9

Progessive Change in Management

Progressive Change through Learning

Learning in case of human beings, is a matter of progressive change in

behaviour. It is result of a felt from within the organism. Unless there is a strong urge
in the body to adopt a particular response and to modify its pattern, learning would not
take place. Heredity and environment affect learning and the capability of the learner
in a very big way. Some animals are more educable than others and similarly some
individuals get more opportunities of learning than others. Learning and process of
maturation are strongly related. It is the level of maturity in the individual that
determines whether he would be able to make a particular response or not. More
complex responses and more intricate activities cannot be acquitted unless one has
matured to do so. Thinking stabilises as the level of maturity goes up. Higher
intellectual activities are not possible without greater maturity. The native behaviour is
less refined in comparison to the acquired one. In fact the acquired behaviour gives
definite shape to the inherited behaviour, it is a sort of mere ornamental process which
refines and brightens the inherited raw response. Learnt behaviour is an embellishment
to the personality. Throughout one's life, not only does one learn to sit, to stand or to
turn or to speak but also to dress well, to think deeply arid to acquire knowledge. The
home, the school, the club, etc., are the temples of learning. The child learns by
himself; he also has to learn a number of response patterns in the company of his
friends, and teachers.
Permanent Change
 145 Progressive Change in Management

Learning may be defined as relatively permanent change in behaviour potential

occurring as the result of past experience. It is an inference from behaviour and must
be distinguished from it for learning can occur without behaviour being affected. We
may learn that a certain petrol-station is open twenty four hours a day without this
influencing our observable behaviour, unless and until we need petrol during the
night. It is inferred that learning has occurred if in such circumstances, we patronise
the petrol-station concerned whereas previously we would not have done so. Thus
learning is a chance in behaviour potential rather that in behaviour itself. Such
changes can occur for many reasons, including maturation, fatigue, injury or the
effects of drugs, but the term learning is applied only to those resulting from past
experience. Further, it is restricted to changes of a relatively permanent nature. Once
having learned to ride a bicycle or drive a car, we quite soon regain former
in these skills after even long periods of disuse. Long-term change in behaviour
potential of this sort are to be distinguished from short-term changes which are often
the result of temporary states in the learner such as variation in motivation. A
convenient four fold classification of learning is outlined in the remainder of this
chapter.

Cooperative Process

Learning is not an individualistic process; it is a cooperative process too. The

child learns by impulse and he learns by compulsion; he learns by imitation and he
learns by initiation, and he learns by adoption and he learns by assimilation.
Philosophy, religion, science, architecture, etc., are the results of human learning and
the capability of the human child to retain experiences. Man has developed media
through which experiences are stored and transmitted from one to the other
generation. Ability to retain experiences, is the key note of learning. Learning is an
institutionalised and formalised affair in modern education. The child does not go to
school to learn, reading and writing but he has to learn to adjust to the environment.

Creative Act
It is a way of acting, as all true learning tasks take into account some selective
responses, it is not merely the summing up to of all previous knowledge and
experience; it is creative synthesis of all knowledge and the experience of the learner.
 Progressive Change in Management 146

Hence lies the difference between animal learning and human learning. In human
learning the following mental processes are involved as cited by Crow and Crow
(1954).
(1) Interest and attention are directed towards a goal direction.
(2) Perception of relation and interpretation.
(3) Selection and recall of relevant experiences.
(4) Recognition of relationships among the component experiences insight.
(5) Formation of new mental pattern creation.
(6) Evaluation of workability of solution-criticism.

True human learning should aim at the higher level of thinking, i.e., creative and
critical thinking.
Learning is not only individual but in a sense also social, because learning takes
place in response to the social environment of the individual. A child's social
interaction is of great significance to his favourable or unfavourable learning. An
intelligent teacher takes note of the social climate in the classroom, the influence of
peer group on a child, and so on.
Transfer to a new task becomes more meaningful and advantageous to the
learner when he has already discovered relationship between things and has learned to
apply the principles within a given number of tasks. Learning is fransferable in this
way but the amount of transfer may vary. There is no wholesale transfer from one
subject to another as had been supposed earlier by the theory of formal discipline.
Transfer is possible between two situations, if there is identity of context, identity of
procedures and identity of attitudes and ideals. In this way, transfer takes place from
one field of study to another and from the classroom situation to life situations. This
transfer is also essential, as it leads to economy in learning.
Each leaner is a unique person who has his individual needs and problems,
interests and attitudes, purposes and aspirations. In some, learning may be quick and
fast; in others the reactions may be slow, and still in others, it may be steady and
deliberate.
Human beings learn to achieve something, sometimes the teachers may not be
aware of it at all. When the goal is more definite and explicit, the learning becomes
more meaningful and effective to the learner.
 147 Progressive Change in Management

Active Process

Learning is a form of activity and it largely depends on the learner. It is said that
no learning can take place where there is no self-activity. That is why one
psychologist has said: "No one can teach you but you may learn, your teacher can
direct your learning, can show you how materials are derived or related and stimulate
you to study. Whether or not you learn and what you learn depends upon what you
yourself do, for learning an activity.

Response of Individual
Learning is unitary as man learns as a whole being. An individual reacb as a
whole person to the total learning situation rather than to one single stimulus. Since
each learner responds as a whole (physically, socially and emotionally) the various
motivation factors within him which effect the learner must be taken into account for
effective teaching. Again, as the learner responds to the total situation, all external or
environmental factors which influence his responses must also be taken note of for
favourable learning. Therefore, setting the environment for learning is very important.

The Maturation

Learning and maturation are interrelated. But they are distinguishable.

Maturation signifies the process of growth and development. It occurs in the absence
of any sort of habit, training or stimulus. On the other hand, learning is the
modification of behaviour, which is the result of experience and training.
At a particular age, every child starts to sit, crawl, stand and walk. This is the
result of maturation. But when the child dances, sings, plays football, drives scooter or
a car and swims in the river, it is called learning. Learning is dependent on maturation
to a great extent. Unless a particular stage in the process of maturation is reached,
leaning of any sort cannot be taken into hand. A two months old baby cannot learn
dressing himself and a two year old child is not capable of typing. So maturation plays
as important role in learning new skills. It prepares one physically and mentally to
learn. So the relation between the two is so intimate that one is often misunderstood as
the other. But they are two separate concepts and maturation fuels the organism with
capability to learn.
 Progressive Change in Management 148

Meaning of maturation is not the same in every sphere. Social and emotional
maturaüon refers to ideal and low bound behaviour. It depends fully on learning.
Sexual maturation presupposes physical ability and learned skills. Physical maturation
denotes a stage of physical growth. Sexual maturation is generally reached in between
the age 13 to 16 and physical maturation may be reached at a later stage in life. In the
context of learning, maturation implies physical growth and development.
Maturation does not mean only the natural organic growth of human beings,
because before and after birth the organism is affected by environmental factors.
Malnufrition and infectious disease during pregnancy leaves a negative effect on the
new born baby. Again afterbirth, if the child is not provided with opportunities to mix
with others in society, his all round growth and development is affected. From various
experiments, it is proved that children confined to the four walls of home show
abnormal development of personality. Growth and development of children differ due
to divergent environments, in which they are brought up.

