Ethics In Public Service

Public service professionals government officials, those in the legal system, first responders, and investigators confront ethical issues every day. In an environment where each decision can mean the difference between life and death or freedom and imprisonment, deciding on an ethical course of action can pose challenges to even the most season

Ethics and the Public Service provides a framework for the discussion of specific ethical challenges that members of the public service might face in the course of their work. Additionally, and perhaps more importantly, it seeks to explain why an ethical public service is so vital to democracy and good government. It explores and presents the value of ethics codes, the importance of independent oversight, and the contribution of ethical leadership to the achievement of public trust, political legitimacy, and the integrity of government programs.

Since it was first published in 1991, The Ethics Challenge in Public Service has become a classic text used by public managers and in public management programs across the country. This second edition is filled with practical tools and techniques for making ethical choices in the ambiguous, pressured world of public service. It explores the day-to-day ethical dilemmas managers face in their work, including what to do when rules recommend one action and compassion another, and whether it is ethical to dissent from agency policy. This essential text explores managers' accountability to different stakeholders and how to balance the often competing responsibilities.

This is the first book to focus solely on ethics in public service interpreting. Four leading researchers from across Europe share their expertise on ethics, the theory behind ethics, types of ethics, codes of ethics, and what it means to be a public service interpreter. This volume is highly innovative in that it provides the reader with not only a theoretical basis to explain why underlying ethical dilemmas are so common in the field, but it also offers guidelines that are explained and discussed at length and illustrated with examples. Divided into three Parts, this ground-breaking text offers a comprehensive discussion of issues surrounding Public Service Interpreting. Part 1 centres on ethical theories, Part 2 compares and contrasts codes of ethics and includes real-life examples related to ethics, and Part 3 discusses the link between ethics, professional development, and trust. Ethics in Public Service Interpreting serves as both an explanatory and informative core text for students and as a guide or reference book for interpreter trainees as well as for professional interpreters - and for professionals who need an interpreter's assistance in their own work.

Ethics in Public Administration: Understanding Ethics, Corruption, and Public Policy provides students with a timely and valuable collection of articles, essays, and case studies regarding ethical challenges, expectations, and opportunities in public administration. The collection begins with an introduction to the foundations of ethics in public administration and explores the definition and meaning of ethics as a concept. In later chapters, students read about the relationship between ethics and the law, as well as the delicate interplay between ethics, public service, public careers, and Constitutional practice. Additional sections of the anthology examine corruption in government and the ethical dimensions of decision making. Each chapter presents readers with an ethical dilemma to spark critical thought and self-reflection, an introduction to the featured readings, and a case study to demonstrate the real-world implications of topics addressed within the chapter. Providing valuable insight into complex contemporary issues, Ethics in Public Administration is an ideal resource for courses in public administration. Meriem Doucette is an assistant professor of public administration at California State University, Fullerton. She holds doctoral and master's degrees in public administration and policy from the University of Georgia. Dr. Doucette's research interests include performance feedback, the roles of discount rates and time preferences in decision making, public and private sector comparisons, and educational policy. David Adams is an assistant professor of public administration at California State University, Fullerton. He holds doctoral and master's degrees in public administration and policy from Auburn University. Dr. Adams' research interests include environmental policy, federalism and intergovernmental relations, collaborative governance, social networks, American political institutions, and public service ethics.

Serving the public interest with integrity requires a moral perspective that can rise above the day-to-day pressures of the job. This book integrates Western philosophy's most significant ethical theories and merges them with public administration theory to provide public administrators with an explicit moral foundation for ethical decision making. Ethics in the Public Service reviews moral thought through the ages, from Plato to Rorty, and makes the philosophies of the more difficult thinkers accessible to both students and practitioners. Unifying seemingly disparate ethical positions, including those of Aristotle, Kant, and Mill, the authors defend the idea of objective moral truth and critique subjectivist views, refuting postmodernism and ethical relativism. Using their integrated objective approach, they tackle such dichotomies in public administration theory as bureaucracy vs. democracy, and they also examine a case study in an administrative setting. Offering a better understanding of moral dilemmas rather than a formula, this book presents scholars and practitioners with a framework that is both objective and flexible, theoretical and practical. This original synthesis provides a comprehensive basis for administrative thought and action.

Ethics and accountability have become important themes for modern government, as in most of the countries there is a severe crisis of legitimacy. Increasingly there is a feeling that performance management alone will not solve this crisis. Citizens also expect from politicians and public servants ethical responsible conduct. As to the ethics, however, there is a problem. Governance and new public management have raised new problems which cannot be solved by referring to the traditional bureaucratic ethics. Devolution and decentralisation processes have enhanced the responsibility of public servants. The increase of transparency and openness and the service orientation of public organisations have challenged the traditional values of discretion and equality before the rule. The growing interaction between the public and the private sector have raised the question of integrity. In light of these developments, it is important to update the ethical system, or reversibly, the traditional values of the public service can question some actual evolutions in government.

This book, by a group of specially selected scholars, focuses on topics of current debate in the field of public service ethics. The subjects covered include codes of ethics, how ethics can be taught, the dilemma of tragic choices, administrative discretion and the protection of human rights, the interests of the state, secrecy and freedom of information, the democratic environment, and the relevance of the law and trade unions.