Basic Issues Damaged Public Service Ethics and Professionalism - Assignment Example

Assessment Name: Course: Tutor: Date: Assignment 1: Alternative B Introduction Environmental influences, socio-political developments, and leadership are transformations affecting the constant change exerted in the public sector environments. Corruption, administrators conflicting obligations, the role of administration in the process of policy-making or malpractices of the human resource management are some of the administrative scandals and activities that constitute administrators behavior. These scandals have resulted in the deteriorating ethical behaviors of officials in the public sector offices. They have gone to the extent of indulging in malpractices. Administrators need to emphasize the significance of ethics communication and underpinning values in the public service sector. As such, public servants need to provide a common reference frame that regards principles and standards. This will be applied in developing ethical issues appreciation, which involves efficient and effective delivery of services in the public sector. Therefore, audits, public accountability, and performance-based pointers are some of the issues emphasized. The number of regulatory bodies, which aim at evaluating and holding people in the office accountable, dealing with the public services has increased over the recent years. In this article, research, theories and pertinent literature on the themes attempt to ascertain basic issues that have damaged public service ethics and professionalism. It also attempts to verify if these apparatus are essential for the maximization of effectiveness and cost efficacy in the public segment. This article is essential in showing how public servants conduct themselves unethically and behave unprofessionally, which is detrimental to the public trust, in the allocation of resources to the public and inefficient delivery of services to the public sector. Public service and professionalism are the main concerns in this discussion. The aim is to raise public awareness, promote better delivery of services and improve professionalism skills in the public sector. Concepts Ethics, transparency, accountability, professionalism and integrity are concerns that contribute significantly to the increased performance and respect of a well-balanced public sector. Ethics in the public service sector, are norms that broadly delineate how their employees, state agents, exercise judgment and discretion when carrying out their responsibilities in the office. Accountability in this article refers to commitment of actions put in practice by the public service because they affect directly or indirectly the general public. According to Meyer (1995), it is the responsibility of the government plus it agents accorded to the public in achieving set objectives and accounting for them in public. This burden of accountability rests, on each functionary of the public and acts in a manner that enhances public interests in accordance to his conscience, and having solutions for every existing matter based on participation and professionalism. It is crucial for the public service to improve this ethical virtue in order to enhance accountability and vice-versa. In the public service, transparency means that decisions and actions taken by public office holders need to be as open as possible. It promotes accountability and provides citizens with information on what their government and agents are doing with allocated resources and power control. Integrity in this article serves as a willingness measure that adjusts system values in maintaining or improving consistency when an expected result appears to be incongruent with outcomes observed. The public sector engages their organizations in audit that leads to performance improvement by forcing organizations to practice efficiency and effectiveness in terms of performance. This also leads them to be more liable to stakeholders and the general public at large (Leeuw, 1996, p.92). Performance (management/operational) audit is a review of organizations operations departments, procedures and methods that aid in evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness (Arens et al., 2005, p.770). The future of schools around the world needs to employ the accountability framework; this has two elements in mind. An annual report by the school to its local community is the first element showing the progress of the school in terms of objectives stipulated in the charter. The second element is the triennial review that indicates areas existing school charter need updating. In short, parents, the local community and tax payers of future schools will be given strict accountability measures (p. 56). This framework will improve students’ performance and progress in achievement of school objectives and timeline stipulated in the school charter. Public service officials exhibit professionalism by adhering to all values guiding them, which encompass neutrality, punctuality, impartiality, transparency, effectiveness and loyalty among others specific to individual countries. As an ingrained performance, pride is an adherence to a set of normative and behavioral expectations embedded in ethics code. Professionalism rationale entails neutrality, impartiality, fairness, competence and public interests to the public servants when carrying out duties and responsibilities. Public servants need to be fairly remunerated and trained adequately