Significant Conditions for Progressive Change

The process of progressive change through learning is affected by certain

conditions. A knowledge of these conditions is essential for every teacher and parent,
because by manipulating these conditions they can bring a required change in the
behaviour of the child. Some of the important conditions are discussed below:
(i) Readiness of Learning: When the child is not ready to learn, whatever
method may be applied, he will not learn. It is applicable both for school and home. A
number of students reading in the same class may be of a particular age level, but
differ in readiness to learn, their readiness of experience, social and emotional
stability, etc. The teacher should have a thorough knowledge about readiness in order
to make his teaching effective. This helps the teacher in three ways. They are:
(1) Firstly he can develop the skill of his teaching and become aware of the
change in the readiness of students.
(2) He can try to intensify the readiness of the students and reinforce them for it.
(3) Students who do not show interest in study can be tackled and interest in
them can be aroused by the teacher.
 149 Progressive Change in Management

(ii) Motivation of Learning: Motivation is one of the most important

factors in learning process. Every man should set a goal in his life. After a goals is set
he is motivated to learn, because by learning only he can realise the goal. A poor
student to earn his livelihood. So he is motivated for learning. A businessman
wants to expand his business; so he is motivated to learn skills in business. But a
student coming from a rich and affluent family is not so strongly motivate to learn as a
student family is not so strongly motivated to learn as a student coming from a poor
family. It is because he knows that without learning he can achieve his goal either by
manpower or by money power. Without motivation the quality and pace of learning is
hampered
(iii) Interest and Learning: Interest is another important factor that
accelerates the learning process. Different students are interested in different branches
of study. So a teacher can make use of their interests and bring out the best result.
During prechildhood days, interest of the child is limited and does not last for a longer
time. If now he is interested in one thing, the next moment his interest shifts to
another thing. But as he grows up, his interest becomes stable and permanent. The
teacher can evoke interest in students by making his teaching permanent and
simulative. This also decreases boredom, negligence and slowness of the student in
his study. So he should adopt such methods as to increase the interest in the students.
Only a learning with interest will enable a student to reach the goal and makes the
student have interest in learning more and more.
(iv) Attention of Learning: Learning is impossible without attention.
Qualitative and quantitative development of learning depends upon the quality and
quantity of attention. When attention is diverted, learning is affected adversely.
(v) Place of Drill and Practice in Learning: A simple matter is remembered
easily. It needs no drilling. But in order to master complex matters, one needs drill or
practice. So the teacher should bear in mind that practice makes learning perfect and
act accordingly in the classroom. He should develop the proacåve of reading, writing,
etc., in students and drill them the different materials, that they come across during
learning. But drilling should not be mechanical. In mechanical drilling the studenG
lack understanding of the object. This promotes fruitless learning.
(vi) Fatigue and Boredom: Physical and mental tiredness is known as
fatigue. Disinterest in doing a work is known as boredom. Learning does not cause
 Progressive Change in Management 150

fatigue. If the method of teaching is faulty, the students are bored. The environment
and surrounding of school also bore the students. So these factors should be taken into
consideration by the teacher.
(vii) Role of Intelligence in Learning: Intelligence brings qualitative
increase in leaning. Difference in intelligence is clearly marked among the students in
a classroom. They can be broadly divided into three categories. Some are bright, some
are average and others are dull. The teacher should adopt intelligence measurement
test to evaluate the level of intelligence of each and every student and group them into
categories. Then his teaching should take into consideraüon every category of
students. He should see that every teaching material reaches the least intelligent
student. Generally, in our educational institutions teaching is rendered for average
student and so the feeble-minded students are not profited from it. Again the
feebleminded students are divided into three categories. They are idiot, imbecile and
moron.
(viii) Aptitude and Learning: Aptitude is a natural reinforcer of learning.
When interest in aroused spontaneously, it is called aptitude. Remembering is long-
lasting if the learning material is backed by aptitude. On the other hand, in the absence
of aptitude, the student fails to remember his learning material. So the teacher should
be aware of this factor also.
(ix) Attitude and Learning: Learning is also affected by the attitude of the
learner. Interest, aptitude and readiness correspond to one another. They make the
learner prepared and fill him with potentialities to tackle the learning material.
Attitude makes the meet the problems with understanding, interest and smartness. If
he is pressurised with much more material, he develops a negative attitude.
(x) Effect of Emotional States: The last but not the least factor that affects
the process of learning is the emoüonal state of the learner. If he is undergoing a
pleasurable emotion, his learning is bound to be qualitatively better. On the other
hand, if emotional states pressurise him and create tension in him, he develops
frustration and lacks interest and readiness to learn. Emotional provocations are:
(1) Unfulfilled requirements.
(2) Wrong attitude of parents in home.
(3) Quarrel, lack of security, convinance, plentitude at home.
 151 Progressive Change in Management

(4) Frustration or inferiority caused by real or imaginary physical defects.

(5) Previous experience of failure in school.
(6) Neglecting behaviour by teachers and friends and avoidance by them.

(xi) Role of Family and Culture in Learning: Family and culture of the
learner affects his learning to a great extent. Even his life process is affected by these
two. Parent's hopes and desires count much in his life. Sometimes the parents set goals
for their children. Hopes and desires of parents differ with the difference in culture
and place.
There are cultural demands, which affect the learning process. Social and
educaüonal environment reflect one's culture. So learning should be complementary to
the learner's cultural demands and requirements. All such demands should be met
with. For example, in a culture where democracy is a way of life, the learner should
be imparted learning in consonance with democratic values.
When learning is associated with playing or merry making, it becomes more
effective. It arouses interept in the learner. Teaching should not be only giving lectures
to the student. They become bored by that. Secondly if while learning a skill, the
learner does the work with his own hands he masters it without much effort. So now
the modern methods of teaching lay sfress on play-way method and discard the
conventional recitingin-classroom methods. Now the classroom have turned into
playgrounds.

Influencing Factors

Learning is a process. This process depends upon a number of factors. If we categorise

the factors upon which this process is based, we will find three main direction. They
are:
(1) The internal condition of the learner - (such as capacity motivation, age, sex,
difference, experience, etc.)
(2) Nature of the subject to be learnt- (i.e., span or range of learning, complexity
or simplicity of learning materials, etc.).
(3) Method of learning - (i.e., memorisation, analysis, drilling, recitation, etc.).
Let us discuss these conditions of learning in detail.
 Progressive Change in Management 152

(i) Role of Age in Learning: Children fare well and better with adults. It is
a general belief that learning ability decreases with increase in age. From various
studies it has been proved that there is a fixed and definite age when learning ability
of the child is maximum. Apart from this there is also a fixed age for better learning of
literature, mathematics and science. Studies have been conducted by psychologists on
the relationship between age factor and learning process. The results show that
learning ability of new subjects goes on increasing till the age of 10 years. Then it
remains constant till age of 20 years and after that it goes on diminishing and again
become stable at the age of 50.
(ii) Role of Sex in Learning: Psychologist have been in the process of
finding out whether there is any relationship between learning ability and sex. In some
societies it has been found that children of a particular sex show more proficiency in
learning than the other sex. Whether this difference is due to difference in sex or due
to better facilities enjoyed by one sex over the other one, the findings are as follows:
(1) Difference in sex does not cause any difference in their intelligence.
(2) While girls show more proficiency in literature, debates, songs, etc., the
boys show more ability in social science, science, mathematics, etc.
(3) Girls are more emotional, sociable and jealous. Boys are more influential,
high minded, independent-minded and self-confident.
(4) Girls have greater pronouncing ability, better memory and sounder
sensitiveness. On the other hand, boys show good result in numerology.
(5) Girls are interested in service, home science and literature, whereas boys
show interest in scientific, technological and ideological fields.
 153 Progressive Change in Management

Role of
(iii) Mental Stability in Learning: Effective learning and teaching depends
fully upon a factor that is known as attention. Unless the learner is attentive to the
process of learning, he can learn nothing. The learner should come in contact with
the learning situation practically. That is he should attend by himself. Indirect
participation yields no results. If the students are told that they will be examined after
three days of the learning, it is natural that a greater attenüon will be paid towards
learning but if they are told that they will be tested after 6 months, they may not be
serious on the subject. When the students point all their potentialities on a particular
subject, learning becomes more effective and memorisation is accelerated.
(iv) Role of Past Experience in Learning: New learning depends upon
previous learning. Learning of one material, backs the learning of another material.
When a student fails in reading, writing or doing sums in classroom it should be
noted that he had a defective learning before hand. Past learning enfueles present
learning and present learning enfuels the future learning process.
(v) Role of Family Background and Socio-economic Status in Learning:
Village and town atmosphere influences difference in learning efficiency remarkably.
Studies have been conducted and results show that town students are more fluent
orally and in verbal expressions, their way of talking is developed and disciplined.
The difference marked between the town and village students in the field of
learning depends upon their easily available level of stimulation. There are facilities
of libraries, magazines and periodicals, book, schools, museums, T.V. and social
works. These stimulanb tend to increase learning ability in children. Another case of
difference in learning ability in children is their socioeconomic status. A child reared
up in a luxurious environment is bound to be different from a child brought up in a
poverty sfricken family. There are some other social causes also, which include
social customs and traditions, casteism, feeling of success and failure and its
financial consequence.
(vi) Role of Experience of Success and Failure in Learning: A felling of
inferiority and hopelessness is marked in case of students who fail in examination.
Generally children having high hopes become successful in all walks of life. So
success and failure have their respective impacts on the learning process.
 Progressive Change in Management 154

