Ethics in Public Administration

Ethics in Public Administration

Introduction

Ethics can be seen as a benchmark for differentiating good from poor conduct. In the definition of ethics, there might always occur a conflict since what seems ethical to an individual may seem unethical to another. In public administration, for example, the code of ethics may be based on three fields; legality, public interest or more general public opinion. In real world, ethics covers several areas including accountability, organizational issues, budgeting, human capital, performance and even political perspective since it encompasses a rating of human morality.

Ethics and Accountability

In an individual’s day to day activities, accountability comes in due to responsibilities. Public administrators, for example, are assigned to responsibilities that have to be undertaken. The undertaking of duties is regulated by the expectations of account-giving concerning the achievements or failures. Ethics comes in to determine the grounds on which someone may be blamed, answerable or liable for their activities. There is always a sense of personal responsibility when accountability is viewed as an issue of an individual rather than a general concern. Liability forms a basis for budgeting issues.

Ethics in Budgeting

Different organizations have different structures for budgeting departments. Budgeting generally determines how an organization will perform after proper employment of the available resources. The public administration area involves making decisions that affect the general public policing. Correctly set ethical standards ensure that accountability is adhered to and that there is discipline in the way budgeting is done. Issues like corruption come up mostly through the budgeting department if there are no firm ethical standards. Vices like misappropriation of funds will not be rampant if individuals are sensitized concerning proper ethics. The leading cause of such vices is the lack of knowledge about when one can be said to be violating expected laws of discipline, (Frederickson, H. G., & Rohr, J. A., 2015). Ethics should not only be upheld in the budgeting but also in matters concerning human capital and performance.

Ethics in Human Capital Performance

Capital performance requires a high code of ethics. It is common to view capital as the source of all different kinds of financial indiscipline beginning with corruption. A public administration office will require maximum transparency since the loss of public trust will follow any doubt. Human capital always aims at gaining economic value from personal knowledge, habits and social attributes. It is discipline rather than luck that will motivate success in creating economic value. Discipline can be seen as the result of upholding ethical standards. Ethics in this field relate to both investment and consumption of the wealth gained. The level of ethics in human capital will eventually affect the political perspective and organizational structures.

Ethical Issues in Political and Organizational Structures

Public administration is always on the verge of political and organizational issues. The main reason behind the issues is that the ideas of the general public have to be represented. Ethical standards should be set in that there is a boundary up to which personal opinions do not affect the public interest. Service in the public service should take care of every member of the public and should not appear to infringe any of their constitutional rights. Public administrators should distance themselves from activities that may seem to lead to creating unnecessary political advantage or manipulation (Banker, 2005).

Conclusion

Ethics in public administration is a broad topic that is mostly affected by personal opinion. The extent to which an issue seems ethical depends on the norms of a particular society. The legal boundaries, public opinion, and interest affect the definition of ethics. To a higher level, accountability, political perspective, budgeting, and human capital performance rely on ethics.