Chapter 33
Understanding the Obligations of Codes of Ethics
Liza Ireni-Saban
This chapter addresses the province of codes of ethics in promoting ethical behavior and professionalism in public administration. Codes of ethics set forth values and standards to meet the expectations of those engaged in professional community and that shape their professional identity (Long & Driscoll, 2007). Codes of ethics are viewed as an important management tool for building the ethical culture of a profession or organization by improving the profession's reputation and developing a deep sense of commitment to ethical conduct and pride among professional community members. According to Richard Stillman (1974), the importance of a code is defined in this way: “A profession requires an ethical code in order that there might be a standard for the very best relations with employer, citizen, public at large, such as other professional fraternities have to foster” (p. 37). Within public administration, codes of ethics are to be understood as an attempt to promote public trust and confidence in the public sector. The evolving nature of governance incorporates greater weight in standards of openness, fairness, and accountability in public administration functioning. Such ethics awareness denies ideas of administration as ethically neutral professionals apart from the electorate, thereby allowing more room for public administrators to exercise substantial discretion (decision-making power) on their own, discretion that affects people's lives (Svara, 2007).
Admittedly, administrators have discretionary powers that go beyond the manuals, orders, job descriptions, and legal frameworks of their position and duties, and professional ethics has to come as guidelines in addition to the formal regulations. Administrators should therefore seek a broad and solid understanding of ethical theories and traditions and look for methods for thinking about the ethical dimensions of their decision making.
One way of regulating professional conduct within organizations or professions is through codes of ethics. In contrast to codes of conduct, usually set out for specific actions in which individuals should not engage, codes of ethics are set to encourage the practitioner's own deliberation and judgment in applying professional standards. They should help professional community members solve ethical dilemmas they might encounter in their day-to-day activities and performance and include clearly stated guidelines for dealing with them that are relevant to the particular function of the profession or organization. Viewed in this way, codes of ethics help develop ethical competence in applying their standards and use personal judgment as part of professional growth (Plant, 2013).
Thus, to be an effective and active guide to ethical decision making, codes of ethics should be effectively communicated to professional community members. The codes need to contain desired practical standards and principles of behavior among members of professional community. In public administration, codes of ethics specify the core values that govern public service consistent with society's norms in order to retain public trust in its moral values and professionalism.
Despite the prevalence of codes of ethics in public administrations across national settings to guide their members and develop professional identity among administrators, there is little evidence and agreement on the effectiveness of codes of ethics at producing ethical perceptions or behavior among public administrators. However, it seems logical to suggest that codes without effective implementation mechanisms are weaker in their effect than those supported with them. Thus, the purpose of this chapter is to develop a comprehensive framework for effective implementation of codes of ethics in public administration in a way that adjusts to evolving challenges in governance (Svara, 2014; Van Wart, 2003) This framework incorporates appropriate methods to improve the implementation of codes of ethics in public administration (communication, training, education, monitoring, enforcement, leadership by example, and ethical climate) across different stages of the ethical decision-making process (awareness, understanding, implementation, and follow-up).1
The applicability of this framework will be illustrated with examples from three organizations: the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Each of the these provides code implementation mechanisms for shaping ethical behavior for their members. The comparative analysis outlines the strengths and weaknesses of these organizations' code implementation efforts for potentially improving the ethics focus of such organizations.
This chapter begins by introducing the role of codes of ethics in elevating professional ethics in public administration and then drawing on the applicability of these codes for public administrators developed in different national settings. Next, it discusses the effectiveness of codes of ethics in public administration, addresses a framework to evaluate the effectiveness of implementation mechanisms of these codes, and follows with a comparative assessment of implementation mechanisms of codes of ethics for public administrators employed by three organizations at national and international levels. The chapter concludes with some insights into the implementation and communication of codes of ethics that are likely to contribute to developing the professional identity of public administration that can maintain a positive reputation in the eyes of the public.
