ethics civil servant

The transition from various forms is becoming relevant today vocational training to improve its content, including ethics. In modern society, attention to issues of ethics of civil servants is constantly increasing. This is due to the increasingly pronounced dependence of the prospects for the development of human civilization on the moral principles and norms that employees are guided in their activities.

Problems of ethical regulation of the activities of civil servants today are the subject of consideration of a special science - bioethics, within the framework of which the foundations of moral regulation of relationships are developed. civil service and society.

The ethics of a civil servant are influenced by moral regulators. At the same time, the ethical model of action of a civil servant cannot be a simple consequence of the influence of general regulators. Public service as one of the central elements social management has a significant impact on the formatting of elements of the social system. In other words, a civil servant, by virtue of his position, sets a moral model of behavior. Thus, the ethical regulators of the actions of a civil servant, on the one hand, objectively reflect the existing social moral system, and, on the other hand, influence it “only the total moral and aesthetic values assimilated and creatively processed by municipal employees, significantly exceeding the vital values established in each society.” standards allow him to occupy a status appropriate to his personality.”

The abilities of a civil servant are features that are subjective conditions for the successful implementation of management activities. These features have a complex structure that allows the manifestation of a compensatory mechanism, thanks to which highly expressed abilities can compensate for the insufficient development of others in managerial activities. The qualities and abilities of personnel are closely interconnected; it is sometimes almost impossible to separate them. And yet, the qualities of a civil servant are the result of the implementation of his abilities in the process of management activities. Therefore, abilities are, as it were, the hidden capabilities of personnel, which manifest themselves and are revealed under certain conditions. And since ethics is a component professional activity, then the effectiveness of the activities of a civil servant and the public service as a whole depends on this. The peculiarity of the ethics of a civil servant is that he must have knowledge of the characteristics of the relevant managed sphere.

When assessing professional activities, it is necessary to take into account the following qualities: abilities, skills, knowledge, experience. In addition, personnel assessment helps solve other problems:

1) identifying the potential capabilities of a civil servant for the purpose of his promotion;
2) stimulation of advanced training and growth of professionalism of employees;
3) application of incentive measures or liability to the employee;
4) formation of professional personnel potential and personnel reserve;
5) maintaining stability and legality in the public service.

From our point of view, in methodological terms, the construction of an integral system of personnel policy of the state, region, region should occur in the following sequence: state ideology - doctrine (mission of the state) - concept (development strategy) - personnel policy - personnel program- a specific action plan for the implementation of the program.

In the conditions of public service, specific opportunities have developed for the formation of professional ethics of bureaucrats. They are connected:

1) with external factors - economic, social, political situation, cultural and ethnic features of development, etc.
2) with internal factors - the degree of formation of the regulatory framework, the state of the material and technical base of the civil service in the regions, professional experience, qualifications of officials, etc.

Based on this approach, the following features of civil servant ethics can be identified, which are presented in Table 1.

Concepts such as “honor of an employee”, “sense of professional duty”, “professional solidarity” have always been and are being brought up in large stable structures and organizations of the world. IN developed countries- France, Germany, Japan, England - the honor and responsibility of a civil servant are integral professional qualities that largely regulate the style of activity and influence decision-making. In our country, the education of a civil servant is currently being neglected; therefore, in the future we will not be able to count on the dedication of civil servants to their work and will be forced to deal with satisfying their personal needs, as is most often the case now.

Table 1. Features of ethics of a civil servant

	formation and development of professional and social competence of employees in the conditions of overcoming the crisis of society and stabilizing the economic, political and social situation correlates with the main determinants of the formation and development of the civil service and socio-professional group (population)
	the level of ethics of civil servants depends on personal characteristics



	the social adaptation of a civil servant to social changes is directly proportional to ethics;
	the ethics of a civil servant influences social well-being;
	the level of ethics of a civil servant does not depend on the degree of career preferences;
	the level of ethics in the self-assessments of a civil servant should be quite high;
	the assessment of the level of ethics of a civil servant by the population is influenced by: a) objective reasons - the presence of unresolved problems in the civil service, the relative closeness and inaccessibility of the administration b) subjective reasons - biased attitude towards the entire bureaucracy, personal characteristics
	the socio-economic situation determines the dissatisfaction of the population with the work of the civil service, which is certainly reflected in the underestimation of the level of ethics of civil servants;
	the ethics of a civil servant, being an element of social competence, is directly dependent on the level of the latter;
	information provided by the media has a significant impact on the formation of the population’s attitude towards the public service as a whole and its individual representatives, often not entirely adequate.

