Transcript Document

PP110: Ethics and
Public Administration
Faculty
Sheila Toppin, DPA (abd), MPA
Welcome to the Class
Greetings
 Availability
◦ Office hours: Sunday & Tuesdays 7:00 to 9:00
pm EST (AIM ID: Sheila Toppin, by
telephone)
◦ Appointments: call or send an email message
 Warm-up
• Questions???
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Course & Syllabus Reminders
Units (10 weeks), Wednesday to Tuesday
 Discussion Board – 1 to 2 discussions per
Unit, Wednesday to Tuesday MST
 Weekly Quizzes – Complete by Tuesday
12:00 midnight
 Announcements: Informational & Reminders
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Course & Syllabus Reminders
Last day to request an Incomplete: Tuesday,
12/13/11 (end of Unit 8).
 Last day of class: Saturday, 12/24/11.
 Seminar :
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◦ Cap & tassel icon denotes important
information for assignments & quizzes.
◦ Seminar Alternate assignments due within 1 week of
missed seminar. Archive available 4 hours after
seminar concludes.
Unit 8 To-Do List
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Readings (E-Book Chapters & Links)
Discussion Board (1 Topic)
Quiz (Due end of Unit 8)
Assignment (Due at end of Unit 9)
(See the To-Do Checklist PDF that is available in
the classroom to keep track each Unit)
Unit 9 Assignment
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United Nations Public Administration network
http://www.unpan.org
Click “News” tab and then select “Public
Administration News”
Select and read one of the articles you find
there that has been submitted within the last
month.
Write a 2-3 page paper responding to the
questions in the assignment guidelines.
APA formatting
Questions????
Questions?
Any other questions about the syllabus?
 Any other questions about what you are
to do in Unit 8?
 Any other questions?
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Unit 8 Seminar Topics
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Identify factors contributing to unethical
behavior
Discuss trends and reasons for systemic
corruption
Distinguish bad apples and ways for handling
them
Identify ways to avoid unethical conduct
Case Study – Oaky Woods
Ethical Factors
Three factors that can result in unethical behavior
in otherwise decent public administrators:
Incentive, Opportunity, Risk
 Incentive to gain a sizable personal benefit,
 Opportunity or the ease of access to the
corrupt practice, and
 Low risk of detection.
Other factors to consider
Successful administrators are subject to feeling
conceit, arrogance, or moral superiority that
could lead to unethical behavior.
 administrators may feel that they can take
advantage of the situation because they work
for the government.
 The false necessity gap is the sense that the
organization must survive at any cost.
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Other factors to consider
Even where, in the global context,
interdependence appears inevitable, the US is
receiving a tremendous amount of criticism
from abroad.
 If citizens perceive themselves as customers,
they are likely to continue to demand services
as customers without a sense of civic
responsibility to contribute to our governance
system.
 Questions????
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Systematic Corruption
In 1993, 50% of federal government staff who
observed serious problems did not report them
because of fear of retaliation.
 In 2007, 58% of those who observed
misconduct did not report because they
doubted that appropriate corrective action
would be taken by management; however,
 30% of employees did not report because they
feared retaliation from management.
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Systemic Corruption
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Prospective whistleblowers are intimidated into
silence.
Non-violators are penalized by foregoing the
rewards of the violators.
Internal practices may encourage and hide
violations.
The system of internal practices contradicts the
code of ethics of the organization.
Questions????
Bad Apples
The “bad apple” public administrators have no
or low ethics, use or misuse information to
advance their personal purposes, evade
responsibility, and/or have a negative effect on
the people and the organization they are
supposed to be serving.
 The sense of duty is absent, and the other
approaches to ethical thinking are missing or
distorted.
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Bad Apples
Public administrators may justify their unethical
behavior as being “good for the organization”
overall (does the ends justify the means) and
whether a “little white lie” should be allowed or
not in public administration.
 Circumstances beyond the control of the public
administrator may put pressure on him/her to
choose unethical behavior that he/she normally
would not chose.
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Handling the Bad Apple
Separate the bad apples from the apples that
just need a little direction.
 The cost of untruths to an organization can be
huge in terms of time, money, trust, and
reputation.
 Leaders can not fix a thief, a pathological liar, or
a professional con artist—all of them must go,
immediately.
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Avoiding Unethical Behavior
In order for a public administrator to recognize
that he/she is in a problematic situation he/she
needs a high level of ethical awareness.
 West and Berman (2004) four areas critical for
avoidance of unethical behavior:
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Strong moral leadership by top managers
Monitoring adherence to a code of ethics
Examining ethics in hiring and promotion
Applications-oriented ethics training
Questions????
Case Study: Oaky Woods Purchase
Perdue appoints DNR board replacement for
Oaky Woods purchase critic (Salzer 2010)
http://blogs.ajc.com/georgia_elections_news/2010/12/30/perdueappoints-dnr-board-replacement-for-oaky-woods-purchase-critic/
Did former Governor Purdue cross any
ethical boundaries? (Ethical Problem Solving
Model)
2. What was the incentive, opportunity, and risk
level?
3. What strategies should be applied to avoid
this unethical conduct in the future?
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Unit 8 Seminar Summary
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Identified factors contributing to unethical
behavior
Discussed trends and reasons for systemic
corruption
Distinguished bad apples and ways for handling
them
Identified ways to avoid unethical conduct
Case Study – Oaky Woods
Final Questions???
Dismissal