Role of
(vii) Knowledge of Promotion in Learning: Knowledge of promotion
stimulates the learner and heightens his attentions. From group experiments it has
been found that the experimental group, which had the knowledge of promotion
showed better result than the other groups which had no knowledge of promotion.
From another experiment it has been established that future learning is impossible
unless the leaner knows the result of this last learning. So knowledge or result bring
success in new learning. So the teacher should feel the importance of this factor.
(viii) Role of Meaningfulness of Subject Matter in Learning: It has been
proved from experiments as well as observations that meaningful materials are
remembered better than the meaningless materials. Meaningful material denotes
those materials about which we have some previous experience. So the teacher must
bear this in mind. The student should not be compelled to master unknown materials.
The method of teaching should be from known to unknown.
(ix) Role of Complexity of Material in Learning: Before starting teaching,
the teacher should consider whether the subject matter is simple or complex for the
learner. At first a student should learn simple and easy subjects. He shows better
results in this learning. Thus, when a complex subject is given to him level of
mastery decreases, but it surely adds to the development of his learning. So the
teaching should be from simple to complex. On the other hand, if he fails to show
proficiency and his interest is hampered, he feels bored and neglects his studies. Fear
complex is aroused and he displays escapist temperament.
(x) Spread of Learning Materials: A question is often asked whether a
long passage is remembered sooner or a short passage. Ebbinghaus has proved by
experimenting that a long list of words takes a longer time to memorise than a short
list. But it has also been proved that a bigger topic is remembered better and sooner
than the shorter topic. This has been proved by psychologist Woodworth in 1988.
Hence the range of learning materials has a special role to play in the process of
learning. If a longer subject is tried to be mastered as a whole from start to end., it
needs much more time to remember. But if the teacher adopts the method of dividing
the long subject into small divisions and learned in parts, learning is effective and
quick.
 155 Progressive Change in Management

Role of
(xi) Re-memorisation in Learning: Re-memorisation has a strong effect on
learning and memorisation. Re-memorisation is often described as mental evaluation
of learnt materials. Learning the material again is known in psychology a learning by
closing the book. From the discussion below we can know how rememorising helps
memorisation process.
(1) When re-memorisation is a conscious effort and not merely a bird's
eyeview, it becomes fruitful.
(2) The learner can measure his memorisation by this processes. So he can be
aware of his limitations and weakness in learning. He knows that he failed
to remember and invents methods of remembering them again.
(3) Rememorisation creates self-confidence in the learner. In this context
drilling of a particular learned topic by the teacher is of prime importance.
By drilling rememorisation takes place along with self-evaluation. But it
should not be stereotyped or mechanical. The same topic should be
presented in various forms. By giving different tasks to students such as
filling in the blanks, writing the summary, etc., rememorisation can be
done and its effect realised.

(xii) Role of Over-learning: Over-learning sometimes brings good results.

The topic which is remembered after the repetition of five times can be remembered
better after the recitation of two more times. This helps the learner to produce the
material more perfectly. Over-learning is something different from mere recitation or
simple re-learning it again and again. Re-learning is required to memorise but over-
learning makes the goals of learning felt. Drilling brings out the correct response out
of the leaner but over-learning confirms it.
(xiii) Role of Time Gap between Learning Situations: Considering from a
narrow point of view we see that the process of learning is limited to a particular
period of time. A topic can be read for 7 hours at length and it can also be read by
dividing it into 7 parts and each part in one hour. Which of the two methods is
fruitful is a question to be answered. In school curriculum the entire syllabus is
divided into and taught day-wise, week-wise and month-wise. Experiments
 Progressive Change in Management 156

Role of
prove that by giving sufficient gap between two learning situations, efficiency is
increased.
 157 Progressive Change in Management

(xiv) Difference between the Whole-method and Part-method: In past the part
method was popular and learning was based on it. But later the whole method proved to
be more effective and as such this was adopted by teachers. In part method, a longer
topic is learnt in parts which makes the learning mechanical and the learner goes far from
the root or basic point of the subject. Correlation could not be established among the
various points of discussion. They were regarded by the learner as different topics and
not as the points of view of only on topic. On the other hand, efficiency increases in
whole learning and learning was still more effective. And if at all a vast subject is to be
divided, it should be done in such a manner so that the division are interrelated and
interdependent. In whole-method of learning stress is laid upon the totality of the
viewpoint. The success of whole-method depends upon the past experience of the
learner, his temperament and complexity of material. If the subject matter is
understandably interdependent and smooth, it is learnt effectively. It is observed that
intelligent prefer whole method whereas students of lower intelligence adopt part method
to memorise a material.
(xv) Recitation in Learning: It has been proved that recitation at the time of
reading a material makes learning more effective. It is still more helpful in the learning of
spelling, vocabulary and mathematics. Learning and recitation should go hand in hand.
(xvi) Use of Audio-visual Aids in Learning: It is a belief of most of the people
that by merely using audio-visual aids we can bring about development in learning
efficiency. But it is not correct. Only showing these aids to students does not help them to
learn better. There should be a complete plan as to the use of these aids. The teacher
should make appropriate preparations for that. It has been proved from experiments that
T.V. sets and cinema, can teach students better than disqualified teachers, who do not
make proper plans before using the aids. The teacher must create a suitable and
stimulating environment in the classroom before using the audio-visual aids.

aaa
10
Management Ethics

Introduction

In the UK the first report of the Nolan Committee (1995) resulted from the concerns
of the then Prime Minister John Major, that 'sleaze' in government would not be
In a statement to the House of Commons on 25 October 1994 in response to
'public disquiet' about standards in public life, John Major argued for a committee:

To examine current concerns about standards of conduct of all holders of public office,
including arrangements relaång to financial and commercial activities, and make
recommend-ations as to any changes which might be required to ensure the highest
standards of propriety in public life (Hansard, 25 October 1994).

The wide-ranging terms of reference for the committee included the activities of
ministers, civil servanb government advisers, MPs and Euro MPs, members of
nondepartmental bodies and the National Health Service (NHS), elected politicians and
senior managers in local government, and members of quasi-governmental agencies.
According to the Prime Minister John Major:

This country has an international reputation for the integrity and honour of its public
insütutions. The reputation must be maintained and be seen to be maintained (Hansard,
25 October 1994).

Such a concern is not unique to the UK. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation
and Development (OECD) (1996) examined the role of public officials in eight countries
and argued that there is a growing convergence in what is seen as 'good and proper'
behaviour.
More recently, in response to the Nolan Committee's report on local government, the
Labour Government has sought to develop a new ethical framework for local
government:
 159 Management Ethics

Accordingly, the Prime Minister committed the government, working in partnership with
local government, to establish a new ethical framework for the conduct of the more than
20,000 councillors and 2 million council staff in Great Britain. It is the governmen€s
agenda to make the radical changes needed to put in place a new conduct regime which
will build and secure the people's trust in those who serve them in their local councils
(DETR, 1998).

Ethical management in the public services is firmly on the agenda. The notion of 'the
manager' in public services is not always clear-cut and we take it to include different
categories of public service employees. Thus, teachers, nurses, doctors and a whole host
of professionals in the public services are carrying out managerial responsibilities,
particularly in terms of managing people or budgets. Our concern is therefore with:
(1) the impact on managers of managing in an increasingly complex and
ambiguous environment where the management task is no longer a given and
involves managing across organisational boundaries;
(2) the increasing demands for managers to take more responsibility but without
necessarily having the appropriate authority;
(3) reconciling individual values with organisational values;
(4) the nature of the public service ethos;
(5) issues concerning the implementation of public policy so that it does not affect
in an adverse way those that are charged with implementation and those that
are the recipients or users of such services;
(6) the changing organisational context and the resulting pressures on staff;
 Management Ethics 160

(7) the relationship between politicians and managers and the location of
accountability and responsibility;
(8) the motivation of those working in the public services and their perceptions of
their duty to citizens as a whole;
(9) the ascription of responsibility to public services managers when it is often
difficult to isolate the performance of individual managers; and
(10) the pressures that brought to bear on managers including peer pressure "This is
the way we do things around here;" pressure from the law; organisational
pressures to meet targets; rules and codes of conduct; pressure from an ever-
demanding citizenry that is increasingly vocal in pursuit of its rights.

