Essay On Ethical Competence

Gayane Selimyan
Ethical Competency Essay
PA619 Public Management Seminar

When I was growing up and my character was being shaped, one of the things that bothered me the most was unfairness. Even when I had an opportunity to make a decision that would benefit me at the cost of others, I often restrained from it because I did not like the idea that it would be unfair to my sister, my family or my friends. As a child, my definition of unfairness was "an action that made some people happy while making others sad." It may not necessarily be the right definition, but it has always been the first item on my personal code of ethics.
As a journalist, I faced ethical dilemmas on a daily basis. Being a journalist and a young active citizen of a country

where corruption thrives and there is a lack of rule of law created even more ethical challenges for me. Many times while covering a massive political rally I had to remind myself that I was there as a journalist and not a participant of the rally. Oftentimes, it was particularly hard to do because emotions were on a high level and difficult to control. I frequently had to witness the police suppressing people's freedom of assembly. I had to remind myself to stay impartial and cover the events as they were unfolding instead of being part of them.
Even though I had my personal values as an active citizen, I had to follow the organizational code of conduct during my working hours. I also had to stay true to my profession. To give some context to the difficulty of my situation I have to mention that mass media is not well developed in Armenia. The government controls broadcasting TV channels and online news outlets are often affiliated with political parties. There are only a handful of unbiased news organizations, and, moreover, there are no set professional standards in the field and no pressure from the public either. Being unethical does not entail consequences in one's professional life. This environment made it very easy to cross the line between being ethical and unethical; yet, I knew that I was representing my organization and that my organization's image and reputation depended on its employees' actions.
Other cases of ethical challenges I have faced include having to choose between making sure the information was accurate prior to spreading it and publishing it fast before anyone else did, or making sure that an interviewee's viewpoints were not altered during the editing process or citing. I had to face even more ethical challenges when I was promoted to the position of Assignment Editor and Production Manager. At daily and weekly editorial meetings, I was the one responsible for deciding which stories got covered, which ones didn't, and which stories got most of the attention. Due to limited resources we couldn't cover everything and this opened a door for subjectivity.
In Achieving Competencies in Public Service, Bowman, West and Beck (2010) stress that public servants should base their decision on the common good.

However, deciding what constitutes common good is also subjective. They also suggest that good character is not enough for being an ethical leader, which is, definitely, my case. Although my intentions were good, looking back, I realize that I may have not always made an ethical decision. My decisions were based on my subjective understanding of the common good.
Ethics is central for any organization in treating employees fairly and helping the organization advance its mission. There is no single best way for dealing with ethical challenges, but it is very important for managers to develop ethical policies and procedures for implementation. To minimize possible unethical decisions by staff members, it is important to incorporate written standards grounded in organizational values in the code of conduct.
Although everyone has their own values and standards that guide them in their decisions, I believe that employees have to understand their role in an organization and make their decisions based on organizational values. That is why it is important to have a career in a field or in an institution with which one has shared

values.