Personal Ethical Responsibilities Federal Agencies

Personal Ethical Responsibilities within Agencies

1. Executive agencies and power of executive orders

a. Should or can an executive agency rebel against an executive order if the agents of that executive agency feel they have an ethical duty to do so?

Technically and practically, it is impossible. An executive order issued by the United States president is a directive for the executive branch and has to be implemented by the government. Normally, given the formulating an executive order and the various professionals in the white house, an executive order will be ethical and legal. Thus, it will be required for the relevant administrative agencies to implement the orders. However, if an executive order is illegal, the many checks and balances in the US Governance system work to filter it out. For example, Executive Order 12954 issued by President Bill Clinton in 1995, which sought to stop the federal government from contracting organizations that had strike-breakers on their payroll (Edwards, 1999), was considered to present legal conflicts. Thus, the federal appeals court overturned it. From this viewpoint, it is evident that if an agency feels they need to rebel against an executive order based on ethics, then there are legal channels available to seek redress. From an individual viewpoint, if a single employee feels that an executive order is not ethical, then the options available are to resign from their position.

b. Can they legally rebel against an executive order from the president?

Yes, but it is an exercise in futility. In January 2017, the then-acting US attorney instructed the Justice Department not to defend President Trump’s new executive order on immigration policies. This decision was based on a personal conviction that defending the executive order was consistent with the responsibility of standing for what’s right and that the orders were unlawful (Fullerton, 2017). Based on this, it is concluded that an executive agency can rebel against an executive order from the president. However, Yates was fired and replaced with Dana Boente, who oversaw the implementation of the executive orders. This is because, once an executive order has been issued, it is active and can only be revoked by the president, the congress, or a court declaring it unlawful (Kessler, 2017).

c. In other words, can they use their personal ethical model to usurp the institutional one?

Personal ethics is a crucial element for the workplace, in addition to professional ethics. Personal ethics determine what an individual considers as being right and what is wrong, and thus, it is a guide for decisions an individual makes in the workplace. Personal ethics will determine how an employee handles specific situations, how they grow and develop within their career (Griffin, Kruger & Maturana, 2017). This is not different for employees of the various executive agencies in the US. Personal ethics is critical, and with the US being a democratic jurisdiction, government employees are allowed to usurp institutional ethics based on their racial model. However, this is not common for employees of the various executive agencies as the most common practice is resignation when employees think they cannot compromise on their ethics.

d. Explain how that conflict between worldviews could be peacefully resolved.

The conflict between personal ethics and workplace requirements can be solved through peacemaking theory (Banks, 2020). The theory of peacemaking is closely related to care ethics, and they emphasize relationships, caring, and mindfulness. This theory can be implemented to resolve workplace conflicts where personal ethics conflict with workplace requirements. The responsibility rests with the team management to ensure that individuals are not assigned or forced to take on tasks that conflict with their ethics, requiring caring and mindful of others.

2. Administrative agencies and providing public access to their records

a. What ethical responsibilities do employees of an administrative agency have concerning access to the information?

Freedom of Information (FOI) Act gives the citizenry the right to request and received information from government agencies. In doing so, government agencies have an ethical responsibility to follow the existing tests and procedures to ensure that ethical values of informed consent, anonymity, confidentiality, and protection from harm are upheld. The tests and procedures are set out in the FOI law and in the training and employee responsibilities of FOI coordinators who received FOI requests, task the relevant department with the request, and manage the redacting of the request in line with FOI law and policy (Walby & Luscombe, 2018). Therefore, the ethical responsibilities of employees in executive agencies concerning access to information to ensure the FOI law is followed to the latter when managing FOI requests from members of the public, and that response is made promptly.

b. What types of documents can administrative agencies ethically and legally keep out of the public’s reach?

There are three exclusions and nine exemptions that can be used to deny FOI requests, the nine exemptions are (“FOIA.gov,” 2021);

1. Documents classified national defense and foreign relations information

2. Documents on internal agency personnel rules and practices

3. Documents with information that is prohibited from disclosure by another federal law

4. Documents bearing trade secrets and commercial or financial information from an individual who is confidential or privileged

5. Documents with inter-agency or intra-agency memoranda or letters protected by legal privileges

6. Documents with medical, personnel, financial, and files whose disclosure would amount to an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy

7. Documents with specific types of information meant for law enforcement purposes

8. Documents contained in or related to examination, condition reports, or operations prepared by, on behalf of, or for the use of any agency tasked with the regulation of supervisions of financial institutions

9. Documents bearing geophysical and geological information, including maps on wells.

The three exclusions are (“FOIA.gov,” 2021);

1. Documents with a subject under investigation and is unaware of the existence of the records and whose disclosure would interfere with the investigation