The ethical skills of a civil servant include:

1) The knowledge of a civil servant is the result of mental activity included in the management process and means the assimilation of facts, concepts, laws, etc. The level of knowledge and its constant replenishment is one of the criteria for the effectiveness of managerial work. It is customary to distinguish between scientific and everyday knowledge, complete and incomplete, systematic and unsystematic. A special role in the acquisition, consolidation and replenishment of knowledge, in the development on their basis of the necessary skills and abilities belongs to the system of continuous education of employees, which stimulates a creative approach to business.
2) The skills of a civil servant are relatively stable characteristics that depend on abilities, knowledge and the very nature of management activities. At their core, an employee’s skills are knowledge embodied in solving specific management problems, i.e. a model of activity mastered and implemented in practice. These include the employee’s ability to quickly understand the essence of the matter, comprehensively analyze the situation, highlight the key problem, find a constructive solution, etc.
3) The skills of a civil servant are skills that have been brought to the point of automation, often carried out without thought. They are acquired in conditions where, in practical activities, an employee constantly deals with typical management situations. Skills allow you to save time and act with a minimum of errors and miscalculations.
4) The experience of a civil servant is a property formed through training and practice in a broad sense - the unity of knowledge, skills and abilities. Experience usually grows with length of service. As a result of the employee’s practical activity, it reflects the level of mastery of the “secrets” of managerial work, achieved by him at this moment. First of all, the employee gets acquainted with the structure of the organization, with his specific job. Masters activities regulated by the constitution, charter public education, regulations on the department, job descriptions and all the nuances associated with the situation, both in the organization and in the external environment.

Thus, in order for public authorities to not only work optimally in a situation of such rapid change, but also to effectively influence these changes, it is necessary to pay more attention to such important internal resource organizations as human resources. The head of the administration or those institutions that are engaged in training civil servants must have some model of the activities of a new generation employee, a model for his formation, as well as a scorecard, which would not include a bare list of functional responsibilities and rights, but would actually help to evaluate and form qualities required for a civil servant.

Specifics of the formation of civil service ethics.

Civil service ethics as a unity of professional, managerial and ethics of ideological systems.

Civil Service – specific type activities related to the implementation of state policy and the implementation on behalf of the state of basic economic, social and political programs among the population. The origins of the civil service are sought in the origins of the formation of the state, so in the twentieth century. BC In Ancient Sumer, the first uprising for social justice against the state apparatus took place, and the beginnings of a bicameral parliament and ethical rules for the civil service appeared there.

Ancient Greece and Imperial Rome played a large role in the formation of public service ethics as prototypes of modern bourgeois states. They analyzed the nature of power, and the concepts of “power,” “interaction with society,” and “the role of law” began to form in philosophy.

The historical realities of the formation of the civil service in a particular country played a significant role in the formation of civil service ethics. They made ethical requirements more specific, conditioned by the historical realities of a given country.

The civil service presupposes that each employee has a certain amount of administrative authority, therefore the ethics of the civil service includes all the basic elements of ethics and management culture (decision making, its preparation, implementation, anticipation of consequences decisions taken etc.). On different levels In the civil service, the volume of administrative and administrative powers varies. At the lower levels, the volume of these powers is small due to the strict centralization of the activities of the civil service; ordinary employees perform executive functions, but, nevertheless, they have a certain set of power powers.

The ethics of public service includes a number of elements of the ethics of ideologized systems: the requirement to subordinate basic personal qualities to the specifics of the idea being achieved (implemented), the exclusion of all those who are unable to apply the methods and methods that are necessary to achieve the goals. In the civil service system, there have always been formal or informal ways of monitoring the behavior of government officials for compliance with the standards required of civil servants at a given time. There is a system of internal punishments for civil servants.

There are many specific aspects in the organization of the civil service and its functioning that contradict the moral qualities required of a civil servant. The morality of officials is decomposing as if from within. Such features that negatively affect the morale of civil servants are:

Specific form remuneration in the civil service;
Its territorial structure;
Vertical alignment according to the area of activity;
The special nature of labor turnover;
Particular interest of certain segments of the population in the activities of the civil service.

Thus, the ethics of a civil servant seems to be a rather unstable, vulnerable set of qualities, highly dependent on circumstances. On the other hand, a civil servant is the face of the state and the nation, the key to the successful functioning of the state. Therefore, there are a number of qualities that a civil servant must possess. In this regard, law plays a decisive role in the organization of public service.

The role of law in the formation and development of civil service ethics.

There is no other profession in which law plays such a large role. The law dominates in ensuring the morality of civil servants; it prescribes the structure of the civil service, subordination, turnover cycles, a system of punishments, removals, etc.

Thus, in the civil service, law is the main regulator of relations between people within the civil service system and with the outside world. Civil servant ethics occupies a supporting position.

The purpose of the law: to unify and standardize the behavior of civil servants so that neither frequent turnover nor the small amount of communication between the population and the official could influence the perception of the official as a representative of the state.

