Table of Contents

2002
 

Volume Seven, Number 1
    

A Brave New Networked World: Virtue Ethics and the Twenty-First Century Manager

Peter L. Cruise, Ph.D. and Pamela T. Brannon, Ph.D., Editors

1. Introduction: A Brave New Networked World: Virtue Ethics And The Twenty-First Century Manager
   Peter L. Cruise, Ph.D. and Pamela T. Brannon, Ph.D., Editors

   As twenty-first century public sector managers face the brave new world of global networks, NPM techniques, and virtual networked organizations, twentieth-century moral and ethical approaches to decision making appear inadequate and potentially troublesome. The editors of this special PAMIJ symposium have selected several articles from the e-journal Global Virtue Ethics Review that highlight the ethical difficulties present in this new world, and offer opportunities and palliatives available for public sector managers as they enter this new and uncharted venue.
    

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2. Applying Spiritual Wisdom
   Thomas D. Lynch and Cynthia E. Lynch

   There is a body of literature that cuts across all religious traditions called "spiritual wisdom." For those in public administration, this literature is especially helpful to make more informed decisions on values and ethical choices at the individual and group levels. In this globalized world where information related technology is rapidly changing society, secular thinking found in governmental and educational settings as well as the thinking of religious institutions are fundamentally inadequate in confronting our most fundamental public administration problems and difficulties. The former has stripped out of itself the wisdom of the ages and the latter seeks too often to advance its own interests rather than those of society as a whole. This article argues that we now need to examine the common spiritual wisdom of all religious traditions to help us confront and properly deal with our ultimate values and ethical challenges of our profession.    
     

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3. The Provenance And Development Of A Global Ethic
   James A. Gazell

   The article examines the provenance and development of a global ethic, which over the last half century has received growing public attention as its importance has risen. In the Introduction, the phrase global ethic is defined. The central theme of the study is stated: Movement toward formulations of a global ethic originated a few years after World War II largely because of an already widespread concern for human rights. Further development took place as a consequence of a convergence of four increasingly strong forces: political, economic, environmental, and religious. To understand better the concept of a global ethic, the body of the article first explores five semantic issues regarding its use. Then it examines each of these four forces. The resulting proposals for a global ethic reflect a rising global consciousness and an emerging, broad consensus based on a still abstract, but sometimes concrete, set of precepts derived from the spirit of a golden rule (doing unto others as they would do unto you or mutually abstaining from harmful actions). The formulations embrace a chain of at least seven interlocking precepts: the primacy of human rights, a predilection toward representative government, a humane economic order, the maintenance of the planetary ecosystem, non-violent resolutions of disputes, a futuristic orientation, and the organic development of such an ethic. Continued progress within these dimensions is expected to yield a global ethos and eventually a global society broadly united in its adherence to these values, but still culturally and nationally diverse under this umbrella.
         

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4. Globalization, Moral Justification, And The Public Service
   Charles Garofalo

   This article argues that there is a profound connection between the public service and moral justification. In this age of globalization, it further argues that public administration would be wise to build on a global ethic. The author argues against a compartmentalized perspective on ethics and in favor of a unity perspective as presented in Garofalo, C. and D. Geuras. 1999. Ethics in the Public Service: The Moral Mind at Work (Washington, D.C.: Georgetown University Press). 
    

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5. P.A. Eth-Talk: Is It Ethical?
   David John Farmer

   The study and discussion of ethics in public administration can be dysfunctional and even harmful without a sophisticated understanding of the field and ethics. This article stresses that those engaged in discussing ethics should understand epistemology, focus on the practical, and be very circumspect about imposing a particular ethical prescriptive on others.
        

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