Codes of Ethics as Markers of Public Administration Professional Identity
Codes of ethics set out the aspirational standards of behavior expected of members in an organization or profession and serve the general public to meet their expectations towards the profession. In the 1940s, in his study on the public administration in the United States, Wayne A. R. Leys (1944) identified the need to introduce codes of ethics in public administration decision making and professional conduct. Codes of ethics provide practical guidance for public servants on ethical behavior to enhance mutual understanding within the interaction between public administration and the community at large. For that, codes of ethics are assumed to yield cognitive and emotive impact on individuals. Cognitively, these codes give a person joining a profession a clear set of standards that he or she is expected to meet in daily work. They are thus considered a communication mechanism to increase the level of confidence when making decisions. Effective communication of codes of ethics in public administration must stress the distinctive nature of public administration as a profession whose higher commitment and priority are to serve public interests. By identifying the core values and purposes of public administration as a profession, codes of ethics provide guidance to help public servants when faced with competing values, loyalties, and interests. Codes are also used as a mechanism to enhance professional socialization. They can contribute to developing a sense of pride of belonging to a group or a profession in motivating individuals to regard themselves as professionals.
Codes of ethics established in public administration function as a professional statement that expresses the public service's commitments to a specific set of moral standards that are important to its functioning. In order to function in any professional area, each profession requires the knowledge and skills necessary for working toward the relevant value. For example, physicians must learn anatomy and physiology and to prescribe medication because these skills are necessary to the pursuit of health, and lawyers must learn to set up legal documents and muster evidence and arguments to present in court because these are necessary actions to achieve legal justice for clients. The possession of proper knowledge and special skills brings the ability to solve ordinary and extraordinary problems under certain circumstances of professional action.
Understanding the essence of professional practice is one of the major aspects in shaping professional identity. For example, the medical and nursing professions are different, yet they share the same value of healing. They must be differentiated on the grounds of specific rules and principles in the pursuit of patient health. These principles and rules should spell out the nature of the professional practice of a given profession. Generally we need to put the notion of professional practice under philosophical scrutiny.
Professionalism in the study and practice of public administration has long been dominated by the impartiality approach of moral deliberation aimed at removing the biasing influences of a public servant's objectives, interests, and favoritism based on the that person's personal characteristics, background, values, and beliefs in a democratic society (Spicer & Terry, 1993). This approach underlies the belief that bureaucrats should carry out policy directives but not influence policy creation despite their crucial role in the policy process.2
Advocacy on behalf of impartiality in public administration ethics, which builds on claimed synergies between public officials' goals and practices within the public sector, has made greater inroads into mainstream public administration ethics than advocacy, which argues for these goals and practices on partiality grounds. In the modern state, there has been an enormous increase in the scope of governmental activity, and the range of its objectives has led to placing immense power and authority in the hands of public officials, thereby increasing opportunities for abuse of power and authority, as well as incidents of unethical activities. Adopting an impartial stance in public administration ethical decision making employs a calculus that is based on viewing all agents as equal and “faceless,” while the particular identities, circumstances, and partialities of agents are secondary or irrelevant.
Partiality is grounded in relations arising in the context of an agent's personal point of view. As an ethical reason, partiality pertains by virtue of a relation between an agent and a particular object of value. The application of partiality to public administration offers normative justification to ethical judgment based on the civil servant's personal point of view. The demands of partiality thus stress the moral value of the varied sorts of personal relationships in which it is featured.
During the past decade, scholars have explored how contested ethical issues arise in situations where public administrators are acting in an impartial way in order to implement policy for those in need within society, especially when faced with circumstances they may not have anticipated, such as emergencies, disasters, and social unrest (Adams & Balfour, 2009; Stivers, 2007). Public administrators are often uniquely situated to answer someone's need, which derives from an ongoing relationship by virtue of which one has been held responsible for their well-being. In this sense, partiality is morally instrumental in a relationship to the extent that it contributes to the protection of those who are in need and on social conventions that assign responsibilities for the care of needy persons to others who stand in certain relationships to them.