so as to perform their work. Last century, organizations used the performance-based approach to measure it success by using performance pointers that measure their effectiveness, efficiency and economy at large. Examples of these pointers comprises of monitoring agency’s inside activities, evaluating the quality of goods and services generated, evaluating interactions with diverse governments and non-governmental entities outside the agency. Moral Issues and Professionalism in Public Service During the last decades, increased attention has been drawn to ethical and unethical behavior received in the public sector. Public administration has evolved through this act of accountability, which has been portrayed clearly by their openness in carrying out their businesses. The use of media services in publishing their financial statements and audit reports shows their commitment of attaining accountability and professionalism in their organizations. Public service commitment to observing codes of ethics have gone through ebbs and flows, but with themes like citizenship, ethics, and democracy; ethics and thoughts of founding fathers; administration and ethics; and public interest, virtue, and ethics. Having public interest as a theme the public service has incorporated accountability, audit and performance-based pointers in their working environments to promote effectiveness and efficiency. Independence, integrity, professional competence and objectivity are ethical issues under scrutiny in this article. Independence is the ability of an individual to think on his/her own without giving consideration to other people’s views and opinions. Citizens’ scrutiny of the public sector has increased criticism brought about by other media thus, opinions stream through society and as such, increased the implementation and analysis of performance-based approaches evaluation strategies. Objectivity is when one develops judgments impartially when making decisions in the public sector. An existing conflict of interest in the public service sector should not include personal interest when serving the interest of the general public. Public administrators fail to make sound decisions due to their lack of ethical issues with regard to performance audit and public accountability. All they do is have their personal interests in mind when performing their administrative responsibilities and thus, leading to corruption, which eventually forces the regulatory body to demote, suspend and terminate the public servant among other disciplinary acts. Corruption (improper power use) undermines the integrity of public service servants and thus, government institutions have adopted structural arrangements and ethics establishment to combat and support those incorruptible officials in the public service. Auditing and accountability measures have reduced the chances of public administrators engaging in corrupt deals and enhancing transparency within the organization. Professional competence is linked to proper behavior by the task force in performing public responsibilities and duties measured by using performance-based pointers. School administrators need to adhere to all ethics codes stipulated in order to attain excellence and equity in their performance levels. This eventually spills down to building their future careers and hence, contributes immensely to development of powerful economies. Teachers should accept bribes and tokens from students in order to make tem pass their exams, but rather, they should be strict and educate them on the dangers of being corrupt. This is because they are learning so as to be future leaders who are not corrupt and therefore, should not tolerate rogue citizens and leaders. Many countries have experienced downfalls and ‘dearth’ of economic infrastructure, unprecedented inflation, scarcity of essential commodities and dwindling productions in the public service sector. This culminated into the introduction of black market and smuggling activities that gave birth to the collapse of public service institutions. Hence, ridiculing the salaries of the public service employees. As a result, loss of values, morals degeneration, greed emergence and loss of accountability in public service offices increased. Deviant behaviors like theft and funds embezzlement became prominent as a public service employees eke out for a living. This contributed to the increase in corruption activities and loss of integrity in public institutions having the public interests in mind. The government has resorted to curbing corruption by ensuring that impartiality, transparency, integrity, objectivity, effectiveness and efficiency in public offices. The implementation and enforcement measures are emphasized in performing duties and responsibilities since their ethical behaviors are a cornerstone in development of the nation. Public Service and Professionalism Undermined? Accountability in the public service is evaluated in order to make certain that all organizational targets and purpose are met in an appropriate and open manner. In Australia, ethical and professional, public service sectors are paramount and thus, a large quantity allocated to the nation’s financial plan is given to the public to view. They are able to view how the financiers have spent their taxes in allocating resources to different parts of the country. With the increase, of corruption activities, the government has initiated programs and campaigns fostering increased awareness of the