Corruption is a major form of unethical conduct throughout the globe taking place across developed and undeveloped states religion's and ethnic groups, groups, public and private companies as well as in non-profit and charitable organisations (Myint 2000 ; Ogundiya 2009; MungiuPippidi 2013; Aslund 2014; Mafunisa and Sebola 2014). It may often be agued that it has become part of human nature to the extent that discouraging it has become impossible to effect. This make it questionable if indeed human nature, with its sophisticated scientific means and rigor developed over the time has indeed managed to define in terms of knowing and understanding itself (Max Neef 2007). Of course the effects of corruption are disastrous and always threaten peace and stability of governments that fairly want to provide services to its citizens.
Governments do introduce means and strategies of counteracting unethical conduct by combating all forms of corruptive activities that endangers service delivery agendas of their countries. Surely, it can also be argued that such government formations are within a defined mode of frameworks that are benched against international standards which is informed by rationality of science that has been regarded as the panacea of all problems in human nature (Senge 1990; Fideler 1998; Farmer 2010). The efficiency and effectiveness of such strategies and legislative frameworks are from the established cultural norms of the labour force expected to conform to such frameworks.
A major issue to be raised is to argue that government should introduce ethical legislative frameworks that are compatible to the culture of the "publics" so that conformity can be harmonised. Such might help to promote generally upheld ethical practises which could lessen the perception that developing countries are corrupt without acknowledging that they are indeed failing to conform to foreign ethical standards than being corrupt.
(Short case study comes from the work of M.P Sebola as published in J Soc Sci; 40 (3): 295-304 (2014)
Question 1
Explain the influence the application of discretion has on the character formation of public service managers when applying ethical values and standards in the performance of their work. Substantiate your answer with a relevant example from the public sector.
Discretion must have a positive influence on the public service managers. This is so because the public service managers work for upliftment of overall society. In such a scenario, it is imperative that they must have a character which is conducive to empathy and is aligned with ethical principle of Utilitarianism. The best leadership style for public service managers is Servant Leadership.
Servant Leadership and its application in Public service
Servant leadership, basically is characterized by human oriented style. A servant leader is pro-followers or pro-employees and works his best to fulfill their interests. A servant leader is not born to rule, but is born to serve his followers. The same selfless philosophy is followed by the volunteers of Teach for India. The Teach for India leaders and volunteers work with the objective of serving children by providing them the basic foundation of education. It is the basic right of the children and the leaders of Teach for India are acting as facilitators for this attribute.
There are 10 principles of servant leadership:
The primary principles of servant leadership, along with examples, which have been inculcated in the organizational model of any public service are:
References:
Corruption is a major form of unethical conduct throughout the globe taking place across developed and...