Despite the lack of consensus on the extent of ethical exercise of public administrators' discretion, there is a growing awareness of the importance of professional ethics in public administration (Cooper, 2004; Hejka-Ekins, 1988; Maesschalck, 2004a; Svara, 2007; West & Berman, 2004). While codes of ethics in public administration share the stated goal that governs the public service, that is, to serve the public interests, they diverge in their national and governmental purposes and priorities, which provide criteria against which their success can be evaluated.
Thus, for codes to communicate professional identity, the specific purposes and principles embedded in them are intended to guide public officials in carrying out their duties consistent with society's core values and norms, which evolve across cultural, national, and institutional settings.
For example, codes of ethics may be used as a management tool. The presence of codes of ethics can indicate that management places some value on ethical behavior as part of its professional functioning. One of the earliest attempts to formulate public administration as a profession can be found in the Athenian oath written by Pericles in the fifth century B.C.: “We will unceasingly seek to quicken the public sense of public duty; That thus . . . we will transmit this city not only not less, but greater, better and more beautiful than it was transmitted to us.”
In the United Kingdom, the Civil Service Code was introduced to support civil service management reforms. The code, published in 1996, addressed a set of core civil service values and the standards of behavior expected of all civil servants, including “Integrity—putting the obligations of public service above personal interests; Honesty—being truthful and open; Objectivity—basing advice and decisions on rigorous analysis of the evidence and Impartiality—acting solely according to the merits of the case and serving governments of different political parties equally well.”
Estonia was the first of the Baltic countries to adopt a Public Service Code of Ethics, which was integrated into the Public Service Act in 1999. The first article of the Estonian Code addresses the idea that public administrators have an obligation to support the transition to democratic public management. The code defines the new image of the public servant who has responsibilities to both political supervisors and to citizens and is required to balance the two: “An official is a citizen in the service of people.” The democratic values entrenched in the code include “serving the public, respect for the law and people, loyalty to government, public participation, political neutrality, impartiality, objectivity, predictability, openness, honesty, reliability, responsibility, consciousness, competence” (Estonia, 1999).
In China, the 1993 civil service managerial reform placed some value on ethical considerations in performing official duties. As part of a growing tendency to impart a new orientation to public management compatible with professionalism and political accountability, the Chinese government codified civil service processes and structures and launched the Norms of Behavior and Professional Ethics of State Civil Servants (Guojia gongwuyuan xingwei guifan) in 2002. The managerial reform brought a new focus to ethical consideration of the performance of Chinese civil servants that gave more weight to values of accountability than execution of orders (Tsao & Worthley, 2009). In 2011, the Chinese government developed an ethics training program for the country's civil servants, focusing on the key values and behaviors the government wants to promote—a broad spectrum of responsibility, including accountability to citizens (Huazhong, 2011).
Codes can also be used as a mechanism for socialization of new, inexperienced civil servants or simply those who are not familiar with the civil service ethics. Ethical values can provide guidance about expected ethical behavior in the public service. Viewed in this way, codes allow public servants to test their actions or solve ethical dilemmas against expected standards. By communicating the content of the codes to public servants on a regular basis, ethical behavior can become a habit ingrained in public administration. This purpose is articulated in Macedonia's Code of Ethics for Civil Service. The Macedonian document seeks to “regulate the manner of conduct and the operations of the civil servants in order to ensure recognition of the principles of legality, professional integrity, efficiency and loyalty in performing their official duties” (Agency for Administration of the Republic of Macedonia, 2002). The code of ethics was part of various reforms introduced in the public administration of Macedonia during the first decade of the twenty-first century. These reforms aimed at educating the civil servants with low performance and unethical behavior in their daily contact with the citizens (Selami, 2012).
In both the Chinese and Macedonian cases, the underlying assumption behind the contribution of codes to public servants' socialization process is that the institutional context of public service has an overriding influence on the moral decisions of professionals rather than individuals' ability to make ethical judgments.
