Dwight A. Vick Enterprises, a consulting and grant writing business.
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