The Responsible Public Servant - Second Edition by Kenneth Kernaghan

Are public servants responsible for the outcomes of government actions to which they contribute? Do they have an obligation to pursue the public interest? Are there limits on the extent of their loyalty to political masters? How do they avoid conflict of interest? Is it possible to accommodate the competing demands of openness and confidentiality, or personal privacy and public security? To whom are they accountable? How can they build a strong ethical culture in their organization or agency? This book examines these and other difficult questions faced by public servants trying to sort out what it means to be a responsible public servant in the 21st century. This is the second edition of a book that has become Canada’s best-selling volume on public service ethics. Thousands of students and government employees at the federal, provincial and municipal levels have used The Responsible Public Servant in the classroom and professional development workshops to guide their consideration of ethical dilemmas which public servants face on a daily basis. The new edition has the same focus and plain language approach as the original volume but is completely rewritten to reflect the impact of recent political, technological and societal changes on the role and responsibility of public servants. Each chapter contains short case studies based on real events to provide readers with an opportunity to test their views on the nature of responsible behavior. The Responsible Public Servant does not preach to the reader. Instead it encourages the habit of ethical discourse in the conduct of public affairs and argues that moral calculus is just as important to a public servant as technical analysis and operational skills. It challenges the reader to think about whether he or she is acting in a way that is ethically defensible.