The Search for Ethical Competency

Ethical competency is a matter of great importance in the public sector. The search for and promotion of ethical competence has most recently focused on professional organizations and their constituencies. Efforts to ascertain techniques for building and maintaining ethical competence are of particular interest. Not surprisingly, formal codes of ethics have become the centerpiece of discussion, but there is no consensus as to their effectiveness. Codes that include both aspirational goals and operational guidelines seem to better support the search for ethical competency, especially when they provide enforcement mechanisms.