Abstract
This paper explores the troublesome and in-escapable fundamental question posed by Socrates: "What ought one do?" in the context of public policy management of change and innovation from an ethical perspective within the emerging "realities" of socio-economic life. The opportunities posed by advances in information technology (IT), the changing demands of the public for improved service delivery and the convergence between the characteristics of public and private sector organizations and employment create an ethical dilemma for many public sector actors bound by public policies laden with the legacy values and socio-economic morality of the second millennium (a sense of public duty; loyalty; probity; neutrality; universalism).
The proliferation of "soft-core" crises (crises that do not result in catastrophic, destructive or life-threatening changes to the victim's environment; the continuous re-drawing of the boundaries of what constitutes "the public service"; the increasing demand for "gifted" actors who are confident in their own abilities and are prepared to call ethical judgments dis-passionately against personal interest, even in the absence of an external threat; the "new professionalism "; as well as the need to deliver technological benefits within a framework of social justice, have created a trend towards the codification of ethical conduct within both national and international bodies of public and private sector organizations.
Contemporary ethical incidents of public sector praxis and policy design are used to illustrate current dilemmas. It is argued that the achievement of ethical conduct within the new morality of economic life remains a difficult problem for the public sector and cannot be overcome by the mere codification of ethical behavior.
Introduction
Ethics is a philosophical term. Germane to effective leadership in organization is the philosophical definition of ethics as derived from the Greek word ethos, meaning character or custom. It connotes an organizational code conveying moral integrity and.......
