Ethics and Issues in Public Administration Journal

An occasion in which a public sector leader acted in an unethical manner was when he unquestioningly accepted a potentially damaging organizational culture that he inherited from the previous administration. The leader did not stop to consider that the culture of the government that he was now in charge of was rife with corruption and long time staffers who were engaged in all manner of schemes that served to benefit them, friends, and so on—particularly through the rewarding of contracts to friends, getting money for unnecessary jobs, spying, abuse, harassment, and so on. The leader accepted the culture as just the way the office was run and did not try to fix it, thinking that if this was the way it worked under his predecessor it must be okay.

It turned out to be not okay when a particular grievance was filed by a female staffer against several upper level leaders who reported directed to the public sector official in charge. The grievance was made public and the local press swarmed all over the office, and soon other grievances were coming to light. The leader was shamed for not being more vigilant in running his office and since some of the allegations that came to light had occurred under his watch (though many had occurred under his predecessor) he still ended up taking the fall for overseeing a rotten organizational culture. He resigned from office and his reputation was ruined as a public leader. He moved away from the town and was never heard of again.

What I would have done to prevent the problems from occurring would have been to conduct an audit of the culture and to get rid of problem staffers who were not helping to promote a positive culture of respect and transparency. I would have also obtained feedback from anyone with a grievance regarding actors under my or the previous administration and dealt with these to the extent that the law provided.