For this assignment, we will discuss the conflicts that occur among the competing ethics of the various personal, professional, organizational, and social realms. Each public administrator has his or her own personal ethics, which may come into conflict with the institution or with the actions or statements of co-workers and superiors. For example, a person who places high value on personal honesty may have trouble in a job with a security clearance that requires secrecy.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

Analyze the role of ethics in public administration.
Distinguish the values inherent to public administrators.
Summarize the concept of a hierarchy of ethics and the four levels of the hierarchy.
Application: Describe a real-world situation in which a local, state or federal government employee faced an ethical dilemma because of the conflict of two or more of these levels of ethics.
Evaluate the real-world situation at each level of ethics. Address any of these questions that are appropriate:
Which level should take priority & why?
What is the effect of personal self-interest in dealing with the dilemma?
What is the role of organizational self-interest?
What is the role of Christian values?