Ethical Issues

Our first concern is to identify ethical issues. There are certain issues which appear to
be universal and enduring, whether the matter with which we are concerned relates to
police corruption, fraud, bribing officials, the acceptance of gifts, the outside employment
of officials, the misuse of contracts and so on. Whether such matters are becoming more
widespread is a moot point. If they are on the increase is it because individual managers are
becoming more corrupt or is it because organisational monitoring processes are breaking
down or not being enforced? In its report on probity in the NHS, for example, the Audit
Commission (1996) found instances of fraud, particularly in the area of prescription
charges, but argued that:

NHS trust and HA boards and senior managers must remain vigilant and ensure that a
strong framework of effective internal controls is in place to prevent and detect fraud and
corruption. The majority of fraud cases occur in areas of tax controls, poor, segregation of
duties and lack of regular monitoring. This fact reinforces the need for management to
review constantly the effectiveness of their control mechanisms.

The eighth report of the Committee of Public Accounts (1994) came to similar conclusions
in its investigations, finding that most problems arise because of the inadequacy of
financial controls, failure to comply with existing rules, inadequate stewardship of public
money and failure to provide value for money. The report concludes that it is not so much
the immoral behaviour of individual managers that is of concern but the failure of existing
 161 Management Ethics

procedures and rules. Nevertheless, individuals in organisations do act unethically and we

cannot shift all the responsibility on to failure of processes.
What as unethical behaviour is, however, difficult to decide. Try to complete the
questionnaire presented in Exhibit 10.1

Exhibit 10.1
Never Sometimes Often
Ethics at Work
Please tick the appropriate column
Have you taken stationery or other
items home from your workplace for
personal use?
Have you used the office telephone
for personal calls without permission?
Have you asked a colleague to cover
for you when you are out?
Have you told 'white lies' to customers
or clients such as 'the cheque is in the
post' when it is not?
Have you blamed and criticised
colleagues?
Have you exaggerated your
achievements?
Have you revealed confidential information
when not authorised to do so?
 Management Ethics 162

Have you done what you believed to be wrong because everybody else does

Have you tempered advice to politicians and senior managers to give them what they
want to hear?
Have you taken free lunches from or customers?

Have you shifted blame to elsewhere in the organisation, e.g., "It is the compute€s
fault?"
Have you bent the rules to get things done?

Have you carried out a task that you fundamentally disagreed with?
Have you covered up for a colleague? Have you acted in favour of a contractor or client
because of a bride?
Have you acted in favour of a client or contractor out of friendship?
Have you presented misleading information?

Have you manipulated performance indicators so as to reach targets?

Have you kept information back from clienb concerning enåtlements because of
resources constraints?
 163 Management Ethics

Did you answer 'Never' to all of the questions in Exhibit 10.1? The point of the exercise is
not to demonstrate how 'squeaky clean' you are but to show the range of issues that we face
in our organisaüonal lives. All of the above questions seem to involve:

(1) our relationship with others, both inside and outside organisations;

(2) our relationship with the organisation as a whole;

(3) values;

(4) our personal behaviour;

(5) the relationship between means and ends;

(6) stealing;

(7) fraud;

(8) loyalty; and

(9) impartiality.

How you respond will demonstrate how you perceive organisational behaviour? We are
not here interested in indicating 'right' and 'wrong' behaviour but in illustrating where
ethical considerations might come into play.
Should we be concerned just with the 'big' issues? In their research, Steinberg and
Austen (1990) presented 1,000 American government officials with a set of 14 ethical
dilemmas. The following reasons were given to justify unethical behaviour:

(1) Good intentions—managers expressed frustration with red type and took short
cuts to achieve what they believed to be desirable ends.
(2) Ego power trip— where individuals saw opportunities to demonstrate their
control.
(3) Plain greed.
(4) Ignorance of rules, laws, codes, policies and procedures.
(5) Peer pressure which condones unethical behaviour.
(6) Friendship.
 Management Ethics 164

(7) Ideology and political values.

(8) Personal or family gain.

(9) Offering favours in order to secure future employment on leaving public service.
(10) Financial problems and pressures.
(11) Stupidity.
(12) Exploitng the exploiters - a feeling of being hard done by.
(13) Survival at all costs.
(14) Following orders.

Sometimes people do immoral things for good reasons. However, commenting upon
business ethics, MacLagan (1995) makes the point that:

The emphasis on decision-making in 'dramatic' cases which is so often assumed to be the

essence of business ethics, deflects attention from the point that, since many ethical issues
are much more pervasive than that, these may be overlooked. The everyday things —
matters of discourse and conduct towards others or the insidious way in which systemic
factors such as culture, control mechanisms and 'taken-for-granted' culture in the
organisation . . . can have ethical implications — need to be brought to peoples' attention.

This quotaüon encapsulates the position taken in this chapter: that ethics is as much
concerned with the way we treat each other as individuals as with the 'dramatic' cases
involving fraud, corruption, bribery and so on. Managers interact with a range of
stakeholders both internal and external and hold positions of trust, power and privilege.
How that trust is discharged in terms of fulfilling obligations, protecting the rights of others
and so on is at the heart of ethics. Many of the issues are enduring, and organisational
pressures to meet targets, manage with scarce resources or respond to a range of different
stakeholders are not unique to the nation, nor are they unique to managers working in the
public services.

Theory and Principles

We are concerned with ethics as a practical guide rather than simply as a set of theories
about human action. However, we do need a theoretical background. Ethics can be
defined as a set of principles, often defined as a code or system that acts as a guide to
 165 Management Ethics

conduct. These guides to conduct will be concerned with how individuals act, what are
their intentions in so acting and a set of values defining what is to count as right or
wrong action. These values will be morally significant; respect for human life is a value
that is morally significant; preference for a particular type of car may be a value but it
may not be morally significant. The relationship between values and ethics is not
always clear-cut, particularly if we accept that different cultures and societies have
different values. For example, managers may feel it unethical to hire staff on the basis
of neopotism. The concept of appointment by merit is highly valued. In other parts of
the world, however, family loyalty is of profound importance and it is expected to be of
relevance in the appointment or promotion of staff.
The notions of good or bad are an essential part of the language of ethics although
their meaning is sometimes obscure. Is the good manager the same as the good person? We
can construct a list of qualities that we would expect the good manager to possess and these
might include loyalty to the organisation, enthusiasm, commitment, efficiency,
resourcefulness, having certain competences in people and financial management and so
on. The notion of the good person might include notions of generosity, unselfishness, being
loyal to family and friends, respecting the of others and so on. There is also the possibility
that being a good manager may come into conflict with being a goodyperson.
We can distinguish morals and ethics. We take morals to be concerned with action and
ethics with setting the boundaries or providing a framework for appropriate action. An
individual may have a firm grasp of the principles at stake in a particular situaüon and still
decide to act immorally. Morals defines how a persons lives up to the demands of what is
perceived to be correct behaviour. Ethics defines the effort to systemise and define the
reasons for our moral assessments. We do pass judgements on others from an ethical point
of view. What are the kinds of decisions that can be made? Is making a moral decision
similar to making any other kind of decision where we add up the pros and cons and
proceed if the pros outweigh the cons? Why do people act the way that they do? Criteria
might include:
(1) act in accordance with rules;

(2) act out of a sense of justice; act to secure the most beneficial consequences for
most people;
 Management Ethics 166

(4) act out of a sense of duty;

(5) act in a way that satisfies conscience;
(6) act our of guilt;
(7) act in such a way because everybody else does; and
(8) act in such a way because told to do so by friends, family, senior managers, etc.

All of these criteria can be located within ethical baditions and we examine briefly the
main tenets of these taditions.

