ETHICS IN PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
The roll of ethics in public administration is based on the fact that administrators should be
value free when they implement public policy. Most people do not understand what an
administration deals with everyday on an individual basis. They might think that an
administration is supposed to make the best ethical choices, but that is not the case. People
who are outside the administration might think that administrators are supposed to use
everyday values when implementing policy, but that is also not the case.
The roll that ethics plays in public administration is based on each individual
administration. An administration is a business after all and it has to make money to
survive in the business world. If all the businesses in public administration based ethics on
each individual worker, than his/her administration would not survive. Imagine if you were
an individual working for the state dealing with welfare for a citizen. You know that the
citizen needs more money than the federal government is giving, but you can only give out
the amount of money that is allowed by the government. Well, if one employee gives out
extra money to one citizen and other employee does the same thing, than the state will be
losing income, people who pay taxes will want to know where their money is going and
the questions about having the welfare system will come up again. Probably, almost every
administrator who sees a case like the example I just showed wants to do the right thing,
but he/she can not do that because administrators do not get paid to make the right ethical
choices. Administrators get paid to do what the administration tells them to do and if that
means not making the correct ethical choice, than that employee should get out of the
business that he/she is in.
To sum up, the administrators were set up to give out the amount of money that the
government sees fit. They were not set up to make the ethical choices that an employee of
the administration feels is the right thing to do. It does sound bad that an administration
will not give out extra money to a person in need, but if that did happen, the administration
would not exist and no one would get any benefits from it.
Administrators should be value free when they are implementing public policy for their
administration. They should be value free, because if they let their own personal values in
