VALUES IN FLUX - ADMINISTRATIVE ETHICS AND THE HONG-KONG PUBLIC-SERVANT

The ethical orientations of senior civil servants in Hong Kong are exa mined using survey data from a sample of 279 officials involved in adv anced training and university professional training programs. These pu blic officials were found to identify strongly with the classical idea l constituted by administrative neutrality, loyalty to hierarchy, and respect for organizational rules. However indications of more assertiv e personal values independent of the organization were discovered. Thi s erosion of neutrality is characterized by espousal of liberal values such as fairness, equality, justice, honesty, integrity human dignity , and individual freedom. The extent to which these values reflect a l atent professional ethic as an autonomous basis for moral judgment and conduct remains unclear Although at present these administrators expe rience little incongruence between the rules and norms of the organiza tion and their liberal values, whenever presented with a hypothetical conflict they tend to opt for loyalty to the bureaucratic hierarchy.