Formation of unified public service ethics in developed countries.

Basically, such a merging of moral norms occurs in the sphere of practical morality and etiquette forms. Factors influencing the unification of civil service standards in various countries, are:

Globalization of the economy and the formation of a single economic space, which required unity of regulation economic processes;
The aggravation of economic problems and global problems of our time, which required the creation of various international organizations. People from different countries worked in these organizations, they must find mutual language, and this is easier to do with common moral values.
The formation of large centers of international importance for the training of the managerial elite, where representatives of various states work in close contact.
The formation of powerful international communication systems that made relations between nations closer, in addition, propaganda through means mass media certain patterns of behavior, manners, etiquette.
The multifaceted development of forms of communication required the improvement of etiquette systems and the assimilation of these norms.
Decentralization of management going to Lately, which at the regional and municipal level involved new layers and groups of civil servants in an active form of management.
New trends that emerged during the reform of the state apparatus at the end of the twentieth century also played a significant role in the convergence of civil service ethics standards: the merging of business and civil service, business and politics. Business ethics, which penetrated into the civil service, have always been more universal and unified, as having emerged from the ethics of Protestantism.

Basic concepts of professional ethics of civil service.

The professional ethics of a civil servant helps to concretize and realize moral values in conditions that are sometimes very difficult and unusual. Professional ethics does not form new principles and concepts of moral consciousness; it, as it were, “adapts” already known principles and concepts to specific spheres of human life.

Professional ethics and professional moral consciousness for their functioning must have their own specific concepts. Let's briefly look at those that will interest us most. Perhaps the initial concept of professional ethics is the concept of “professional duty”, in which official duties are recorded in sufficient detail. It is the awareness of one’s official duty that encourages representatives of a number of professions to treat their work with the greatest responsibility, taking into account many specific nuances of the relationship between the individual and society, the individual and the team. Professional duty stimulates dedication; it is in it that a person’s duty finds concrete expression.

Such concepts as “professional honor” and “professional dignity” should also be highlighted. The concept of professional honor expresses an assessment of the significance of a particular profession in the life of society. Awareness of this significance is very important for a civil servant and forms the basis of professional dignity and self-esteem of one’s activities. It is important to note that the concepts of “honor” and “service” as social phenomena are closely related. It is no coincidence that in the old days honor meant a high rank or position. In the explanatory dictionary Vl. Dahl says that honor is the totality of the highest moral and ethical principles in an individual. It contains the moral dignity of a person, his valor, honesty, nobility of soul, clear conscience, the desire to follow the sublime ideal of truth, justice, goodness, service to one’s fatherland.

Honor is not only a moral, but also a historical category. It is derived from the conditions of the era in which people live, is part of their consciousness, is oriented towards a particular system of values, norms of behavior, etc.

Honor is also an active category. It manifests itself in the actions of people, in their relationships with each other. Depending on the nature of the relationship in which a person may be in relation to other people, several types of honor are distinguished. The 19th century German philosopher A. Schopenhauer identified, for example, such types of honor as civil, official, military, knightly, male, etc.

Of primary importance for a person, no matter what he does, is, naturally, civic honor. According to the philosopher, not a single person can do without it. Its actions and meaning extend to all classes, not excluding the highest. Honor obliges all citizens to look after the interests of their fatherland, to increase its wealth, good name and glory, to respect the laws of the state, to maintain public order, to take care of the elderly and children, and to help weakly protected sections of citizens. After all, in a legal, democratic, social state, every person has the right to a decent life.

Civil honor also has a significant impact on official honor, according to at least, in the part that is associated with high social significance service and official activities. In the modern understanding, service is service to the state, the Fatherland, and the people. The social meaning of service is especially clearly manifested in critical epochs in the life of the state, when people's responsibility for the fate of the country sharply increases.

Official honor, in addition to its social meaning, has another, no less important side, related to the performance by employees of their duty. Due to the publicity of the service, the activities of civil servants, their professional and personal qualities are under close public attention. As Schopenhauer notes, “Official honor consists in the general opinion of others that the person holding his position really has all the necessary qualities for this and in all cases accurately fulfills his official duties.

Professional honor and professional dignity, mutually complementing each other, help maintain a certain, sufficient high level morality. The professional honor and professional dignity of a civil servant will be expressed in the decisions made and various actions.

Professional morality for a civil servant includes the concept of “professional justice”. Being fair is not that easy. A civil servant needs to spend a lot of effort to thoroughly examine a particular situation and objective circumstances. It is much easier to evaluate using a template, on the advice of your superiors. But it is professional justice, professional conscience that encourages a civil servant to be fair, not to succumb to pressure from “above”, mafia groups, etc. Justice, of course, is also important in relations with colleagues. Double and triple standards in assessments of “us” and “strangers”, convenient and inconvenient, destroy both the moral consciousness of the specialist himself and the moral and psychological climate of the team. Since communication with a specific person is most working hours of the majority of civil servants, we can speak with complete confidence about such a concept of professional morality as “professional tact”.

