This document summarizes and critiques a chapter on the responsible administrator from an ethics textbook. It discusses the tensions public agents face in balancing their responsibilities to citizens, organizational supervisors, and other stakeholders. While organizations can pressure agents to prioritize internal goals over public interests, the document emphasizes that agents must consider their individual ethical responsibilities. It suggests administrators develop diverse personal and professional identities outside work to strengthen independent ethical decision-making. Overall, the document analyzes how public agents can best navigate organizational pressures while upholding their duties to citizens.

1. Critic: Safeguarding Ethical
Autonomy in Organizations
Ch 8: The Responsible Administrator
(Cooper 6th
Edition)
Grace Lubwama DPPD Candidate

2. Summary
 Combine the concepts of ethical autonomy with the
practical reality of conflicting responsibility in an
organization context
 Developing your individual capacity to think about
ethics is a systematic, reflective manner in an
organization as a public agent
 Understanding the ethical principles of Autonomy,
loyalty and public interest from an organizational
setting
 The pressures of organizations, institutions and
systems

3. Question/ Dilemma
Public agents are accountable to organizational supervisors,
elected officials, judiciary and citizens- all viewed as
principles
 Assuming that citizenry constitutes the ultimate principal to
which public agents are accountable and obligated to serve
 Assuming that organizational goals are fitting or match
citizen interests- that the manager is acting responsibly as a
fiduciary principle of the people-Organization Pressure
 Forgetting that Public agents are also accountable to high
levels of authority.
 Balancing CITIZENS + SUPERIORS (ORG) = CONFLICT

4. Points of Clarification
 Unethical behavior of public agent is risky
 Individual
 Organization
 Society at Large
 Understanding that Organizations have tremendous
influence over our lives: paycheck,, health insurance,
mortgage, retirement etc
 Tendency in large organizations (especially public)
for people to lose a strong sense of individual
accountability or responsibility because of the
authority

5. Critique of Ch 8
 Opens up the broadness in public administration that it occurs
in a broad framework than the org.
 Push beyond responsibility to responsiveness of public agents
because of the broader framework eg social consequences
 Pushes Public agents to think ethically about their decision
making
 Cling to bureaucracy in organizations – Are we ethically
making the right decisions in the old structure of
organizations with hierarchy
 There is not an elaboration for a Public agent seen as a
citizen and how that plays a role in the ethical decision
making
 Building moral consensus on public purposes generally
ignores the limitations of public administrators as agents of
social and political change –PA are part of the charge…

6. Sources of Organizational Pressure
 Political pressure- politically and control of org
 The team play ethic-. Loyalty to org
 The nature of public organizations- lack of profit
motivation, fraud and waste do not often affect the
employee‘s personal livelihood
 Private sector norms: lack of a civic ethic, rampant
individualism,
 Anti-tattling: ( No-Telling Conditions) don‘t be a
narc.
 Bureaucratic norms: follow orders

7. Hindrances to Ethical Decisions
Society
Organization
Individual
Pg 224

8. Alternative Points of View
 Citizens should be more involved / participation
public affairs to increase public agents
accountability
 Protect heroes- It clearly is important to protect
those public servants who have the courage to put
their jobs on the line and point out misdeeds.
 Citizens should support public agents that are whistle
blowers so that it is not only organizations that get
involved
 Using ethical decision making model to
assess/question the whistle blowers intentions
 Citizens should question govt

9. Implication for Practice
1. Keep work out of private life, and establish an identity away from the
workplace by developing:
 a professional identity (e.g., ASPA)
 political identity (be politically involved)
 community identity (be involved in neighborhood, religious, or other
volunteer organizations)
1. Establish legal and institutional constraints on organizational power.
2. Build self-awareness concerning values, rights, needs, duties, and
obligations within and beyond the organization
3. Always do an Ethical Analysis -ask yourself what you‘re doing, why,
and if this is a good idea!
4. Evaluating roles -The official position of person does not free them from
responsibility for their actions- individual responsibility of one’s act
5. From an Organizational perspective- address some of the underlying
issues of whistle blowing- administrative loyalty and respond responsibly

10. Implication for Practice
1. Keep work out of private life, and establish an identity away from the
workplace by developing:
 a professional identity (e.g., ASPA)
 political identity (be politically involved)
 community identity (be involved in neighborhood, religious, or other
volunteer organizations)
1. Establish legal and institutional constraints on organizational power.
2. Build self-awareness concerning values, rights, needs, duties, and
obligations within and beyond the organization
3. Always do an Ethical Analysis -ask yourself what you‘re doing, why,
and if this is a good idea!
4. Evaluating roles -The official position of person does not free them from
responsibility for their actions- individual responsibility of one’s act
5. From an Organizational perspective- address some of the underlying
issues of whistle blowing- administrative loyalty and respond responsibly