Ethical Theories

Deontological Theories

Deontological theories maintain that the right action to pursue is independent of the
consequences of that action. The ends are less important than the means. The right action
is to keep promises, repay debts, abide by contracts irrespective of what the consequences
are. This view is most commonly associated with the work of the German philosopher
Immanuel Kant, whose famous categorical imperative argued that "I ought never to act in
such a way except that I can also will that my maxim should become a universal law." In
other words, do unto others as you would have them do to you. It is about treating people
fairly and with respect. We can think of many relationship within the public services that
are of this kind. The doctor has a duty of care towards the paüent, the teacher towards the
student. This is a characteristic of professional roles within the public services. However, it
is often difficult to always keep promises or to always tell the truth irrespective of the
consequences. Should the doctor always tell the patient that he or she has a terminal
illness? We do consider the consequences.

Teleological Theories
Teleological theories provide the second major guide to moral decisions, where actions
are evaluated in terms of their consequences. Public policy goals, in terms of a better
 167 Management Ethics

educated or healthier citizenry, might be examples of such consequences. Utilitarianism is

the best known teleological theory. Utilitarianism holds that an action is morally justifiable
if it leads to the greatest happiness of the greatest number. The concept of measurement is a
key features of utilitarianism and a variation of utilitarianism can be found in cost-benefit
analysis. For example, in the planning of a new airport, the cosb and benefits of noise
pollution, road congestion, threab to life and wildlife, to the quality of life, the of different
forms of transport and so on would be calculated in as comprehensive a manner as
possible. Utilitarianism is concerned with the maximisation of good and the minimisation
of harm. However, it may be difficult to put a figure on, for example, the quality of life,
even though it has become common-place when allocating medical resources to be
required to do so. However, the problems with this approach are numerous:
(1) In practice it is impossible to weigh up all the available options before acüng.
(2) We may never be able to account for all the consequences of an action.
(3) Over what timescale are we to calculate costs and benefits?
(4) It presupposes that we can put a numerical value on everything.

The Virtues Approach

A virtues approach looks to the qualities of individuals which allow them to be moral.
This approach has a long history going back to Confucius and Aristotle and its modern
equivalent can be found in those virtues that are said to characterise public officials. It is
thus argued that public policies will be ethical because those managers involved in the
formulation and implementation of policy possess integrity and probity, are impartial and
honest and so on. This view is one that is shared by professionals in the public services,
who see their professional ethos as virtuous.

The Justice Approach

Justice is concerned with issues of fairness, entitlement and desert. The formal principle
of justice can be stated in terms of treating like cases alike and unlike cases differently.
Jusüce can take two forms, distribute justice and procedural justice. The first is
concerned with how goods and services are distributed in society. It is argued that the
market is unjust since it discriminates against those who are poor, uneducated and
 Management Ethics 168

unemployed. Within organisations, criteria for distributive justice might be applied, for
example, when allocating an annual bonus and may take the form of:
(1) to each person an equal share, irrespective of individual contribution;
(2) to each person according to need, an approach which recognises individual needs;
(3) to each person according to individual rights, possibly as stipulated in a contract;
(4) to each according to individual merit, an approach which recognises the quality of
individual contributions;
(5) to each according to effort.

Procedural justice is concerned to make sure that processes and procedures are fair and
non-discriminatory. Arguments in favour of bureaucracy are often made from the point of
view of procedural justice.

The Rights-based Approach

Individuals have rights. These include legal, political, employee and human rights.
Rights are often seen as correlatives of duties. That is, employees may have certain rights
such as the right to a healthy and safe working environment but at the same time they may
have a duty to give "a fair day's work for a fair day's pay." For example, the Labour
Government sought to rewrite the Patient's Charter for the NHS which takes account of the
fact that patients do have rights but also have duties, such as keeping appointment times
and not abusing staff.
We have indicated the flavour of some of the best-known ethical theories which can
inform the actions of public services managers. At the same time we need to recognise that:
Making moral decisions usually involves finding a balance among different values that
conflict. This kind of 'moral pluralism' is highly pragmatic and well suited to the type of
value diversity that characterises modern democratic socieåes. In terms of consequences, a
realistic public administrator cannot ignore any basic moral principle that is 'out there' and
likely to influence the effectiveness of the agency's mission. Tolerance thus lies at the heart
of the ethical responsibility of the administrator in a democratic society (Pops, 1994).

This will particularly be the case if we see the task of the public services manager as
reconciling the interests of a multitude of different stakeholders.
 169 Management Ethics

In reality it is likely that managers will act as a result of group norms and values, sets
of principles and tradiüonal practices rather than consciously follow a consistent adoption
of an ethical theory. There appears to be, at least, some agreement on what those principles
might be. The Nolan Report, which we introduced at the beginning of this chapter
identified seven principles of public life:
(1) Selflessness - which is consistent with a wider concern with the public interest.
(2) Integrity— which focuses on obligations and duties.

(3) Objectivity— which is concerned with merit and principles of justice.

Accountability - which involves procedural justice.
(5) Openness — which is linked to the wider public interest.

(6) Honesty— which involves duties and conflicts of interests.

(7) Leadership - which extols the virtues required by public services managers.
However, both ethical theorists and practitioners indicate that a range of principles
should be taken together rather than rely on one principle, and that these principles reflect
an ethical framework. Public services managers are as much concerned with how services
are delivered as with what is delivered, with means as well as ends. Looking after client
interests means treating them with care, attention and sensitivity, and indeed with respect.
Both the OECD and the UK Government have recently identified key principles for
public services (see Table 10.1).
Table 10.1 Principles of Public Service

OECD Principles 1998 UK Local Government Principles

1998

Ethical standards for public service should be Community leadership, preserving public
clear Public servants should know their rights and
Ethical standards should be reflected in the obligations when exposing wrongdoing Poliåcal
legal framework commitment to ethics should reinforce the
ethical conduct of public servanÉ
Ethical guidance should be available to
The decision-making process should be
public servants transparent and open to scrutiny There
 Management Ethics 170

should be clear guidelines for interaction Integrity and propriety

between the public and private sectors
Managers should demonstrate and promote
ethical conduct Hospitality; refusing hospitality which might be
Management policies, procedures and intended to buy influence
practices should promote ethical conduct Decisions should be the responsibility of the
Public service conditions and management individual, but the influence of, for example,
party groups should be recognised Objectivity in
of human resources should promote ethical
decision taking, decisions taken on merit
conduct Adequate accountability
Accountability
mechanisms should be in place in the public
service Appropriate procedures and Openness
sanctions should exist to deal with
misconduct confidence in the council
Duty to uphold the law
Confidentiality is*handled in accordance
with law
Constituency; recognising that there are general
Stewardship of council resources. Participation
interests as well as constituents' interest Selflessness,
in council decisions. Declarations of private
acting in the public interest
interests. Relations with officers, respecting the
roles of officers.

Sources: PUMA (1998); DETR (1998).

The local government principles presented in Table 10.1 are written as guidelines for
politicians but they can, for the most part, be applied to managers.

The Public Service Ethos

We have certain expectations of our public managers, and see the relationship between
the ciüzens and their officials as a cornerstone of government:

Effective democratic government - be it at central or local level - requires a bond of trust

between the people and those in public life who serve them. To restore and maintain that
trust at local level is at the heart of our agenda to modernise local government (DETR,
1998).
 171 Management Ethics

Many of the principles described in the above quotation are said to be part of the public
service ethos and that those working in the public services are bound by, and subscribe to,
this ethos. It is generally considered to be a 'good thing' and is said to consist of honesty,
impartiality, integrity, probity, accountability, promotion on merit and so on. Public service
managers bring all of these qualities to bear in promoting the public interest.

The public service ethos is said to consist of a set of values held in common by public
services managers and expressed through the virtues described above. Pratchett and
Wingfield (1994) in their work on local government describe a generic public service ethos
comprising accountability, bureaucratic behaviour, a sense of community, motivation and
loyalty. However, two main assumptions are made concerning this ethos:

(1) There is something distinctive about managing in the public services. This view is
contested, as we have argued early.
(2) There is a common ethos that binds those who work in the public services.

