Safeguarding the Public Trust: Can Administrative Ethics Be Taught?

Abstract

The changing nature of the public sector brings new challenges to governance and ethical decision making. A main objective of the Master’s of Public Administration (MPA) program is to bring current the pedagogy of ethics, in order to reflect the evolving nature of the sector. This article reports on one such effort that was employed in an introductory MPA course, using the approach outlined by Walton, Stearns, and Crespy in 1997. It also provides details on the students’ evaluations of the coursework related to the ethics module. The ethics assignment given to students was designed to illustrate the complexity of moral reasoning that is required to maintain adherence to ethical principles, when processes lead to conflicts between deeply held value systems. Students are provided with an updated administrative framework that builds upon our Constitutional values, and emphasizes the implications of decision making for a population that is broader and more diverse than those in the past.