It is especially worth highlighting the basic principles of professional ethics of a civil servant.

First of all, the starting point for the professional ethics of a civil servant is principle of humanism, i.e. respectful attitude towards everyone human personality, understanding its uniqueness, self-sufficient value. The principle of humanism is opposed to a purely utilitarian attitude towards the individual, considering it mainly as a means of achieving some other, albeit quite important, goals.

Intersects with the principle of humanism principle of optimism(professional). Thus, it is not easy for a civil servant to carry out his duties without the belief that his efforts, his work, both the decisions he makes and the decisions he carries out contribute to the development of the state, strengthening the principles of democracy, law and order. This faith elevates and helps to develop a good beginning in a person.

Any activity, especially one that is directly aimed at a person, must be overshadowed and inspired by a lofty idea. Therefore, the professional ethics of a civil servant must include the principle of patriotism. It is obvious that love for the Motherland cannot be combined with disdain for other countries and other peoples. If we recall Aristotle’s reasoning about the golden mean, then patriotism can be imagined as the mean between two extremes: between national arrogance and humiliation, ingratiation to everything foreign. True patriotism includes a constructive attitude towards the achievements of other peoples.

The basic concepts and principles of professional ethics of a civil servant form its framework, which is filled with “flesh and blood” in various everyday situations.

Requirements for civil servants.

The moral requirements for civil servants can be divided into 4 groups:

This group of requirements is related to the presence of government and administrative powers among officials. Requirements for employees at the level where decisions are made translate into management ethics (decisiveness, professionalism, leadership ability, etc.);
Performance discipline. This requirement is based on the fact that sometimes a person’s life depends on a civil servant, since the professional function of officials includes processing documents for a person from the moment of his birth. Discipline, attentiveness, diligence, punctuality, pedantry and law-abidingness - these qualities characterize executive discipline;
Such qualities are determined by the fact that today the volume of communication in the structure of the professional activities of officials is increasing. The important thing here is that communication not only increases in quantity, but also becomes more diverse and varied in character. This communication includes new layers of the population that differ in interests, social status, income level, etc. An official must have such qualities as communication, openness, respect for someone else’s point of view, the ability to listen and hear, restraint, tact, good manners, mastery of words, and the ability to present oneself;
Qualities explained by the "Fishbowl Effect". This is the special position of a civil servant in society: people’s attention is focused on him (even to his personal life). It follows from this that public service is not only a profession, but also a way of life. Restraint, asceticism, a sense of responsibility for deviating from standards, personal behavior - these are the qualities of an official that are responsible for what opinion the population will have about the state.

At practical application concepts and principles of professional ethics in public service take the form of ethical requirements. Of these, the main ones that must be presented to a civil servant both when entering the civil service and when exercising public service powers are:

Commitment to the highest moral principles, loyalty to the state; a civil servant must put state interests above individual, private interests, goals and objectives of political parties and other public associations;
Compliance with the principles of public service;
Constant readiness to defend the Constitution, federal laws and laws of the constituent entities of the federation, never violate the provisions of the taken oath of allegiance to the state and not renounce the legal requirements of public office;
Honest service to the state;
The desire to find and use the most effective and economical ways to perform government tasks and functions;
The absence in the activities of a civil servant of elements of discrimination against some subjects, on the one hand, and the provision of special benefits and privileges to other subjects, for special remuneration or without it, on the other;
Never accept any benefits or advantages for yourself and your family members while using your official powers;
Do not make any personal promises related to public service duties;
Never use any information obtained in confidence during the performance of your official duties as a means of obtaining personal gain;
Don't engage entrepreneurial activity;
Expose corruption and constantly fight it in government agencies;
Maintain business rules and correct communication with citizens and colleagues;
Strive to create a business image of a civil servant;
Do not publicly express your personal opinion about current political figures;
Avoid abuse of official position, selfish or other personal interests;
In communicating with citizens, both in the exercise of one’s powers and in off-duty relationships, observe generally accepted rules of conduct; behave with dignity; demonstrate polite, correct treatment, impartiality, adherence to principles, the desire to deeply understand the essence of the issue, the ability to listen and understand another position; equal treatment of all citizens and legal entities; balanced judgments expressed and management decisions made.

