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...