Role of Civil Services in Ethical Governance: Hong Kong Civil Services
| Author | Lina Vyas |
| Published date | 01 July 2013 |
| Date | 01 July 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0019556120130314 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
ROLE
OF
CIVIL SERVICES IN
ETHICAL
GOVERNANCE: HONG KONG CIVIL SERVICES
LINA
VYAS
Classical understandings
of
bureaucratic structure
and
organisation theory have provided little in the way
of
an ethical
basis for administrative activity.
In
traditional management,
Weber s bureaucracy was about ethics
of
neutrality. It was an
alienating organisation which took person as machine and
treated
people
impersonally. Economy,
efficiency
and
effectiveness were emphasised.
As
to scientific management,
it stressed technical efficiency as the vehicle
for
successful
management that was not concerned with the humanistic and
ethical components
of
organisation behaviour. Both traditional
management and scientific management believed in politics-
administration dichotomy. It was
not
until the repeated
occurrence
of
unethical conduct within the government did
ethics start being subject to attention.
INTRODUCTION
ETHICS HAS become exceedingly significant in public administration in
recent years. The complications
of
corruption, serving the government,
serving the public, solving conflict
of
interest, abuse
of
power, fraud, etc.
is on the rise within the government, leading to a decrease in public
confidence in the government. In order to get back the support frmu citizens,
many governments worldwide include ethics in their reform agenda. People
have come to realise the importance
of
ethics in the everyday operation
of
the government ostensibly since the 1960s and 1970s with the emergence
of
trust and confidence crises in the government employees who
wer~
supposed to work for the benefit
of
the people. Hong Kong government is
no exception. The quality
of
the Hong Kong civil service is very good, and
the civil servants have been internationally recognised as among the least
corrupt and the least bureaucratic (Policy Address 2001). However, the
government has faced ethical challenges in recent years. In order to maintain
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JULY-SEPTEMBER 2013
the integrity and professionalism
of
civil service, the government has
established the principle
of
serving the community and being accountable.
The focus is also on improved ethics management. The article examines
ethics in Hong Kong Civil Services.
What is Ethics?
Scholars hold similar views when defining ethics. According to
Bowman ( 1983
),
ethics is being associated with rules and standards, morals,
right and wrong, and values
of
honesty and integrity.1 Likewise, Lewis
( 1991) states that ethical values are beliefs about right and wrong.
2 Bowman
also put forward that ethics has something to do with impartiality and
fairness when the public employees discharged their duties as ethics
concerns with clarifying what constitutes general welfare and the kind
of
conduct necessary to promote it. 3
Ethics is the science concerning the "right" and "wrong"
of
human
action.4 Human beings are subject to many values including judgement
of
what is right and wrong, what is to be praised or blamed. These judgements
are also subject to controversy because different people have different
values. Therefore, ethics is basically an abstract and fiendish topic. Ethics
in public management can be referred as the rules governing moral conduct
of
the members
of
the organisation or management profession.
Ethics in Government
and
its Significance
Ethics in government is related with rules and standards, morals, right
and wrong, and value
of
honesty and integrity (Bowman, 1983).
It
can be
considered
as
a form
of
self-accountability, or an "inner check" on public
administrators' conduct (Rosenbloom, 2003). Different from private sector
employees, public sector practitioners are 'fighters' for public good.
Employees in the private sector work towards profit-maximisation goal
but their counterparts in the public sector work for the public interests.
Moreover, public employees are agents and representatives
of
the people
who have to make decisions on behalf
of
the citizens:
In
other words,
public employees have the discretion to decide for the general public. Hence,
they are the guardians
of
the government and even the administrative state.
Rules and guidelines are needed to guide and guard our guardians' behaviour
when discharging public duties so as to ensure that public policies are
1Bowan, James
S.
"Ethical Issues for the Public Managers," in William B. Eddy (ed.)
Handbook
of
Organization Management (New York: Marcel Dekker, 1983), p. 69, 1983.
2/bid., p.72, 1983.
3Lewis, Carol
W.
The Ethics Challenge in Public Service (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass,
1991). Chapter
1,
p. 21.
4Bowan, James
S.
op. cit, p. 70, 1983.
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