ABSTRACT

The most serious objections to administrative ethics arise from two common conceptions of the role of individuals in organizations—what may be called the ethic of neutrality and the ethic of structure. Administrative ethics involves the application of moral principles to the conduct of officials in organizations. The most general challenge to administrative ethics would be to deny the possibility of ethics at all or the possibility of political ethics. The more direct challenge to administrative ethics comes from those who admit that morality is perfectly possible in private life but deny that it is possible in organizational life. The conventional theory and practice of administrative ethics holds that administrators should carry out the orders of their superiors and the policies of the agency and the government they serve. The ethic of neutrality does not deny that administrators often must use their own judgment in the formulation of policy.