by Walter Jayandran
In the wake of recent revelations of criminal offences among public and community service officials, one is justified in asking whether there is a systemic problem of ethical behavior and morality defects in public service agencies. In fact, what are the causes of this increase in public and community service ethical lapses?
It appears that not much has been learnt about individual ethical fitness from the myriad corporate malfeisance , events of gigantic misappropriations such as in Enron, and the host of recent global financial institutional misdemeanors. There is growing concerns for a new focus on leadership criteria based on moral aptitude. If nothing is done to improve ethics and morality issues, the public will soon lose trust and confidence in these public service agencies.
Most of us have an internal ‘moral compass’ that indicates to us what is right and wrong with regard to our own thinking and actions and that of others. Integrity while difficult to define in a few words, could be defined as the personal quality of having high moral principles, being reliable (consistent), honest and trustworthy.
Ethical behaviour requires that we use our moral compass to guide us in our interactions with others. Ethical behaviour is also about the ability to inspire trust in others.
More often than not, discussions about ethics in organizations reflect only the “individualistic approach” to moral responsibility. According to this approach, every person in an organization is morally responsible for his or her own behavior, and any efforts to change that behavior should focus on the individual.
But there is another way of understanding responsibility, which is reflected in the “communal approach.” Here individuals are viewed not in isolation, but as members of communities that are partially responsible for the behavior of their members. So, to understand and change an individual’s behavior we need to understand and try to change the community.
Ethical behavior in business is critical. Personal moral standards have to be impeccable. How much more important is it to have the highest moral standards when one is in public service?
If ethics and morality are important for groups and organizations, they should also be important for public officials, and for very much the same reasons. York Willbern, in an article entitled “Types and Levels of Public Morality,” argues for six types or levels of morality (or ethics) for public officials. The six levels he differentiates are: basic honesty and conformity to law; conflicts of interest; service orientation and procedural fairness; the ethic of democratic responsibility; the ethic of public policy determination; and the ethic of compromise and social integration. For the purpose of this article, I shall highlight on the first three.
Public officials are given the trust of the public to develop and carry out policies that are in the public’s best interest. Living up to this trust has a significant impact on the national will; public confidence is essential to the exercise of national power. Thus public officials have a moral duty to act in a trustworthy manner.
This brings us to the question of how community leaders are identified and assessed and groomed. Are we to rely on just the recommendations of an MP ?
Much of a person’s ethical standards are formed through upbringing and the value system established within his or her family environment. Developing a moral compass later in life is not easy.
Ensuring ethical fitness in a proactive manner will result in preventive, rather than corrective, ethical management. We have read reports of many young foreigners being eager to serve in grassroots organizations. That is fine so long as proper screening and background checks are made to ensure proper motivation to serve the community. Is there a robust process in place to ensure the right people are engaged? Many organizations use psychometric tests that provide some insights into the personal motivations and hidden values, beliefs and attitudes that interviewers and recruiters may not pick up in interviews. As the saying goes in HR circles – “ hire right, manage easy.” Agencies also need to seek background information from past employers, and people who have interacted with the applicants in professional and other facets of the individual’s life. By obtaining inputs from varying sources, one can prevent potential ethical misadventures.
The organization as an ethical environment
At a minimum, a code of conduct must be in place, specific to the ethical issues confronted in the service. It should be the subject of ethics training that focuses on actual dilemmas likel Organizations must also ensure that perceived ethical violations are adequately investigated and that wrongdoing is punished. Research suggests that unless ethical behavior is rewarded and unethical behavior punished, written codes of conduct are unlikely to be effective.
Building an ethical climate
Basic honesty and conformity to law The public servant is morally bound, just as are other persons, to tell the truth, to keep promises, to respect the person and the property of others, and to abide by the requirements of the law.
Conflict of interest. This relates to public officials, because it deals with the conflict between advancing the public interest, which a public official is charged to do, and advancing one’s self-interest. The duty here is to ensure that the public interest comes first, and that one does not advance his own personal interest at the expense of the public.
Service orientation and procedural fairness. The moral obligation of public servants is to follow established procedures, and not to use their power to circumvent those procedures for their own convenience or benefit. Power must be used fairly and for the benefit of the public.
Specific Strategies
- Establish rules which require public officials to give reasons for their official decisions;
- Institute management approaches that enable public officials to deal assertively with corruption and unethical practice when they encounter it, even at the risk of offending their superiors.
- ‘whistleblower’ protection law to protect appropriate ‘public interest disclosures’ of wrongdoing by officials;
- ethics audits to identify risks to the integrity of the most important processes (for example financial management, tendering, recruitment and promotion, dismissal and discipline);
- new Human Resource Management strategies (which link, for example, ethical performance with entry and advancement, and ethical ‘under-performance’ with disciplinary processes), merit based promotion and recruitment, anti-discrimination protection;
- training and development in the content and rationale of Ethics Codes, the application of ethical management principles, the proper use of official power, and the requirements of professional responsibility, and
- effective external and internal complaint and redress procedures.