Finally, codes of ethics impose a binding set of ethical obligations between public administration and the public that can increase public trust in government. The importance of trust between the citizens and the public service enables public servants to carry out their official duties successfully and reduce disagreement or disputes over policy implementation. In Canada, the Values and Ethics Code for the Public Sector came into force on April 2, 2012. The code embedded the need to enhance the reputation of public service by complying with principles of equal treatment, effectiveness, integrity, and accountability when performing their duties.
In Poland, the purpose of the Civil Service Code of Ethics (2001) is specified as follows: “To increase the citizen's confidence in the State and its authorities.” This is also entrenched in the code of the Czech Republic (2004), which aims 'to gain and maintain the public trust, to promote the desired standards of behavior among public servants and to inform the public about the standards “that citizens have a right to demand from public administration employees” (Code of Ethics of Public Servants). The code was introduced by Czech Republic authorities as part of their effort to monitor citizens' attitudes toward government and the public administration due to increasing levels of citizens' distrust of the involvement of the public sector in the public service.
The need to raise public trust in public administration is entrenched in the Finnish code:
In our own work, we safeguard the trustworthiness of public service, so that citizens' trust in the impartiality and independence of public service activities is preserved. We discharge our duties in compliance with legislation and –principles of good administrative practice. Our operation must also be seen to fulfil the requirements of good administrative practice in the eyes of an external evaluator. (Finland Ministry of Finance, 2005)
The importance of raising public trust through the initiation of codes of ethics is also assigned in the Asian context. Japan and South Korea acknowledge the need to enhance public trust in government and increase effective communication with citizens (Kim, 2010). Indeed, ethical conduct by public administration became an important goal as part of the government's efforts to challenge the dominance of Confucian tradition and values and strengthen the legitimacy of public service in the eyes of the citizens (Mishler & Rose, 2001). Institutional context, political culture, and citizen–state relationships may also be important factors that determine the level of trust in government (Christensen & Laegreid, 2005).
Measuring the Effectiveness of Codes of Ethics in Public Administration
Despite the increasing use of codes of ethics across national and institutional settings, there is relatively little empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of these codes on ethical decision making and behavior in public administrations. The majority of studies treat the theoretical utility of codes of ethics in the public service, and most studies tend to agree that the theoretical utility lies in sending significant messages about the organization's expectations of ethical conduct. However, in the literature, there appears to be no agreement as to whether codes of ethics are useful and effective in enhancing ethical decision making or conduct in the public service (Frederickson & Ghere, 2005; Gueras & Garofalo, 2005; Lawton & Doig, 2005–2006; Maesschalck, 2004b; Menzel, 2005 2010).
Kaptein and Schwartz (2008) identified a relatively small number of studies (seventy-nine) examining the behavioral effects of codes of ethics in private organizations, studies that yielded mixed results. In addition, studies that offered to measure the effectiveness of codes of ethics were often criticized for showing bias toward the use of surveys and snapshot research. Several studies have been conducted by Bowman and his colleagues since 1989 on ethics in public agencies with an emphasis on the effects of the ASPA code of ethics (Bowman, 1990; Bowman & Knox, 2008). The findings of these studies showed that the effectiveness of ASPA's code correlated with enforceability and acceptability, which appear to be key variables in the codes of the ethics implementation process. In 1995, Elizabeth Kellar reported a significant and positive effect of the ICMA code among 90 percent of ICMA members. In addition, in 1990, Rowe and Hug reported that 84 percent of the respondents perceived the value of the ICMA code in defining their roles as municipal managers. A more recent study on measuring the effectiveness of codes of ethics across 154 national administrations concluded that having a code of ethics has no effect on corruption problems in the public context in both developed and developing countries (Garcia-Sanchez, Rodriguez-Dominguez, & Gallego-Alvarez, 2011).
As this review indicates, codes of ethics are widely adopted in public administrations around the world, yet these public agencies often rely on anecdotal evidence and respective recommendations for assessing the effectiveness of the codes they have in guiding ethical behavior and attitudes of public servants. Moreover, greater understanding is needed on additional measures of the effects of codes of ethics rather than self-reported data on employees' perceptions of ethical behavior.