An offense that disgraces the honor and dignity of a civil servant may be recognized as such an action or inaction, which, although not criminal, is by its nature incompatible with the high rank of a civil servant and makes it impossible for him to further fulfill his official powers: gross violation generally accepted norms and rules of behavior that detract from the authority of the public service; intentional violations of the law; dishonesty resulting in significant Negative consequences; systematic action or inaction indicating a deliberate violation by a government employee of his oath.

We will try to reveal in more detail individual ethical requirements, perhaps not the most fundamental and fundamental, but, nevertheless, playing an important role in shaping the idea of what the moral character of a civil servant should be.

One of the most serious factors, which determine the critical attitude of the population towards the leadership and management apparatus of all branches and levels of government, is the lack of genuine attention to the person, respect for his personal dignity, sensitivity, tact, and professional ethics in the work of power structures.

A manifestation of a civil servant’s commitment to professional ethical requirements at all levels of his activities is the ability to respect the dignity of a person, regardless of his social status. To recognize in a person equal rights to a dignified existence, to understand and feel that all people are equal, that a person is the main value of social life, is the first condition of any activity. The administrative hierarchy of vertical subordination does not exclude the possibility of seeing, first of all, a person in every person, no matter what step of the hierarchical ladder he stands on.

One of the contradictions that arises as a result of civil servants being between the managerial elite and the people lies in the specificity of the spiritual world of a civil servant - the constant overcoming of the desire to maintain a certain degree of independence regarding the department and the national line. The ability to make the right moral choice is an indicator of the integrity of his spiritual culture, based on the desire for the common good, a conscious choice of direction of activity, a sense of responsibility to his conscience and to public opinion for the consequences and results of his activities.

Thus, the spiritual culture of a civil servant is manifested through his attitude towards the people he serves. Here we can identify different levels of service, ranging from social education, as a state (actually an abstract level). Serve abstractly to the state no one can, since it will express the interests of its citizens and its political parties and government agencies there are real people with their needs, interests and requirements. This means that at this level, a civil servant is responsible for everything he does. in front of people.

General concept etiquette.

It is an indisputable fact that there is no personality outside of communication. But the communication process cannot be spontaneous, unpredictable. In order for it to proceed normally, without conflict, and lead to expected and significant results for both parties, it must obey certain rules external behavior, the totality of which is denoted by the concept of “etiquette”.

However, the very unwritten rules governing external manifestations relationships between people, cultivating the habit of coordinating their actions with ideas about respect, goodwill and trust, were developed much earlier. They are driven by the needs of survival and normal functioning social organism, the need to muffle the natural instincts inherent in each individual and contrast them with rules of communication based on mutual respect for interests and mutual support.

There is a fairly widespread point of view according to which etiquette, as an element of a person’s external behavior, is not organically connected with his morality: a person with refined manners, who has absorbed the wisdom of politeness since childhood, can remain arrogant, inhumane, and immoral. However, such a person is unlikely to be able to mislead the people around him for a long time regarding the right to be called a cultured and educated person. External form of behavior, devoid of moral basis, loses its meaning, acquiring only the appearance of disguised rudeness and disrespect for people, which sooner or later will come out. “Icy” or “boorish” politeness has nothing to do with a person’s true culture. Rules of etiquette, observed only externally, allow a person, depending on circumstances and individual character traits, to easily deviate from them.

Ethics of public service.

Lecture 1. Service ethics. Concept, essence.

It is an indisputable fact that there is no personality outside of communication. But the communication process cannot be spontaneous, unpredictable. In order for it to proceed normally, without conflict, and to lead to expected and significant results for both parties, it must obey certain rules of external behavior, the totality of which is denoted by the concept of “etiquette.”

However, the unwritten rules themselves, regulating the external manifestations of people’s relationships, fostering the habit of coordinating their actions with the ideas of respect, goodwill and trust, were developed much earlier. They are determined by the needs of survival and normal functioning of the social organism, the need to muffle the natural instincts inherent in each individual and contrast them with rules of communication based on mutual respect for interests and mutual support.

There is a fairly widespread point of view according to which etiquette, as an element of a person’s external behavior, is not organically connected with his morality: a person with refined manners, who has absorbed the wisdom of politeness since childhood, can remain arrogant, inhumane, and immoral. However, such a person is unlikely to be able to mislead the people around him for a long time regarding the right to be called a cultured and educated person. The external form of behavior, devoid of a moral basis, loses its meaning, acquiring only the appearance of disguised rudeness and disrespect for people, which sooner or later will come out. “Icy” or “boorish” politeness has nothing to do with a person’s true culture. Rules of etiquette, observed only externally, allow a person, depending on circumstances and individual character traits, to easily deviate from them.

