THE ETHICS CHALLENGE in PUBLIC SERVICE a Problem-Solving Guide
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01_967564 ffirs.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page i Y THE ETHICS CHALLENGE IN PUBLIC SERVICE A Problem-Solving Guide SECOND EDITION Carol W. Lewis Stuart C. Gilman 01_967564 ffirs.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page i 01_967564 ffirs.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page i Y THE ETHICS CHALLENGE IN PUBLIC SERVICE A Problem-Solving Guide SECOND EDITION Carol W. Lewis Stuart C. Gilman 01_967564 ffirs.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page ii Copyright © 2005 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved. Published by Jossey-Bass A Wiley Imprint 989 Market Street, San Francisco, CA 94103-1741 www.josseybass.com No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permis- sion of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, 978-750-8400, fax 978-750-4470, or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permis- sions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, 201-748-6011, fax 201- 748-6008, e-mail: [email protected]. Jossey-Bass books and products are available through most bookstores. To contact Jossey-Bass directly call our Customer Care Department within the U.S. at 800-956-7739, outside the U.S. at 317-572-3986 or fax 317- 572-4002. Jossey-Bass also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lewis, Carol W. (Carol Weiss), 1946- The ethics challenge in public service : a problem-solving guide / by Carol W. Lewis, Stuart C. Gilman.— 2nd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-7879-6756-4 (alk. paper) 1. Civil service ethics—United States. I. Gilman, Stuart. II. Title. JK468.E7L49 2005 172’.2’0973—dc22 2004028269 Printed in the United States of America SECOND EDITION HB Printing 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 02_967564 ftoc.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page iii CONTENTS Exhibits, Tables, and Figures v Preface ix Acknowledgments xv The Authors xvii Introduction: Ethics in Public Service 1 PART ONE: ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF PUBLIC MANAGERS 19 1 What Is Important in Public Service? 21 2 Obeying and Implementing the Law 52 3 Serving the Public Interest 73 4 Taking Individual Responsibility 98 iii 02_967564 ftoc.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page iv iv Contents PART TWO: TOOLS FOR PERSONAL DECISION MAKING 119 5 Finding Solid Ground: Ethical Standards and Reasoning 121 6 Resolving Ethical Dilemmas: Strategies and Tactics for Managers 141 7 Understanding Who and What Matters: Stakeholder Analysis 161 PART THREE: ETHICS AND THE ORGANIZATION 183 8 Designing and Implementing Codes 185 9 Broadening the Horizon 220 10 Building an Ethical Agency 235 Afterword: The Job Ahead 269 Resource A: Chronology of Theoretical and Applied Ethics in Public Service (Work in Process) 272 Resource B: Selected Internet Resources 301 Resource C: Tools for Making Ethical Decisions 313 References 322 Name Index 343 Subject Index 349 02_967564 ftoc.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page v EXHIBITS, TABLES, AND FIGURES Exhibits I.1. Cutbacks and Priorities 4 I.2. Would I? Should I? 7 1.1. Average Is Not Good Enough 28 1.2. D+P+E=Iii 38 1.3. Values and Standards in Public Service 39 1.4. Waiving the Right to Sue 44 1.5. Earnings Figure into Calculation 48 2.1. Pledge of the Athenian City-State 54 2.2. Federal Appointment Affidavits 55 2.3. To Obey or Not to Obey! 60 2.4. Using the Go/No-Go Decision Model 66 3.1. Pursue the Public Interest 75 3.2. From Bounty to Booty 78 3.3. Read All About It 82 3.4. NYC Conflict-of-Interest Board’s Ethics Guide for Public Servants 84 3.5. From Montgomery County’s Ethics Code 85 3.6. Appearance of Impropriety 86 3.7. Public Works 90 3.8. Audit Decisions Against Four Standards 93 v 02_967564 ftoc.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page vi vi Exhibits, Tables, and Figures 3.9. Snapshot of the Red Cross 94 4.1. The Tragedy of Mission STS-107 101 4.2. Should the Agency Head Resign? 107 4.3. Improvising a Homeland Defense 108 4.4. Getting the Facts 109 5.1. How Do I Make Ethical Choices? 