Scribd
Upload
48 views

1.0 Chapter 1

This document discusses ethics for public administrators. It defines key terms like ethics, morality, values, culture, and integrity. It also discusses: - The development of ethics in administration, which came about with reforms in the 1990s to address unethical practices. New systems were introduced to promote ethics. - The importance of ethics in the Malaysian civil service. The civil service implements government policies and manages public resources, so the public expects good quality services. Ethics among officials is necessary for credibility. - Initiatives in Malaysia to focus specifically on ethics in the civil service, like the 9th Chief Secretary emphasizing the importance of work ethics for officials to create an excellent civil service with commitment and integrity.

Uploaded by

LA Syamsul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
48 views

1.0 Chapter 1

This document discusses ethics for public administrators. It defines key terms like ethics, morality, values, culture, and integrity. It also discusses: - The development of ethics in administration, which came about with reforms in the 1990s to address unethical practices. New systems were introduced to promote ethics. - The importance of ethics in the Malaysian civil service. The civil service implements government policies and manages public resources, so the public expects good quality services. Ethics among officials is necessary for credibility. - Initiatives in Malaysia to focus specifically on ethics in the civil service, like the 9th Chief Secretary emphasizing the importance of work ethics for officials to create an excellent civil service with commitment and integrity.

Uploaded by

LA Syamsul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 18

GMGA2033

ETHICS FOR PUBLIC


ADMINISTRATOR
• Ethics is an important element in life
as a guideline to behaviour – action, decision
related to aspects of morality, right or wrong,
good or bad
as boundary which decides between accepted
or unaccepted behaviours; as the morality
• Everyday we are thrown by questions of:
• Is it proper?
• Each individual, group of individuals, has its own
meaning of whether the actions, decisions are proper or
not.
• However, from law perspective, the meaning may differ.
• Conceptual Definitions

Ethics
• The Encyclopedia Americana –the term `ethics’ is from
Greek term `ethos’, which translated in English `ethics’ –
means `character’
• It becomes a theory related to intention which drives the
actions
• M. Uthman El-Muhammady: Some people think ethics as a
philosophy of value or a knowledge which studies morality,
principles of morality, and a right human behaviours
• Indonesian General Dictionary divides the meaning of
ethics into 3:
• about good or bad in relations to morality (behaviours)
• as a basis or a value in relations to moral values, such
as code of ethics (values)
• as a value on what is right or wrong about something
that is practiced by a group or a community (beliefs)
• Philosophically, M. Nasir Omar (1986) and K. Bartens
(2003) divide ethics into 3 groups
• Descriptive Ethics –studies about history of moral
system of individual or society
• Normative Ethics (Prescriptive) –about norms or
standards accepted by group of individuals or society
• Metaethical Ethics (Exaggerated)– study something from
broader aspect as accepted standard of behaviours
Morale
• The term `moral’ is from Latin term `mores’ which means
customs and traditions
• It is about method or approach to see and to question on
various issues related to behaviours (actions, decisions)
• Related to the term morality which means public
acceptance of customs, traditions, behaviours, styles, or
attitudes which represent a group or a society whether
good or bad
Relations of Moral and Ethics

• Ethics refers to a practical action


• E.g.: is an action proper or not?

• In any culture, ethics is measured at the same standards


• E.g.: corruption in public services is unacceptable in any
culture, anywhere in the world
• Whereas moral discusses aspects in scope of morality
which related to religions and law

• So, moral may differ according to culture and society


• E.g. unmarried couple living together viewed differently
in Islam and other religions

• E.g. issue on abortion –forbidden in Islam, some laws


allowed, and ethically it is immoral
Values

•Values refer to something invaluable or important to


anyone
•Anyone refers to individual or group of individuals or
society or organization
•A scope where values are important is the mission of
someone or society or organization
•i.e. visions must in line with core values such as integrity,
professionalism, caring, group work, cohesiveness etc.
Culture

•Culture refers to an acceptance of individual or society


towards something
•It symbolizes experiences of individual or the society
•Culture displayed via symbols such as practices,
language, conversation, attires etc.
•Culture will guide behaviours of individual or society
according to the standard of acceptance
Integrity

•Integrity is a concept related to the term of `firm’ or `strong’


in whatever action, principle, approach, expectation or
outcome (result) taken
•Firm or strong referred to circumstances where one is not
easily `influenced by’ anything offered to him
•Within the context of ethics, integrity is referred to all good,
sincere, and accurate (efficient) actions
•e.g. (Discuss) corruption in at workplace
Development of Ethics in Administration

•Development of ethics came about the same time of the global


effort on administration reforms during 1990s, although the
concept had been studied much earlier
•This was due to increasing cases of unethical practices and
decreasing of good values in public sector and resulted a
movement known as public administration reforms came into
existence (New Public Management concept)
•And some new systems, structures, programs were introduced
to promote ethics in civil services such as Committees, whistle
blowing, code of ethics, code of practices etc.
ETHICS IN THE MALAYSIAN CIVIL SERVICE
•
•Civil service is an important institution
•Is a machinery which implementing policies, aspirations
and regulations of the government
•Government allocates public resources to the civil service
to carry out responsibilities
•The public expect good quality and efficient services from
the government
•This can only be fulfilled by ethical practices among public
officials
•Without these traits, credibility of public officials will be
questioned
• All public officials must have highly professionalism and
professional competency to make up excellent civil
service in the country
• Those two traits must come simultaneously
• The lack of anyone will decay the ethics of public officials
• e.g. malpractices such as corruption, nepotism, fraud,
discrimination etc.
• The Malaysian Government introduced some initiatives
to ethics in Civil Service to specifically focuses on ethics
• The 9th Chief Secretary to the Government of Malaysia
(1990-1996), Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid:

“work ethics is important to be observed by all public


officials, for that will create excellent civil service
with full commitment and high integrity.”
Kingsoft Office
Make Presentation much more fun

You might also like