importance of accountability, audits and performance-based pointers in preventing its spread. These tools have enabled the public to know basic facts, figures, processes and mechanisms of the public service administrators in allocating resources and performing other duties and responsibility in the workplace. In order to prevent future happenings from occurring, governments need to adopt these tools. In essence, the being of public accountability, audits and performance-based pointer, have not diluted the ‘moral' professionalism of public service. In other words, they have served in strengthening the public service sector and professionalism. This has been achieved by exposition of both proper and improper conduct while undertaking public duties and responsibilities. The underlying work organization culture in Australia, for example, measures outcome performance and tests services against the private sector (market-testing). The main focus for this is to ensure that work in the public service is performed in the most cost-efficient way (Caldwell & Hayward, 1998, p.47). Industrial conflict is evident in the core public service, but after the Second World War, industrial climate was not confrontational. Public service administrators utilized strategies like lobbying and making representations in enhancing effectiveness that reflected on members’ character. Public accountability, audits and performance-based pointers: Efficient and cost effective? Efficiency according to Arens et al. (2005, p.771) refers to reduction of cost without reducing effectiveness. Therefore, it is related to optimal use of allocated resources in the production of an intended output level. Effectiveness is defined as objective accomplishment (Arens et al. 2005, p.770). In other words, efficiency is the key goal of performance auditing. Public servants have been given an opportunity by the public to serve them with optimal interests. Through the use of given power in portraying their transparency in terms of public accountability, audits and performance-based pointers, this has been achieved successfully. In driving maximization of effectiveness while carrying out public service duties and responsibilities, application of these tools is critical. Performance audit is viewed as independent economy evaluation and operation efficiency of audited individuals, and program effectiveness in the public service sector. Performance-based pointers are tools used by the government in measuring their economy, effectiveness and efficiency (Behn, 2003, p.589). In the public sector, accountability has been accorded to bodies like the legislative committees, parliamentary questions and judicial control to mention just a few. For the UK, productivity changes in the public service sector bases its pointers on ratio calculation of real output over input. Public service can only produce more by employing more teachers, nurses (inputs). Another performance indicator used in the public service sector is the doctor’s performance in hospitals. For most educational systems measurements, countries have opted to incorporate the use of OECD PISA study. This study bases on test scores of pupils who are 156-years of age (Mandl, Dierx & IIzkovitz, 2008, p.6). Measurement of macro level efficiency in the public sector is possible by computing scores based on pointers (composite). The study of 23 industrialized OECD countries and new Member States, for example, by Afonso et al. (2005), saw to the construction of composite pointers like public sector performance (PSP) and efficiency (PSE). They included information on education (enrolment of secondary school, achievement of education levels), distribution of income, inflation and economic performance outcomes that portrayed a 10-year period of unemployment rates on average (Mandl, Dierx & IIzkovitz, 2008, p.13). Conclusion Audits reports give a review of organizations method of operation, procedures and work standards regarding efficiency and effectiveness. In summary, public accountability, audits and performance-based pointers have not undermined the ethics and professionalism of public service. Instead, they have served in strengthening the organization that extend services to the public segment by making providing them with every financial figures, details, mechanism and procedures. Transparency and openness in investigations and inquiry in the public service has contributed to achievement of goals and objectives. The tools mentioned above, have considerably contributed to maximization of effectiveness and efficiency of delivery of services and professionalism in public sector. They have provided the groundwork on implementing and obtaining a public sector that adheres to efficiency and cost-effectives in performing its duties. References: Arens, A. B., Shailer, P. G., Fiedler, B. E., & Beasley, M. R. (2005), Auditing and assurance services in Australia: an integrated approach (6th ed). Australia: Pearson Education, Prentice Hall. Behn, R.D. (2003). Why Measure Performance? Different Purposes Require Different Measure. Public Administration Review, 63 (5), 586-606. Caldwell, B., & Hayward, D. K. (1998). The future of our schools: lessons from the reform of public education. New York: Routledge. Goldberg, J.S., & Cole, B.R. (2002). Quality management in education: Building excellence and equity in student performance. The Quality Management Journal, 9(4), 8–22. Hughes, O. (1998). 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