Reinventing public personnel management: Ethical implications for managersand public personnel systems

The need to ensure responsible administration in government is an imperativ e concern for the field of public management. The interest in administrativ e responsibility is crucial because public administrators are the people wh o place government into action. They manage and direct the operations of fe deral, state, and local organizations providing essential services and prog rams. They issue directives and regulations, which give meaning to public p olicy, and in the process, substantive policy choices are made. In addition , in these capacities, government administrators act on behalf of the peopl e. Ultimately, they must be accountable to the public interest. As a conseq uence, public servants bear important moral and ethical obligations. Indeed , much of the history of public administration in the United States has foc used on the question of how those obligations might best be met.