Professional ethics 1 is the broadest concept in the field of professional ethics. Office ethics is understood as a set of the most general norms, rules and principles of human behavior in the sphere of his professional, production and service activities. Every person who starts working must comply with these standards. The number of these norms is small. The overwhelming majority of them are formulated in an extremely general form, in order to be detailed in relation to specific types of activities. Work ethics requirements:

Discipline. The specification of this concept depends on the specifics and content of the work. For example, in animal husbandry, the concept of discipline will be determined by the life cycles of the animals being cared for.

Saving material resources provided to the employee for production activities. These resources can be very different. The need to replenish lost resources places a heavy burden on profits and production costs, hence the requirement to reduce losses to a minimum. This standard includes saving heat, buildings, equipment, materials, etc.

Correctness of interpersonal relationships. A person in the sphere of his work activity must behave in such a way that interpersonal conflicts arise as little as possible, and so that other people feel comfortable working next to him in direct and indirect interpersonal contact.

All these requirements are divided into two subgroups. The first subgroup: includes requirements in interpersonal contacts horizontally (subordinate - subordinate, leader - leader). The second subgroup: includes requirements in interpersonal contacts along the vertical (subordinate - manager). Here the main requirement for the subordinate is recognition of the manager’s very right to give orders, which includes the functional responsibilities assumed by the person under the employment contract.

The subordinate must, based on these responsibilities, structure his behavior accordingly and not use various forms of evasion of orders. Evasion can be open, public, with certain conditions imposed on the leader. It can be hidden, take on the nature of a secret (with the help of facial expressions, gestures, individual words) provoking the manager into open actions against a subordinate. In these situations, the subordinate may often appear to those around him as the suffering party, and the manager’s reaction to him may be inadequate. One of the reasons for such behavior of subordinates may be the desire to gain certain social capital, to look persecuted, to acquire the status of an informal leader, to achieve some benefits for oneself, etc.

Lecture 2. Specifics of the formation of public service ethics

1. Public service ethics as the unity of professional and management systems

Public service 2 is a specific type of activity related to the implementation of state policy and the implementation on behalf of the state of basic economic, social and political programs among the population. The origins of the civil service are sought in the origins of the formation of the state, so in the twentieth century. BC In Ancient Sumer, the first uprising for social justice against the state apparatus took place, and the beginnings of a bicameral parliament and ethical rules for the civil service appeared there.

The civil service presupposes that each employee has a certain amount of administrative authority, therefore the ethics of the civil service includes all the basic elements of ethics and management culture (decision making, its preparation, implementation, anticipation of the consequences of decisions, etc.). At different levels of the civil service, the volume of administrative powers is different. At the lower levels, the volume of these powers is small due to the strict centralization of the activities of the civil service; ordinary employees perform executive functions, but, nevertheless, they have a certain set of power powers.

Specific form of remuneration in the civil service;

Its territorial structure;

Vertical alignment according to the area of activity;

The special nature of labor turnover;

Particular interest of certain segments of the population in the activities of the civil service.

This document is not just a set of rules. It is based on a whole list of international and Russian documents, including the main law of the country - the Constitution. As well as generally accepted moral norms of public morality.

Why and what is it needed for?

The state apparatus, its entire vertical structure, is a complex system of power, implying various levels of subordination, access to information, responsibility and authority. To ensure the coordinated and effective operation of such a complexly structured “organism,” clear rules of conduct within the framework of professional work ethics are required. The document in question is mandatory for use by all civil servants, regardless of rank, group, class and position.

What is provided

The application of the Code is provided, first of all, by the special social and legal status of civil servants. The whole point is that the position of this group of people determines not only the influence on them of dogmas and rules of public morality (it does not matter whether they are documented anywhere or not), but also the influence of the behavior of civil servants themselves on the formation of official and official ethics. interpersonal communication. That is, the official is a kind of model for ordinary citizens and his subordinates.

In addition, directly or indirectly, it personifies power, declares powers, and determines attitudes towards specific issues and options for their resolution. It is also useful for ordinary citizens to study the document; this will help them react correctly to the actions of officials in a given situation, in accordance with a set of rules and expecting behavior and reactions from those in power within strictly defined limits.

Model Code of Ethics for State and Municipal Employees

At the moment, official relations between civil servants in our country are regulated by the current “Code of Ethics and Official Conduct”. The document clearly states the goals and objectives of the set of rules, their binding nature for employees of any position, and even the level of responsibility for violations of the provisions of the document. The extent to which civil servants know and comply with the “Model Code of Ethics and Official Conduct of Civil Servants” is one of the main criteria for the qualitative assessment of their work and behavior in service.

The basic principles governing the official conduct of officials include:

conscientious and professional performance of official duties;
understanding the meaning of one’s work as recognition, observance and protection of human and civil rights and freedoms;
preventing abuse of power;
loyalty to any groups that differ in social, professional and other criteria;
the primacy of professionalism over personal interests;
combating corruption and other crimes within the framework of authority and law;
correctness, attentiveness and compliance with the law in all its manifestations.

