How Ethics Can Be Instilled in an Organization

Ethics in Organizational Culture

The National Park Service (NPS) is a government agency that was established in the early 20th century and based upon the ideas and plans of the 19th century frontier and public leaders to conserve the parks and lands that were full of beautiful wonders like Yellowstone (Kurtz, 2003). The organizational culture that emerged out of the ambitious and "can-do" mentality of the early founders of the NPS promoted a cultural sense of pride that was not always linked to ability, as the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the NPS's response to it showed. While the NPS's mandate from the government is to preserve and maintain the ecological environments entrusted to its oversight, it was not the best organization prepared to handle the oil spill that spread to devastate numerous parks and national treasures of the U.S. (Kurtz, 2003). By refusing to communicate with the Incident Command System (ICS) in place at the time to respond to such disasters and attempting to lead the way based on the assertiveness of right and sense of pride that the organization had fostered in its leaders over the years, the NPS guaranteed that the oil spill would be as bad as it possibly could be. The organization failed to coordinate with the groups and teams that could have actually helped stem the flow of oil and as a result show how its own unethical practice of blocking communications among agencies got in the way of its actual mandate, which was to preserve the parks. By thinking it could save them alone without the help of external forces, the NPS showed that an organization's ethical standards and policies should value humility and communications above pride and self-centeredness.

Thus it was that the organization's culture helped to influence the creation of its ethical policies by laying a foundation of hubris that led to the organization's inability to effectively manage and handle a situation for which it was not prepared. Its "can-do" culture got in the way of the fact that it did not know how to correctly handle an oil spill, and instead of accepting assistance it left groups like the ICS out "out of the loop" of the response (Kurtz, 2003). The practice of always relying on itself had in the past led to successful efforts to fight forest fires -- but the oil spill was not a fire and required a different method of approach.

For the NPS, its "spirit of mission" was rooted in the legacy that had been passed down from generation (Samaan, Verneuil, 2009): it had viewed itself as the fighting front, the first and last line of defense. It viewed other organizations as outsiders that did not have the same mandate that it did to protect the nation's environmental treasures. Its cultural tradition was to depend upon itself and promote itself as the responsible agent for the nation's parks, yet it did not have the expertise to handle specific emergency situations like the Exxon Valdez oil spill, which resulted in the destruction of several landmarks. Instead of managing risk by providing a system of internal controls and external communication protocols, the organization concentrated mainly on asserting its authority in various activities connected to the preservation of parks; so long as there was no danger to parks that was beyond its scope, the organization was never exposed as having any faults. A measure of internal auditing by a risk management team could have prevented this weakness, but the ethical system in place did not focus on transparency and authenticity; it focused on pride and sense of self-worth. A little more humility, servant leadership, communication with other organizations could have helped NPS be more prepared for the Exxon spill. Instead, the organization was worried that any exposure of a lack of "know-how" might cut into its funding and cause it to lose its governmental standing/mandate. It was more willing to pose as authoritative than it was to actually be an authority on preservation in any circumstance or situation.

Public administrators might use internal and external controls to maintain responsible conduct in the public organization by conducting audits using internal and external auditing firms so that it can receive a fair and balanced viewpoint of its own efficiencies and weaknesses. By promoting a culture of transparency and authenticity as well as communication with outside organizations, NPS could act as an integrated and integral part of a network of response teams ready to face any crisis involving the environment under its oversight.