This chapter suggests that a critical step before evaluating the effectiveness of codes of ethics in public administration requires a better understanding of the code of ethics implementation process. Without understanding this, it is difficult to know whether they make any continuing contribution to the ethical climate of the organization and the decisions that civil servants make. In their research on the use of ethics training in US cities, West and Berman (2004) found that audit committees' activities and the use of adequate ethics training, rather than the mere presence of a code, contribute to the promotion of deep levels of commitment and openness among staff members. The research then provides some evidence to suggest that implementation and communication of codes may increase their effectiveness in holding civil servants accountable for compliance and creating the ethical climate of public organizations. Thus, as a fundamental step toward promoting the effectiveness of codes, public administrators are likely to benefit from communicating clear expectations through effective employment of codes of ethics.
Assessing the Effective Implementation of Codes of Ethics in Public Administration
The creation of an effective implementation framework for codes of ethics in public administration serves the dual purpose of deterring unethical conduct in public administration and promoting the building of professional identity. The suggested framework for effective implementation of codes of ethics in public administration draws heavily on the amended chapter 8 of the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, which was integrated into an effective organizational compliance program. In 1991, the US Sentencing Commission established the most widely recognized standards for an effective program within its Sentencing Guidelines Manual. These guidelines are closely aligned with the principles set forth in compliance guidance that various agencies have developed over time. The guidelines provide a structural framework from which a professional organization may self-discipline its own members and conduct. The utility of this framework lies in its emphasis on the manner in which ethical and professional standards and procedures are communicated to all levels of the organization. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the compliance framework rests on the increased level of ethical competence that monitoring and enforcement mechanisms bring.
chapter 8's Guidelines for effective organizational compliance programs have set various methods and strategies aiming at evaluating the quality and effectiveness of organizational compliance efforts in a wide variety of legal contexts. Indeed, these guidelines are used by a wide range of government agencies, including the Justice Department, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Labor, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. The guidelines are thought to establish an effective compliance and ethics program by detecting and preventing improper conduct and promoting adherence to the organization's legal and ethical obligations.
Among the guidelines specified in the Compliance and Ethics are the need to develop organizational leadership and foster a culture that pursues compliance with the law; public administration education and training on the codes of ethics; establishing monitoring, auditing, and evaluation mechanisms to assess the level of compliance with legal requirements; communicating with staff members regarding compliance concerns that may arise; and using a reporting system to provide an open channel to report or to seek guidance about potential or actual misconduct and develop appropriate enforcement measures.
Based on the main tenets of the effective organizational compliance programs, a practice matrix is developed that incorporates various methods pursued at different stages of ethical decision making (table 33.1). Each practice implies an underlying ethical decision phase.
Table 33.1 Methods for Effective Implementation of Codes of Ethics in Public Administration
| Awareness | Understanding | Implementation | Monitoring | |
| Communication | A code of ethics should be published and disseminated to employees, potential employees, and the general public. Providing the code of ethics on the organization intranet allows all staff to access it as needed. |
Codes of ethics can be delivered online in a format that allows staff to work through issues in a given time frame. | Prepare posters about the code and display them in a communal area such as a staff room and notice boards throughout the organization. | Post on the organization's website a series of scenarios of possible ethical dilemmas to exercise employees' ethical judgment. |
| Training | Communicate the training program to all staff members so they are aware of what is happening in the organization. | Orientation and training programs may include role playing, simulations, and other interactive activities to reinforce understanding of the serious impact of unethical behavior and the importance of reporting unethical situations. After completing the training program, staff members would be given a competency certificate as proof that they understand the codes. |
