Exploring Administrative Evil: Ethics and Challenges in Public Sector

This essay examines the concept of administrative evil within public administration, highlighting the crucial role of ethics in leadership and decision-making. It analyzes how administrative evils, despite ethical standards, persist in society, affecting the relationship between public administrators and the public. Drawing from the work of scholars like Philip Hallie, Danny Balfour, and Guy Adams, the essay discusses different types of ethics, such as deontological and teleological ethics, and their application in judging individual behavior in the public sector. It further explores the challenges posed by administrative evil, particularly when administrators face conflicting notions about their roles and decisions, leading to phenomena like 'agentic shift.' The essay concludes that while ethical standards are essential, administrative evil remains a persistent aspect of society, necessitating a continuous effort to balance checks, ensure ethical conduct, and promote effective and just governance. Desklib provides access to this essay and many more resources to aid students in their studies.

Running Head: PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
Public Administration
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Public Administration
Introduction
Public administration largely covers how leaders and their subjects interact on a daily basis.
The manner in which leaders treat their subjects determines how positive the environment
or society will be. Public administration cannot be successfully achieved without the
inclusion of ethics in one’s leadership. According to Philip Hallie, society has been at war for
many years with human beings acting cruelly towards each other, (Belle & Cantarelli, 2017,
328). Many at times, humans strive hard to invent methods of oppressing or punishing
others. The evils faced in the administrative sector have been analyzed by Danny Balfour
and Guy Adams in their article “Unmasking Administrative Evil”
Analysis
According to Guy and Danny, administrative evil is a challenge especially to the ethical
foundations which are depended on by public life. This is mainly brought out by the absence
of knowledge and the desire to learn about administrative evils which are part of the
society. It is worth noting that despite the presence of ethical standards set, administrative
evils will still exist thus making it hard for public administrators to have a good rapport with
some members of the public, (Adams, 2015, 558). The authors further expound on the types
of ethics such as deontological and teleological ethics that are mainly used in the modern
age. Through this, individual behavior can be judged hence determining whether his or her
actions are either right or wrong. In public administration, decision making is paramount.
Leaders have to make decisions on a daily basis and with the help of ethical standards, the

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right decisions can be made. However, few leaders do not adhere to ethics, by, for example,
entertaining corrupt practices. This shows how administrative evil becomes part of society,
(Time, 2018, 250).
Administrative evil becomes a challenge in itself especially when administrators have to act
in a good way despite having different notions about the role or decisions they are involved
in. this is mainly termed as “agentic shift”. As years pass by, individuals tend to go against
organizational moorings that were used in the past. Community practices that were
regarded highly such as respecting an elective position are slowly fading away especially
with the new world order in place.
Summary
Administrative evils are part of the society and this is seen as a factor by many that attempts
to keep checks and balances. For instance, policies set by a minority may not favor the daily
operations which are needed by the majority, (Cardenas & Ramirez, 2017, 81). This makes
certain leaders to “bend the rules’ so that the right thing is seen to be done. Ethics also
come in and leaders have the mandate to do what is just and right so that it good
administrative deeds are accomplished.
Conclusion
Administrative evils are well known to be part of the society with the aspect of ethics taking
center stage. Administrators have to act ethically so that their positions have value and
meaning to society. As such, administrators should be seen to perform their duties in
accordance with norms of efficiency, legality, and effectiveness. However, despite the

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ethical standards that administrators have to work with, administrative evil will still become
part of the society.

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References
Adams, G., & Balfour, D. (2015). Unmasking administrative evil. ME Sharpe. Pages 555- 561
Belle, N., & Cantarelli, P. (2017). What Causes Unethical Behavior? A Meta Analysis to Set an‐
Agenda for Public Administration Research. Public Administration Review, 77(3),
327-339.
Cardenas, S., & Ramirez de la Cruz, E. E. (2017). Controlling administrative discretion
promotes social equity? Evidence from a natural experiment. Public Administration
Review, 77(1), 80-89.
Time, K. (2018). Public Policy and the Administrative Evil of Special Education. In The
Palgrave Handbook of Philosophy and Public Policy (pp. 249-262). Palgrave
Macmillan, Cham.