Value in flux: administrative ethics and the Hong Kong public servant
By: Lui, Terry T.
Contributor(s): Cooper, Terry L.
Material type:
ArticlePublisher: 1997Description: p.301-24.Subject(s): Civil service
In:
Administration and SocietySummary: The ethical orientations of senior civil servants in Hong Kong are examined using survey data from a sample of 279 officials involved in advanced training and university professional training programs. These public officials were found to identify strongly with the classical ideal constituted by administrative neutrality, loyalty to hierarchy, and respect for organizational rules. However, indications of more assertive personal values independent of the organization were discovered. This erosion of neutrality is characterized by espousal of liberal values such as fairness, equality, justice, honesty, integrity, human dignity, and individual freedom. The extent to which these values reflect a latent professional ethic as an autonomous basis for moral judgment and conduct remains unclear. Although at present these administrators experience little incongruence between the rules and norms of the organization and their liberal values, whenever presented with a hypothetical conflict they tend to opt for loyalty to the bureaucratic hierarchy. - Reproduced
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Articles
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Indian Institute of Public Administration | Volume no: 29, Issue no: 3 | Available | AR36248 |
The ethical orientations of senior civil servants in Hong Kong are examined using survey data from a sample of 279 officials involved in advanced training and university professional training programs. These public officials were found to identify strongly with the classical ideal constituted by administrative neutrality, loyalty to hierarchy, and respect for organizational rules. However, indications of more assertive personal values independent of the organization were discovered. This erosion of neutrality is characterized by espousal of liberal values such as fairness, equality, justice, honesty, integrity, human dignity, and individual freedom. The extent to which these values reflect a latent professional ethic as an autonomous basis for moral judgment and conduct remains unclear. Although at present these administrators experience little incongruence between the rules and norms of the organization and their liberal values, whenever presented with a hypothetical conflict they tend to opt for loyalty to the bureaucratic hierarchy. - Reproduced
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