Ethics Management In Public Organizations

Ethics management in public organizations? Can there be such a thing? Can we talk about managing ethics in the same breath or manner in which we talk about managing budgets, policies, or people? The answer is a resounding yes! Indeed, the single act of developing and adopting a code of ethics, as Bowman (1981) documented nearly twenty years ago, is managing ethics in the workplace. Thus, ethics management is not a new enterprise; it is an old enterprise. What is new about it is how we think about it. If we think about it as a systematic and consistent effort to promote ethical organizations, as Article IV of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Code of Ethics declares, then there is such a thing as ethics management. ¹ Ethics management, however, does not mean “control.” It is not the act, single or plural, of controlling co-workers’ behaviors or thinking about ethics in the workplace. Rather, it is the cumulative actions taken by managers to engender an ethical sensitivity and consciousness that permeates all aspects of getting things done in a public service agency. It is, in short, the promotion and maintenance of a strong ethics culture in the public workplace.