Ethics in the Fire Service

1
Ethics in the Fire Service

• Class 1

2
Overview

• For ethics to guide administrators it must be
  integrated into the way administrators think
  about their practice and incorporated into
  everyday behavior.
• Important questions about the administrators role
  and behavior present Ethical issues.

3
Overview

• What is / should be the role of the professional
  administrator in governance?
• What are the characteristics of
  political-administrative relations?
• What are administrators expected to do or not do?

4
Overview

• How do administrators relate to the citizen?
• How should administrators balance their
  accountability to elected superiors and their
  professional standards with their responsibility
  to the public?
• These questions can spawn Big Ethical Issues.

5
Overview

• As we fulfill the course objectives, our text
  book and the course material will seek to help us
  understand why ethics is important to fire
  service professionals and how to relate our
  personal values with the norms of the fire
  service.

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Book Introduction

• This book is a primer on administrative ethics, a
  term that refers to the ethics of persons who
  occupy career leadership and staff positions in
  government and non-profit organizations.
• The books purpose is to promote ethical behavior
  by enabling us to

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Book Introduction

• Appreciate that ethics is integral to the nature
  of public administration
• Understand the responsibilities of public
  administrators and the bases of ethics
• Understand tenants of ethics codes of various
  public organizations and how they are applied

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Book Introduction

• Be aware of the pressures and forces that
  contribute to unethical behavior
• Develop the KSAs needed to deal with ethical
  problems
• Strengthen the ethical climate within the
  organization

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Do You Have a Ethics Code?

• What is or should be your code of ethics for work
  in the fire service?
• What are the standards of right and wrong that
  should guide your work the dos and donts of
  public service?

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The Setting for Administrative Ethics

• Ethics are important because administrators must
  operate within legal and / or administrative
  controls. They serve the public but not as
  private professionals who operate a
  fee-for-service organization.
• A higher obligation fiduciary in nature

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The Setting for Administrative Ethics

• Four terms defined
• Organizations government entities
• Administrators civil service or career staff in
  a government agency
• Political supervisor persons who set the
  official goals and policy of the organization and
  oversees administration
• Citizen or clients refers to the people served
  by the organization

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The Setting for Administrative Ethics

• Four responsibilities of government agency
• Responsibility to serve the individual
• Responsibility to be accountable to the people
  and promote the public good
• Responsibility to the organization
• Responsibility to political superiors and uphold
  the law and establish policy

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The Setting for Administrative Ethics

• Citizens are vulnerable and have no other
  alternative for service.
• Citizens have a expectation to be treated fairly
  and with respect, to be informed and listen to,
  as well as receiving some benefit.
• Responsibility goes beyond the individual to the
  general concerns of groups and society.

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The Setting for Administrative Ethics

• Responsibility to make good use of resources that
  are entrusted
• Responsibility to the organization
• Responsibility to operate within the organization
  make it strong, effective, and as ethical as
  possible

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The Setting for Administrative Ethics

• Administrators have a responsibility to their
  political superiors. This relationship involves
  a complex mixture of
• control and freedom
• accountability and independence.

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Chapter 1 Conclusion

• The book (or this course) cannot teach ethics by
  telling you the right way.
• We come to this course with a ethics code and
  morale values.
• Our purpose is to organize ethical thinking, link
  our ethics with public service ethics, and
  heighten awareness and use of ethical concepts.

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Chapter 2 Administrative Ethics

• Basic ethical model defines ethics for
  administrators and examines the conventional
  model of ethical thinking by administrators.
• In order to create a ethical model
• What is ethics?
• Where do ethical ideas come from?
• How does ethical thinking develop?
• What are the levels of ethical thinking?

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Administrative Ethics

• The main source of Administrative ethics is the
  standards and expectations based on duty to
  serve the public

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Administrative EthicsDefinition and Sources

• Ethics refers to well-based standards of right
  and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do,
  usually in terms of duties, principles, specific
  virtues, or benefits to society.
• Four dimensions or sources of ethics

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Administrative EthicsDefinition and Sources

• Duty obligation and behaviors
• Virtue good qualities
• Principle fundamental truths
• Benefit to society the common good

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Administrative EthicsDefinition and Sources

• Public administration ethics begins with and is
  grounded in the concept of Duty.
• Duty means the action required by the job but it
  also means the action or behavior due by moral or
  legal obligation.
• Duty implies obligation, responsibility

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Administrative EthicsDefinition and Sources

• Text page 11
• Does the fire service in general model this duty
  that the author is referencing?
• Do you model this duty as a fire service
  professional?

