Exact Honesty and Justice

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ASPA as an organization.

By Anna Marie Schuh
December 1, 2025

Twenty years ago, I conducted research on American institutional values. I analyzed inauguration speeches, executive orders and federal agency mission statements. That research identified two values regularly used by all presidents in both their speeches and executive orders as well as typically present in agency mission statements. Those values are ethical behavior and performance. Because institutional values underlie corporate culture, when those values are not aligned with current institutional behavior, distrust and confusion arise and this distrust and confusion negatively affects service delivery. Unfortunately, many current activities with respect to the federal government are no longer aligned with the institutional values of ethical behavior and performance. 

In the referenced research, I developed trait lists for each of the values. Some characteristics for performance included: achievement, capacity, competence, consistent, effective, responsive, service and rational. Some characteristics for ethical behavior included: due process, equality, equity, honesty, integrity, justice, moral, non-arbitrary, and representative. 

Today these two values are routinely being violated within the federal workforce. With respect to performance, government capacity has been greatly diminished. The decline began with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative that eliminated about 300,000 employees either through firings or voluntary resignations. These job eliminations were not well planned and some agencies had to refill many of those jobs caused mission accomplishment problems.   

A specific example of capacity loss involves the Department of Justice. Within the first three weeks of the current administration, senior staffers from the Justice Department resigned over being asked to withdraw corruption charges in a high-profile case. The administration ousted leadership in the offices of professional responsibility, the inspector general, and the special counsel. Also, the administration reassigned senior staff from high-profile work to less attractive positions. These examples together with the firing of anyone who worked on the January 6 cases or those deemed insufficiently loyal to the president have resulted in significant loss of competence. This lack of capacity has resulted in a number of high-profile mistakes, e.g., behavior in the former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director case that the judge said “tainted the grand jury proceedings”, court case losses against states prohibiting immigration arrests in state and local courthouses and the failed prosecution of the individual who threw a sandwich at a federal agent. 

Another example of diminished capacity is the loss of more than 125 out of 700 immigrations judges because of firings and resignations. Of these judges, forty-four percent had prior experience defending immigrants. The cases handled by the departing judges have new review dates as far out as 2029.  

Many examples of ethical behavior violations are also available. Here are just a few. The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia dropped the charges of a January 6 rioter who he had defended in court. The current FBI director’s girlfriend has an FBI security detail and the director has used a government jet to visit her. The FBI director then fired the official in charge of the plane when the information about his trip was disclosed. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau closed its lawsuit against Meta after that organization donated $1 million to the president’s inauguration. The attorney general, who has been a foreign lobbyist, announced that the Justice Department would deprioritize enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act. The president fired Equal Employment Opportunity Commission leaders who were investigating Tesla for racial harassment after Tesla’s owner spent $200 million to help elect the president. The Treasury secretary has been involved in a decision about soybean trade while holding North Dakota farmland that produces soybeans. Whistleblowers have been fired in Housing and Urban Development,  Bureau of Prisons, and Health and Human Services. 

The above examples highlight the fact that the values that support federal organizational culture are currently being undermined. The management literature notes that when organizational culture is damaged, employees become disengaged. When disengagement occurs, productivity reduces by eighteen percent. Attracting new talent becomes difficult with seventy-three percent of people indicating they would only accept of job where the culture aligns with their values. Disengaged employees and difficulty in hiring staff make it difficult to provide good citizen service.  

Citizens see these changes and are concerned about the quality of service that has resulted. In a recent survey, forty-nine percent oppose the changes to the federal government and fifty percent said layoffs will make their community worse. More than three-quarters indicated they want a nonpolitical civil service. The solution to these citizen concerns is to return to the underlying American values and make any future changes in the context of the performance and ethical behavior values. If leadership in the federal government does not do that, the toxic culture will not heal and citizens will continue to be unhappy with their government. 

Among George Washington’s tenets was “… to be honest and just ourselves and to exact it from others…” If we want a federal workforce that can best serve its citizens, we need to begin by being “honest and just” with that workforce and exacting honesty and justice from its leaders.  

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Author: Anna Marie Schuh is Associate Professor and MPA Program Director at Roosevelt University, Chicago where she teaches political science and public administration. She retired from federal service after 36 years. Her last assignment involved management of the Office of Personnel Management national oversight program. She is a three-time past president of the Chicago ASPA Chapter. Email: [email protected]; BlueSky: profschuh.bsky.social. 

 

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