No "Right" Answer

Hello again!  This week was full of ethical dilemmas!  Before you worry about my emotional state as I write this, I should mention that these were in the form of journal article reviews, and not personal problems, thankfully.  In my graduate course we were instructed to find current research on ethical topics and to post our reviews on the discussion board so that we could discuss them as a class.  Some of the topics that people chose were extremely interesting! 

I think the topic that hit closest to home for me was an article that examined the burnout rate of military healthcare providers.  I am not a military healthcare provider, but I do work at a substance abuse clinic on post where we are very short-staffed with counselors at the moment.  Unfortunately, our counselors are starting to feel the effects of burnout.  In this particular article, the correlation between leave days and an increased burnout rate were shown to have a direct relationship, with the more leave days that a person accrued, the higher the chance that they would reach burnout.  This makes sense to me because if a person does not ever take time off work to “recharge their batteries,” then how will they ever be able to function at 100%?  The military community in South Korea is very unique because of the rapid turnover rate for positions.  Many Soldiers are only stationed in Korea for one year, and then they are off to their new duty stations.  Civilians, like myself, are only allowed to stay for a maximum of five years before it is time to move to the next place.  It sometimes takes months, even a year, to fill a civilian position because of the specifications that have to be met in order to fill the positions.  This results in positions sitting vacant for excessive periods of time, and burnout can (and does) occur because others are trying to pick up the slack.  The ethical dilemma that arises out of this is that healthcare providers, while providing for others, need to take care of themselves—but at what cost?  Should they be forced to use up their vacation days (“use or lose”), even though they feel that they are neglecting patient care while they are gone?  Or should they take vacation, and try not to worry what will happen to their patients while they are away?  It creates an ethical dilemma, for sure, and it is one that is not easily solved.

Another extremely interesting topic from the article reviews this week focused on the ethics of torture in the War on Terrorism.  The questions remains: is torture ever morally justified?  We could go a step further and ask: is killing ever morally justified?  These questions are not easily answerable—at least not for me.  I believe that most things are situational, and I would have to know the absolute specifics to even speculate on my answers to those questions; nevertheless, they would be ethical dilemmas, indeed!

I watched a TED Talk video this week that involved animals and morality, and I found it incredibly interesting and enlightening.  I encourage everyone reading this post to watch it, as well.  It can be found here: http://www.ted.com/talks/frans_de_waal_do_animals_have_morals?utm_source=newsletter_daily&utm_campaign=daily&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button__2015-01-12.  There were many aspects that I found to be enlightening, but the most noteworthy was Frans de Waal’s notion of the two morality pillars.  He mentioned that reciprocity and fairness were underneath one pillar, and empathy and compassion were under the other.  While I am unsure if morality is truly founded with these two pillars, it definitely made me stop for a minute and evaluate my current notion of how society operates.

While I have never seen the entire movie of “Beetlejuice,” I did watch a clip this week that showed the afterlife, and strangely enough, it displayed public administration NOT at its finest!  I am shocked at the fact that in the movie, it was people who committed suicide who were sentenced to fulfill disgruntled public administrator’s roles for all of eternity.  What a way to inaccurately portray public administrators!  I like to believe that the majority of public administrators are in their positions because they have a passion for making the world a better place.  Maybe I am looking through a pair of rose-colored glasses, but I cannot help but feel that way.  It really is a sad fact that there can be a hundred people doing the “right” thing and trying to improve policies and programs for people, but it only takes one person to undo that all.  That one person then becomes the face of the field, and as a result, public administrators get a poor reputation.  So, how can we overcome this?  I think that one way that we can try is to be diligent in spreading the “good” news and our success stories.  I realize that scandals and human error makes for exciting entertainment; however, it is really taking a toll on the way that public administrators are perceived. 

Well, I would like to thank you for visiting my blog!  I hope your week was not riddled with ethical dilemmas, but in the chance that it was (or perhaps you just read about them like I did), please feel free to share them on the comments below!  Thank you! 

Black or White: I See Grey

Hello everyone!  My name is Angela, and I would like to welcome you to my blog.  I am a graduate student through Troy University, and I am currently working toward my Master of Public Administration.  I am starting this blog to take a closer look at ethical dilemmas and issues that arise within public administration.  I live in South Korea with my husband, and we both work on the military installation.  I am a Department of the Army Civilian and he is Active Duty.

Ethics is one of my favorite subjects to discuss because there is not always a clearly defined "right" and "wrong" answer to the question at hand.  Instead of viewing choices as simply "black or white," we really need to consider the "grey" possibilities.  Society undoubtedly has its own set of norms that people adhere to, but when a topic concerning an ethical dilemma gets brought to the table, debates often ensue.  I enjoy a good debate, and I look forward to challenging comments that really make me think about my own beliefs.  I am on a journey to figure out how to act in the utmost ethical manner, especially in a leadership role.  So let's get started.

This week our assigned readings covered the foundations that coincide with ethics in public administration.  This touched on everything from the relevance of ethics to the "poppycock" of it all (if you're as unfamiliar with that term as I was, it simply refers to the myths that are associated with ethics).  In the upcoming weeks I will be discussing the individual and the institutional ethical approaches, as well as the dilemmas that arise from them.  To wrap the blog up, I will be discussing the key issues that I find within public service.  I plan on supplementing those with actual scenarios that I encounter in regards to ethical dilemmas, as well as ethical issues in movies that I watch throughout the next few months. 

At work this week I received an email that stated that everyone had to comply with the attached "Living the Army Ethic: Why & How We Serve" training.  How convenient for this topic, right?  The Army pushes out trainings on a regular basis, so this was nothing new, but the fact that this week’s training was on ethics definitely peaked my interest.  Anyway, the training consisted of opening the attachment, and clicking on the link that was provided to watch a short video on why we serve.  Ethics truly do have a valuable place in everything that we do.  If you would like to check out the video, here is the link: http://cape.army.mil/videos/living-the-army-ethic-why-and-how-we-serve. 

This week in my graduate course we were instructed to take a philosopher quiz to determine which philosopher we identify with most.  I was hoping that I would get a well-known, influential philosopher as my match--such as Socrates or Plato.  That was not the case, though.  Instead, I was matched with someone who I had never heard of before: Nel Noddings.  It turns out, though, that she is actually quite fascinating.  She is like the Mother Teresa of the philosophy world.  I say that because her philosophy is primarily about helping and caring for people!  How does that relate to me?  Well, I have always thought of myself as a "helpful" person, and I like to take care of people.  Is it wrong of me to admit that I like it when my husband is not feeling well because I get to take care of him?  Sorry, Kyle!  That is just it, though: I love being able to help people when they need it!  It is almost like I was born with this burning desire inside me to be a life-long helper to anyone in need, or was this something that I have learned to be over the years?

That brings me to my next question concerning the long-standing “nature versus nurture” debate.  Where do you stand on this topic?  I have positioned myself pretty firmly on the "nurture" side, and I believe that ethics and morals are the result of societal influences and interactions, as opposed to purely nature.  Sure, genetics may have something to do with it.  I am not eliminating that possibility.  However, I think it is undeniable that nurture plays the more significant role.  I would be interested to hear what you think on this debate!

If you found my page through a roundabout manner, here is the URL in case you would like to come back for future posts: www.ACloserLookAtEthics.blogspot.com.  Please feel free to leave comments and debate the ethical topics with me.  I will be updating my blog every week.  Thank you for visiting my site!