Let us examine the second assumption. The concept of a unified and uniform public
service may have little meaning given the differences between managing in local
government, the civil service, health and any number of other bodies. If we examine the
civil service alone, we find civil servants engaged in a number of different tasks which
include the analysis of policy issues, the formation of policy under political direction, the
implementation of policy, the delivery of services to the public, the management of
resources, the regulation of outside bodies and so on. In the UK civil service, policy work is
carried out by some 10 per cent of the local and yet the concerns of those who work in the
'Whitehall Village' have, to all intents and purposes, dominated the agenda.
In local government and in health services, the agenda has been dominated by a
different set of stakeholders, notably professionals. Pratchett and Wingfield (1994) question
the assumption of a generic public service ethos in local government:

The public service ethos is a confused and ambiguous concept which is only given meaning
by its organisational and functional situation, and may be subject to very different
interpretations over both time and location.

They identify differences on the basis of :

 Management Ethics 172

(1) the role that the local authority plays - the minimalist local authority which seeks to
encourage the delivery of services through other organisations, questions the
importance of the public service ethos, in contrast to those who see them-selves
more readily engaging with the wider community;
(2) the diversity of professionals, with individuals tending to look to their own
profession rather than to the organisation as a whole.
Increasingly it is also believed that the public service ethos is coming under threat from
the management reforms that have taken place in recent years in many OECD countries
(Lawton, 1998). There are fears that the new world of public services management, made
up of risk-taking, innovative and entrepreneurial managers who engage in a range of
relationships with the private sector, is in some way being corrupted. There is little
evidence for this widespread belief and little evidence that managers in private sector
organisations are in general any more corrupt. However, the fragmentation of service
delivery may erode a sense of collegiality, but it is difficult to ascertain how strong that
sense was in the first place. Not only that, but group norms can act negatively as well as
positively and 'don't inform on your mates' becomes an operating credo even though 'your
mates' might be corrupt ! It may be the case, as we discussed above, that some of the
traditional controls of bureaucracy are being undermined by allowing managers 'the
freedom to manage,' with the result that accountability is being bypassed.

However, there appears to be little evidence that the public ethos service is being
undermined, notwithstanding its elusiveness in the first place. Indeed, those who support
management reforms and the introduction of more market-like conditions for the provision
of public services argue that greater competition and transparency actually leads to less
corrupt government.
There is also an assumption that the public services ethos is necessarily a good thing.
One former senior civil servant has argued that the values of senior officials are a complex
blend of, on the one hand, all the traditional virtues such as honesty, integrity, loyalty to
colleagues and an enormous capacity for hard work. However, they also include traditional
vices such as conservatism, caution, scepticism, elitism, a touch of arrogance and too often
a deeply held belief that "the business of government can be fully understood only by
government professionals" (Plowden, 1994). Pratchett and Wingfield (1994) found that a
quarter of their local authority survey believed in the existence of the public service ethos
 173 Management Ethics

and characterised it as a negative concept which stifled initiative, was bound by red tape,
providing little challenge or stimulation and occasionally corrupt.
There are those who look back to a 'golden age' of the public service ethos and regret its
passing; we have questioned its existence in the first place and challenged the assumption
that it is necessarily a good±hing. However, a range of organisational and peer group
pressures will have an impact on the individual manager, perhaps more readily than
societal pressures.

The Organisational Dimension

Individuals work in organisations and we should also be interested in the organisational

pressure that individuals are placed under by their organisations. It is part of the rhetoric of
Human Resource Development (HRD) that people are an organisation's greatest asset.
Organisations are places where people interact with each other for a good deal of their lives
and we are as much concerned with the way in which public service organisations treat
their staff as with the impact of their policies in the wider community. Means are as
important as ends. As Reiser (1994) argues:

Yet organisations declare what really counts by their treatment of staff, the institutional
goals they set, and how they handle controversy and conflicts. What they do tells us what
they value.

How organisations treat their staff will be mediated through the stuctures that they
adopt. You will recall the discussion of bureaucratic structures. Hummel (1987), for
example, argues that bureaucracies require that individuals follow rules and conform to
certain role expectations and that their activities are depersonalised. BureaucraG are treated
as means to an end and bureaucracy is oppressive to employees. The evidence for this tends
to be rather weak, although strong on rhetoric. Indeed, Goodsell (1994) has argued that
bureaucrats are pretty much like everybody else and that individuals do not become petty
tyrants when they enter organisations. We may wonder at the extent to which the
'bureaucratic mentality' exists in individuals before they enter organisations. If it does not
exist does it result from the bureaucratic culture? We have already considered the argument
that the public service ethos is deemed to be a good thing which may be challenged by the
confines of a bureaucratic ethos. However, as we have already indicated, the public
services are characterised by diversity rather than homogeneity. There is a real diversity in
 Management Ethics 174

the activities of public officials working in agencies and which perform a

range of functions including regulaåon, delivery, policy advice, collecting taxation trading
and so on.
The relationship between the organisation and the individual is a complex one
involving reciprocal rights and duties, as we discussed earlier. The nature of the
individual's commitment will depend upon:
(1) the extent to which the individual has internalised the views of the organisation
which, in turn, will depend uppn how congruent individual and organisational
values are;
(2) the extent to which organisational objective reflect individual objective;

(3) the extent of the involvement and psychological immersion in work; and
(4) the extent to which individuals value the organisation as a place where they spend a
large chunk of their waking lives.

Occasionally, the relationship is called into question when individual employees 'blow
the whistle' and reveal information about an organisation and its activities that the
organisation does not wish to have revealed. One well-known example of whistleblowing
was the case of Clive Ponting, a senior civil servant in the Ministry of Defence, who leaked
information to an Opposiüon MP concerning the sinking of the Argentine ship Belgramo
during the Falklands War. Ponting argues that government ministers had lied to Parliament
and that it was in the public interest that this information should be made public. Ponting
contended that he had a duty to Parliament and the public interest over and above that of
the government of the day. Ponting was put on trial and acquitted.

A key issue here is the loyalty of public servants. An early study in this book examined
this in the context of accountability. Critics argue that the act of whistleblowing may be
justified in extreme circumstances and where the individual is not acting in bad faith; has
reasonable grounds for believing the information to be accurate; is not making the
disclosure primarily in order to make financial gain and has raised the matter internally
first. Increasingly, whistleblowing is being sanctioned as a legitimate act (DETR, 1998).
How an organisation treats its staff is crucial to a discussion of ethics for managing the
public services. Our view is that it is no good focusing on lofty discussions of the public
interest when employees are being pushed to work longer hours, take on more
 175 Management Ethics

responsibility or have their contracts renegotiated. It is at the level of relationship between

individuals that ethics is played out. Claims that an organisation is promoting the common
welfare or the local community do not stand up if it treats its own staff appallingly. Not
only would it be unethical but it would not, ultimately, be credible.
The Individual : Roles and Relationships
The heart of ethics is about individuals acting and making decisions about a range of
issues concerning other individuals and themselves. The public services manager engages
in a range of relationship which will take different forms:
(1) with customers, which might involve an economic exchange dominated by
purchasing power;
(2) with citizens generally, where rights and duties will be involved;
(3) with the client, which might be dominated by a professional exchange and depend
upon power;
(4) with politicians, which will be hierarchical in nature and be determined by authority
and accountability; and
(5) with colleagues, which might be open-ended exchanges where equal status is
shared.
Much of the evidence involving managerial work seems to indicate that managers
spend much of their time engaged in establishing and maintaining relaüonship (Hales, 1986
and Conway, 1993). The principles of public service, as described in the previous section,
are expressed through individuals engaged in these relationships in terms of obligation,
trust, loyalty and duty. It is in seemingly small acts that the public service ethos is revealed.
The manager is at the centre of a web of relationships and with a network of loyalties. The
manager gives expression to the ethos through dealing with people in terms of care,
diligence, courtesy and integrity. It is the quality of these relationships that is
important.
Thus, the civil servant may be subject to a range of competing duties and obligations; to
ministers, to the Crown as an employer, to colleagues, to a professional body, to citizens
and to others in his or her capacity as a private individual. The location of duties and
obligations will depend on the functions performed. For example, senior officiais in policy
areas are concerned with traditional accountability to the minister and with offering
 Management Ethics 176

impartial advice; chief executives in agencies with a more commercial role might be
concerned with 'more bang for the buck' to ensure that public money is not wasted.
However, officials may have extra responsibilities because of their public roles, but
they do not leave aside their consciences at the office door. In requiring public officials to
freat their clients with respect, integrity and courtesy, we are demanding more than we
would demand of them as private citizens. As Jos and Hines (1993) argue:

The public service presents employees with moral issues that require attributes often
associated with private lives — sensiüvity, compassion, trustworthiness — as well as those
generally regarded as appropriate to our public and professional lives —impartiality and
effective attainment of externally imposed goals. That is, the administrative domain is not
solely public or private.