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Administrative EthicsDefinition and Sources

• Duty based ethics can be described even without
  consideration of ethics theory or philosophy we
  can just list what is right or wrong based on our
  senses of duty.
• Duty based ethics can be expanded by thinking
  about the qualities of a good administrator.

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Administrative EthicsDefinition and Sources

• Virtues honesty, commitment, integrity
• Principles treat people fairly and equally
• Beneficial consequence greatest good

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Administrative EthicsDefinition and Sources

• Virtue, principle, and consequence are linked to
  the concept of duty.
• What are the expectations of persons holding
  public office? DUTY
• What are qualities of a good person? VIRTUE
• What's the right thing to do? PRINCIPLE
• What's the most beneficial action to take?
  CONSEQUENCE

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Administrative EthicsDefinition and Sources

• Student activity discussion (page 14 15)
• Compare ethical statements and categorize
• Duty
• Virtue
• Principle
• Consequence

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Administrative EthicsDefinition and Sources

• What were the predominant categories?
• Would you agree we all have a degree of a ethical
  code even if this is our first formal exposure to
  the topic of ethics?

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Administrative EthicsDefinition and Sources

• As we have demonstrated so far
• Duty is the core of the public service ethic it
  is reinforced and expanded by balancing attention
  to virtue, principle, and good consequences
  therefore we can define ethics this way
• Administrative ethics refers to well-based
  standards of right and wrong that prescribe what
  administrators ought to do, in terms of duty to
  public service, principles, virtues, and benefits
  to society.

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Administrative EthicsEthical Development

• Kohlberg model of moral judgment helps the
  understanding of how the capacity for ethical
  reasoning develops and explains the motives for
  actions at different stages of development.
• Six stages identified that children go through as
  they mature into adults

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Administrative EthicsEthical Development

• Stage 1 Punishment obedience
• Stimulus and response
• Obey rules to avoid punishment
• Stage 2 Instrumental relativist
• Self serving good behavior
• Conform to get rewards

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Administrative EthicsEthical Development

• Stage 3 Good boy, nice girl
• Meet expectation of others we interact with
• Conform to avoid disapproval (be liked)
• Stage 4 Society maintaining law order
• Meeting societies standards
• Avoid legal consequences

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Administrative EthicsEthical Development

• Stage 5 Social contract
• Seeks to promote society rights for all
• Conform to maintain respect as a citizen
• Stage 6 Universal ethical principle
• Seeking to act in a ethically principled way
• Live up to personal values avoid self
  condemnation

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Administrative EthicsEthical Development

• Kohlberg believes that the stages always occur in
  order and that one always incorporates the values
  of one stage before advancing to the next stage
  of development
• Post conventional ethical reasoning is stage 5
  6 see page 20
• Is this the stage we should operate in?

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Administrative EthicsEthical Development

• It is not clear from research on moral
  development what proportion of adults attain
  level 5 6 of moral reasoning. Kohlberg found
  that most middle-class Americans were at stage 4
  (society law) and that persons at stage 5 6
  were uncommon.

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Administrative EthicsBasic Components

• Components of a basic model of Administrative
  Ethics
• Philosophical approaches to ethics
• Ethical thinking expressed by persons interested
  in public service without formal education in the
  ethics discipline of theory and education
• The Six Stages of ethical thinking

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Administrative EthicsBasic Components

• Three philosophical approaches of virtue,
  principle and consequence as they relate to Duty
  are suggested as a ethical system despite the
  interesting fact that consequentialism at this
  point is not a big factor in our ethical thinking
  as administrators.

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Administrative EthicsEthical Development

• Our focus at this point is the relationship
  between.
• Principle (fairness legality)
• Duty (serving the public interest)
• Virtue (honesty and integrity)
• Page 22 Review Appendix 1

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Administrative EthicsOther Definitional Issues

• Distinctions between
• Moral of or pertaining to human character or
  behavior, good /bad, right / wrong, good /evil
• Ethical in accordance with accepted principles
  of right and wrong that govern our profession
• Legal falling within the province of the law

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Administrative EthicsOther Definitional Issues

• In our further discussions from the book
• Morality the sense of right and wrong that a
  person has based on personal upbringing and
  commitment to the values of a variety of groups.
• Ethics the standards of right and wrong behavior
  that is voluntarily accepted by people who choose
  to be part of a professional group.

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Administrative Ethics

• Conclusion of chapter 2 page 25