Fortune News | Oct 31,2020
Nov 6 , 2021
By Halima Abate (MD)
Fulfilling public responsibilities is a stressful and complex execution compounded by conflicts among several roles. By its very nature, the role of a public administrator often requires carrying a fair share of responsibility for the public with the provision of strategic leadership and independent scrutiny. Hence, balancing responsibility both by the organisation’s ethical standards and self-interest are critical.
“Responsibility may well be the most important word in all vocabulary of administration, public, and private,” wrote Frederick Mosher, one of the most important scholars in the field of public administration.
Mosher described two concepts of responsibility: subjective responsibility (personal grounding in moral and ethical responsibility) and objective responsibility (concerns responsibility as described by law). Thus, responsibility is a humble reminder that public organisations and their administrators exist on behalf of the public.
The fact that the public administrator wears these two hats means that their obligation to serve the public interest illuminates the ethical situation and cultivates imaginative reflection on coherent decision-making. Hence, good governance demands bondage to the codes of ethics and legislations derived from law books and implemented by public administrators, according to the assigned organisation's mandated mission.
As public administrators are temporary stewards, exercising the public power and authority should be integrated with long-term strategies that could be prescribed or grounded to the people without compromising justice. Considering the alternative outcomes and contemplating the different scenarios for each action might help the administrator think of any additive issues and forecast the probable consequences deriving from redefined actions. The possible course of action would be advocating for the possible course of action with their deontological approaches (focused on the means) and teleological roles (concerned with the consequence of actions). Finally, showing that public administrators exhibit ethical behaviour would be a plus over the actual behaviour. Perception sometimes matters just as much as the actual policies.
Responsibility is never perfectly achieved unless institutional safeguards designed to make public policy truly responsible represent approximations. The assigned administrators might have taken steps to maintain accountable conduct in public organisations and management, holding subordinates responsible through timely and energetic execution of duty. This is not enough. It also calls for techniques for bounding, directing and informing the discretion of subordinates both formally and informally, which aids them to visualise the advantage of building-up deep-seated culture in the organisation. Creating a climate of change, involving leaders in rewarding or punishing subcultures, and employees’ engagement and empowerment, might affect the implementations of the ethical decision-making approaches.
Taking account of the activities of government within a broader framework of laws and public policies, maintaining accountability in the midst of conflict is always useful in the process of developing integrity, and maintaining responsible behaviour. The three most common conflicts encountered in exercising administrative responsibility are but not limited to conflicts of authority (conflicts caused by two or more authority); role of conflicts (conflicts arises with values associated with particular roles being incompatible or mutually exclusive in a given situation); and conflicts of interest (conflicts between the public role and self-interest or between objective responsibility and the possibility of personal gain or advantage). Pronouncing responsibility might be a healthy reminder of the service obligation and the people's sovereignty in a democracy.
New public administrators are expected to explain actions from a practical perspective (in terms such as cost-effectiveness, efficiency, feasibility, and productivity), and from an ethical perspective according to values and principles (such as equity, equality, freedom, truthfulness, beneficence, human dignity, privacy, and democracy) in defining their responsibility to the public.
PUBLISHED ON
Nov 06,2021 [ VOL
22 , NO
1123]
Fortune News | Oct 31,2020
Commentaries | Mar 14,2020
Commentaries | Jan 05,2019
Fortune News | May 18,2019
Life Matters | Jul 09,2022
Fortune News | Oct 26,2019
Fortune News | Sep 03,2022
Verbatim | Feb 10,2024
Fortune News | Sep 28,2019
Commentaries | Apr 16,2022
Photo Gallery | 97540 Views | May 06,2019
Photo Gallery | 89777 Views | Apr 26,2019
My Opinion | 67437 Views | Aug 14,2021
Commentaries | 65855 Views | Oct 02,2021
Editorial | May 02,2024
Feb 24 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
Abel Yeshitila, a real estate developer with a 12-year track record, finds himself unable to sell homes in his latest venture. Despite slash...
Feb 10 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
In his last week's address to Parliament, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed (PhD) painted a picture of an economy...
Jan 7 , 2024
In the realm of international finance and diplomacy, few cities hold the distinction that Addis Abeba doe...
Sep 30 , 2023 . By AKSAH ITALO
On a chilly morning outside Ke'Geberew Market, Yeshi Chane, a 35-year-old mother cradling her seven-month-old baby, stands amidst the throng...
May 2 , 2024
For successive generations of Ethiopia's tax authorities, the chore of tax collection...
Apr 27 , 2024
The Prosperity Party (PP) - Prosperitians - is charting a course through treacherous...
Apr 20 , 2024
In a departure from its traditionally opaque practices, the National Bank of Ethiopia...
Apr 13 , 2024
In the hushed corridors of the legislative house on Lorenzo Te'azaz Road (Arat Kilo)...
May 3 , 2024
The feel-good life coaching industry would have people believe that success is not only about showing up in the swirling whirl of modern lif...
May 4 , 2024 . By BERSABEH GEBRE
Brook Taye (PhD), the director general of the newly established Ethiopian Capital Market Authority (ECMA), has issued a stern warning to com...
May 4 , 2024 . By MUNIR SHEMSU
Dreams of an agriculture sector unshackled from the whims of rain remain tethered to the struggling Minis...
May 4 , 2024
Large public projects exceeding 250 million Br will be required to use Building Information Modelling (BI...