123 5.2. Tough Call 124 5.3. Everyday Use of Philosophical Perspectives 125 5.4. Ethical Perspectives in Action 127 5.5. Ethical Traditions 128 5.6. Presidential Explanation 133 6.1. Decision-Making Checklist 146 6.2. Doing Public Service 148 6.3. Rank Responsibilities 150 6.4. Use Threshold Test 151 6.5. Ethics Responsibility Statement 156 6.6. Test Ethical Decisions 157 7.1. Stakeholder Diagnostic 165 7.2. Creatively Lead 170 7.3. Drawing the Line 172 7.4. Before You Blow 178 8.1. Code for U.S. Postal Workers, 1829 186 8.2. Workable and Effective Standards of Conduct 194 8.3. State Ethics Standards, 2003 200 8.4. Ethics, Duty, and Freedom of Speech 203 8.5. Excerpt from a Model Municipal Code 207 9.1. Great Britain’s Seven Principles of Public Life, 2001 223 9.2. Article III of the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption 225 9.3. OECD’s Ethics Checklist 226 9.4. OECD on Conflict of Interest, 2004 228 9.5. South Africa’s Public Service Commission 230 10.1. Arrogance in the Public Interest 237 10.2. Just Say No 242 10.3. Hardly Neutral 249 10.4. Intervention Techniques for Integrating Ethics into Agency Operations 250 10.5. Rules of Thumb 256 A.1. Values and Vision for the Twenty-First Century 271 02_967564 ftoc.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page vii Exhibits, Tables, and Figures vii Tables 5.1. Touching Six Bases 132 5.2. Kohlberg’s Stages of Moral Development 135 Figures I.1. The Public-Private Continuum 10 1.1. Trust in Government Index, 1958–2002 24 1.2. Confidence and Trust in Government to Handle Problems 26 1.3. Rating on Honesty and Ethical Standards 27 1.4. Role Diagnosis 32 1.5. Ethical Values Are the Core of Personal Integrity 35 1.6. Diagnostic: What Shape Are We In? 41 2.1. Spirit and Challenge of Public Service 57 2.2. Go/No-Go Decision Model 65 5.1. Self-Centered Rationalization Is a Sorry Substitute for Ethical Reasoning 127 6.1. Abbreviated Decision-Making Model 146 6.2. Decision Makers Use a Framework to Sort and Accept Ethical Claims 149 7.1. Expansive Reach of Public Service 163 7.2. Connect the Dots 169 8.1. Different Approaches to Standards of Conduct 187 10.1. Ethics Impact Statement and Process 258 03_967564 fbetw.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page viii To our colleagues and students 04_967564 fpref.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page ix PREFACE hy write a second edition of The Ethics Challenge in Public Service? In his Meta- Wmorphoses, Ovid tells us that “omnia mutantu” (everything changes). Much has changed since this book’s initial publication. Then why not just write a completely new book? Our historical perspective also reminds us that plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose (the more things change, the more they stay the same). So we opted for writ- ing an update and taking a broader look across time and around the profession and the globe. The breadth of the undertaking, the pace and volume of change, and the value we place on intellectual exchange explain why we decided to collaborate in this effort. This book’s subject is managing in—not moralizing about—today’s public ser- vice. It is written for professional managers in public agencies, where unprecedented demands for ethical judgment and decisive action resound at increasingly higher deci- bel levels. Yet there is something about ethics that triggers nostalgia. It seems that people are not what they were. Except for classical music (the golden oldies of rock), ethics is the only subject we know of that sets off a yearning for the old days in young and old, public servants and private citizens alike. Some argue that World War II was a watershed; after that war, moral decay set in. Others single out the political activists and hippies of the 1960s—beaded and bearded youths who pointed disrespectfully at their parents and political leaders and today symbolize intergenerational conflict, lack of self-discipline, and rejection ix 04_967564 fpref.qxd 2/1/05 1:34 PM Page x x Preface of community standards. Still others cite the baby boomers—grown into yuppies by the 1980s—who drove Ivan Boesky’s ethic “Greed is good” to its limits and faxed us new national symbols of greed and corruption. Then the century turns, and we dis- cover low ethics in high places: scandals rock boardrooms, bedrooms, Wall Street, and Sunbelt freeways. Along Washington’s Beltway, defense procurement attracts pro- curers, and federal programs fall to the fixers. Common wisdom has it that a pervasive disillusionment and loss of confidence touch political, economic, and even religious leaders and institutions on America’s Main Street.