Model Code of Ethics and Official Conduct for State and Municipal Employees

What happens for non-compliance with the Code?

Each case of violation of the current provisions of the document is considered by a special commission. Article 10 of this Code defines the responsibility of civil servants for any violations. In addition to moral responsibility, there is also legal responsibility:

disciplinary sanctions up to and including dismissal;
administrative and criminal liability provided for by law.

The managerial activity of civil servants is a complex system of relationships:

With the state regarding the execution by civil servants of the powers delegated to them;

With citizens in matters of protecting their rights and legitimate interests and mediating their relations with the state;

Within the socio-professional group itself to achieve the goals of the state, create a healthy, productive moral and psychological climate in the workplace and conditions for self-realization of each employee.

The management process cannot be fully effective if it is built only on impersonal principles of management, especially rational bureaucracy, on coldly reasonable, pragmatic principles without unnecessary emotions and feelings. Technocratic, formal-legal, utilitarian-pragmatic approaches, new information technologies in the management system are insufficient. Without a spiritual and moral component, they are dead. Before making a decision, it is necessary to calculate its immediate and long-term consequences for the people involved in it, to imagine the full weight of the moral burden of obligations that are placed on the performers as a result of decision-making, to assess the degree of responsibility, including moral, for the results of the decision made .

The legal norms governing the complex system of relationships among civil servants also affect only the basic procedures and operations of a civil servant. Outside the scope of their action there are many situations that cannot be assessed legally. The higher the qualifications and status of the official, the less standardized the problem solving process is. Accordingly, it becomes possible to choose a solution based on personal discretion. And this is the field of action of moral factors; the strength of public opinion and internal self-regulators - duty, conscience, honor - matter here.

Thus, the ethical aspect permeates all aspects of the activity and behavior of a civil servant. This determines the relevance and special practical significance of studying the ethics of civil servants.

Since the time of Aristotle, the concept of “ethics” (from the Greek - habit, disposition, custom) has been used to denote philosophical science, the object of study of which is morality, morality as a form of social consciousness, as one of the aspects of human life, a specific phenomenon of social life.

The variety of types of professional activity, where the object of work is the person himself, required the development of special professional ethical codes that refract the moral requirements accepted in society and develop their own standards of behavior. This is how they began to arise different kinds professional ethics. Civil servant ethics is one of the young types of professional ethics, the origins of which date back to the formation of statehood. The social and legal status of this type of ethics is determined by special relationship and obligations with the state and its citizens.

Ethics is a code of conduct that includes ethical principles and norms that express moral requirements for the moral essence of a civil servant; this is a system of common values and rules governing relationships in the public service between managers and subordinates, colleagues in the process of their mutual activities aimed at creating a normal moral and psychological climate in the work team.

Based on the prevailing morality in society, the professional ethics of a civil servant develops its own system of ethical principles and norms.

Ethical Principles of a Civil Servant

The principle of legality, the supremacy of the Constitution of the Russian Federation and federal laws over others regulations And job descriptions stands today as the most important ethical principle for the activities of Russian civil servants. The affirmation of this principle is a kind of social and spiritual basis for personnel management. Consolidation of the principle of legality in Federal law“On the fundamentals of public service in Russian Federation"emphasizes its significance and priority in the public service of modern Russia.

The principle of humanism, expressed in the requirement of respect for man, faith in him, recognition of the sovereignty and dignity of the individual. This principle follows from the constitutional requirements and provisions of the Law “On the Fundamentals of the Civil Service of the Russian Federation,” which provides for the duty of a civil servant to ensure the observance and protection of the rights and legitimate interests of citizens.

The principle of impartiality and independence. When making a moral choice in the process of developing, making and implementing decisions, a civil servant is obliged to be guided by the interests of the state and society, coordinating his personal interests with them.

The principle of responsibility presupposes that a civil servant has a civil conscience - a heightened sense of personal responsibility to society and people, professional integrity and honor - internal moral dignity, manifested in the unity of word and deed.

The principle of justice. It realizes itself in the legal and rational use of state powers, in the effective protection of the rights of citizens.

The principles of legality, humanism, impartiality, responsibility, and justice underlie the ethical assessment of the activities of authorities state power, characterizing the moral content of the activities of the civil service as a whole as a socio-legal institution and each official individually. Violation or substitution of one of the principles leads to the weakening of others, and together they serve as an indicator of the “health state” of the state. Therefore, these principles form the basis of ethical codes of public service and government controlled many countries.

Ethical principles provide general guidance and direction, ensuring the integrity and viability of the public service as a system, and expressing its highest values. Ethical norms prescribe a certain style of behavior, contain restrictions, recommendations, prohibitions, being, as it were, a guarantee that people can rely on each other in achieving common goals and avoid conflicts on personal grounds.

