issue43

algabraUID: 2748722

TOPIC: ISSUE43 - "To be an effective leader, a public official must maintain the highest ethical and moral standards."


It is undeniable that a public official should maintain high ethical and moral standards, since they possess tremendous power to influence large groups of people. But compelling them to obey the highest standards is too severe and unnecessary.

Above all, the ultimate goal of an effective leader is to maximize the benefit and happiness of the whole team. In order to fulfill this goal, he must have strong abilities, such as analyzing information quickly and precisely, making correct decisions at critical moments, and mastering sufficient communicative skills. However, maintaining high moral standards is more important than these abilities, because without noble moralities, their abilities are easy to be misused and hurt his team. Then how could such leader be considered effective? It is especially true to public officials, who possess great power to influence large groups of people enormously. For example, if government officials accept bribes and license an unqualified construction company to build commodity houses, they will threat lives of all residents who live in these houses, perhaps several hundred lives in sum. Or, some corrupted officials may embezzle large amounts of money to afford their own entertainments. Otherwise the money could be used to subsidize poor people or to develop high technology that will benefit the nation. Even worse, some evil politicians utilized their power to pursue personal ambitions, pulling the nation into wars and leaving the people in great disaster, just like Hitler. These examples tell us that without guidance of proper ethical and moral standards, leaders may easily misuse their capability to imperil the society and fail to achieve the final goal effectively.

Furthermore, high moral standards help a public official work more effectively. An honest and responsible leader is the best model for his team and underlings. Such a model could stimulate others to obey regulations and work responsibly, therefore raise team’s efficiency. Besides, high moral standards win respect and belief for the public official so that the general public is willing to accept his guidance. Especially when distribution of profits is involved or complex dilemmas confront, an honest and just leader could obtain much more support from people than those who scarce good reputation could. The support from the public is essential for officials to do his job well.

But, it is unnecessary for public officials to achieve the highest ethical standards. First, it is almost impossible for a common person to behave perfectly. Every bean has its black. Too severe demands are unreasonable, even counterproductive, as they may compel officials to disguise flaws deliberately. Second, the highest moral standards are really nonessential for an effective leader. For instance, self-sacrifice and altruism undoubtedly belong to the highest moral standards. Then must the officials to sacrifice their own happiness and profits to serve for the public? The answer is absolutely no. They do not need to sacrifice the time with families or work restless in order to be effective. Public officials should be honest, just and responsible, and that is enough.

To sum up, high ethical standards could guide public officials to obey his responsibility and fulfill their final purpose, maximize happiness and benefits of the people. Yet, rather than the highest ones, high ethical standards, such as honesty, just and sense of responsibility, are enough to win people’s support and help the officials working effectively.