Conclusion
Whatever the reasons or excuses for the failures by public and community leaders, it is hoped that the deterioration is arrested and resolved in order for public trust to be regained.
There are so many companies in sg but seems like very less whistling is heard.
I am certain there are still many hidden cases waiting to be exposed. The SLA incident is not the last, some people are pure “lucky” to be still at large and continue to “milk” in the dark. It takes a real efficient society and leader to expose them (usually people of high status and authority), but if our late OTC was faced with such obstacles, Ethics and Morality become a great challenge in Singapore.
才德全尽谓之圣人，才德全无谓之愚人
德胜才谓之君子，才胜德谓之小人。
凡取人之术，苛不得圣人君子而与之，与其得小人，不若得愚人。
PAP的哪些许所谓talent, 大多数都是才胜德的小人。这些小人待才好胜，爱出风头，一心只想怎么保住权位，有私心，只顾着自肥，给人民带来多方面的负担。
You will note that in the SLA case, up till now, there isn’t a single proper mug shot of the culprit Koh. All the public is being treated to is a mug of him smirking in a pair of red goggles and cycling helmet. The lack of media interest and initiative in ‘unmasking’ for the benefit of the public this fellow is highly suspicious. One is not wrong to infer that either this chap has lots of influence in high places or he has them in his pocket for less than honourable reasons. Do one need to say more?
You will note that in the SLA case, up till now, there isn’t a single proper mug shot of the culprit Koh. All the public is being treated to is a mug of him smirking in a pair of red goggles and cycling helmet. The lack of media interest and initiative in ‘unmasking’ for the benefit of the public this fellow is highly suspicious. One is not wrong to infer that either this chap has lots of influence in high places or he has them in his pocket for less than honourable reasons. Does one need to say more?
in all-or-nothing MERITOCRATIC SOCIETY like ours,EDUCATION has only imbue into our young KNOWLEDGE and TECHINCAL SKILLS and has not nurtured in them the more important treasure of true wisdom.
WISDOM calls for a humane heart for one’s neighbours’ a humility to serve others in our society rather than merely serving one’s very own self-interst which most of our present elites are dling so,consciously or unconsciously.
ETHICS AND MORALS can only proceed from true wisdom and wisdom from a humble heart;not a MERITOCRATICALLY SELFSIH AND SELF-SERVING ONE.
RECENT SPATE OF TEENAGE GANGSTERISM AND MURDERS all point to societal degradation instead of progress.
HOW CAN WE CLAIM OUR MERITOCRATIC EDUCATION SYSTEM as SUCCESSFUL when smart and seemingly bright youngsters are groomed into SELF-SERVING SCHOLARS/ELITES and less endowed youths feel left out and seek the solace and comfort of waywardness?
how can we even claim a good education system when our scholars think nothing of CHILD PORNO and cheating their comapnies?
what is all these meritocracy really doing to us and for us?
if not,dehumanising us,what else?
There is a Chinese saying that : When to higher level is not upright, the lower level will be crooked.
So this is just the surface. Bottom level easier to expose – though these recent cases took years before coming to light.
Top level – things look ‘legalised’ as they legalised it – abuse of power is a form of corruption.
So we have MP,MM…etc taking up directorship in private companies, Temasek, GIC….etc. Is this right ? So much conflict of interst and opportunities for abuse of power.
@georgia tong
“There is a Chinese saying that : When to higher level is not upright, the lower level will be crooked.”
does it apply the other way: “if the lower level is not crooked, the higher level is upright” ??
which one higher? which one lower? ..in ur analysis.
does the saying applies everywhere?
can it be extended to say that: “When to higher level is not upright, the lower level will be crooked.” ..and we will be perceived as a crooked country ?
are we perceived as crooked country, georgia?
fyi tho, the last check was that we’re not perceived as crooked country …farrr from it, we’re perceived as one of the least crooked.
BUT that’s angmoh’s analysis; we should take it with a pinch of salt; in fact we should always doubt them, shouldn’t we ?!
just like when they say we don’t have free media, yes ? no ? confused ?
The Chinese saying is trying to let us know that the higher level – be it leader or management should set a good example for the lower level to follow.
It is nothing to do with foundation if that is what you are thing about.
We are ‘clean’ on the surface as things seems ‘legal’. Is it the norm that we have MPs taking up various directorship in private companies ? Conflict of interest. Then even same family members taking up all the various impt position in both govt and govt related companies as CEO and Board of Directors ?
We only see the tip of the ice berg. But what we don’t see does not mean it don’t exist. Time will tell.