All employees are required to complete a training course in ethical decision making and on the codes of ethics, which will function as a crucial factor in determining the employee's entitlement to performance-based remuneration. | Each year after the training course, the employee is required to confirm whether he or she followed the code's principles over the past year. |
| Ethics education | Ethics should be integrated into professional curricula at all levels. | Staff members will need to submit written assignments, a project, or practicum to develop skills and competence in professional ethics and ethical decision making. | Use interactive e-learning tools to guide staff members on how to consider their ethical commitment as professional qualified employees according to the organization's codes of ethics. | Develop a consultative process that will enable all staff members to comment on the effectiveness of the codes of ethics as a tool for resolving ethical dilemmas they might encounter. |
| Enforceability | Require staff to sign a document stating that they agree to abide by the codes of ethics. In case an employee violates the code's principles, the organization will take disciplinary action. | Ethics committees should be educational and advisory in purpose. The function of the ethics committee should be to assist in resolving unusual, complicated ethical dilemmas and to render their recommendations in a timely and prompt fashion in accordance with the demands of the situation and the issues. | Compliance with the codes of ethics is monitored by internal audit to ensure the code implementation process is appropriate to investigate alleged breaches of the codes. | Ethics committees should conduct an annual report of the controls that support the enforcement of the codes of ethics. |
| Leadership by example | Post on the organization's website employees who exhibit ethical behavior. | Managers should generate open discussion about ethics by sharing ethical problems that may have come up in the manager's own work or debated whom to tell about a confidential issue. | Each manager should review the code of ethics with all employees. Implementing its guidelines in the workplace is a manager's responsibility. | Leaders may address the principles and the effectiveness of the codes of ethics regularly in their meetings, speeches, and presentations. |
| Ethical climate | Inform the organization's stakeholders and target public of the presence of the code of ethics and the organization's employees' commitment to ethical conduct as part of their professional performance. | Foster, manage, and reward a culture of accountability and integrity within the organization that benefits the public and strengthens staff members' interactions with one another. | Establish an easy and safe channel for reporting violations of the codes of ethics without fear of negative career repercussions. In addition, make sure employees know that their supervisors will take immediate action and investigate claims. | Develop an annual survey of the extent to which the codes have influenced the ethical culture of the organization. |
Comparative Analysis of Codes of Ethics Implementation Efforts
This section illustrates the applicability of the assessment framework just presented with examples from the ICMA, the ASPA, and the OECD. Each provides code implementation mechanisms for shaping ethical behavior for their members. The short overview of the main tenets of each organization's codes of ethics is followed by an assessment of the codes' implementation and compliance strategies.
International City/County Management Association
The ICMA aims to develop and foster professional local government worldwide. Its mission is “to create excellence in local governance by developing and fostering professional management to build better communities.” The ICMA's Code of Ethics was introduced in 1924, the ICMA executive board adopted it in 1972, and revisions were made in July 2004.
Among the code's basic tenets are pursuing effective and democratic local government, social responsibility, integrity, improving the quality and image of public service, fairness and impartiality, stewardship of public resources, and political neutrality. The ICMA's training programs for local governments are to a great extent related to the code of ethics. Training that is firmly related to the code itself and to its proper implementation are included in the annual plan for training. In addition, ICMA members adhere to the principles of the ICMA Code of Ethics as a condition of membership and agree to submit to a peer-to-peer review of their conduct under established enforcement procedures.
The ICMA code communication is pursued at all levels. ICMA uses its Knowledge Network, which serves as an online platform for local government professionals. More than twenty thousand local government professionals have already joined this community and can engage with peers or with colleagues in local government around the world on ethics issues (http://icma.org/en/icma/knowledge_network/topics/kn/topic_articles/95/ethics). The ICMA's Knowledge Network provides information to its members on how to react to questionable activities in their locality (http://icma.org/en/icma/knowledge_network/documents/kn/Document/301968/What_To_Do_When_the_Ethical_Dilemma_Involves_Your_Elected_Official).
