CHAPTER 3: Creating an Ethical Culture in Local Government

Ethics in local government has to do with the behavior—specifically the moral behavior—of the elected officials, public employees, and professional administrators who work to carry out the operations of the government. The extent to which a local government’s organizational behavior measures up to society’s standards is typically used to gauge its ethicality—and this is true for the individuals representing the government as well as the organization itself. There are a variety of societal standards for behavior, of course, so ethical behavior is often characterized with respect to such standards as the law, organizational policies, professional and trade association codes, popular expectations regarding fairness and rightness, plus one’s own (and the surrounding society’s) internalized moral standards—”the way we expect things to be done around here.”