Ethics and Compliance Policies.

To be an effective administrator, one needs to focus on: compliance, a working ethical self-concept, motive-based trust, and fairness. Fairness entails the perceived justice and activities that affect the employees in the workplace. Employees build trust in leaders who they deem to be fair in terms of resource allocation, decision-making, payment, promotion practices, and how they interact with employees (Olson, 2013, p. 6). A fair and just employee culture is based on ethical values such as loyalty, respect, responsibility, care, and honesty. On the contrary, the leaders are unfair if they act on their interests or formulate unfair policies. To ensure fairness, administrators should remain to be dependable and unbiased in their undertakings.

Motive-based trust refers to employees’ judgment on colleagues’ ethical nature with whom they interact at work. Employees assess their employers and co-workers based on their behavior and personalities. Leaders who have ethical behavior will build a motive-based trust, and their employees will continue trusting them despite their mistakes. These leaders should be willing to listen to their criticism and admit their honest mistakes. They should also apologize and take corrective action when they go wrong. When leaders demonstrate moral values, the employees will deliver the best, and therefore the organization will easily achieve its goals (Olson, 2013, p.7).

Ethical working self-concept is the extent to which employees adopt the organization’s ethical values as part of their definition and understand what is required of them. When the employees know the organization’s ideals, they will always strive to align with them (Olson, 2013, p.8). Ethical working self-concept stimulates employees to judge their morals and actions personally. It also motivates them to go beyond their expectations. Therefore, administrators should be willing to support the employees when pursuing their expectations within the organization.

There are severe implications for public administrators who fail to understand their liabilities. According to Perry & Christensen (2015, p. 632), administrators who fail to abide by the constitution and the rule of law are liable for damage within their organizations. The administrators’ failure to understand their liabilities can result in a lawsuit against the public administrator and even the agency he/she represents (Perry & Christensen, 2015, p. 632). The implication is supported by a note written by Justice Brennan in Owen v. City of Independence (1980), as cited in Perry & Christensen (2015, p. 632). The note states that damages caused by the administrators’ lack of understanding of their liabilities are enough evidence for vindicating the administrators and the agencies they represent for failing to accentuate what they have been mandated to do efficiently.

Another implication is the administrator’s failure to determine an individual’s eligibility in public provisions or other government benefits (Perry & Christensen 2015, p. 634). An administrator is a leader who took an oath of office and is responsible for preserving the constitution. Administrators should understand how they should operate best in their organization and the procedures they must adhere to when implementing given policies. Their decisions should be based on the oath they took when assuming office as an administrator.

In my opinion, I find the law to be closely related to the practice of ethics. People are expected to act ethically under the law to ensure that they relate well with their colleagues. When someone works in a way that violates their ethical requirements, their actions might undermine other people’s rights, similarly to the law. According to (Bowman, 2009, as cited in Geuras & Garofalo, 2011, p. 8), ethics in policy is a critical basis for excellence in the public domain. The law is the guiding principle for people to practice ethics in society. Ethics is a more generalized concept, while the law is more specific. Ethics provides the guidelines on what is best in all aspects of life, while the law gives particular guidelines that everyone must adhere to in their daily lives. Therefore, contravening ethical requirements is similar to breaking the law, making the two concepts closely related.

References

Geuras, D., & Garofalo, C. (2011). Practical ethics in public administration, Vienna, VA. Management Concepts.

Olson, S. D. (2013). Shaping an ethical workplace culture. USA: SHRM Foundation.

Perry, J. L., & Christensen, R. K. (2015). Handbook of public administration. John Wiley & Sons, 617-635