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 Trumps 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 whats 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...

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…