Lecture
Administrative ethics is a type of professional ethics, the science of applying moral principles to the conduct of officials in organizations, in this case in the apparatus structures of state authority and local self-government.
The purpose of administrative ethics is to help unite, in the words of Socrates and Plato, «the good, the true, and the beautiful» and to overcome nihilism and disbelief in the power of the human mind and spirit.
The functions of administrative ethics are social-moral orientation, moral regulation, and upbringing – ultimately, ensuring the strength, authority, and historical viability of the state and its structures.
A manager can make a correct and competent decision only if he relies not only on professional knowledge and experience, but also on the ethical principles and traditions prevailing in society, the state, and the given institution.
Before making a decision, it is necessary to calculate its immediate and long-term consequences for the people affected by it, to picture the weight of the moral burden of obligations placed on the person carrying out the decision, and to assess the degree of responsibility, including moral responsibility, for the results of the decision taken.
World experience shows that, along with professionalism, civil servants are required to have such moral qualities as: honesty, responsibility before the law, striving for excellence in their work, a respectful attitude toward citizens, self-discipline, and morality.
Administrative ethics is a set of moral values, principles, norms, and conceptions that guide the heads of state bodies and civil servants in their professional activity.
Ensuring compliance with administrative ethics requires a system of management and control. Administrative ethics, above all through the moral aspects connected with the activity of the state apparatus, seeks the answer to the questions: what is right or wrong in the conduct of civil servants, what are the motives and conditions of their ethical behaviour, and what must be done to instil high moral principles in them.
Administrative ethics should be regarded:
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as effective and transparent management in the organization of the civil service, ensuring the rights and responsibilities of personnel, filling vacancies on a fair competitive basis, promotion on the basis of merit;
as compliance with constitutional norms and administrative procedures;
as the implementation of the principle of hierarchical accountability in management structures;
as the interrelation between internal responsibility and external accountability;
as a conflict of interest, arising when there is a contradiction between professional duty and personal or group interests, and corporate and public interests.
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