When MSK escaped, the top person(s) responsible only got a slap on the wrist. When North Korea shelled South Korea a couple of weeks back, the SK’s defence minister resigned. That reflects the difference in the moral authority between our leaders and others.
Likewise, when our economy grew 15% in Q2, bells and whistles in the MSM almost daily. When it drop 12% for Q3, very quiet, no?
There needs to be more emphasis on Business Ethics Training
@georgia tong
[[[But what we don’t see does not mean it don’t exist. Time will tell.]]]
true, BUT until we actually see it, we canNOT assume that it exists either, yes?!
for example, i propose that: you are a foreign agent working as provocateur here to destroy singapore, and your comment are only ‘tip of the iceberg’ of more provocative stuff you have. just because i canNOT ‘see’ you as foreign agent, doesn’t mean you are not a foreign agent. Time will tell.
how ?
To bodoh – to give you an example on how time will reveal the truth :
Remember Alan Greenspan ? While he was Chairman of US Federal Reserve, he seemed to do no wrong. He was placed high up on the pedestal. Now on hindsight, he is ‘credited’ with precipitating the 2 major crisis -the tech bubble collapse in 2000 and economic meltdown in 2007.
We know even nonsensical policies can be passed which skewed statistic to make things look good. It happened in the US – Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) took the recommendation of Boskin Commission to use ‘hedonic adjustments’ which effectively made the CPI look better which in turn distorted the GDP figure. It was implemented in 1995 and only dropped a few years later ! It could happen in S’pore too.
Another famous cult builder is Chairman Mao. During his era he had implemented numerous disasterous policies and yet got away with them. His decades of absolute power over the lives of his citizens resulted in over 70 million deaths in peacetime. Even till now, he is still pretty much a cult figure in China. There is an inherent danger of having a leader and/or political party which build a cult around themselves as shield.
To bodoh – My guess is you are a PAP mole. Blind support does no good.
Having a single party in power for decades is not healthy. We need a balance cabinet for check and balance which is badly lacking.
I love S’pore and wish the best for her, which can only comes about with a balance cabinet not dominated by one single party.
You will note that in the SLA case, up till now, there isn’t a single proper mug shot of the culprit Koh. All the public is being treated to is a mug of him smirking in a pair of red goggles and cycling helmet. The lack of media interest and initiative in ‘unmasking’ for the benefit of the public this fellow is highly suspicious. One is not wrong to infer that either this chap has lots of influence in high places or he has them in his pocket for less than honourable reasons. Does one need to say more?
bodoh, 22 December 2010
in S’pore’s context, the higher level are in better position to fight off crooks. they are paid more than enough to live comfortably till kck bucket. they too have the power to form checks on those below them from being crooked, except they cannot “prevent” themselves from it, just like a doctor cannot heal himself. haa… so no, not everything can flip & apply.
quote:
“the last check was that we’re not perceived as crooked country…”
hmmm, good point. perhaps S’pore is crooked but not percieved as such due to “branding”?
let’s just say not everyone shares the same perception as you. hahaa…
hey, dun try this Ang Moh witchhunt thingy. you are not trying to use race (skin colour) to divert attention are you?
btw, you live up to your namesake- “bodoh”!!
:P
bodoh, 23 December 2010
quote:
“time will tell.
how?”
whether i know the answer to your question or not, i die-die oso wun tell. its not in the crooks interest to know! not even if those crooks are caught & brought to justice. you are not the eyes & ears of any crooks hor? are you?
are police going to ask callers to confirm if those suspicious items are bombs before taking action? time will tell, but must a bomb go off then you happy cos its confimed a bomb?
hmmm, like the act of whistle-blowing, i now know why the level of apathy in S’pore is such. people are subconciously mentally conditioned not to speak up when irregularities are spotted. those who do, are put through a process or processes so confusing to act as a form of deterance.
its been called “taichi”, “merry-go-round”, etc…
I worked as a vendor in the Public Uni. I am really sad 2c the number of staff not going to offices.
Worst, some of this are the so called immigrants, scholars.
Apart, they do not take official leave and DO NOT turn up at work in the office.
Yet, the entire management turn blind eyes to it.
Tuition fee increases every now and then but the system does not examine why the system is so inefficient.
Over spending and UNDER achieving. Well done public University.
People at the top should be scrutinized carefully by a free press & upright opposition MPs who have the country’s interest at heart. Now do you see the importance of a really free press & a significant opposition presence in parliament?
“From Third World To First.”
Sounds impressive,but not one member of the ruling party dares to breathe a word to the public that this boastful assertion of theirs has nothing to do with national ethics and morality.
It is merely about mass production,mass consumption,conspicuous,crass materialism that forbid us to live frugally.
Which ruling elite will exhort Singaporeans to be thrifty?None,as such moral values go against the grain of the PAP’s economic ethos they have shaped for Singapore.