Civil servants occupy an important position and play a crucial role in public services. The civil servants (medical professionals, social workers, firefighters, police officers, politicians and judges) follow strict codes of ethics and moral principles in order to meet organizational principles and social needs of the population. Their ethical and moral principles are based on moral and social responsibility issues, fair treatment of customers and colleagues. Clients served by civil servants will have no choice but to rely upon professionals for expert advice. Civil servants should assume to have a command of a complicated and changing subject matter; that is why they have been hired. But this also means that clients are rarely able to evaluate the professional’s competence. This is true in criminal justice as well as in the other professions. In criminal justice this is a more complex notion because of the issue of third parties.
Ethically legitimate functions of the civil servants are to provide professional help and advice for people in need and prevent disasters and deaths. Clients served by civil servants have no choice but to rely upon their doctors, lawyers, or consulting services organization in difficult and emergency situations. Professionals are assumed to have a command of a complicated and changing subject matter; that is why they have been hired. But this also means that clients are rarely able to evaluate the professional’s competence (Stone 2004). This is true among civil servants as well as in the other professions. In social services organization this is a more complex notion because of the issue of third parties. In any event, the professional expert is expected to serve the client’s and not his own (or his firm’s) best interests. Public confidence is based upon this foundation of trust.
Codes, and their enforcement, play a strong role in maintaining such public confidence. Ethically legitimate functions of the civil servants have a special reason to desire public support of their endeavors: businesses whose financial statements are audited pay for the civil services. Those who receive and rely upon published financial information must be confident of the independence of the professionals who conducted the audit. The new codes of civil services standards come at a time when business in general is feeling pressure to have a code of ethics. Most services employees work in a unique environment and those who do not interface with it. They therefore might find themselves confronted with two codes that could even be contradictory. Many social and civil services will bristle at the notion of lay persons regulating the profession. There is a not so subtle warning in statements such as these; the proper response to criticism is to ascertain any truth in the criticism. Where fault is found, correct it. To ignore this advice is to risk the specter of having outsiders do it for the profession, perhaps in a heavy-handed way (Moore & Bruder 2008).
Ethically legitimate functions of the civil servants are not without their critics with respect to their professional responsibilities. Public organization is finding itself increasingly in the glare of publicity surrounding several issues of professional responsibility. The most prominently publicized are the responsibility of detecting fraud and the appropriateness of auditing the same firm for whom one has provided civil services. Ethically legitimate functions of the civil servants are also being asked to re-examine their perspective of who receives their service. Despite efforts at developing certification procedures and codes of ethics, those not in public practice have faced skepticism about their claims to professionalism (Stone 2004).
In order to review the ethical problems, the problem-solving method will be used. Professions rigidly guard entry. The knowledge possessed by each profession is a source of power for that profession. Through their publications, meetings, examination syllabi, and other activities, various professional associations have historically played a role in defining and furthering the technical aspects of the profession, deciding who is competent to practice in that profession, and elaborating the discourse carried on by that particular profession (Moore & Bruder 2008).
All civil servants have high standards for those licensed (or accredited) to practice them. Codes and standards, even oaths, are commonly encountered for doctors and lawyers, engineers and teachers, nurses and social workers. To be a professional is to achieve special status; the acquisition and maintenance of important skills is presumed for members of the profession. Above all, a professional achieves a new “identity” on entering a profession. Civil services are perhaps a little harder to tell from their non-professional business colleagues, but a conservative gray or navy business suit and audit bag at least provide evidence. The acronym after the name and membership in a professional society are other sure signs of special status. Most authorities agree that a profession is characterized by four important elements. Civil servants are thus exclusive in nature. This exclusiveness makes the professional designation more valuable to its members. This value comes from both the obvious economic rewards available to successful professionals and from certain privileges granted by society to professions.
Business References
Moore, B. N., & Bruder, K. (2008). Philosophy: The power of ideas (7th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Stone, B. (2004). Confessions of a Civil Servant: Lessons in Changing America’s Government and Military. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.; 1st Pbk Ed edition.