Normative education: putting the public servant in public service.

Publication: Global Virtue Ethics Review

Publication Date: 01-JUL-04

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Southern Public Administration Education Foundation, Inc.

Abstract

Two distinct approaches to public service and public service education can be identified--the rational approach and the normative approach. This article advocates the use of the normative approach to education, which would focus on developing stewardship, honesty, integrity, democratic participation, social equity, and benevolence. Using the humanistic techniques of servant leadership, educators and professionals would role model these values through authentic communication, while recognizing the ethical implications of all their decisions and actions.

Introduction

A normative approach to public service education focuses on stewardship, honesty, integrity, social equity, and democratic participation in all aspects of administration. This approach encompasses the ideals of Frederickson's (Frederickson, 1996) new public administration, Denhardt and Denhardt's (2000) new public service, and the American Society of Public Administration's (ASPA) Code of Ethics. The public administrator, educated using this normative approach, becomes a servant leader (Greenleaf, 1980), who is motivated by a concern for the well-being of others, rather than by self-interest focused on personal gain.

In this paper two approaches to public service are identified--the rational and the normative approaches, and the components of the normative approach are developed. Second, the link between public service and servant leadership is established, and the need for normative education is made based on the work of Kohlberg (1981). Then we develop a normative paradigm of public service that utilizes the core beliefs of servant leadership, and we identify individual strategies to implement this paradigm shift in public service and public service education.

Rational Public Service

Two distinct approaches to public service can be identified, the rational and the normative approaches, based on the public sector motivational framework developed by Perry and Wise (1990). The rational approach to motivation is based on utility maximization with individuals oriented toward economic self-interest focusing on economic rewards (Perry, 1996; Perry and Wise, 1990).

The rational approach to public service is supported by agency theory, contract theory, shareholder value maximization, public choice theory, and transaction cost theory. The reinvention of government movement, along with revitalization, and reengineering that dominated the public management literature in the 1990s focused on changing the culture of government operations to the rational, economic model (Frederickson, 1997; Hays and Whitney, 1997). However, several authors have stressed the need to take another approach and to focus on other values (Fox, 1996; Frederickson, 1997; Deleon and Denhardt, 2000; Schachter, 1997; Terry, 1993, 1998). The alternative to the rational approach is a normative one, which will be discussed in the next section.

Normative Public Service

In this approach to public service, two categories of motives (norm-based and affective) are combined into what has been called the public service ethic. First, norm-based motives are rooted in a desire to serve the public interest, requiring individuals to act as trustees of the state's power. Second, affective motives for public service are seen as compassion or love for all people and a willingness to sacrifice personal need to meet the needs of a larger public (Perry, 1996; Perry and Wise, 1990).

Perry and Wise (1990) believe that normative public service motivation consists of "a desire to serve the public interest, loyalty to duty and to the government as a whole, and social equity" (Perry and Wise, 1990, p. 369). This normative approach to public service is identified as the "public service ethic." Brewer (2000) writes, "this public service ethic is thought to attract certain individuals to government service and foster work behaviors that are consistent with the public interest" (Brewer, Selden, Sally, and Facer, 2000; p. 254). This ethic of service has been envisioned as an attitude, a sense of civic duty, and a sense of public morality (Buchanan, 1975; Staats, 1988), which is norm-based motivation. However, others identify the public service ethic with affective motivation seeing the desire to serve the public as altruistic (Downs, 1967), which can be understood as the "process of getting pleasure from giving to others what you yourself would like to receive" (Vaillant 1974, cited in Harvey 1999). Another way of describing the public service ethic is as"patriotism of benevolence" expressed as a love for people within the country (Frederickson and Hart, 1985).

At its simplest, this public service ethic is based on altruism over self-interest. In the past, research indicated that public sector employees are more interested than private sector employees in altruistic and ideological goals, such as helping others rather than in monetary rewards (Rainey, 1982). However the predominance of the rational approach to public administration at the end of the 20th century ignored the altruistic components of public service, prompting Frederickson (1996) and Denhardt and Denhardt (2000) to articulate the normative approach as either new public administration or new public service.

In 1996, Frederickson advocated that the profession de-emphasize the market values of the reinventing government movement and focus on new public administration. He argued...

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