The importance of trust between parties is a key factor in sustaining relationships. It takes
different forms, for example, between ministers and their officials, between professionals
and their clienG. Trust is thus at the heart of any of the relationships that abound in the
public services. We now examine these in turn.

Minister—Civil Servant Relations

Minister-civil servant relaåonships are, in theory, characterised by officials offering

impartial advice to ministers in return for ministerial protection in front of, for example,
Parliamentary committees. This trust appeared to break down in the 1980s as the civil
service was blamed for problems suffered by the economy in the early 1980s. The then UK
Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, disapproved of their lack of commihnent and the
tradition of neutrality sits uneasily alongside that. Evidence of the decline in the
relationship can be found in civil servants leaking information, the attack on pay and
conditions, the reducüon in the number of civil servanb increased use of outsiders for
advice and civil service strikes.
That the relationship between civil servants and ministers is in need of clarification is
evident from our discussion of accountability where we saw that the creation of arm's—
length agencies has created problems concerning the locus of accountability and
responsibility. Trust appears to have declined, unspoken agreements appear to have been
broken, hence the call for codes of conduct to clarify the relationship.
Professional—Client Relations
 177 Management Ethics

A second dimension involves professional-client relationships where we have to bust

the professional because we do not have the expertise or the information possessed by him
or her. In return, for the relationships are always two-way, the professional gains a high
degree of control over the work he or she does, and high status. Discretion is exercised at
all levels within the public services whether it be in terms of policing, social work or
whatever. We have to trust professionals to do their job and not abuse their power.
There is a danger, as critics of professionalism argue that they may have too much
power and act in their own interest rather than that of their clients. Hence , the need for
codes of conduct, and for the increased use of contacts to specify performance.

Guidelines for Conduct : Rules and Regulations

Individuals working in groups operate within systems of rules, both formal and
informal, which perform a number of different funcfions.
(1) Formal rules can ensure consistency, continuity, control and accountability.
(2) Informal rules will aid in developing an organisational culture, in
establishing customs and norms and in helping to develop harmonious relationships.
Sometimes, however, compliance with rules becomes of overriding importance, so that
the existence of a rule becomes an excuse for suspending critical judgement. Employees
can get worn down by too many rules which appear to erect barriers to achieving
objectives. Staff may take short cuts.
One way of regulating behaviour in organisations is through codes of conduct. A code
can function as a public statement of ethical principles and it informs others of what to
expect. Codes can take various forms. Kernaghan (1975) identifies codes as lying on a
continuum, at one end of which is a 'Ten Commandment' approach which includes a
general statement of broad ethical principles but which makes no provision for monitoring
or enforcement. At the other extreme is what Kernaghan called the Justinian code, which
represents a comprehensive and detailed coverage of both principles and administraåve
arrangements.
Codes can perform a number of general functions, which include:
(1) acting as a guide to conduct, promoting ethical behaviour;
(2) regulating behaviour, and deterring unethical behaviour;
(3) providing a set of standards of behaviour, a written benchmark;
 Management Ethics 178

(4) identifying a set of principles and values;

(5) providing clear guidelines, thus minimising ambiguity;
(6) providing a means to resolve disputes and dilemmas; and
(7) providing sanctions in the case of unethical conduct.

Most codes that are applied to managing in the public services seem to include:
(1) specifying the legal environment;
(2) disclosure of information;
(3) relations between politicians, managers and the wider public;
(4) employment matters;
(5) outside commitments and conflicts or interest; and
(6) hospitality and relations with outside contractors.

There are, however, a number of powerful criticisms of codes:

(1) They can provide a false sense of security - "We have a code, therefore we must be an
ethical organisation."
(2) They cannot be comprehensive enough to cover all eventualities.
(3) They may reflect the interests of those who draw them up. For example, in further and
higher education there are key issues to be resolved between managers and lecturers in
terms of new contracts, teaching hours, quality and so on and yet managers are keen to
develop a code of conduct that focuses on the staff-student relationship.
(4) They are often vague and generalised and do not offer enough specific advice for the
hard-pressed manager.
(5) They can act as a shield to hide behind and may protect the professions.
(6) They may be ineffective in dealing with systemic corruption.
Written codes are an important but insufficient means of promoting public service
ethics. How ethical issues are internalised is crucial. Professional socialisation can play an
important role when it becomes second nature to put the interest of the client first. High-
profile issues such as those involved in corruption are only a small part of the field.
 179 Management Ethics

Conclusions

A focus on ethics can take place at different levels; the individual, the organisational
and the social. We might ask the following questions:
(1) How can we make public services managers more ethical, assuming that we feel
that they should be ?
(2) What are the pressures that organisations place individuals under and how can the
ethical organisation become a reality ?
(3) Does society want its public services to be ethical and how does it define those
ethics ?
In response to the first question, we might have to accept that there will always be
individuals in any organisation who are willing to act corruptly or in ways that are
generally considered to be immoral. Dittenhofer (1995) identifies a number of syndromes
that motivate people to act in undesirable ways:
(1) the injustice syndrome, which drives people to fraud because they believe that their
remuneration is unfair;
(2) the rejection of control syndrome, where people fight against perceived control
through perpetrating minor irregularities;
(3) the challenge syndrome, for whom beating the system is a challenge;
(4) the 'due me' syndrome, where individuals do not feel that they have received their
due reward;
(5) the 'Robin Hood' syndrome, redistributing what are deemed by the
perpetrators to be 'social assets' ;
(6) the borrowing syndrome, where the individual borrows small amoun -s which
become increasingly difficult to pay back;
(7) the 'it will never be missed' syndrome, where stepping over the line is seen as no
big deal;
(8) the need/ temptation syndrome, which is the most frequent reason for fraud and
embezzlement;
(9) the ego syndrome, which may lead a persons to falsify targets or accounts to make
performance appear better than it is; and
 Management Ethics 180

(10) the dissatisfaction syndrome, where the individual believes that he or she has been
victimised and wishes to take revenge.
There may be psychological explanation for corrupt behaviour. Research on the moral
development of individuals is relevant here. Kohlberg (1976) offers the best known
approach and he argues that individuals pass through three basic levels in terms of their
capacity to engage in independent moral reasoning, which takes place in six stages:
Level 1: Pre-conventional
(1) Stage 1, where individuals adopt reward-seeking and punishment avoiding
behaviour in an almost stimulus-response manner, and where rules are followed
without question.
(2) Stage 2, where individuals seek to maximise personal gain and take an insfrumental
view of human relations. Obligations will be met, unless one can get away with not
doing so.

Level 2: Conventional
(1) Stage 3, where individuals will seek to get along with peers and win approval from
them.
(2) Stage 4, which is characterised by classical role conformity and where the
importance of rules is paramount. It conforms to the classical depiction of the
bureaucrat.

Level 3: Post-conventional
(1) Stage 5, which recognises a wider commitment to the public interest and to a
rational view of social utility.
(2) Stage 6, which is concerned with principles or auto-pomous reasoning by
individuals, committed to moral principles.
It is interesting to speculate where a whistle-blower might fit into this !
A second focus on ethics relates to the role played by the organisation. We have already
discussed codes of conduct and suggested that these may be necessary but not sufficient.
Organisations may go a stage further and introduce ethical training as part of their HRD
programmes. Such programmes could cover a range of topics including knowledge of
ethical principles and use of case studies to explore their application; understanding of the
 181 Management Ethics

role of public services in the wider community; understanding of traditional administrative

principles of accountability, loyalty, integrity, probity etc.; recognising the location of
power in organisations. Increasingly, organisational theorists are advocating the
development of the learning organisation as the most appropriate vehicle for such training.
Finally, such an approach may also need a societal dimension. This is the argument
developed by Ranson and Stewart (1994), who argue for a public services as part of a
learning society. Chapman (1995) takes this view and argues that there two considerations
to be taken into account to ensure that ethical standards are maintained. The first is
concerned with educaåon and training both for holders of public office and for the public at
large. The other is:

Continuing public discussion and emphasis of the high standards that are expected. A
society which fails to demand high standards in public life and which sneers and denigrates
those who are doing their best in difficult circumstances, cannot expect that high standards
will be achieved or maintained. This is not just the responsibility of a relatively few people
in public life, but a social responsibility for everyone (1995).