The enforceability of the code is enhanced by ICMA through a formal review process administered by a peer review body, the ICMA Committee on Professional Conduct. The rules of procedure for enforcement of the code ensure a confidential review process when investigating a member suspected of violating the code, to afford each member who is the subject of an investigation a full and fair opportunity to be heard throughout the process. The committee is authorized to close a case where no violation has occurred; issue a private censure for an ethics violation; or recommend that the ICMA executive board suspend, publicly censure, or expel, bar, or revoke the credentials of a member who has violated the code. Members have the opportunity to appeal any decision or recommendation of the committee (Menzel, 2010). The ICMA's director of ethics is responsible for publishing the committee's recommendation and decision-making process in cases of ethical violations, and full explanations and guidance for the need of ethical standards in the management profession by the ICMA (http://icma.org/en/icma/knowledge_network/documents/kn/Document/301966/For_Whom_the_Bell_Tolls__Questionable_Practices_Harm_Everyone; http://icma.org/en/icma/knowledge_network/blogs/contactblog/176541/Martha_Perego; http://icma.org/en/icma/knowledge_network/documents/kn/Document/100266/ICMA_Rules_of_Procedure_for_Enforcement_of_the_Code_of_Ethics).
American Society for Public Administration
The ASPA established the Professional Standards and Ethics Committee in 1974, which was formally approved in 1984 and revised in 1994 (American Society for Public Administration Ethics Code, 2010; Public Administration Review, 2010) During March 2013, the ASPA adopted a revised version of the code at its annual conference in New Orleans.3
ASPA's Code of Ethics has been the centerpiece of the association's commitment to promoting ethical competence among its members. The code's main tenets are:
- Serve the public interest.
- Respect, support, and study government constitutions and laws that define responsibilities of public agencies, employees, and all citizens.
- Demonstrate the highest standards in all activities to inspire public confidence and trust in public service.
- Strengthen organizational capabilities to apply ethics, efficiency, and effectiveness in serving the public.
- Strengthen individual capabilities and encourage professional excellence.
The 2013 revision extends the responsibilities of public servants to include enhancement of social equity and social responsibility to their political supervisors as part of their professional identity. The fact that the 2013 revision makes distinctions between social equity and public interest seems to support the proactive role of public servants and a degree of discretion that interferes with accountability (Svara, 2014). In this context, the 2013 code underpins various elements of ethical leadership as an essential strategy aimed at improving the ethical performance and competence of public administrators (Cooper & Menzel, 2013).
ASPA's Code of Ethics is supported by communication and ethics education mechanisms managed by ASPA's Ethics Section. Communication efforts include publications on ethics issues in ASPA's newsletter, academic and professional journals, and the inclusion of an “Ethics Moment” in every edition of PA Times. In addition, ASPA's Ethics Section initiated the ETHTALK listserv, which serves as a forum for the exchange of ideas, viewpoints, and contemporary ethics issues among the ASPA membership (http://www.aspanet.org/public/ASPA/Resources/Code_of_Ethics/ASPA/Resources/Code_of_Ethics/Code_of_Ethics1.aspx?hkey=acd40318-a945–4ffc-ba7b-18e037b1a858).
A working group initiated by ASPA's president has proposed reestablishing the Professional Standards and Ethics Committee in ASPA. An interim implementation committee appointed by ASPA officers began to work on ASPA ethics and standards approved by the ASPA National Council at the midyear meeting in March 2014 and provide other initiatives to promote effective implementation activities (http://www.aspanet.org/public/ASPADocs/Ethics%20Committee-Council%20Approval.pdf).
The ASPA ethical climate process at both awareness and monitoring levels is promoted through the distribution of annual awards for honoring ethics-related achievements (Best Ethics Paper by a Student, Ethics in Practice, and Best Paper in Public Integrity). In addition, the association's Professional Ethics Committee uses a membership survey, based on the scholarly survey of 1989 conducted by Bowman, to obtain an initial assessment of the effectiveness of the code (Bowman, 1990; Bowman & Knox, 2008; Bowman & Williams, 1997).
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development
In April 1998, the Public Management Committee of the OECD issued Principles for Managing Ethics in the Public Service to assist countries in evaluating their institutions, systems, and mechanisms for elevating public service ethics (PUMA, 1998).