An ethical norm is one of the simplest forms of moral requirement. On the one hand, an ethical norm acts as an element of moral relations, and on the other hand, as a form of moral consciousness, manifesting itself in the form of a command to oneself, requiring strict fulfillment, based on own ideas about good and evil, duty, conscience, justice.

In the process of human development, ethical norms in the form of universal human values are developed by each society, each individual individually.

On this basis, we can distinguish universal, general, group and personal ethical norms.

Universal ethical standards express the universal moral requirements of society. They are formulated in the “golden rule of morality” (do unto others as you would have them do unto you).

General norms extend their requirements to all members of a given society, acting as a means of formalizing, regulating, evaluating relationships and interaction between people.

In the process of primary socialization, each person is included in various social groups, being simultaneously a member of five or six such groups. Entering the public service, he enters a team that is a rather complex system of formal and informal groups, each of which establishes its own system of values and develops its own ethical codes on their basis. There are always inconsistencies and sometimes contradictions between these codes.

Group norms ensure the inclusion of an individual in a group, in the processes and mechanisms of group interaction, and influence all types of human behavior, including when he becomes a member of another group. A civil servant in a team assimilates given and develops personal norms, prescribes a personal position and forms of social behavior in which he exists as an individual.

Personal norms act as a characteristic of a person’s subjective world and correlate with his self-image. Following personal norms is associated with a sense of self-respect, high self-esteem, and confidence in one’s actions. Deviation from them is accompanied by feelings of guilt, self-condemnation and even personality disorder.

Thus, the behavior of a civil servant is difficult to determine. It is controlled through both external economic regulators (universal values, prevailing morality in society, group norms) and internal mechanisms of self-regulation (self-awareness, self-esteem, motivational sphere, attitudes on the basis of which personal norms are formed). External and internal regulators are in complex interaction with each other. At every moment they present to the civil servant the right of moral choice based on the demands placed on him.

Man tall moral culture, civically oriented, socially active, motivated for high-quality performance of his official duties, is guided, first of all, by the concept of duty, general interest and humanity, which constitute the content of his personal norms. People with vague moral values easily adapt to the demands of groups with deviant goals and corporate interests.

Corporate ethics of civil servants is the result of their awareness of their belonging to a special socio-professional group of people. This group has delegated government powers and real opportunities to influence the state of affairs in the country. As a result, a sense of increased responsibility, long-term thinking, desire and ability to take into account many facts and possible consequences of your actions.

However, due to the imperfection of the legal regulation of the civil service due to defects in the moral consciousness and ethical education of a certain part of officials, as well as in the conditions of underdevelopment of the structures of civil society as a factor of social control and social influence, a deformation of the official’s professional consciousness develops and “self-sufficient” ones are formed in the civil service. structures that live and function according to their own ethical laws.

Factors contributing to the formation of “corporate” ethics include:

Availability of authority;

A real opportunity to act as a spokesman for state interest.

An official always has power, only the volume of this power can be greater or less. And power is not only a tool for implementing decisions, but also a factor that significantly influences the way of thinking, character and behavior of a manager. Insufficiently clear delineation of powers, and therefore responsibilities, between federal and regional government structures and bodies local government; bureaucratization of the state apparatus and severance of social ties with society; low legal culture of officials, inaction of laws, lack of proven mechanisms for selecting civil servants on moral grounds in the procedures for admission to the civil service and career advancement - all of the above factors favor the establishment of “corporate” ethics.

The reasons for “corporate” ethics lie in the social and legal insecurity of officials, patronage by positions and the dominance of the principle “you - me, me? you", absence legislative framework and real mechanisms for preventing and suppressing the phenomena of corruption and protectionism.

The signs of “corporate” ethics are:

Indifference to the social meaning of one’s professional activity;

Substitution of public interests for corporate and personal ones;

Bureaucratic pseudo-collectivism;

Pseudo-activity, imitation of vigorous activity, which hides indifference to one’s work, lack of initiative;

Pseudo-attention, an imitation of caring for people, hiding indifference to the problems and destinies of people who depend on the authorities.

The social consequences of the dominance of “corporate” ethics in the activities of civil servants are severe and dangerous not only for the civil service, but also for the state and society as a whole.

A break with the prevailing morality in society, the replacement of state interests with narrow corporate ones discredit the position of a civil servant in the eyes of the public, destroy trust in him and the authorities as a whole, consolidate a persistently negative image of the official in the mass consciousness, and deprive the state of support in society.

Social security of society and each of its members, including civil servants, trust in government bodies and their authorized representatives can rest only on strict adherence by each official to the rule of law, on constant adherence to the principles and moral norms of society.