Many of the issues raised in this chapter are explored more fully by Lawton (1998). aaa
 182

Conway, 175
Index Coordination and management, 7-10
Cornerback, 137
Cost factors in planning, 60-64
Creative act, 145-47
Absoluteness of responsibility, 106 Critical-point standards, 96-98
Advantages of decentralisation, 107-08 Crow and Crow, 146
Allen, L.A., 156, 158, 199
Art of effective performance appraisal,
43-54 an introduction, 43 basic Development changes, 33-42
problems, 43-44 choosing appraising heredity and environment, 35-38
system, 44-46 human factor in, 49-54 implications, 41-42 maturation
management by objectives, 46-48 of and learning, 40-41 nature, 38-40
managers as managers, 48-49 significance, 33-34 stages, 34-35
Audit Committee, 159 Index

Dawar, R.s., 46, 47

Babbage, Charles, 12 Dominant undertaking, 66-67
Basics of deparmentation, 111-19 Douglas, Shorwin, 76
Bigge, Morris L., 137
Davis, R.c., 89-99
Blair, Jones and Simpson, 137
Brainstorming, 54 Delegation:
Breach, E.F.L., 7, 10, 88 and decentralisaüon, 100-01
definitions and meaning, 99-100
effective, 103-04 of authority:
Categories of restrictive trade practices, manner, 102-03 principles of, 104-
68-69 06 weak, 107
Chapman, 181 Degree of decentralisation, 108-10
Chatterji, S.S., 8
Dittenhofer, 179
Civil Rights Act, 43
Drucker, Peter, 14, 15, 83
Commiment principles, 79-81
Committee of Public Accounts, 159 Development, 21, 22
Concept of management, 1-10
Controlling, 88-98 definitions, 88-
89 important techniques, 94-98 Eason, 137
process of, 89-94 Effective controlling, 92-94
Effective coordination, 9-10 between, 23-24 meaning, 20-
Effective delegations, 103-04 23 principles of, 25-33
Elements of management, purpose, 24-25
Emerson, Harrington, 13, 14 Guilford, J.P., 138
Erikson, 29 Guthrie, 137
Ethical issues, 159-63 184
Ethical theories, 165-70 deontological
theories, 165 justice approach, 166-67
righb-based approach, 167-70
teleological theories, 166 virtues Hales, 175

approach, 166 Hall, 137

Farmer and Richman, 55 Halsey, Frederick Arthur, 14
Fauber, 58 Haynes and Massie, 55
Fayol, Henri, 1, 3-7, 13, 56, 88 Hienemann, 1, 7, 99
Flippo, E.B., 1 Hines, 176
Follett, Mary Parker, 9
Hongik, c.H., 41
Forecasting, 58
Human factor in performance
Freud, 29
appraisal,
Frustrations, 120-21
49-51
Funcüonal evaluation, 46-47
Hummel, 173
Fundamentals of management, 11-19 an
Hurley, M.E., 55
introduction, 11 great pioneers of
Hurlock, 23
thoughts, 11-15 management process,
16-19 managing for results, 15-16
1
Implied imagination, 54
Gantt, Henry, 14 Importance of planning, 56-59
Garret, 138 Important techniques of control, 94-
General observations on management, 98
3-6 Interest and learning, 149
Gessel, 21, 33 Internal premises, 70
Gilbreth, Frank, 14
Goodsell, 173
Growth and development, 20-42 Jerome, 93
changes, 33-42 distinction
 184

Jones, Earnest, 35 Management by objectives, 82-

87 better management, 86
effective control, 87 meaning,
82-84 personal commitment,
Kant, Immanuel, 165
86-87 process, 85-86 research,
Kazmier, L.J., 75 84-85
Keith and Gubelline, 1 Kernaghan, Management ethics, 157-
177 79 an introduction, 157-
Klausmeireir, H.J., 137 59
Kohlberg, 180 Index
Index
ethical issues, 159-63 ethical
Koontz and O'Donnel, 2, 7, 48, 56, 61, 63, theories, 165-70 organisational
75, 78, 89, 93, 99, 100, 111 dimension, 172-74 public service
ethos, 170-72 roles and
relationships of individual, 175-77
Lashley, 142 rules and regulations code, 177-79
theory and principles, 163-65
Lawton, 171, 181
Management process, 16-19
Learning, 127-43 Management:
characterisücs, 143 concept,
and coordination, 7-10 by
135-38 interests as motives,
objectives, 46-48, 82-87
131-34 nature, 138-43
general observations on, 3-6
plateaus in, 127-28 process,
great pioneers of thoughts,
134-35 use of incentives,
11-15 principles of, 1-3
129-31
Levels of aspiration, 125-27 process, 16-19
Ley, King and Gray, 137 Managing for results, 15-16
Long-term trends, 79 Mayo, George Elton, 14, 51
MBO, 4648, 82-87
McGregor, 51, 52, 83
Milton, 29
MacFarland, 7, 89, 99 Minister-civil servant relations, 176
MacLagan, 163 Mission and goals, 73-74
Main areas of controlling, 92 Monopolies and Restrictive Trade
Major, John, 157 Practices Act, 66
Monopolies Inquiry Commission, 66 management by objectives, 82-87
Mooney and Reilley, 7, 14 mission and goals, 73-74
Morse and Wingo, 137 186
Motivation, 12043 concept of
learning, 135-38 as,
monopolistic trade practices,
131-34 learning and nature,
66-69 objectives, 59-60
138-43 learning process, 134-
35 levels of aspiration, 125-27 planning process, 55-56
motives and frustations, 120- policies, 75-79 premises, 69-73
24 motives and goals, 124-25 stategies, 74-75 tends and
use of incentives in learning, commiment, 79-80 types of
129-31 plans, 64-65
Murphy, 138 Plans and programmes, 81-82
Plowden, 172
Policies, 75-79
Newman and Summer, 55 Pops, 168
Newman, W.H., 56 Power distribution, 99-119
NHS, 157, 159, 167
advantages of decentralisaåon, 107-
Niles, Marry Cushing, 58
08 decentalisation, 100-01 degree
Nolan Committee, 157, 158 of decentalisation, 108-10
delegation, 99-100 delegation of
O authority, 102-07 distribution of
Objectives of planning, 59-60 work, 110-11 organisation and
Odiorne, George, 84 departnentation,
OECD, 158, 168, 169, 171
111-19
Organisation and departrnentation, 111-
Principles of delegation, 104-06
19
Principles of growth and
Organisational dimension, 172-74
development,
Osborn, Alex F., 54
25-33
Principles of management, 1-3
Principles of public services, 169
Parker, Mary, 10
Process of controlling, 89-94
Pennington, Malcolm, 60
Progressive change, 144-56
Permanent change, 145
influencing factors, 151-56
Planning in management, 55-87 cost significant condiüons for, 14}-
factors in, 60-64 importance of, 56-59
51 through learning, 144-48
 186

Index Unity of Command, 105-06

Urwick, 4, 56
Utiliurianism, 166
Ranson and Stewart, 181
w
Reiser, 173 Weak delegation, 107
Reporting and reports for control, 90-91 Wingfield, 170, 171, 172
Restictive &ade practice, 67 Woodworth, 154
Roethlisberger, 2
Work distribuåon, 110-11
Roles and relationships, 175-77
Rosen, J.K., 89 aaa
Ross, James, 35

Rules and regulations: code of conduct,

177-79

s
Scalar principle, 105
Schein, Edgar H., 51
Sheldon, Oliver, 12
Sloan, Alfred, 53
Socrates, 11 for control,
89-90
Steinberg and Austen, 162
Steps in planning, 64
Stategies, 74-75

Taylor, 1, 4, 11, 12, 15, 61

Tead, Ordway, 7
Terry, G.R., 2, 56, 70-72, 75, 77, 88, 100
Theory X and Theory Y, 51-53
Town, Henry Robinson, 13

Traditional trait appraisal, 45-46 Types

of plans, 64-65
Index
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