The Responsible Administrator: An Approach to Ethics for the Administrative Role Review

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The Responsible Administrator: An Approach to Ethics for the Administrative Role ReviewTerry L. Cooper's The Responsible Administrator will someday (if not already) be listed by successful and respected public administration practitioners as one of the books that had the most influence on their careers. Those who list it as such will probably have a well-worn copy on their library shelf because it is not a piece that is read through once - even very carefully, word for word - with the reader then declaring, "Now I see how it should be done." Rather, it is a book that increases in utility as one's experience in decision-making and working through administrative ethical dilemmas increases. For this reason, its greatest impact will be on practitioners, as opposed to students and academics. Nevertheless, although it is certainly realistic about, and empathetic with the day-to-day decision-making and ethical conflicts faced by public administrators, it is nonetheless theoretically thorough and academically thoughtful.
Cooper is obviously a scholar of the philosophical and moral issues surrounding public administration and decision making. In addition to his own thoughtful analysis and theory, he provides a comprehensive and thorough review of literature relating to each item of discussion, as well as on-point case studies that amplify the ethical complexities and difficulties challenging today's administrators. Fortunately for practitioners, he is not content to conclude his treatise with conceptual, theoretical and philosophical analysis of ethical problems, but suggests a design approach for dealing with both the short-term decision-making situations and the long-term organizational, political, legal, cultural, policy and procedural issues faced by administrators as they attempt to make balanced and ethical decisions.
The manner in which Cooper presents his case studies allows the reader to interact and find conceptual application. Each one is "based on reality and fictionalized only slightly to protect those who wrote them" (p. xxi), and is very illustrative and thought provoking regarding the ethical problems being discussed. However, they are always left unresolved. Cooper says, "To indicate an outcome [in each case] would diminish the experience of dilemma they are calculated to evoke" (p. xxi). This emphasizes the ultimate purpose of The Responsible Administrator which "is to illuminate the ethical situation of the public administrator and cultivate imaginative reflection about it - not to prescribe a particular set of public service values" (p. xxi). Although the volume leaves no doubt in the reader's mind that its author has strong opinions and a well-established belief structure, it makes no attempt to proselytize the reader with a substantive system of moral values or standards for public administrators.
The premise of The Responsible Administrator is that public administrators, in fulfilling their administrative responsibilities, are faced with complex and ambiguous ethical issues which force them to juggle multiple compelling factors: the facts of each situation; their own personal values and beliefs; and external obligations and institutional norms. Through the process of resolving these issues in specific and concrete situations, administrators define administrative responsibility and develop an operational ethic for themselves. Over time, "this working ethic becomes the substance of one's professional character" (p. 6).
The book focuses on providing a method whereby a design system can be developed and utilized by administrators to formulate their responsibility in dealing with conflict, tension, uncertainty and risk. "A basic assumption of this book is that the more we consciously address and systematically process the ethical dimensions of decision making when we confront significant issues, the more responsible we become in our work as administrators. It is then that we are able to account for our conduct to superiors, the press, the courts, and the public" (p. 17).The decision-making model Cooper proposes consists of four initial steps: "defining the ethical problem, describing the context, identifying the range of alternative courses of action, and projecting the probable consequences of each" (p. 245). He then prescribes stepping beyond this initial linear exercise to the "nonlinear process of searching for a fit among several considerations: moral rules, ethical principles, anticipatory self-appraisal, and a rehearsal of defenses" (p. 245). Thus, the model is a pragmatic leveling of the rational and behavioral playing fields of responsible decision making.
One chapter in The Responsible Administrator is dedicated to understanding the administrative role as it relates to the social and cultural context in which it functions. Therein he poses the question of how one sorts out "the priority of obligations between those of being a citizen in a democratic society and those associated with being a public administrator" (p. 37). This is a theme explored in even greater detail in The Spirit of Public Administration (1997), wherein H. George Frederickson concludes that the public administrator must act as a "representative citizen." Cooper suggests that the theories of Weber and Wilson regarding the separation of politics from administration are no longer viable in a postmodern society. Today, public administrators play a substantive political role and need to acknowledge their high degree of accountability to the citizenry, while at the same time being a member of the citizenry. An ethical struggle can develop, therefore, leading to confusion for the public administrator when carrying out the orders of superiors and being loyal to the organization is in conflict with his or her duty to uphold the public interest.
The Responsible Administrator is not a book that will provide much satisfaction to public servants who are looking for the answer to the question, "Why should I be moral?" But for administrators in public service who are looking for a guide to assist them in developing an operation ethic - an "ethical identity" (p. 7) - Cooper delivers. Those who commit to and adopt his design methodology should do so only if they are prepared for an ongoing and maturational process. Cooper is not proposing a read-it-once and master-it-forever theory. Rather, he is calling for public administrators to commence a life-long journey of cultivating intuitive decision-making skills, resulting in responsibility and accountability to superiors, subordinates, the law, the public and themselves.The Responsible Administrator: An Approach to Ethics for the Administrative Role Overview

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