Debra W. Stewart

Moral Reasoning in the Context of Reform: A Study of Russian Officials

This article reports on an exploratory study of ethical reasoning among public administrators in Russia. Survey interviews and focus group follow-ups with civil servants participating in graduate training programs at the Russian Academy of Public Service provide information about their preferred mode of ethical reasoning; the demographic, attitudinal, organizational, and professional factors associated with that reasoning; and the behavioral choices implied. Using a sample of 113 public officials who represent a broad spectrum of regions in Russia, this study assesses moral reasoning, examines variables associated with alternative models, and compares these responses with findings from studies conducted in Poland and the United States. Based on this exploratory study, we suggest implications for theory, research, and practice.

Ethical Reasoning in a Time of Revolution: A Study of Local Officials in Poland

Polands transition from communism to democracy was marked by rhetoric that expressed democratic principles as the basis for organizing political life. Given the fundamentally moral message of the radical transformation throughout Eastern Europe, we would expect officials assuming office in these times to be strongly motivated by ethical principles as a basis for decision making. Arguably, office seekers would be idealists who believed that the principled rhetoric of the revolution could come to fruition in governmental actions. And this might be particularly true for elected officials who were obliged to organize beliefs based on principle into a political platform. Furthermore, we would expect the new decision makers in the initial stages to shun mindless deference to established rules, since their entire political context was marked by a rejection of established rules and the absence of a recent tradition that would provide a cultural framework for obedience to the law. In this context one might assume that only the former Communist Party officials who survived the transition in government would hold fast to the protection of the law as the basis for decision making in ambiguous moral situations. A focus group held with public administrators in Warsaw in the fall of 1990 reinforced these inferences. When we asked these officials to reflect on how they would handle an ethical dilemma in the workplace, we found that principled reasoning strongly outranked deference to law or rules as their preferred basis for decision making. This reinforced our assumption that if principled reasoning could ever guide public decision making, it would emerge strongly to guide those who assumed the mantle of public office in the new regime in Poland. With this set of expectations we undertook a study of the systems of moral reasoning which public officials in newly democratic Poland employed as they resolved ethical dilemmas in their work lives. Since most of our studies in the United States had focused on local officials, we held that focus in Poland. However, though our U.S. studies (Stewart and Sprinthall, 1994) included only appointed public administrators, the fluid political situation in Poland warranted including a comparison group of elected Polish local officials as well. The Background Though public administration literature is rich with analyses of codes (Chandler, 1983; Plant, 1994), climates (Bonczek, 1992; Bonczek and Menzel, 1994), and criminal sanctions (Doig, 1983; Doig, Phillips and Mason, 1984) as they relate to ethical decision making, research on individuals and their ethical choices in public office settings is not extensive. We do know much about how people generally reason in moral situations (Kohlberg, 1981; Rest, 1979, 1986) and that these reasoning patterns hold across cultures (Snarey, 1985). Working with Lawrence Kohlbergs stage model of moral maturity, we also know that there is a substantial degree of consistency between individual behavior and the moral judgment stage particularly at the more advanced levels (Blasi, 1980). Further, we know that the moral development research carried out in Poland since 1984 has confirmed the universal developmental trend toward principled reasoning determined by level of education and cognitive ability (Jasinska-Kania, 1988, 1989). In addition the research of Lind, Grocholweska, and Langer (1987) in Austria, West Germany, and Poland has further supported the cross-cultural validity of Kohlbergs moral development theory. However, only two empirical studies were relevant to a focus on public officials and their traits, beliefs, personal choices, and actions in relation to their ethical choices. Bowman (1990) has studied perceptions regarding ethics in society and government as well as overall organizational approaches to moral standards in a sample of 750 federal, state, and local officials who were members of ASPA in 1989. Stewart and Sprinthall have conducted studies of moral reasoning among North Carolina (1994) and Florida (1992) public administrators using an instrument built on the moral development theory of Lawrence Kohlberg. …

Theoretical Foundations of Ethics in Public Administration Approaches to Understanding Moral Action

Ethical action in public administration needs to be informed by more than human intuitions. To make correct intuitive judgments about right and wrong, decision makers can be guided by moral philosophy. The works of three philosophers, R. M. Hare, John Rawls, and A lasdair Macintyre, are considered in this regard; the strengths and weaknesses of each, as applied to public administration, are assessed. Implications for scholarship and teaching in administrative ethics are considered.

Women and Men in the Project of Reform A Study of Gender Differences among Local Officials in Two Provinces in Poland

Are there politically relevant differences between female and male local government officials in postcommunist Poland? In structured interviews with 485 local officials in two provinces, the authors explored differences in terms of ethical reasoning and attitudes toward anomalous groups. Women more strongly favored a model of ethical reasoning characterized by a concern for abstract principles of social cooperation than did their male counterparts. On attitudes toward anomalous groups, women were more temperate than men on the issues of participation by former communists in contemporary government and men had a less favorable view than women on participation of women in politics generally. Based on this study, gender may make a difference in the practice of government in contemporary Poland.

Lustration in poland and the former czechoslovakia: a study in decommunization

This article examines the process of decommunization in Poland and the former Czechoslovakia as it impacted opportunity for public services employment in elected or civil service offices. In each setting we describe the motivations expressed for and against lustration in the public service, explain the patterns of decommunization in each country and consider these events from legal, ethical and political points of view.

Evaluating Affirmative Action Programs: A Case Study

This article describes an evaluation conducted on a single affirmative action training program. It demonstrates the type of information an evaluation contains, alerts readers to the possibility for evaluation in their own organization, and raises questions regarding whether training programs designed to change attitudes are sufficient if behavioral change is needed.

Bakke and beyond: Cooperation and Power Sharing in the Federal System

In the spring of 1974, Alan Bakke was denied admission to the University of California at Davis Medical School for the fourth time. He promptly brought suit in the California state court system, alleging that his rejection constituted a violation of the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a similar provision in the California Constitution and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. A trial court upheld Mr. Bakkes claim, but called for proof that he would have been admitted had the Davis affirmative action program not been in effect. At the appellate level, the Superior Court of California held, without reference to the state constitution or federal statute, that the Davis program was invalid under the Fourteenth Amendment. The effect of this decision was to shift the burden of proof from Bakke to the university. To deny admission to Bakke, the university now had to establish that he would not have been admitted had there been no affirmative action plan. As the university could not so demonstrate, the California Supreme Court, the next level of appeal,