These principles, drawn on the experience of OECD countries in developing and managing codes of ethics for the public service, included communication processes at levels of awareness and understanding. The committee identified a strong need for establishing clear ethical standards, which are based on understanding and common values. According to the committee's guidelines: “Public servants need to know the basic principles and standards they are expected to apply to their work and where the boundaries of acceptable behaviour lie. A concise, well-publicised statement of core ethical standards and principles that guide public service, for example in the form of a code of conduct, can accomplish this by creating a shared understanding across government and within the broader community.”
Other guidelines advocated professional socialization through the initiation of training programs on ethics to raise awareness and develop essential skills for ethical analysis and moral reasoning. In addition, it is suggested that “internal consultation mechanisms should be made available to help public servants apply basic ethical standards in the workplace.”
The OECD committee suggests that political leaders hold the responsibility for maintaining a high standard of ethical behavior by establishing legislative and institutional arrangements that “reinforce ethical behaviour and create sanctions against wrongdoing, by providing adequate support and resources for ethics-related activities throughout government and by avoiding the exploitation of ethics rules and laws for political purposes.” The committee has also identified the need for viable enforcement mechanisms that function to formally serve for the detection and independent investigation of corrupted acts or ethical violations as part of an ethics infrastructure.
In 1992, the OECD and the European Union collaborated to initiate the SIGMA Programme. SIGMA, funded by the EU's Phare Programme, aimed at providing standards of reliable and efficient administration through the establishment of an implementation of administrative reform program; providing training and information exchange events; and collecting comparative data on public administration through published reports, checklists, an Internet site, and a bimonthly newsletter on ethics and integrity in the public administrations among EU member states such as Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia (http://www.oecd.org/puma/sigmaweb). SIGMA's Supreme Audit Institutions serve to enhance accountability through regular reports on public spending and revenue collection and on appropriation rules and other relevant laws (SIGMA, 1998, 1999).
Summary
Codes of ethics may serve as a way of signaling that public administration is committed to norms of ethical behavior as part of its professional functioning. The professional and ethical standards set up by codes for public administrators, when effectively communicated to its professional community, are likely to contribute to developing professional identity and growth that can lead to a more supportive and regulatory environment and increased public trust.
Public administration associations across national boundaries have gone through the process of developing codes of ethics over the past decade. This trend is a critical process in holding public administrators accountable for compliance. This chapter suggests that the professional standards and priorities must be clearly communicated to engender public servants' commitment to meeting the standards contained in the codes. For that purpose, it provides an implementation framework for codes of ethics in public administration to increase the level of ethical competence that communication, monitoring, and ethical training and education, and enforcement mechanisms bring. The rationale behind the code's implementation framework is that improved communication of professional identity may result in public officials having increased confidence and comfort making ethical decisions based on clear understanding of their moral obligations and responsibilities to the public as part of their professional integrity.
The code's implementation framework offers criteria against which its effectiveness can be assessed. The comparative analysis of codes of ethics implementation programs for public administration professionals in both national and international organizations shows that most of them have not yet chosen to pursue the development of enforcement and training mechanisms for their codes of ethics. It seems that the ICMA has become more proactive in employing an enforcement mechanism among those engaging in the area of public administration practice, and ASPA, despite lack of an enforcement mechanism, recently considered the implementation of such a mechanism.
Not all organizations have set the standards and the content of training programs; their implementation has faced some difficulty in committing the resources to train public administrators. Since public administration has attained the status of a profession in many countries around the globe, ethics training should be considered a salient factor affecting promotion. Furthermore, an online platform for codes of ethics and ethical education as introduced by ICMA and the ASPA offers entirely new possibilities for code communication and enables current responses to changes in standards, policies, legislation, or code revisions resulting from governance reforms. Online forums and professional networks may also serve as valuable consultant and training mechanisms for public officials faced with ethical dilemmas that need to be addressed in a timely manner. This initiative requires collaborative efforts of various public administration professional organizations in the difficult and ongoing task of defining and building mechanisms for developing ethical competence when faced with competing interests, loyalties, and values among their members.