public administration

The roll of ethics in public administration is based on the administration; administrators should be value-free when they implement public policy. I will discuss why ethics should be based on the administration and, why it should not be based on each individual worker in the administration. I will discuss Weber’s stance on values in bureaucratic organizations, what Macintyre suggests, and what Hummel and Goodsell would conclude about values in public administration. 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 or 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 than the questions about having the welfare system will come up again. Every administrator who sees a case like the example I just showed wants to do the right thing, but they can not 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 or she is in.

The administrations 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...

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...rther governmental programs. By getting the tax dollars it causes the bureaucracy to become larger. From the Goodsell reading I have concluded that he sees the bureaucratic values to be one of profit maximizing only. The government bureaucrats are there to make profits for the government, and if they can not make the profits needed the government will find someone that will.

The roll of ethics is based on each individual administration, if an administration wants to be more ethical, than by all means that is fine. The administrators should be value free when implementing public policy because it is the administrations call on the issues. Still, most people do not understand the administration and how it works. They come into the administrator’s office expecting what they want to hear and that is not always the case. Citizens just need to understand that the administrators want to give you everything, but they must abide by what the administration tells them to do.